Embracing Seventy | Healthy Aging Series: S12 E25

“I wouldn’t want to be any other age than I am right now!” That’s what my mother said when she turned Seventy.

I echo that. It really doesn’t seem that old to me, now. My Garmin watch says that my fitness age is 59.5 years old, but regardless I’m 70 and I’m learning to embrace it. Not everyone feels the same way about getting older. Some haven’t aged well. One of my favorite novels is Lonesome Dove, where Gus McCray proclaims, “The older the violin, the sweeter the music.” I hope that’s true for me.

This episode is about me and how I embrace Seventy. What have I done these past two or three decades to prepare for Seventy?

It’s also for those of you who are in your 40s, 50s, or 60s. It’s not too late to start embracing your age right now.

Having said that this episode isn’t advice. It’s just what I’ve done to prepare for Seventy.

My Physical Fitness at Seventy

First, let me get the obvious things out of the way. I’ve been consciously preparing for Seventy for these past 30 years. I’ve been physically active: running, cycling, hiking, backpacking, taking fitness classes, working with a trainer, lifting weights, stretching, climbing, and recently, I started disc golf with my younger son.

My older son and I backpack and hike to the top of a 14er each year. We recently did a three-day hiking and backpacking trip in Northern New Mexico.

In my last episode, I shared that last year I walked 3.5 million steps and averaged 10+ hours a week working out.

Aging is a Battle

Every day has been a battle. Every day has been a knockdown drag out with my body.

I fight every day to manage my weight. I try to keep my weight near 195 pounds. It’s a constant dogfight with my body.

I love sugar in all its forms: donuts, pastries, scones, cakes, cookies, and ice cream.

I love to snack before I go to bed and my preferred snack is potato chips. I fight the urge every evening.

I love breakfast sandwiches, and one of my favorites is McDonald’s Sausage Biscuit with Eggs. Every week, every day it’s a fight to drive past the Panera bread without stopping for a pastry. Actually, I have a coffee subscription, so more often than not. I stop for coffee but fight the urge for a scone or Garden Avo and Egg White Sandwich

The truth is that I am aging well because for the past 30+ years I’ve exercise daily and I’ve watched what I eat, mostly.

What about the Seventies Mindset?

I might be oversimplifying things, but I’ve found that as people get older, they fall into one of two mindsets. You’re either an Age Complainer or Age Embracer.

Age Complainers

I know a little bit about complainers. I was in the military. Everyone complained. I remember the scene in Saving Private Ryan, where Tom Hanks’ character explains the Complaint Protocol.

“You gripe to me; I gripe to my superior officers and so on up the line. I don’t gripe to you, and I don’t grip in front of you. You should know that.”

Complaining was widespread in the military service because everyone felt powerless over their day-to-day affairs

In the Air Force, I learned that complaining was contagious and infectious. You may not have started out complaining but sooner or later you were joining in and then infecting other new Airmen.

We complained about the cold. It was Korea. We complained about all the new Lieutenants. We complain about the semiannual readiness exercises; we complained about the coffee or the lack coffee or about the creamer or the lack of creamer. Nothing was off-limits. It was self-manufactured misery.

Older People Love to Complain.

Some didn’t expect aging to be so difficult. Most of us are declining. Most of us lose our stamina as we age. Sooner or later, we step on some kind of mine as we walk through the mind field we call life. Probably the strongest predictor that you are going to get sick and die is your age. BTW: I spent this week in and out of the hospital and eventually I needed surgery. I’ll share my experience next week.

People feel helpless and powerless as they get older and they believe the only thing they can do is complain.

People who are in their 50s, and 60s, or 70s waste time complaining about their aches and pains, falling, inflammation and the countless ailments of aging which are sometimes are the result of neglecting their bodies.

Well, that’s the Age Complainers. What about the Age Embracers?

What is the Age Embracer Mindset?

First and foremost, it’s a mindset of gratitude. It seems to me that if there is any vaccine for becoming an Age Complainer, it’s gratitude, which really is nothing more than an appreciation for what you do have, rather than complaining about what don’t have.

The Stoics believe that happiness comes, not from acquiring more things or in this case having better health, but from valuing the health that you possess, right now.

Stoics believed that a truly happy person understands that a long life contains things that cause us to grow and things that cause us pain and suffering.

Seneca wrote, “Just as a long journey includes dust, mud, and rain, a long life includes trying experiences.” (Letters 96.2-3)

John Fideler, who wrote Breakfast with Seneca (page 114), explains that “for the Stoic, everything we have from the universe is a gift, something on loan to us, which we will one day need to return. But our underlying mindset should be one of gratitude. Because even if we stumble on life’s journey or get splashed by a bit of mud there’s no reason to complain about the beautiful world that brought us into being.”

I think Neil deGrasse Tyson says it best, “The price of the ticket for being human is dying (aging).”

Gratitude saves all our friends, families, coworkers, and strangers from the tedium of listening to us complain about getting older and dying.

Additional Mindsets for Being an Age Embracer

Okay, here are some other mindsets that have helped me become an Age Embracing:

I Adjust to the things that won’t adjust to me,” which pretty much means everything, especially aging.

I Get busy living or get busy dying (Red from Shawshank). I think this means discovering a reason for living, and then, do that.

What I practice grow stronger. If I want to get really good at complaining, then I need to practice that every day. I think this matters because if you practice complaining, it will grow stronger. What fires together wires together.

I have to prepare for the last 10 years of my life. My last 10 years is between 80 and 90. I did a video on my YouTube channel: True North Waypoints about the ways to prepare for you Marginal Decade.

It’s easier to act myself into a way of feeling than it is to feel myself into a way of acting. If I want to feel grateful, I have to start acting grateful. I have to tell people how grateful I am.

“Easy does it.”

“Do the next best thing.”

Pick one of these mindsets and start practicing it. If you are struggling with being an Age Complainer and people have commented on it, it’s time to start embracing the age that you are right now. You’re robbing yourself of happiness and tranquility, and the last 10 years of your life are going to be wasted on your self-manufactured misery.

To be an Age Embracer you have to work on the physical and the mental sides.

How do you feel about the age you are right now? Forget about your health, at least for a moment, and embrace the fact that you’re living, and that there are things about your life that are good and positive.

Embrace that.