Yours.
In talking to a prospective client last year
about the Health Restoration 101 plan, (for improved health and
well being ), and the possibility of living to100, he quickly told
me that he had no interest in living to be an old man. Very
surprised, I asked why. Before I could finish my question, he told
me that his children would put him in some nursing home, plunder his
life’s possessions, and ‘live it up’ on his money, until it was all
gone. He was having
none of that, he’d rather spend his money himself, eating out 2 to 3
times a week, at nice restaurants, buying good brands of liquor for
lone evenings of drinking before the new plasma TV, with his
customary frozen dinner in the big easy chair. The place where he
spends most of waking hours.
2 -3 trips per year with permission from each of his many
physicians for Heart disease, diabetes, allergies, back problems and
knee pain. Drugs for
each ailment in tow. Only to return even more debilitated, and
another hospital visit to subdue the crisis. And he says his life is
pretty good for 55 years old, in early
retirement.
Contrast that with one of my mentors who
called me up to say he’d be out of town and would miss our regular
get-together to walk and talk, and wished me a wonderful Christmas
season. He’d be gone 2 maybe 4 weeks and would send a card.
Traveling alone - to visit family and friends from his alma mater up
north. Packing lite of clothes but caring his lucky golf clubs and
tennis racket, no pharmaceutical drugs and no permissions, - his
2nd wife is now at rest.
He says he enjoys doing what he wants, when
he wants. And takes each day as it comes. He enjoys his days in
excellent health. Tall, lean, upright, strong, lively, boisterous
and funny and with no complaints of pain, tiredness or sluggishness.
Only excitement and energy radiates from this guy who spends his
days delivering cheerfulness to friends and acquaintances,
chauffeurs “old ladies” to doctors and grocery stores and to visit
their ‘dwindling numbers of grieving friends’. Lunching with his ‘lying
buddies’, playing tennis and golf, and yes keeping an eye on the
ladies. He is busier
than most 50 year olds, with none of the stress or signs of rage.
Who’d guess he is 94.
This man still eats and lives like his
parents taught him, and agrees it has served him well. When he was
born in 1911, most people ate from the land where they lived, walked
where they went, worked hard everyday, had close ties to family and
friends, honored God in their way, where kind, caring, sharing and
loving with their neighbors. They slept at night, and had (nearly)
none of the pesticides, toxins and chemicals we are exposed to. And didn’t go to the doctor,
except in a dire emergency the doctor came to them. That is the
health message for the new year. The key to long life and health is
in remembering the old ways, and knowing that new and improved is
not always in your best interest. It is in the best interest of the
person who is making it, selling it and making the money from it.
How many people do you know over the age of
50 who takes no medicines, is happy, healthy, active and looking
forward to living to be 120 years old? Finally free from worry of
raising kids, lack of money, hard work, and struggles of the home
front. “Nothing but the
joys of life, now”, he said of
retirement.
Most people have a picture of old age that is
sick, sad and very un-pleasant.
Persons who are too often seen as bored,
angry, complaining,
unhappy, unfriendly, unhealthy, un-attractive, forgotten, and
thought of as useless. No wonder some folk want no parts of old age.
This view would not be attractive to me either. We need to know that
our senior years can be
healthy, fun, and vibrant A time free of financial worries, and very
much active and useful.
So, on Christmas Eve’s eve, the card was delivered …. with 20
roses. It said “I feel sure I can live to
be 100, but now you got me taking these vitamins, and feeling better
than ever. I just might live to be 120. So these 20 are to say thank
you ”.
Live it to the end.
Someone asked me why I say “health is
wealth”? Don’t you
know? In your own experience, add up the money you have spent over
the years for health care; at the doctors offices, the pharmacy, the
years of health insurance premiums, the
–over-the-counter-drugs,
the co-pays, the hospital visits. Then add dollars lost in
time off from work, poor productivity ( when you just didn’t feel
well enough to do what you do.)
What if you had invested that money in a
money market account over 20 years, or the 30 years you’ve worked
for your company, or just 10 years? At say a modest interest rate –
6 percent. You could have at a minimum half a million dollars, up to
over 6 million dollars.
Health is
wealth. Are you
enjoying your health, or are you paying out your wealth? This is how
what you eat, and how you conduct your life makes a big
difference in the state
of your prosperity.
