Can I share some non-news with you?
This was published in the Becker’s Hospital Review on 1/31/2023 (I subscribe to try to stay ahead of the out-of-control craziness in healthcare today since I deal daily with execs in the field.)
“The U.S. spends two to four times as much on healthcare as most other high-income countries, but the health outcomes lag behind, a new Commonwealth Fund study found.
“U.S. Healthcare from a Global Perspective, 2022: Accelerating Spending, Worsening Outcomes” is an ongoing report by the Commonwealth Fund that compares healthcare spending and outcomes, health status and healthcare usage in the U.S. with 12 other high-income nations and the average for all 38 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development members.
The U.S. remained the only nation within the OECD that does not offer universal health coverage despite spending nearly 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare, according to the report.
Here are five other findings:
- The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at 77 years compared to the 80 years average for other wealthy nations.
- The U.S. has the highest rates of avoidable deaths from causes such as diabetes, hypertensive disease and certain cancers.
- The U.S. has the highest COVID-19 death rate among high-income countries, at 3,000 deaths in every 1 million cases between Jan. 22, 2020, and Jan. 18, 2023.
- Physical assault, which includes gun violence, is seven times higher in the U.S. than in other high-income countries, except New Zealand.
- U.S. infant and maternal deaths are more than triple the rate of most other high-income countries.
“Americans are living shorter, less healthy lives because our health system is not working as well as it could be,” lead author Munira Gunja, senior researcher for the Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovations, said in the report. “To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would have to expand access to healthcare, act aggressively to control costs, and invest in health equity and social services we know can lead to a healthier population.”
I bolded the last part of Mr. Gunja’s comment because it’s the same ‘ol, same ‘ol chant that we hear from everyone jumping on the “let’s fix healthcare” bandwagon.
- Expand access
- Control costs
- Invest in health equity
All valid. All doable. All sensible.
ALL DOWNSTREAM!!!
Sorry, you’ve tolerated my rant on this before, but I’m not stopping even though I’m a voice in the wilderness.
We’re not solving the problem. We’re fixing the results of the problem. And threatening to bankrupt the country.
At some point, we need to turn off the spigot instead of spending society-crippling amounts of money mopping up the water.
There’s no end to gullibility!
Here’s another example.
I read an article recently in which a board-certified pediatrician is advocating bariatric surgery and diabetes drugs for overweight children, claiming that the main cause of child obesity has a genetic origin.
Do I smell an element of “follow the money” here? Does she really think we are that naive? Couldn’t she be bold enough to shed her “drug it or cut it out” indoctrination and advocate for that ghastly model-busting concept called – wait for it – PREVENTION.
How many kids were obese when you were in grade, middle, or high school? I remember two in my high school of 95 kids. And they weren’t really even obese by today’s definition. But then that was pre-McDonalds.
What does it say that the average American woman today weighs the same as the average American male in 1960? Or that the average American male is 32 pounds heavier that the 1960 American male? And neither of them is any taller. Or that we are now beset with epidemic levels of overweight children?
I’m not a scientist or a geneticist but I do know enough to say confidently that genetics don’t change in a 40-50 year span to make all that happen.
We know the problem and choose to ignore it.
We let the food industry get away with murder with their deceptive practices and food-like products. We provide them with cover with senseless government policies.
We provide insane subsidies to the industries that provide the food components that are killing us.
We build massive, monolithic healthcare institutions that know only “cure” and can’t or won’t learn to spell, pronounce, advocate, or train for prevention.
This is Sisyphean
Is it too big and too late to change? I believe so.
I’m guessing this will be a pivotal and disruptive year in healthcare. The big systems are shoveling money out the door by the trainload. Major disruption is starting and will intensify. Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Optum – all are circling like vultures over this wounded carcass looking for a way to swoop in and intercept the incredible cash flow the government doles out by using their technologies to get to that stream faster and at lower costs. Some of that lower cost may even be passed on to the victim – er, the patient. All under the guise of providing “better patient care.”
They’ll be able to increase the convenience and lower some of the costs of mopping up the water. Count on them being able to get us in and out faster and at a lower cost to allow us to continue on our life-sapping, unhealthy habits with not a modicum of advice like “get you arse out of Whataburger and over to Planet Fitness.”
That doesn’t fit the dying model nor the emerging one.
The solution? Avoidance!
It’s unfortunate and an anomaly, but the last place to go to get counsel on how to stretch your health span across your lifespan is your health system-affiliated physician. They are not trained, equipped, or motivated to provide advice on the metabolic processes that enable that extended health span. And, if employed in a system, they are under pressure from a financially-strapped mothership to treat you as a number with a fifteen-minute visit limit.
My primary care physician is in his early 60s, has two artificial knees, is 30 pounds overweight, and is blind in one eye from an as-yet unexplained cardiovascular event. I love the guy – I’ve been seeing him for over 25 years. We have great conversations about the industry and his photography from his twice-a-year ventures to Lake Powell. He has helped me numerous times with the right solutions to my downstream problems.
I do my darndest to avoid seeing him. It’s usually just once a year for the blood panel review, a quick look in the ears, nose, and throat, and the rubber glove bit.
He’s never asked about my diet or exercise regimen – nor would I listen if he volunteered.
It’s nice to know he’s there and competent if my wheels skid off the rails.
He’s a partner in my health when I need him – not the arbiter.
I’m counting on my immune system to do the heavy lifting by giving it what it needs to perform optimally.
Nobody’s coming to save us.
We’re left with little else but to take responsibility for acquiring the knowledge of how to protect our birthright of good health, regardless of where we are on the age spectrum.
If you’ve tracked with me for a while, you know I’m a fan and advocate of “Harry’s Rules”, the appendix in the book “Younger Next Year” (affiliate link) that was written by the co-author, the late Dr. Henry Lodge.
It seems a good time to resurrect them.
Harry’s Rules
Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.
Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.
Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.
Spend less than you make.
Quit eating crap!
Care.
Connect and commit.
Can you imagine these rules hanging in your doctor’s office?
Don’t hold your breath!
Are they hanging in your office?
Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts or observations on this topic? Love to hear from you. Also, if you haven’t joined our list for this free weekly newsletter, you can do so at www.makeagingwork.com.
FOGO vs LOGO – A Formula for Aging With Purpose
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
A month ago, I wrote about a new acronym that has emerged regarding aging: FOGO – Fear of Growing Old. Allow me to quote myself from the article:
Well, I’ve got another acronym for you to consider: LOGO.
I know – it’s already a word meaning “an identifying symbol” as in advertising.
How ’bout we commandeer it and adapt and adopt it into our thinking as we advance through this second half.
LOGO = Love Of Growing Old
Hey, I get it – that’s counterintuitive, countercultural, counterwhatever.
Who in their right mind would love growing old?
Hang with me for a few paragraphs and let’s see how it just might make sense.
The opposite of fear is – -?
What would you guess it to be? Courage? Braveness? Confidence? Heroism? Faith? Joy?
Nope. It’s LOVE.
The gospel according to Chandler
I said last week that I’m going to immerse myself with a select group of authors/coaches/books. Right now, I’m one with Steve Chandler’s “Time Warrior“ for the third time.
One of Chandler’s constant themes is that the opposite of fear is love and that all fear comes from contemplating the future.
It’s darn easy to tumble into the future as we age: achy knees and backs, observation of others who haven’t aged well, loss of loved ones or friends.
When we contemplate growing old, fear will make its appearance.
Can we love growing old? I agree with Chandler – we can. In his words:
Life as a game – not a gauntlet.
Number 81 gets tagged to me next week. I’m getting better at letting it be more important to others than it is to me. Yeah, there are those moments when I ask, “How did I get here so fast?” I don’t know what 81 should feel like since I haven’t been here before but I sense that those around me feel I should be feeling different than I do. I guess they’ve got time to contemplate my future.
I don’t.
I have a choice. Make my aging a game or a gauntlet.
As I get better at living in the moment without too much on my mind, it’s easier to turn it into a game. A game with “24 little hours.”
I can find LOGO in those 24 hours.
If I stray from present-moment service and pull back from trying to create, I find myself in the gauntlet thinking about how old I am.
Game over.
Do you think you are ageing gracefully or is there some work to be done?
Image by G John from Pixabay
I had to stop and think about this question.
What does “gracefully” mean? My dictionary doesn’t have it except as an adverb of grace.
Under grace, we find words like charm, attractiveness, beauty, and ease of movement.
I’ve been on the planet longer than most, having entered my 9th decade (for you Las Vegas Raiders fans, that means I’m in my 80s), and, candidly, there isn’t much about aging that I would consider graceful.
Charming? I can’t think of a single person in my circle of family, friends, and acquaintances that would herald me as charming. I think Webster’s antonym would better apply: inelegant, stiff, unchangeable, nondisposable, gaseous.
Attractiveness? Yes – to my daughter’s two standard poodles. Beyond that, the ranks dwindle to, well, zero.
Beauty? Exit from shower tells it all – it ain’t a pretty picture.
Ease of movement? Not bad for an octogenarian, but only because I take my physical health very seriously, and do serious weight training and balance exercises. Thankfully, the grandkids don’t need me on the floor with them anymore. Half of that playtime went to getting up.
Trying to match graceful and aging is too much work.
I’ve decided not to try to be graceful but rather to move to the antonym side.
There’s an argument for being inelegant at this age. Most of us octogenarians have something to say that’s important. Unfortunately, it requires being inelegant to get anyone’s attention since most have sort of written us off as irrelevant based on the number.
Yeah, I’m largely unchangeable. At 80, we have all the answers hoping that any day now, somebody will start asking the questions.
So, I’m not going to pursue graceful. I’m choosing “audacious” as my adjective of choice and the style that I will finish out with.
I don’t think you will find much graceful in the definition of audacious:
Some of the above come naturally and were built in when the universe assembled my parts. #8 and #9 are like breathing. Some are coming along nicely. Most still need work.
“Do not go gentle into that good night.” Dylan Thomas
I’m not into poetry, but I’m all in with Dylan.
Better to make a ruckus on the way out than to go silently into the night.
More like this –
Than this-
What have I got to lose?
Thinking About Your Thinking. A Key To Your Future Happiness.
Photo by jose aljovin on Unsplash
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker
Don’t you just hate guys like Drucker – dragging up so much truth and reality and sticking our noses in it? As a world changer, he got away with that tactic for decades – and still does, posthumously.
I just hired a business coach this month. After hearing my sad story of how my return for time invested in what I do is so dismal, she insisted I track my time in 15-30 minute increments for a few weeks.
My ego pushed back on the idea – because I knew what it would reveal and I felt some resentment at the subtle insinuation that my use of time is likely, well, Drucked up.
Well, I’m several days into tracking.
Yep, it’s Drucked up.
Where does this time-sucking stuff come from?
Based on what my timesheets are telling me, I better figure that out. I’ve set some ambitious targets for my business this year as a career transition specialist for healthcare professionals.
Somethin’s gotta change.
Thinking about thinking
This business coach experience I’m having has convinced me that I’ve gotten pretty lax in thinking about my thinking.
So, in addition to getting help in getting my business cranking, I’ve decided to immerse myself in the workings of four powerful thinkers: Steve Chandler, Michael Neill, Steven Pressfield, and Seth Godin.
I’ve decided I will be well served to do no reading outside of these four authors this year. There’s plenty there to fill the year since there are 30-40 hard-hitting books across the four of them.
I’ve written about Chandler before – I and his books go back almost 10 years. I’ve got nearly a dozen of his books on my shelf and on my Kindle, some of which I’ve read several times. They are fresh every time I read them.
Those that stand out are:
Time Warrior: How to Defeat Procrastination, People-Pleasing, Self Doubt, Over-Commitment, Broke Promises, and Chaos
Fearless: Creating the Courage to Change the Things You Can
The Story of You (And How to Create a New One)
While Chandler will certainly challenge you to “think about your thinking”, Michael Neill takes that to a whole new level.
I remembered that I had “Supercoach: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life” languishing on my shelf. So, I pulled it down last month and was shocked to discover that I had already read it three times, going back ten years.
I was more ready the fourth time. And it has inspired me to invest in two of his later books:
“The Inside-Out Revolution: The Only Thing You Need To Know To Change Your Life Forever.”
“Creating the Impossible: A 90-Day Program To Get Your Dreams Out Of Your Head And Into The World.”
With Pressfield, no need to stray further than his classic “The War of Art.”
And Godin? All 18 of his books got progressively better and culminated in “The Practice.” It awaits my fourth reading.
A system called today.
You will find a couple of persistent themes throughout this collection of books:
If I want them to serve me, then I need to get them under control.
But thoughts are like a busy train station that never closes, delivering 60-70,000 thoughts a day, with each thought like a car on the train inviting us to travel with it.
Bad choice, bad destination. Unless you step off the train.
Supercoach Michael Neill talks about this in his book “Supercoach: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life,” stating:
Some of my days are like that.
Steven Pressfield talks about it in his classic book, “The War of Art.” It’s called resistance.
Resistance is that spirit thing within us all that doesn’t want us to be efficient, happy, or successful. It disguises itself cleverly among the estimated 65,000 different thoughts that train through our minds daily. It then steps off the train at the worst times and takes a prominent seat smack in the middle of our day.
At this point, I find Steve Chandler’s advice in “Time Warrior” the most helpful in attacking my efficiency problem. Here are a few paragraphs that resonate:
Abundance is a thought.
This quote by Arnold Patent stuck with me this week. It speaks to the power of thought:
Can You Start Life Over at 60? It May Be the Best Time!
It’s a question that gets asked a lot, especially by men since we’re the ones that inflict ourselves with the pressure to “perform.”
I wrestled with this question at that age two decades ago.
My simple answer is “yes” – but – – – –
– – – you may want to consider “pivoting” rather than “starting over.” “Starting over” is too heavy mentally. It suggests dropping everything you’ve done and your accumulated life experience and starting with a completely fresh slate. That’s pretty daunting and impractical.
A pivot, on the other hand, suggests a change in direction but from a base of knowledge, experience, and understanding.
We see a lot of terms thrown around these days that imply starting over: re-invention, re-careering, re-wirement, renewal. It’s a pretty popular concept as our boomer generation hurtles into their sixties and seventies in a volatile, uncertain global economy.
Reintegrate
When considering a pivot, I favor a more practical term: re-integration. I borrowed the term and idea from Marc Freedman, CEO and President of Encore.org and one of the nation’s leading experts on the longevity revolution.
Freedman makes some very valid points in his argument for re-integration (the bolding is mine):
Career- or life-pivoting has never been more common than it is today, driven by rapid technological change, increased volatility of corporate employment, global competition, and a higher-than-average entrepreneurial spirit amongst baby boomers.
I have personally “pivoted” three times since turning 60. I left the corporate world at age 60 and started my own recruiting business. That was a major pivot and came close to a full start-over. However, I found that my 35+ years of sales and marketing “integrated” reasonably well with the recruiting business because it’s a difficult business built on the ability to sell.
I then did a gradual pivot to more career coaching as a supplement to my recruiting business as I found I was more effective in a coaching role and enjoyed helping people find their way in their careers.
I pivoted again, at 77, away from recruiting and focusing more on career- and retirement coaching for people over 50. I also have discovered that I have a love and knack for writing. I write daily and this weekly blog is now 5 1/2 years and 275 published articles old.
That pivot continues as I’m now enjoying being able to combine my ability to write creatively with meeting and helping executive-level professionals – particularly healthcare executives – develop career marketing documents along with providing career transition coaching.
I believe I’m an example of how re-integration works because nowhere along the way since age 60 was it a complete start over for me. I was acknowledging my core interests and talents and bringing forward skills and experiences that support them.
If you find yourself in what you feel is a “start over” situation, here are a few things you may want to consider:
People are “pivoting” in large numbers and realizing tremendous successes, even in the face of these volatile, rapidly-changing times. So gather up your talents, skills, and experience and put them to work doing something that you are really good at and that society needs. When that comes together, you’ll forget all those numbers that our culture throws at us and has us second-guessing ourselves.
Good luck – pivot on!
Got a “pivot story?” Love to hear about it. Leave a comment with your story.
Open Letter to a 27-year old – Get It Together, NOW!
A curious young whipper-snapper posed this question recently on Quora.com.
What is the average or expected life expectancy for someone born in 1996?
I took a swing at it.
How would you predict it?
Speaking as a U.S. citizen, I’m confident in saying that if lifestyles and our treatment of the ecology don’t change in our culture soon, there is a good chance that the average 27-year-old today won’t do any better than the current average life span of 77 for men, 81 for women.
The average longevity in the U.S. peaked and began to turn south several years ago after over a century of meteoric change – from an average of 47 in 1910 to around 80 today. And, by the way, that downturn started well before COVID appeared on the scene.
But that rapid change in the 20th century came from picking the low-hanging fruit – improved infant mortality, reduction/elimination of infectious diseases, better water, food, education, etc.
With that done, we now are up against a new reality and, as COVID-19 is showing us, we aren’t particularly well prepared, biologically.
Know thine enemy.
Our lifestyles, terrible farm/food industry/system, broken healthcare system, and opportunistic/exploitive pharmaceutical industry are assembling a combination of dire threats to our health and longevity going forward.
So, born in 1996 and 27 years old, what can you expect? Consider a couple of choices:
1. You can adopt the prevailing lifestyle that consists of consuming the dangerous Standard American Diet (SAD) of chemically-engineered, food-like substances (C-R-A-P, calorie-rich-and-processed), sedentary living (limited movement, Facebook, voice-activated remotes, and video games), working in a stressful work environment building somebody else’s dream and doing something outside of what you are wired up to do, all while seeking comfort and convenience.
That will put you on track for a life expectancy of 80 years or less, joining a population that is experiencing lifestyle diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The top five killers in our culture are all preventable lifestyle diseases that haven’t changed in decades. Poor diet passed smoking as the #1 cause of early death in America long ago.
You can remain ignorant of, and succumb to, the powerful profit-motivated forces in our culture that are counter to your health and longevity – named earlier – or you can take charge and be the CEO of your health.
If you choose not to take charge, you are likely to end up with an average lifespan with a poor health span.
2. You can wait for a “miracle drug” to pop out from the bio-medical field and “save you” from your marginal lifestyle and guarantee you a long healthy life with no effort.
Just a hint: nobody is coming to save you!
3. You can become a student of how your body and mind work at the cellular level and understand and appreciate the amazing, intricate, and powerful nature of the ecology you live in and the role it plays in your health and longevity. You can learn how to support the amazing 24×7 immune system that is your body and how it is impacted by what you do and don’t do to it and what you put into it and don’t put into it.
You will learn that your biology gives you only two choices – growth or decay. You can strive to appreciate the “use it or lose it” principle that is at play with your biology and thus reject a sedentary lifestyle for the duration of your life. You can become a student of nutrition. You can commit to life-long learning, understanding the importance of applying the same “use it or lose it” principle to your brain.
If I were 27 today (I’m 3x that in six weeks!) knowing what I know now, I would become a revolutionary and be a vocal (not with signs or in the streets), knowledgeable, and persuasive opponent against these forces that are teaming with other unfettered industries collectively destroying both our health and our ecosystem.
Honestly, I fear that a 27-year-old today has a slimmer chance of reaching my age because of the trend line of what we are doing to our bodies by succumbing to the corporate forces working against us and what we have already done to our own ecosystem, particularly the microbiome.
The solution is to get knowledgeable, understand what is being done around you, get outside of it, and choose to eat right, be active, and be discerning of the messages coming from the media, corporations, and the government.
Your longevity hangs in the balance.
Hi, readers! Thoughts on this topic? Love to hear from you. Leave a comment.
Afraid of getting old? We’ve Got an New Acronym For You.
There’s a popular acronym that is thrown around a lot these days – FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. It causes people to stop thinking and be susceptible to the latest fashion, fad, or false promises.
Now there’s a new acronym on the block – FOGO – Fear of Getting Old.
It’s understandable. Our global population is swinging toward “old,” however you may choose to define that. We have a mystical mental tie to the number 65 as the point where “old” seems to begin to settle into our self-perception – hence FOGO.
FOGO is a choice-
-as is any fear.
FOGO is a projection into the future where fear is the chief resident.
It’s unfortunate, but not surprising, that this time travel into the future is creating sadness and adversely affecting our moods. However, it is a condition of our choosing because our thinking is the one thing in life over which we have total control.
I suspect we are drawing some of this sadness and fear as the result of observation of how “old” has affected others. We tend not to age well here in the U.S. The average American only lives to around 80 but with 12–13 of those final years in poor health with multiple morbidities. If we cast ourselves into that expectation, sadness is predictable.
Embrace the inevitable-
-and find the good in growing old.
I love the quote from Dr. Walter Bortz, retired Stanford geriatric physician, in his book “Dare to Be 100.”
“Life is a fatal disease. Once contracted, there is no known cure.”
You, me, and everyone you know are going to get old and die.
We have the choice to agonize our way through it or embrace and revel in it and leverage the good that exists in it.
Live in the moment.
FOGO is rooted in time travel. By that I mean, traveling to and wallowing in the regrets and guilt of the past or casting into the future where fear is inevitable.
The most effective antidote to our sadness and mood issues is to take today and make something of it using our talents and accumulated skills and experiences to be of service to someone.
Then rinse and repeat.
Fear and regrets cannot exist in the present moment.
Yep, I’m “old.”
I’m a chip shot from number 81 and officially qualify as “old” by cultural standards. I’m having the most productive time of my life continuing to create daily and being of service to someone somewhere with something.
I’ve learned that today is all I’ve got. My intent is to just string as many of them together as I can without worrying about whether tomorrow is even going to show up.
I’m not that much of an outlier.
Perhaps you aren’t aware that for the vast majority of people, the later years are the happiest. Research has revealed that, for most, there is a u-curve of happiness in which happiness is greatest in the early and late years, and hits bottom at mid-life.
It looks like this:
By avoiding time travel, staying in the moment, leveraging my talents and skills forward to help somebody, and embracing aging as inevitable, I’m finding it to be the most exciting time of my life – creaky knees and back stiffness notwithstanding.
The choice is ours. It starts between the temples.
Who’s the Arbiter of Your Health? Please Tell Me It Isn’t Your Doctor.
Can I share some non-news with you?
This was published in the Becker’s Hospital Review on 1/31/2023 (I subscribe to try to stay ahead of the out-of-control craziness in healthcare today since I deal daily with execs in the field.)
I bolded the last part of Mr. Gunja’s comment because it’s the same ‘ol, same ‘ol chant that we hear from everyone jumping on the “let’s fix healthcare” bandwagon.
All valid. All doable. All sensible.
ALL DOWNSTREAM!!!
Sorry, you’ve tolerated my rant on this before, but I’m not stopping even though I’m a voice in the wilderness.
We’re not solving the problem. We’re fixing the results of the problem. And threatening to bankrupt the country.
At some point, we need to turn off the spigot instead of spending society-crippling amounts of money mopping up the water.
There’s no end to gullibility!
Here’s another example.
I read an article recently in which a board-certified pediatrician is advocating bariatric surgery and diabetes drugs for overweight children, claiming that the main cause of child obesity has a genetic origin.
Do I smell an element of “follow the money” here? Does she really think we are that naive? Couldn’t she be bold enough to shed her “drug it or cut it out” indoctrination and advocate for that ghastly model-busting concept called – wait for it – PREVENTION.
How many kids were obese when you were in grade, middle, or high school? I remember two in my high school of 95 kids. And they weren’t really even obese by today’s definition. But then that was pre-McDonalds.
What does it say that the average American woman today weighs the same as the average American male in 1960? Or that the average American male is 32 pounds heavier that the 1960 American male? And neither of them is any taller. Or that we are now beset with epidemic levels of overweight children?
I’m not a scientist or a geneticist but I do know enough to say confidently that genetics don’t change in a 40-50 year span to make all that happen.
We know the problem and choose to ignore it.
We let the food industry get away with murder with their deceptive practices and food-like products. We provide them with cover with senseless government policies.
We provide insane subsidies to the industries that provide the food components that are killing us.
We build massive, monolithic healthcare institutions that know only “cure” and can’t or won’t learn to spell, pronounce, advocate, or train for prevention.
This is Sisyphean
Is it too big and too late to change? I believe so.
I’m guessing this will be a pivotal and disruptive year in healthcare. The big systems are shoveling money out the door by the trainload. Major disruption is starting and will intensify. Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Optum – all are circling like vultures over this wounded carcass looking for a way to swoop in and intercept the incredible cash flow the government doles out by using their technologies to get to that stream faster and at lower costs. Some of that lower cost may even be passed on to the victim – er, the patient. All under the guise of providing “better patient care.”
They’ll be able to increase the convenience and lower some of the costs of mopping up the water. Count on them being able to get us in and out faster and at a lower cost to allow us to continue on our life-sapping, unhealthy habits with not a modicum of advice like “get you arse out of Whataburger and over to Planet Fitness.”
That doesn’t fit the dying model nor the emerging one.
The solution? Avoidance!
It’s unfortunate and an anomaly, but the last place to go to get counsel on how to stretch your health span across your lifespan is your health system-affiliated physician. They are not trained, equipped, or motivated to provide advice on the metabolic processes that enable that extended health span. And, if employed in a system, they are under pressure from a financially-strapped mothership to treat you as a number with a fifteen-minute visit limit.
My primary care physician is in his early 60s, has two artificial knees, is 30 pounds overweight, and is blind in one eye from an as-yet unexplained cardiovascular event. I love the guy – I’ve been seeing him for over 25 years. We have great conversations about the industry and his photography from his twice-a-year ventures to Lake Powell. He has helped me numerous times with the right solutions to my downstream problems.
I do my darndest to avoid seeing him. It’s usually just once a year for the blood panel review, a quick look in the ears, nose, and throat, and the rubber glove bit.
He’s never asked about my diet or exercise regimen – nor would I listen if he volunteered.
It’s nice to know he’s there and competent if my wheels skid off the rails.
He’s a partner in my health when I need him – not the arbiter.
I’m counting on my immune system to do the heavy lifting by giving it what it needs to perform optimally.
Nobody’s coming to save us.
We’re left with little else but to take responsibility for acquiring the knowledge of how to protect our birthright of good health, regardless of where we are on the age spectrum.
If you’ve tracked with me for a while, you know I’m a fan and advocate of “Harry’s Rules”, the appendix in the book “Younger Next Year” (affiliate link) that was written by the co-author, the late Dr. Henry Lodge.
It seems a good time to resurrect them.
Harry’s Rules
Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.
Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.
Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.
Spend less than you make.
Quit eating crap!
Care.
Connect and commit.
Can you imagine these rules hanging in your doctor’s office?
Don’t hold your breath!
Are they hanging in your office?
Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts or observations on this topic? Love to hear from you. Also, if you haven’t joined our list for this free weekly newsletter, you can do so at www.makeagingwork.com.
Removing the Friction of Retirement. Who’s Crazy Idea Was This Anyway?
Photo by Sandeep Singh on Unsplash
I follow a young fella on Medium.com by the name of Rocco Pendola. Rocco has a newsletter entitled “Never Retire.”
Since that’s my personal position on this unnatural concept, I was obviously intrigued when I came across his writing.
Rocco is a deep-thinking, iconoclastic, 40-something GenXer.
I like that age group. There’s a certain kind of experiential and whipsawed-based wisdom there that you don’t find in the groups before and after. I try to hang out with them as much as I can. My daughter and son are in that group. The parent-child role reversal has not happened – yet. It’s germinating. I’m learning to listen and pay more attention now while suppressing my “dad lecture” tendency they’ve endured for so long.
Nothing against my long-standing and beloved pre-boomer and older boomer inner circle. It’s just that there there’s a bit too much of a rut there, in the classic definition – a grave with the ends kicked out.
It’s not easy being weird.
There are things that Rocco advocates that I don’t line up with – inner-city rental apartment living, moving to Spain to avoid the current cultural insanity, to name a few – but his core principle of living a semi-retired life starting in your 20s or 30s really resonated with me.
In a recent post, Rocco was lamenting that he misnamed his newsletter because the name triggers friction. In his words:
Wow, can I relate to the friction. I’ve been encountering it for a few decades on two fronts:
The friction is greatest amongst the 70+ cohort. That space between the temples has taken on concrete block characteristics when asked to consider these ideas. Few minds get changed on these two topics at that age.
My advocacy – and Rocco’s – makes sense for the generations behind the boomers. They are more open to removing the friction that the idea of retirement creates.
What friction?
We start early creating friction with the anxiety over needing to be able to retire. It shows up in alarming intensity even amongst 20- and 30-year-olds.
I’ve been helping a master-degreed nurse executive with her career documents recently. In her 50s and on a solid career track, she recently decided to sign up to get her doctorate in nursing. Her 20-year-old son chastised her, saying she was too old to do that and that she should be focusing on planning for retirement.
Friction!
If I’m 65 and unretired, I’m considered unfortunate, a laggard – or strange.
Friction!
If I retire early, I’m a hero and am envied.
Friction!
If I speak out against the concept, I’m weird and misinformed (I’m taking a bow!).
Friction!
If I’m 50, an average saver, I wake up one day to realize I’m only about $1 million short of being able to experience that dream retirement.
Friction!
The reality behind the friction.
Lending Tree just announced that $1 million in retirement savings is no longer adequate for a “comfortable” retirement, at least in 146 metro areas.
My current domicile is one of those. The Denver Post recently reported this:
Let’s bounce that up against the reality of retirement saving in the U.S., as revealed in this federal report published by Edward Jones recently:
Average retirement savings by age
Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 1989-2019; https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm
Friction!
Semi-retirement is the friction antidote.
Friction suggests a lubricant. Semi-retirement is the lubricant.
Rocco and I are on the same page – just different starting points. Rocco advocates semi-retirement starting in the 20s and 30s. I suggest it for those entering late mid-life and later.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent Rocco post that describes the friction and a “practical and psychological guide to living the semi-retired life.
My advocacy for semi-retirement amongst the 60+ cohort is more about not wasting the talent and accumulated skills and experiences on a leisure-based, purposeless lifestyle that can increase the risk of early frailty and extended morbidity.
Semi-retirement in the second half or third stage presents the opportunity for a healthy balance of labor, leisure, and learning, not to mention reducing the friction that the fear of outliving your financial resources can create.
It’s unfortunate that we’ve allowed this unnatural, illogical concept to take such deep root in our culture and in our psyche.
Semi-retirement shields you from the friction, anxiety, and physical and emotional downsides that accompany retirement for many. You mix labor, leisure, and learning on a schedule determined only by you doing what you enjoy doing and perhaps even continue doing until the universe calls for the parts back.
Full-stop retirement deprives us of the opportunity to continue to contribute and create and live a healthier, longer life.
I suspect the politicians that dreamed up the idea 88 years ago didn’t give that an ounce of thought.
Leave us a comment and share your thoughts on this topic.
Let’s Eliminate the Future! Avoiding the Hypnosis of Linear Time.
Photo by Atharva Tulsi on Unsplash
“Just For Today”
That’s a sign that you’ll likely find hanging somewhere in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting room.
I know – I’ve been in a few of those rooms and seen the signs or heard the words. Not as an addict, but as an observer and a presence in support of a loved one deep in the clutches of alcohol.
The phrase won’t hold much sway or meaning for the sober, man/woman on the street.
If alcohol or drugs own you, it means the world – a life-or-death mantra.
It’s a mantra that saved my loved one and sustains him today.
It saved Steve Chandler – thankfully!
Steve who?
Around 9 years ago, I stumbled across a life/business coach and author named Steve Chandler. It was a time when I was succeeding at the crazy, misguided goal of reading 6-8 books a month. It was also a time when my loved one was in the depths of his struggle.
Steve’s crisp, no-holds-barred writing style – and his personal story – gripped me and I plowed through at least a dozen of his books that year, including “Prosperous Coach”, considered to be the seminal book in the field of executive coaching.
I’m replowing. I’m committing to re-reading all the Chandler books on my shelf and in my Kindle in 2023.
I need to do that because the story is so powerful and the life-changing advice that good.
And, because I need that constant reminder that “just for today” is the best of that advice.
Chandler is an alcoholic.
My loved one is an alcoholic.
If you’ve been in or on the fringes of that world you know that recovery never stops. There are no “recovered” alcoholics.
It’s one day at a time – just for today. It’s what saves the alcoholic’s life.
But it’s a thin edge.
That’s what makes Chandler’s story so compelling. His emergence from alcoholism while raising four children as a single dad and rising to the pinnacle of the coaching profession is inspiring.
It’s why I’m thankful for “just for today” as my loved one lives by it and is recovering a lost decade of his life and succeeding beyond his, and my, expectations in business and life.
The hypnosis of linear time
I work hard at avoiding “time travel” and encourage others to avoid it as well – mentally traveling into the regrets and guilt that exist in the past and the fear that is the main resident of the future. That’s a central message in Chandler’s writing.
He writes about the impact of this sign in his book “Wealth Warrior: The Personal Prosperity Revolution.”
Chandler goes further and references the great UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden:
Would we not all be better served if we remembered this? “Give us this day our daily bread.”
There is no reference to the future in this good phrase.
Just When I Thought Creativity Was In Sight – – –
I struggle with creativity. Some days I think there’s hope that I may hit a creative streak. Then there are the days (most common) when I find myself totally encased in imposter syndrome.
Just when I’m feeling a tad bit creative, something like the following hits my email and I’m shocked back to the reality that true creativity is eternally elusive.
Thanks to friend and prolific-sharer-of-humorous-stuff-off-the-internet, Dick Bissell, here’s something I couldn’t not share with you. Chances are you’ve seen this by now and deserves a quick trip to the delete button. But, if not, enjoy.
Back to snarky, sarcastic, modern elder content next week.
The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.
And the winners are:
I’m going to pull this post back up and read it whenever I feel like I’m on a creative blitz as a reminder that I’m a forever rookie.