In the last blog post, I touched on why we should reinvent our life after 40, 50 or 60. Today I would go into the nitty-gritty on various ways to reinvent life after 40, 50 or 60.
How to reinvent life?
In my opinion, you have to divide your life into four accounts, i.e.
Account 1 – physical health
Account 2 – relationship
Account 3 – mental/spiritual being
Account 4 – actual money in your bank
Each account is important. But before we go into the details I would like to start off with the right mindset.
Right mindset
First we must acknowledge that aging is mandatory irrespective of your race, sex, position in society. Aging is a biological process where our body cells will one day die completely as time goes by. Soon after birth, every human is getting older each day, getting sick occasionally and for most people sickness becomes synonyms with old age. And eventually we breathe our last breath and we call it death!
So aging is compulsory but growing old is really optional. Most important of all is to have a positive and optimistic mindset when you are entering 40s, 50s or 60s. You age is just a number attached to the biological process of your body but your mental state is a totally different entity where it can be programmed to as lively and as young as possible.
If we want to reinvent our life successfully, we must first have a right mindset that getting old physically is just a physical process while the mind could be young at whatever age we want to position it. Have you ever wonder why sometimes we could be so happy remembering sweet memories of events happened some 20 or 30 years ago? It is because we choose be happy at that instant and we feel young at heart!
Our physical bodies will lose agility as we age, but our minds don’t have to lose a step. Our steps could be feeble and slow but our minds could be happy as ever if only we know how.
Physical health
In order to have a healthy body to welcome your middle age, the very simplest step to take is go for a complete medical check up. Our body is like a machine with moving parts. It is said that anything that moves needs maintenance. Your car needs an oil change every 5,000 or 10,000 km (of course depending on the make and specifications). Similarly we must love our body and it is essential to find out what could have went wrong or what could be wrong in years to come. However, this could only be revealed by a medical check up and consulting with your family doctor.
Of course it is beyond the scope for this blog to dwell into the details of physical health here. Nevertheless you have to take the necessary action or remedial actions with respect to your health status. Follow what your doctors say: live a healthy lifestyle by eating properly, exercise regularly, sleep sufficiently and cutting off completely or reduce the 3 habits which would make you age faster:
- Smoking
- Drinking alcohol
- Sedentary lifestyle [From Wikipedia: Sedentary lifestyle is a medical term used to denote a type of lifestyle with no or irregular physical activity. A person who lives a sedentary lifestyle may colloquially be known as a couch potato. Sedentary activities include sitting, reading, watching television and computer use for much of the day with little or no vigorous physical exercise. A sedentary lifestyle can contribute to many preventable causes of death.]
All the above three habits are proven scientifically that will make you age faster and are causes of many preventable diseases.
In addition, the accompanying signs and symptoms of menopause (or andropause for men) for middle age will have some changes to your body and mind in general. This natural normal hormonal change can sometimes be a source of anxiety. It is best to seek medical advice or treatment if the need arises. Most important of all is to recognize that it is a natural process in which every man or woman will undergo during middle age, just like children entering puberty – a natural process.
An important aspect of health is how are you going to manage your sex life. Unless you choose to lead a life of celibacy, chances are you will need to “reinvent” your sex life in one way of another. Again, this is not a blog on this topic and readers are advised to get expert help from qualified personnel.
Relationship
By relationship here I mean your relationship with your life partner, spouse, family members, friends and people around you generally. One important factor when you are entering middle age is to decide how are you going to spend your time (there will more free time as you grow older) on a daily basis.
I have a couple of friends who are in their late 40s or early 50s who are still not married. I once asked them why don’t they get married. I never get a satisfactory answer from them or rather they never tell the truth. They are “rich” (own at least a house and car; earn enough to lead a comfortable married life), with a good career or business and handsome (or pretty) as well. They are the real “diamond bachelors” – precious but hard to own!
As we age into 40s, 50s or 60s, our love relationship may have gone through some ups and downs in many different ways.
If you are married, check whether you are as loving as before. For example, love your husband or wife more even if he or she is not perfect. Sometimes compromise is word of the day when conflicts (big or small) occur. Sacrifice might be another virtue you might want to practise more.
If you are dating, check whether it is time to tie the knots. Choosing a wrong life partner at this time could be more agonising. Simple question to ask is: am I really happy with this guy or gal I am dating?
If you enjoy being single, embrace it totally and there should not be anything wrong to be single. However do your planning as regards to your later life on matters like: who is going to take care of you in your end days or in the event of any unforeseen eventuality. You should be responsible for your actions in your own love life.
What about relationship with family members, friends and other people around you? My opinion is treat them as what you want to be treated by them. Relationship building is like a current account in your bank. You must put in money in order to withdraw when you need it. That means you must put in efforts to cultivate good relationship with all of them.
So far I have touched Account 1 and 2, the next blog will complete the accounts of mental and money aspects. Stay tuned……
Tags: actual money, drinking alcohol, family, love, medical check up, mental, mindset, physical health, reinvent, relationship, sedentary, sex, smoking, spiritual being
