We Aren't Getting Any Younger
The sooner you accept it, the better.
I’m 40 right now, and I have come to a realization that many other health coaches seem to deny:
Our aging bodies are decaying.
If you compare your skin and teeth with that of young children, you will realize that at certain point things are slowly going downhill.
First it’s a few wrinkles, a stiff back from sitting too much, a couple of nails on your feet that don’t heal as well as they should, less energy to walk and move.
Eventually, if you are lucky to reach 70 or 80, the changes will be so drastic that you might not even recognize yourself in your youth.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time observing my children grow, how plastic their brains are, and how their energy levels are beyond anything I can imagine: my son for example can literally hop on one leg for hours a day, only to repeat it the next day.
I’m 40, and honestly, I feel amazing, I take extremely good care of my health and I’m probably on the top 1%.
But I have finally accepted what many only realize when they’re old and dying:
Age isn’t just a number
If it were just a number, I wouldn’t have to see my dad, who is 74 and definitely less energetic than me at 40, any different from me.
But oh boy, are we different. Compared to my dad, I have an insane amount of energy (I do have a lot more energy than most 40-year-olds. More on that later).
It also reflects on the number of hospital checkups he needs to do. I probably need one this year, he needs a dozen.
And at the same time, compared to my son, I look like an old man who can hardly keep up. He’s 7 and he’s one of the most energetic boys you will ever know. I also had this amount of energy in my youth.
Now imagine the difference of energy level when my son interacts with his grandpa, each other more than 65 years apart.
If that is not proof enough to you that age isn’t just a number, I don’t know what else could be.
While I understand that the statement is supposed to bring some encouragement for those of us who are no longer 20, we need to tread these waters carefully.
Because there is only one universal truth about life:
Life will fade away, sooner or later
In the last year, I’ve had really strong feelings when it came to seeing my parents and my parents-in-law getting older, as well as seeing a few family members pass away.
I avoided the topic like the plague, until recently I started meditating for 30 minutes every day, and the vivid images of me in my youth, but especially my parents, started popping up.
In a blink of an eye my dad and everything I aspired to be, has passed on the baton to me, and now it’s up to me to inspire my own children.
My mother, once a caring person who would sacrifice anything and everything to see her own children grow, has passed this role on to my wife, who will do anything, and I mean anything, in the name of me and my children.
And thus, the circle of life goes on and on, as it has for millennia, before self-help gurus invented the term “age is just a number”.
Age is the ultimate reality check
So, here is what the last two years of my life, where I’ve had the biggest transformation ever in my life, have taught me:
If we didn’t age and lived forever, 99% of us would forever waste time and never live a meaningful life.
Do humans do amazing feats in spite of their limited time on Earth, or because of it?
When I was approaching 40, I was working on a well-paying but dead-end job that I hated, my health was a disaster (45 pounds overweight and pre-diabetic), and my children, wife, family and friends were horrified to see the worst version of me.
Hanging out with me was like trying to enjoy living next to a stinky dumpster. People tried their best to finish the conversation as soon as they could, few friends did support me a lot on those hard times but I knew it was not sustainable.
I finally realized that time is ticking incredibly fast, and did everything I could to take my emotional and physical health back on track.
I cleaned my diet, started intermittent fasting, started moving a lot more, sleeping better, meditating for 30 minutes a day, and spending the time and energy to connect with people and family in real life,
The result has been amazing and few people think I’m 40. I have more energy than most 20-year-olds I know. I must admit I’m an incredibly inspiring person to hang out with, and I love it.
But regardless of what others say, I wear my “I’m middle-aged” badge with pride. I remind myself that the day will come when I have no more energy left and it’s up to the next generation to inspire people.
As you age, health should be your number one priority. Without it, nothing else matters.
So stop neglecting your health, because if you do, things will go downhill faster than you think.
I have wasted plenty of time in my youth and everyday, I remind myself of one simple thing:
There is no time to waste.