Aging andMortality

It Has Nothing to Do with Age is a book about the aging process. You may be thinking about your mortality and if you are, you are likely, at least, in your late 30s. There comes a certain point or time in our lives when we begin thinking about life’s window. Is that window as open as it once was? Prior to thinking about aging or ones mortality that window is completely open. Often, beginning to think about mortality is when our life is perceived to be roughly half over or is related to some crisis or trauma. It’s at that point that the window begins to close.

For me, the writing of this book occurred after I had a serious horse accident. I decided to write about my competitions in order to more fully understand my reasons for participating in extreme sports. I then thought about and selected men and women, in retirement age,  who perform in extraordinary physical sports. I did not overlook the importance of the mental component or thinking process. What is the ratio of physical to psychological or mental components in completing Western states 100?  Trust me, both are important.

Do we fight the aging process? Do we deny our mortality? Are we afraid to stop our sports? These were a few of the questions that I asked myself and wanted to better understand. I know that I want to be physically strong, have good energy, and be healthy.  It is also important, for me, to practice, train, and improve at what I’m doing. In other words, there’s a lot of repetition compulsion or repetition addiction that takes place an order for mastery to happen.

 Recently, Michael Jordan said something like he was not looking forward to being elected in the basketball Hall of Fame. According to him, he claimed that the sport writers would likely think that he could no longer put on a shirt, shorts and basketball shoes and play a high-level game. Would they think of him differently and possibly no longer be in awe of him. Another explanation and likely more accurate is that Michael would think of himself differently. If you go to one of his basketball camps he continues to dunk the ball. He also said that he pictured himself going into the Hall of Fame at age 70 not at age 45. He might be fearful that he could not be able to jump high enough to dunk the ball at age 70. For Michael, he likely has thought about the closing of his window. Michael, it happens to all of us. We are mortal. Freud said “the goal of life is death.” That my friend is the reality. And remember what Tony said “ And  then you die.”

If you are thinking or thought about immortality you might consider evaluating how you want to spend the rest of your life. I know many that are active. For me, I want to be more than active because I want to be physical as well. How I think and when I think about what I want determines how I set goals. Use it while you can because what you’ve heard about atrophy is true. The expression is “Use it or lose it.”