You Will Grow Old

Categories: Blog Mar 12, 2017

It’s the way of the world. You are born, you grow in size and strength, you grow in thought and wisdom, and then you grow in age, become weak, and vanish. Mufasa would call it the circle of life. I call it depressing. It is. Right? Think of it. Youth is associated with health and strength while the “maturity” is associated with medications and weakness. The world says this is the way things are, the normal. But what if the world is wrong?

What if normal, or common, was just misinterpreted information, or misplaced acceptance? What if normal is neither right or wrong, but only a present fact, or even an alternative fact - sorry, it was just too easy… Anyway, what if things are only common because they have been accepted, not because they are destined.

For example, it is normal for the average American adult to sit over thirteen hours in a day. Thirteen hours out of a twenty-four hour day, sixteen of which would actually be “waking” hours. That leaves three hours of non-sitting. Which doesn’t guarantee three hours of movement. That is our normal as a country. Don’t you know that doesn’t make it right; that’s not the way we are supposed to occupy time - in a chair? It’s the normal, but it is not the way.

Which leads me to my point. The world says it is normal to grow weak and frail as we grow old. Science says as we age we lose muscle mass every decade and our youthful hormones start to decline and decrease in levels. The data is there to support our normal of growing weak and old. It’s simply normal.

It’s also simply a lie.

What if the data science is collecting about our declining hormones and our declining muscle mass is coming from a population with an increasing sedentary lifestyle? After all, our new norm is to sit on our flabby butts thirteen plus hours a day. As time and technology have advanced, we move less and less. Well, if we are not moving decade after decade, why would we need to keep muscle mass? Why would we need hormones like testosterone? We aren’t using them, so obviously we don’t need them. The brain and body are masters of efficiency. You’ve heard this all your life: Use it or lose it. Of course we lose muscle mass decade after decade. We don’t use it.

But what if we did? What if we placed a demand on our body day after day, decade after decade as we age? What if we could keep and retain our strength because we USE it? What if we only sat three hours out of the day instead of thirteen?

Listen, we will grow older. That is normal, but it is also natural. But we don’t have to grow weak and frail. That may be normal, but perhaps only because it is common. Besides we CANNOT grow weak and frail. That is not growing, that’s called fading. We were made to grow and become. Were we really made to fade and fizzle out? Perhaps not.

If you use your strength, you will retain it. If you search for your strength, you will find it. In my forties, I’m stronger than I was when I was eighteen. And it is not because I didn’t live in a gym because I certainly did, though I don’t now. Yet, I’m stronger and move better now then I did then. This is not normal, IF you listen to the way of the world. Me, I don’t always like what the world has to say. Do you?

You were made to grow in maturity, strength and wisdom. You should be able to exit this life with strength and a sound mind. It is possible. Fading into weakness and frailty, into forgetfulness and senility doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Don’t accept that. Keep growing. Keep becoming. Use your brain and your body. Read, learn, move, and train yourself. Place a demand on yourself to get the response you are looking for. Nurture your strength. Don’t neglect it. Don’t settle for what the world says. Strive for what you know should be.

You should be strong and able. Always.

Blaze on, don’t fade out.

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