Getting older doesn't necessarily mean what a lot of people think

Have you ever said this...?

"I'm getting older now, so that's just the way it is."

As a coach, I hear this or a variation of it regularly. People in their 20's and 30's use that to explain why they don't have as much energy as they once did or why they're stiff when they wake up in the morning. Aging gets blamed for a LOT of stuff.

Why do we do this?

Words and phrases like that are baked into our experience from a young age. We hear it from our parents and grandparents. We hear it from family friends. We hear it from coworkers who are more senior than us. We hear it in the media.

What if society has it all wrong?

While our bodies do age and wear down, the pace at which that happens is way slower than most people believe. One of the main things that determines how we perceive our body is our mindset. Here are three examples:

Example #1

Amy Bevilacqua. She's 50 years old and competed a couple of weeks ago in the Elite 15 category of the Hyrox World Championships in Nice, France. Most of her competitors are in their 20's and 30's. She finished 7th out of 15. Check out her Instagram here.

Example #2

Benjamin Franklin. Yep - that guy from history. He spent most of his 70's as an ambassador to France negotiating support for American Independence. So during a time in history when a trip from Philadelphia to Europe took months and was very uncomfortable (not to mention risky), a 70 year old headed to Paris and started a new career. Franklin was not exactly the picture of health, either. Even though he was older and did little to support a healthy lifestyle, he lived it up in France for nearly a decade.

Example #3

Ellen Langer's counterclockwise experiment. In 1981, a Harvard psychologist named Ellen Langer did an experiment. She took 8 men in their 70's to a monastery in New Hampshire and told them to act like it was actually 1959. Everything they encountered at the monastery was consistent with life in 1959 including what they saw on television, what they heard on the radio, newspapers, etc. There were no mirrors to remind them what they looked like.

After just a week of acting like they were in their 50's instead of in their 70's, some amazing things happened. The men got taller, their cognitive abilities improved, their fingers got longer (less arthritis), and independent volunteers who didn't know anything about the experiment estimated their ages to be 2 years younger after the week long experiment.

What we think is powerful stuff. The words we use are powerful.

So what? What's the point?

I'm certainly not suggesting that we return to the poor judgement and questionable choices of our teen years. That would probably backfire for most of us.

But if you 100% believed that your body is capable of moving and feeling as well as you did 5, 10, or 15 years ago, how would you act? What would you do differently? What would you do this weekend? How often would you work out?

The point is that our words matter and what we think matters. If you want to make a difference in how you feel and how you move, you're best bet is to start with how you think and what you tell yourself.

A real strategy for real life results

Try talking to yourself like this:

"People who eat healthy normally meal prep so that they have healthy lunches that are easy to eat at work. So, I'm meal prepping this Saturday afternoon and I'm gonna love my lunches this week."

"Healthy people exercise regularly, and I'm going to be in class at the gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday this week."

When you use positive language in your mind and then follow through with healthy choices, you set yourself up for success and make each successive positive choice a little easier. Try it out and then share your success with us.

Want some help getting started on a positive path? We're here to help.

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