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I am fast approaching one of the less desirable landmarks when it comes to age and this event I am interpreting as the end of youth and the start of middle age!
However given the numbers involved this may be seen as a somewhat unrealistic view.
Or is it?
This article is an attempt to share four techniques which I believe are vital if we are to enjoy active and healthy lives as we hit numbers many of us may prefer to forget.
Yes, there is a trading angle, but it is not essential and this piece is more about life which is a more important issue in any case.
The first point I will make is the fairly well known fact that many people start to slide more rapidly down the slippery slope once they retire. This is particularly relevant to those in employment as they can go from full employment one day to unemployment the next. Those in business, like myself, do not usually have this “luxury” but it is very much a two-edged sword with many finding life rather boring and unfulfilling on the other side. Or so I am led to believe, this is an experience I may never have.
But it can be a lot worse than that with some visibly deteriorating without the stimuli associated with their daily grind.
It is therefore no surprise many look to find alternative ways of providing this stimulation (plus more cash!) and trading is one obvious way to do this and from the comfort of your own home.
In fact a while back I recommended a video clip on the human brain and I believe this video is partly inspiration for this article (sadly I have lost the link to this and if anyone knows of it please let me know).
LINK NOW AVAILABLE (thanks JohnG!) – http://www.highperformanceacademy.com/amen
So TECHNIQUE ONE is simply TO KEEP MENTALLY ACTIVE and trading is one way to do this.
Just this one technique can seriously enhance both the quality and length of your life span, ignore it at your peril!
TECHNIQUE TWO is equally obvious and this is TO KEEP PHYSICALLY ACTIVE.
Personally I find walking is not enough and unless I go for a run regularly I just don’t feel “right” for want of a better word. But we are all different and any exercise is better than none and this is at least as important as keeping active mentally.
Incidentally my running/walking club, the hash house harriers, is always keen to take on new members and has “chapters” all over the world. For more details go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers
TECHNIQUE THREE is based on the fact that one of the biggest issues with aging is that we lose suppleness. So I term this as STAY SUPPLE.
In my travels through Asia I have found myself exposed to a number of Yoga teachers and I find Yoga a great help. I have never been particularly supple to start with (nor subtle I hear someone say – I hear voices a lot!) but I was very surprised how a very simple 10 minute exercise repeated daily made a big difference within a couple of week – the breathing exercises also prove very beneficial.
This is not complicated stuff and there is no need to tie yourself in knots. You can also do this very easily at home or even in the smaller, but not minute, hotel rooms I may come across.
I gather there are other forms of exercise that can have similar effects but yoga is the one I know (but only on a limited basis).
Finally we come to TECHNIQUE FOUR and this may be a bigger (in more ways than one) issue for some as we are talking about a HEALTHY WEIGHT.
My understanding of our bodies is that as we age they become less able to deal with negative factors. So in our early twenties eating McCrap burgers and other similar fast/junk food/toxic matter may not do us too much harm but as we get older this may not be quite the same. Similarly I believe, and this is only my view, that as we get older it becomes more important to be a healthy weight.
Now I have always been overweight, usually weighing around 15 stone whereas 13.5 would be about right. This despite my various athletic activities although the term “athletic” is debateable. However I am now resolving my weight issue in a rather unexpected manner, to me anyway.
I have stopped drinking alcohol…
I had never intended to do this and it was not exactly a “conscious” decision. It seemed more to be a combination effort of the physical, the mental and the “spiritual” – for example I did suffer from regular headaches (which I never usually get) and ended up covered in spots – but both of these may have been unrelated.
At the same time I decided that having drunk for 40 odds years it was time to see life from the “other” side!
What I have found fascinating about the process (and I have now been “dry” for over 7 months) is how trivial the whole thing is. I had built up a huge justification system for drinking, all of which I have found to be pretty much complete bollocks. Here are a few of the fallacies I had concocted:
• Alcohol helps me relax – untrue, a glass of sparkling mineral water is just as good!
• Alcohol helps me enjoy myself – untrue, in fact it just seemed to waste a lot of time, cause me to sleep badly and sometimes not feel so good in the morning
• Alcohol helps me socialise – untrue, I find I can socialise just fine without it, but there are differences, for example as others drink the quality of their jokes seems go downhill
• Alcohol is necessary on long haul flights, totally untrue, long haul flights are much better without alcohol
• Alcohol stops me eating too much, untrue, just another bad habit to sort out
• Alcohol makes me more creative, untrue IMHO
• Alcohol deals with stress, untrue there are better ways
• For those who feel too much in control alcohol can resolve that, not necessarily with positive results but it may be seen as a valid concept – see reverse case below
• The “Dionysus” concept that ecstasy is good for you, maybe it is! Did it do Jim Morrison any good – discuss?
On the other side of the coin we have the solid reasons not to drink and we might include:
• Many hate to feel lack of control
• Hangovers
• Health generally
• Weight
• Many crimes are committed whilst drunk and people can die that way, albeit an extreme view
• Driving whilst over the limit is illegal and so drinking can cut down your options of getting around
• Similarly it can make you tired so you miss out on doing stuff
• It can disrupt your business life
• It can put people off and you may miss many good opportunities, both business and personal – the knock on effect of this can be HUGE, rather like compound interest in reverse
• It can make you unreliable
You can add you own items to both lists but personally I am finding good reasons to stay dry virtually every day and only the occasional twinge of regret now and then.
But I am free to drink again if I want to although this leads us to yet one more factor in the search for eternal youth…
Sugar
The conclusion I have come to is that the real issue for me is not alcohol but sugar and this become increasingly obvious the longer I do not drink alcohol – ice cream seems to factor more and more in my diet!
Whether I am an alcoholic or not is something I am not sure about. It is actually fairly academic in that I have given up but I am loath to start again as I prefer life without and I don’t want to get back into the same habit/cycle.
But I am pretty sure I am a sugarholic!
So my next task is to deal with that addiction and I am reading “I quit Sugar“ which you can find here:
http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/i-quit-sugar-ebook/
But it is daunting stuff primarily because fruit is full of sugar but to beat the addiction you need to go cold turkey apparently – OK, you probably think I have gone completely loopy at this point so I will quit while I’m ahead with a possible update to follow at an unspecified time in the future.
So why did I write this article?
I have been 100% honest and that always leaves room for “critics” to take advantage with mock and scorn. But such people tend to be in a sad place in their lives and it is up to them to deal with that.
But if my experiences and thoughts lead just one person to something useful and/or worthwhile then that makes any article of value which is why I wrote it.
And, of course, there is the trading aspect, maybe quite small, but literally a life saver for some!
Feedback always welcome!
JOHN PIPER
Email: john@john@john-piper.com
Web: www.johnpiper.info
For occasional free reports email jptt@aweber.com
For some people at some times, it is precisely this different sort of relationship
that is needed for the conversation to happen. Racism is based on the belief that perceived racial differences also account for
differences in innate human characteristics and ability. Counselling is not only about
problems, it also offers opportunities to get to know yourself better and to develop
you as a person.