To put it in technical jargon, on February 28 this year, I reached the midway between septuagenarian and octogenarian stages. Or in simple terms, I became 75 years old. One of my nephews wished me and commented, “You are one of those few lucky people.
You have a clean bill of health, you enjoy life, you keep yourself really busy being active and writing and mixing with lots of people. How do you do all these?”
I promised him he will get an answer before the day’s end.
That evening I took him to meet Nelson, a retired Principal of a leading college, who was celebrating his 101st birthday without any fanfare. He was also a happy and healthy person leading an active life and living with a caretaker and day-maid. After giving him a small gift, we settled down to have a chit chat. I invited my nephew to ask the same question from him.
This is what he told us:
Today, you don’t have to worry about getting old; you have to worry about getting rusted. So,I exercise and walk a lot. Every morning, I walk a mile and a half. My advice is to walk whenever you can. It’s free; you feel better and look trim.
If you want to live to be 100 or older, you can’t just sit around waiting for it to happen.
You have to get up and go after it. There’s no point kidding yourself. When you get older you slow down, you wear out a little.
But right now, I’m 102, and there isn’t a thing I can’t do today that I couldn’t do when I was 18. I saved everything for now. I hate to brag, but I’m very good at it now.
Here are my other secrets for long life:
Think positive.
If you ask me what the single most important key to longevity is, I would have to say it’s avoiding worry, stress and tension.
And, if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it. Worry, stress and tension not only are unpleasant but can shorten your life.
My attitude is, if something is beyond your control, there’s no point worrying about it. And if you can’t do something about it, there’s still nothing to worry about.
I feel that way when the plane I’m on is bouncing around in turbulence. It’s not my problem. The pilot is paid a lot of money to fly that plane; let him worry about it.
I can honestly say, I was not even uptight about my heart bypass several years ago.
It was beyond my control. It was the doctor’s business. When I came out of the theatre I heard the surgeon, who was one of my student’s son say, “Sir, you did great. You’re just fine.” I said, “Son, I wasn’t the least bit concerned.”
“Really?” he said. “I was a nervous wreck.” I didn’t tell him, but even that didn’t bother me.
I know that for some people retirement works out fine. They enjoy it. I also know, for a great many others it presents lots of problems. One problem is that all those things that you thought were so much fun when you were working are not so much fun when you’re retired. To me, the biggest danger of retirement is what it can do to your attitude. When you have all that time on your hands, you think old, you act old. It’s a mistake. I see people who, the minute they get to be 65, start rehearsing to be old.
They practice grunting when they sit down and grunting when they get up, and by the time they get to be 70 they’ve made it - they’re a hit - they’re now really old!
Not me. When you’re around my age you’ve got to keep yourself occupied. You’ve got to do something that will get you out of bed. Yeah, something like a hobby, gardening, painting or carpentry, a piece of business that keeps you occupied for half-a-day, or even a long-lost friend coming to see you. If nothing is there, you’ll be back in bed. You cannot afford it.
Challenge yourself
When my wife, Grace, retired in ‘58, I could have retired too. Even today, I don’t have to do what I’m doing now. I have a couple of small businesses. I do a little consulting work. I work as a translator for a book publishing firm. I am an active member of a swimming club.
I firmly believe, you should keep working as long as you can. And, if you can’t, try to find something that would interest you. Remember, you can’t help growing older, but you don’t have to get old.
When I talk about thinking young, I’m talking about enthusiasm, keeping active, having plans, projects for tomorrow, meeting people, doing things; I look to the future, because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.
I feel sorry for people who live in the past. I know it was cheaper then, but you can’t keep looking in a rear-view mirror - unless you enjoy having a stiff neck.
If you really think your life is over and you have no place to go, I advise you to take very short steps. It’ll take you longer to get there.
I don’t live in the past. Actually, you may not believe this, but I don’t waste time looking through scrapbooks of my career or rereading my old reviews - they were painful enough to read the first time. I find it’s best to fall in love with what you’re doing today. The things I did yesterday I was in love with yesterday.
There’s an old saying, “Life begins at 40.” That’s silly - life begins every morning when you wake up. Open your mind to it; don’t just sit there - do things. If you seriously think,the possibilities are endless.
All the way back home, my nephew was in deep thought.