Time to Decide – Take-off? Or landing?

“Life is a fatal disease. Once contracted, there is no known cure”

Dr. Walter Bortz, retired Stanford geriatric physician, made that statement in his 1984 book “Dare To Be 100”. It forms a backdrop for his message about our potential to live longer, healthier and more meaningful lives.

Dr. Bortz knows a thing or two about growing old. What better source than someone who has 50+ years of observing life, death, and survival?

Well into his 80’s, he continues to set a very active pace taking a longevity message to audiences globally.

I discovered Dr. Bortz and “Dare to Be 100” in 2013. Dr. Bortz was saying three decades ago what we now realize is the truth about what it takes to age successfully.

His books (I believe there are seven of them) were a catalyst for me, providing a sensible “roadmap” to late-life health with facts and advice unencumbered by political or corporate influence.

I find that most of us are repulsed by his claim that there is no reason we shouldn’t live to 100 or beyond. I get it – I carry the same images of extreme, prolonged frailty that we associate with growing old. We don’t want to be like those images in our head.

It’s a deeply ingrained attitude – but it’s naïve. I’ll stake that claim on the fact that we choose not to understand our biology. And because we don’t understand it, we do things that result in us “living too short and dying too long” and robbing ourselves of our full life potential – really the core of Dr. Bortz message.

OMG! Another blog?

I would be delusional to think that you’ve been eagerly awaiting a blog on aging, what with only 100 million other blogs out there and the rather “uncomfortable” nature of the subject.

So why blog?

I’ve discovered a “passion” – a desire to help people who have passed the 50-year milestone to pivot their attitudes regarding aging and “Make Aging Work” by thinking and living bigger while slowing the aging process.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.“

With boosts from the likes of Dr. Bortz and others that I’ve studied and followed, my hope is to help others live their whole life, sing all their song and to live longer, live better and finish out with vitality and a strong sense of purpose.

Been there – – – –

I passed the over-50 threshold some time ago – I’m a “pre-boomer” by four years, born in 1942. My life experiences and professional experiences as an executive recruiter and career and “reinvention” coach, coupled with two decades of intense reading and study on human development and the aging process, has led me to two conclusions about how we age in this country.

1. We don’t live long enough to truly die of old age because we choose not to understand how our bodies and minds function and thus subject them to repeated, long-term abuse and disuse.
2.  We allow myths, misconceptions, outdated models, dangerous cultural traditions, deceptive advertising, deplorable government policies, and just plain complacency guide us to a premature demise.

Gap analysis

A prominent Yale physician, Dr. David Katz, founder of the school’s Prevention Research Center, got my attention a few years ago when I heard him say:

“We know all that we need to know to reduce, by 80%, the five major killing diseases in our culture – heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. We don’t need more new fancy drugs or expensive new equipment and technology or more Nobel prizes. We already know what we need to know.”

I believe Dr. Katz’ position extends logically to aging: we know all we need to know to live healthier, longer and more productively.

We have a 42-year gap between our 80-year average life span and the length of time our bodies appear to be designed to last at this point – 122 years, 164 days. Ms. Jeanne Calment of Paris set that bar as the oldest human, fully documented and verified.

Why the gap between our potential and our average, between what we already know and what we do to stay healthy and live longer? Take #2 above and stir in ignorance (as in ignoring best practices), instant gratification, comparison, stress, lack of purpose. Feel free to add your own thoughts to this toxic brew.

Quixotic as it may seem, I’m choosing to join the voices of those who are working to dilute this brew and close this gap.

Make Aging Work

This journey may be a bit idealistic but I’m venturing forth nonetheless with my crusade-like mission, sharing what I hope will be valuable, meaningful information and resources.

I’m calling the home-base for this venture “Make Aging Work – Live Big, Age Little”. I believe we know what we need to know to do that.

Despite what our society would have us to believe, we can truly make our second-half of life work for us in a big way rather than against us.

Life to 100 and beyond with energy, enthusiasm, and purpose is now one of the fastest-growing realities of our age. Centenarians are growing at 8X the rate of any other population demographic in our country. We are learning what it takes to “live longer, die shorter” and finish out with purpose having left a footprint.

This site is intended to be a place to learn more about living a longer, healthier, more vigorous “second half” – and a place in which you build the value through your feedback and input. You are the key to helping our demographic make aging work for us instead of against us.

I invite you to join the conversation and the crusade. Please share your thoughts, insights, experiences – and pin my ears back if you disagree or if you feel I’ve slipped over into hyperbole.

I look forward to your feedback. Please leave a comment below.