I saw a quote recently that made me stop and think:
“If I had known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”
I don’t know who first said it, but there is something about it that really struck me. It is another of the phrases that makes you look back and wish you had done things differently. But I am not one for regrets or negative thinking, I think there is a positive message here.
The first thing is that there is a strong chance that we will be living longer than previous generations.
That has to be good. The second thing is that whilst that phrase is about looking back, we can turn it around and look forward instead.
Let’s say I could guarantee that you were going to live to 90. Would you do anything differently knowing this?
Would you do more exercise? Eat a little better? Stop smoking? Drink less? Get stronger? Lose some weight? Spend more time with friends and family?
Now think about what your last 10 years, your 80s, will look and feel like. You don’t have to imagine. There are plenty of people in their 80s already, you will see some that are house bound, perhaps walking with sticks, and others are in the news for having run another marathon, and everything in between. We cannot completely control what our future will look like, but we can do our best to stack the odds in our favour.
This is why I think looking after yourself now is so important, whatever age you are. You have the ability to shape your future, not just the next few years but those most important years, your last decade.
As I’ve written about before, you don’t have to dive straight into going to the gym or running each day, or go on a crash diet (never a good idea). Gradual changes are likely to be the ones that you’ll stick with.
Sometimes you just need a trigger to start. It could be the phrase I spoke about at the start. Or you could be like one of my new clients who had been thinking about starting with me for over 6 months and then saw one Facebook post and that was her trigger.
So ask yourself this question, “What will my last decade look like, and am I happy with this?”
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