We Can Save Us From Ourselves. COVID is Teaching Us How. Are We Listening?

I had a dream this week.

I dreamed that Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed Donald aside from his podium charade, looked the viewing public in the eye, and said:

Stop listening to the media and politicians, get off your asses, change your diet, and stop whining about being a victim! We’re not coming to save you!

And he walked off. All channels cut to commercials.

OK, I didn’t really have that dream. I wish I had. Or, better yet, that it really happened.

This week, Reuters Health News published an article “Why COVID-19 is killing U.S. diabetes patients at alarming rates.” Read it here if you’ve got 10 minutes you would like to waste.

For those with a higher value on your time, let me summarize:

A  government study reveals that 40% of people who died with COVID-19 had diabetes. Among the deaths of those under 65, half had the chronic condition.

In the 1,537 word Reuter’s article, the phrase “type 2 diabetes” appears ONCE! No reference to type 1 diabetes or to the difference. Or to the fact that amongst diabetics, 91.2 % have type 2 diabetes and 5.6 % have type 1 diabetes

In 1,537 words, the word obesity does not appear once!

In 1,537 words, the word diet does not appear once!

In 1,537 words, the word exercise appears once, and only in the context that COVID is disrupting our ability to exercise. WHAT?

God forbid there should be any mention of the fact that type 2 diabetes is largely a lifestyle disease – mostly self-inflicted, preventable, and often reversible.

No mention that roughly 30% of overweight people have the disease, and 85% of diabetics are overweight.

Or that the AMA estimates that 50% of the U.S. population is pre-diabetic and 70% don’t know it.

But then revealing painful truth has never been a narrative amongst the politically-correct or victim crowd. Or politicians. Or ratings-seeking media.

I’m reminded of the Winston Churchill quote:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

We stumbled across the truth about diabetes, lifestyle, obesity, diet, immobility, etc. I would guess about a half-century or more ago.  And, yes, we continue to “hurry off as if nothing happened” or, more accurately, as if revealing the truth would mean we’d have to say something hurtful, or unkind, or racist.

 

 

Since the establishment seems given to owning our every move at this point, would it be too much to alter the dialog to something like:

“OK, everybody now must mask up. Oh, and now you are required to eat your vegetables and walk around the block after you do.”

Yeah, when hell becomes an ice-factory.

But what if we carved off about 1% of what we pay China for the PPE we outsourced to them years ago and used it to ship a handful of “truth conveyors” into the diabetic states, starting with W. Virginia. People like Dr. Michael Greger or Dr. David Katz. With a simple message of truth similar to “get off your asses, change your diet, and stop whining –“. You get my point.

If we must have a podium parade of purported professionals, can we add at least one other with causal knowledge and credibility to join Dr. Fauci?  Someone like Dr. Greger with a message like this one – watch this video.

Someone that isn’t afraid to say “we are what we eat.”

This past year, early deaths due to poor diet surpassed smoking as the #1 cause of early death in the U.S. So, after several decades of pounding the smoking message we got a little smarter (that is until Juul and their ilk came along to further confirm that adolescent brains stay adolescent until the mid-20’s). But, we’ve filled that newly available intelligence space with “I’ll just Big Mac my way to an early demise instead of Marlboro it.”

Pete Seeger wrote it, Peter, Paul, and Mary sang it: “When will we ever learn?”

Probably never, as Churchill so aptly pointed out. We’ll wait for miracles from medical science rather than let health science take the podium. Because to mess with medical science is to disrupt a medical/pharmaceutical cohort that knows only “cure” and fears the impact a “prevention” message would have on their profit model. And a factory farm/chemical food industry complex that doesn’t give a hoot about our health and isn’t gonna change.

Forgive my rant.

Then again, don’t. Can we collectively get a little pissed and begin to understand that government and corporations can’t and won’t save us from ourselves? And that, in fact, many of their motives and missions are counter to our well-being.

Our healthcare and pharmaceutical industries would collapse if we started thinking like the ancient Greeks. Twenty-five hundred years ago, they had it right.  They identified that medicine had two components – Hygeia and Panacea.  Hygeia equals health preservation and Panacea equals repair.   For the Greeks, Hygeia held precedence.

Do we fully appreciate how far we have strayed from that model?

Hygeia means prevention – it happens on the front end.

Panacea means “fix it” – it happens because of bad “front end” decisions. Type 2 is the accumulation of a lot of bad “front end” decisions.

We can’t expect our healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to start pounding the prevention drum.  Their existence depends on –  thrives on – our self-care naivete and neither attempts to alter that naivete. And certainly, crafty food engineers figured this out long ago and capture our taste buds early with food-like substances that ultimately push us into the fix-it mill.

We’re smarter than this!!

I’ll wrap by repeating this insight from “Forks Over Knives”:

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is deplorable and is killing us early.

    • 63% of America’s calories come from refined and processed foods (e.g. soft drinks, packaged snacks like potato chips, packaged desserts, etc.)
    • 25% of America’s calories come from animal-based foods
    • 12% of America’s calories come from plant-based foods
    • Unfortunately, half of the plant-based calories (6%) come from french fries. That means only 6% of America’s calories are coming from health-promoting fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

Let that last bullet point sink in.

There’s a good reason we abbreviate the standard American diet to S.A.D. The standard American diet leads to standard American diseases that lead to standard American deaths.

Why did we need COVID-19 to confirm something we already knew? What are the chances that we will further confirm it when the next virus comes to town?

And it will.

Leave a comment. And join the “truth squad” and spread the word.  But first, eat your vegetables.  That is, after signing up for our weekly articles at www.makeagingwork.com if you haven’t already.

 

How Old Would You Be If You Didn’t Know How Old You Are?

I believe it was Satchel Paige that asked the question that is my article headline.

You may have heard of (or remember) Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige, American Negro League pitcher who is notable for his longevity in the game. He became a Hall of Famer, died in 1982 at age 76, and was known for his quotes in addition to his baseball prowess.

Like this one:

“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

I like both quotes. At 78, I think you can understand why I like them.

Last week, I talked about starting a revolution to stamp out ageism. With a bit of a twist, I continue the quest.

This week, I sucked down a large dose of Steve Chandler, life and business coach extraordinaire and one of my favorite authors. I had loaned one of my favorite Chandler books to my son some time ago and it found its way (miraculously) back to my house recently. Read? Unread? He’s not saying – doesn’t matter. What matters is that I had a chance to dive back into it and complete my fifth reading (not a typo) of it since 2016.

The book is entitled “The Story of You.- And How to Create a New One.”  One of his most popular books. And, for me, a real gut-punch of reality about life and what we make it.

It’s classic Chandler. As in:

Get over yourself!!

The whole book is about how our lives are nothing more than made-up-stories with us as the authors.

In Chapter 8, “The Story of Growing Old”, Chandler says bluntly:

“Our age and attitude toward it is simply a made up story – influenced by listening to the stories told around us. You can’t be old unless you have a story about how old you are.”

Chandler keys off a prediction by celebrity alternative medicine doctor Dr. Andrew Weill who has predicted that the baby boomer generation will return focus and dignity to aging.  Like Chandler, I hope he’s right because, in Chandler’s words, “-it’s just a made-up story to say that young is better than old.”

Weill makes the point:

“Why are old wines and whiskeys valued much more than young ones? Why are we moved in the presence of old trees? When you age cheese, it improves the cheese. Antiques are valuable because they are so old. Older violins are the most treasured.”
Can’t we consider all the qualities of aging that make these things more valuable and apply them to people – and change the story we have about older people?
We’re up against it when it comes to changing the narrative, the story about aging. But it starts with us. We have to resist the negative aging story which can become very convincing because it’s so prevalent around us.  Chandler puts it this way:

“This negative aging story soon becomes convincing. It even entrances the old people themselves! Some older people, when they retire, start walking differently. They hobble and shuffle along. They speak differently, too, as if in a play with new parts to play. They stop exercising because their story is that they’re old now. Their voices get high-pitched, thin, reedy, and weak. How much of that is the physical decline, and how much of it is living into the pre-scripted story.”

There are legions of those who have rejected this pre-scripted story.

Warren Buffet hasn’t slowed much at age 89 – he still reads 5 hours a day in his office.

William Shatner, also 89, still travels, performs, creates as if his hair was on fire.

Norman MacLean rejected the idea of retirement and, at age 73, wrote his highly acclaimed masterpiece “A River Runs Through It.”

John Housman won an academy award for his performance in The Paper Chase but hadn’t started acting until he was 70.

Chandler had convinced himself for years that he was too old to write books until he changed the story he was telling himself at age 50 and has since turned out over 30 books. His new story? He would keep writing until his dying day. And he was making it up as he went.

It’s like deja-vu all over again, for me. My reinvention to write for the rest of my life is my changed story and I, too, am truly building this airplane in flight. And can’t wait to get up each morning and add one more little part.

Part of that new story is that I started posting responses on Quora.com about 15 months ago answering questions in my sweet spot of health and wellness, aging, longevity, career transition, etc.

On a whim, my first post was an answer to the crazy question: “What is the cause of the common odor many senior citizens have (despite good hygiene)? I know something about it because I had researched it for a book that I have written that remains in what is beginning to look like terminal draft stage.

You can read the Quora post here. If you do click on it, you will see, as of today, it has garnered 306,000 views and over 1,500 upvotes.

Whaa? About why old people smell?  Really?

Since that article, I’ve posted around 350 articles with 1.8 million views, nearly 10,000 upvotes, and earned Top 10 writer in a couple of categories. All of which, together with $2, will buy me a cup of Starbuck’s horrid coffee.

Why do it? Because I changed my story. I want to write. I feel I have a voice and a message and it’s a chance to maybe touch somebody, somewhere.

I get a lot of feedback on those posts, nearly all positive. There is one comment, however, that remains permanently ensconced in my brain because, well, the truth hurts. One gentleman didn’t line up with one of my arguments about something and simply just referred to me as an insufferable p***k.

I relayed that incident to my roommate of 49 1/2 years who responded with a “YES” and a fist pump.

I’ve kept a log of most of the comments (38 pages of them, in fact) because many of them have stories that I find educational and help guide me with my content. I want to share one with you:

A Harrington commented on your answer to: “What is the best advice you can give to someone who recently turned 60?”

6/9/2020

“Thank you Gary. I am female, 52 and have ‘missed the boat’ on a fulfilling, promising career. I did manage a bachelor’s degree after high school but then dropped the ball and simply took various jobs just to keep money coming in and survive. A very big mistake of which I have only myself to blame. (However, I did conceive a beautiful child and had many happy years as a stay-at-home Mom.)

So now I sit with the pain of missed opportunity and a feeling of loss at never having made more of myself. I have been toying with the idea of additional schooling to complete a teaching certificate. It would take me 16 months to do so and I would finish at the later side of 53, but after reading your post I think maybe I am not so crazy for considering it? Possibly someone would benefit from this older gal becoming a teacher?”

That’s why I write, why my story changed. Maybe A. Harrington will move from “victim” to “owner.” Maybe she will pull off a story change from the story she’s been telling herself (missing the boat) and move from toying to doing and touch many young people’s lives.

There are many like it in my comment log. People needing, wanting a story change. Each an affirmation that we are all made up stories, telling ourselves what we think others want us to be.

We are truly masters of lying to ourselves. And we’ve had a lot of help.

So, am I really 78?

Or can I be 45? Or 92? Some would L-O-L at the 45. Most wouldn’t care.  This morning, as I write, it feels like 45. My lower back says 92. But 45 wins.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.

What’s yours?

Got a thought or comment about all this?  Share it below or with an email to gary@makeagingwork.com.  If you aren’t on our mailing list for each week’s free article, you can join in a heartbeat at www.makeagingwork.com. Stay safe, be sensible.

There’s a Longevity Revolution Brewing.  Are You Going to Be Part of It?

 

Do you get the impression that millennials still don’t seem to like us so much, we COVID-susceptible, creaky, white-haired relics?

The “OK Boomer” wave seems to have fizzled but there is still a bubbling resentment. No better demonstration of that than the virus-flaunting that’s taking place by the youngers at bars and beaches.

I suspect if I were to engage a group of millennials in a conversation about a “longevity revolution” in which we “geezers-in-progress” will be living even longer, it wouldn’t be welcomed news.

After all, their general narrative is that we are the big reason life can tilt toward miserable for a lot of them, right? Hoarding the wealth; setting the stage for planet destruction; not vacating the jobs they want/are entitled to; creating the technologies that have reduced their opportunities; creating police departments.

To which I say: “Heads up, whippersnapper!!  It’s gonna happen – let’s get in step together and team up!”

Who knows what is going to emerge from the economic COVID rubble. But one thing is unchangeable. Even with this microbe monster picking off the low-hanging fruit of co-morbid seniors, the 50+ demographic will remain one of the fastest-growing demographics in America.

There are 109 million of us over 50 in the U.S.  Boomers, who make up about 78 million of that, are now being joined in this 50+ group by the front edge of GenXers.

What to do with all us “geezers-in-progress?”

What if we started our own revolution, we prototype “geezers?”

A “longevity revolution.”

If there is some room for optimism in this pandemic, I’m thinking it may come from having the best minds across 150 countries focused on finding answers and that there will be serendipities galore as we gain a deeper understanding of how to protect our biology and extend our time on this mudball.

In other words, we could end up continuing to get even older for longer. We are already living, on average, about 10 years longer than we were a mere 50 years ago.

That possibility scares the s*** out of ageist politicians, corporations, and governments. And millennials. And those who fear aging.

But what if it means solutions to many of the ills that have beset us globally.

Now there’s a mindset with chalkboard/fingernail screechy dissonance! Geezers solving world problems? Really?

C’mon. You getting to 50 or 60 or 70 – or me to 78 – took some level of talent and moxie, right? OK, some luck, too. But, where does it say that it’s supposed to fizzle out at 65? Outdated models would have you to believe it, but don’t tell your body and mind that. They’ve both got a lot of fight left if we’re willing to put on the gloves.

Look, all of us pre-boomers, boomers and early GenXers have a choice. Just be older for longer taking up space and using up oxygen – or do something with this longevity bonus.

We can tack those extra years on the end and continue to cling to the 85-year old FDR model designed to send us to the sidelines to be “consumers supported by society.” Or we can be “producers adding to its strengths.”

I borrowed those words from Joseph F. Coughlin in his book “The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World’s Fastest-growing, Most Misunderstood Market.” I’m on board with Coughlin who says that the FDR-spawned concept of government-supported and sanctioned retirement seized upon by the insurance industry for the creation of leisure-based “golden years” is a “narrative whose time is done.”

The 20th-century idea that “the aged” are inherently unhealthy and uniformly incapable of economic production admittedly led to some important government programs e.g. Social Security, Medicare.

But now, in Coughlin’s words,

“- that narrative has become a liability. it has taken us as far as it can, but it is now holding back innovation in a way that’s proven hard for many to recognize, let alone solve. [The] invention that once served us well must be replaced.”

It’s encouraging to see that we are gradually rejecting the glamour of leisure-based retirement. With the artificial finish line established 85 years ago, we shoved people into a space with “- – no institutions or instructions for how to live, no economic production roles to differentiate one retiree from the next, and nothing to tell them what to do with their time.”

So we invented something – the “we” being insurance companies and the Del Webb’s of the world. The result? Legions of self-indulgent consumers sequestered in large luxury ”warehouses” with atrophying skills and talents, hanging with others with atrophying skills and talents.

No youth allowed to interfere with this planned early demise.

The revolution is starting. Join the fight.

The revolution against this has legs driven by demographics, changing attitudes, a drop in immigration, the changing retirement landscape, and the fact that companies will have no choice but to reconsider their positions on hiring or rehiring older workers.

What does a longevity revolutionary do? They start with a commitment to changing attitudes and undermining the rampant ageism in the marketplace.  Not with a sign on the street corner, or mob protests in the streets, or a book (with all due respect to Ashton Applewhite’s fantastic book on the subject), or some other form of a public rant but rather through an individual commitment to preparing for and engaging in the fight smarter and more effectively.

 

Here are ten things you can do to prepare and be a part of the “revolution”:

  1. Protect your health. Get healthy, stay healthy. Become a student of your biology and what it needs to operate optimally and with renewed energy. (HINT: Start with an evaluation of your diet – bad diet is now the #1 cause of early death in the U.S., having surpassed smoking.)
  2. Continue your education, never stop learning. Stay sharp. Keep up with the basic technology. Check out free/inexpensive resources like Senior Planet or One Day University.
  3. Have a proud physical condition and presence. See #1. Be visibly in shape and sport a current wardrobe.
  4. Be an active networker, building relationships outside of the old, tired inner circle. Take a millennial or two to lunch and LISTEN! No lectures allowed!!
  5. Commit to a purpose and build your personal brand around it, using life’s accomplishments together with talents, and strengths. Don’t waste that first two-thirds of life!
  6. Put yourself “out there.” Use social media -professionally, not just socially.
  7. Add speaking skills. You’ve got a voice and lots to say.  Join Toastmasters and learn to speak, build confidence, and hang out with inspiring, positive people (most of them younger than you). It’s a “double-dip” environment.
  8. Get rid of your ageist language. No more “aging is a bitch” or “aging isn’t for sissies” or “whassup, old-timer” or “you certainly don’t look your age” or “I just had a senior moment” or “you’re not retired yet?”
  9. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to show up at the fitness center (when they return) and work on #1 above amongst the tattoos, tank tops, and lulu lemons.
  10. Adopt a “Modern Elder” mindset and not a “Senior Citizen” mindset. See my 10/21/19 article on this movement here.

We can “whine and wait” for the industrial complex to come to their senses and start reconsidering the role of over-60 people in their organizations.  Or for that fistfight on the Potomac to find some chill and smart pills.  Or we can make it impossible for them to ignore us by how we prepare, present ourselves, speak out, and defend our space.

Viva la revolution!

Not ready to join a revolution? Then at least join our mailing list if you haven’t, at www.makeagingwork.com. And leave us a comment, below or at gary@makeagingwork.com. Stay safe.

Do You Have an “Escape Tunnel” or “Glidepath” to Your “Retirement Victory Lap?”

OK – I’m guilty. I’m full-on plagiarizing!

I stole all of the terms you see in quotes in the headline from Mike Drak, Rob Morrison, and Jonathan Chevreau (henceforth known as M, R, & J)

Secretly, I hate them!

You see, they put into 209 wonderfully written pages what I’ve been blogging about for three years. They co-authored a book entitled: “Victory Lap Retirement: Work While You Play, Play While You Work”.

It’s the book I should have written a couple of years ago. But, I let my constant sidekick dominate. You’ve met him – his name is P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N!

So, you go, guys! You’ve done masterful work with an amazing combination of advice from both financial and non-financial perspectives.

Dear reader: if you are at, close to, or even thinking about retirement, buy the book. It could be the best $15-18 (Amazon) investment you’ll make on behalf of the post-career phase of your life. (Disclosure: if you buy it through either Amazon link above, I will earn a pittance of an Amazon Affiliate commission).

An “escape tunnel” or a “glidepath”.

These three musketeers introduced a concept worth sharing because it fits so well into the evolving retirement landscape.

For several years now, we’ve been tossing around terms like “encore career”, “semi-retirement”, “unretirement”, “rewirement”, “reinvention”, etc., etc., ad nauseum. All an attempt to put a reasonable tag on this “new frontier” of extended longevity trying to co-exist with an irrelevant, worn-out, 85-year-old concept called traditional, full-stop retirement.

It’s taking us a while, but we’re finally admitting that it doesn’t fit for today’s healthier, more savvy “third agers” who are entering that period between end-of-career and true old age.  That space used to be about 3-5 years – now it could be 30-40.

Close your eyes: Imagine 30 years of bridge with three others your age, all with that curious old people smell.  Or 30 years of bocce ball, pickleball, bingo, golf. Or a couple of decades of “pity parties” and “organ recitals” with full-stop retirees discussing the latest surgery, arthritic area, immobility issue, slipped memory incident, or an acquaintance experiencing all of the above.

If I haven’t sufficiently pissed you off and you are still with me, close your eyes again. Imagine having gathered together all your natural talents, stirred them together with acquired skills and experiences and stepped into a vibrant life with inordinate energy, an inspirational reason to get up in the morning, and going to bed experiencing a “good tired” because you completed a day having served, contributed, and impacted someone or something.

That’s what M, R & J call the “Victory Lap” – a celebration of what you are all about, on your terms, on your schedule, doing what you are best at and doing it when, where, and how you please.

But you don’t hop off a cliff to get there. It calls for a “glidepath” or, if you are corporately-snared, an “escape tunnel” (close your eyes again and think Andy and Shawshank Redemption and the swim through the sewage).

Start digging your “escape tunnel” now!

Remember the line from Red (Morgan Freeman) in Shawshank when he ‘reminisced” about his lengthy incarceration:

“These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized. They send you here for life, that’s exactly what they take. The part that counts anyway.”

Show of hands. How many just read a description of their corporate job?

Andy refused to get used to the walls – his escape tunnel took 20 years. The authors draw a parallel to Andy in the movie:

“The smart ones among us do as Andy does and start digging their escape tunnel toward freedom (financial independence) the minute they join the Corp. They view the time they spend in the Corp as part of a bigger plan, adopting the institution purposefully and using the benefits it provides to help them reach their long-term goals.”

When I started corporate life a half-century ago, there was a palatable combo of loyalty to employees, security in a position, and pension plans. Today, toss them all. Recent research is showing that over 50% of corporate employees don’t like their jobs. READ: they are doing it for the money.

An escape plan from today’s Corp is the appropriate mindset from day one. Use the Corp instead of it using you.

Sage advice from the authors: “ … begin planning today for your “jailbreak” by creating your own destiny and charting your eventual Victory Lap.”

Takeoffs only – no landings allowed!

I agree with M, R, & J when they say that your “victory lap” is limited only by your imagination (see my 6/22/20 blog here). Full-stop retirement tends not to tax the imagination. Their glidepath strategy presents an opportunity to be creative and continue to work on one’s own terms as long as one pleases. It may call for continuing with a current employer if the work is enjoyable, but on a part-time basis. Or it may be with another organization within the same industry.

I see it a lot with healthcare executives who glidepath into consulting.

A glidepath may team up with a Passion/Hobby Strategy with the full- or part-time work satisfying the desire to pursue a long-delayed passion. There is more risk here because it may be a major “lane change.”

I recall wasting a ton of time 15-20 years ago doing deep research on starting my own fly-fishing retail shop because I was so deeply passionate and immersed in the sport. Fortunately, sanity prevailed and I conceded that it would be turning a hobby into drudgery at 1/3 of the income I was making at the time.

Be sure to give more than a second thought to making a passion or hobby your escape tunnel or glidepath.

Do as I say, not as I did!

I broke from the Corp at age 60. But it was a “jailbreak”, no escape tunnel. I was mentally checked out probably two years before the jailbreak. An industry collapse and looming bankruptcy left me no time for an escape tunnel, even if I had conceived of the idea. My jailbreak was from MCI.  You may remember them – jail time for Bernie Ebbers (now deceased), Enron era, lot of craziness and Corp knuckleheads.

Sans escape tunnel or intentional glidepath, I went over the cliff into my own recruiting business, insufficiently prepared and with illusionary visions of being entrepreneur material.  If M, R & J and their book had been around then, I may have rethought that step, perhaps hanging in the Corp world for a few more years, continuing to feed a pretty healthy “retirement nest egg” with full intentions of absconding on my terms.

But, then again, probably not because I’ve never been good at relinquishing my time to another and, for decades, had found the Corp very stultifying relative to my inflexibility in the time ownership area.

Plus, retirement as a concept had exited my vocabulary and mindset years prior to this big step.

I guess you could say I ended up on a 15-year glidepath as I stumbled and humbled through at least two “reinventions” ultimately discovering my own version of a Victory Lap doing what I am wired up to do and which I intend to do until I can’t. I’ve unashamedly set that “can’t” as past 100 years.

Thanks to M, R & J for advancing the argument that full-stop retirement is dinosaur territory and that it’s well nigh time we redeployed the accumulated talents, skills, experience, energy, and enthusiasm of this 55+ group back into a marketplace and culture in bad need of a large dose of wisdom and stability.

Let me know what you think of the book – and this article with a comment below or an email to gary@makeagingwork.com. If you aren’t on our subscription list, it’s free and easy at www.makeagingwork.com.  Plus, a subscription comes with a free ebook: “Achieve Your Full-life Potential: Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose.”