The Key to Aging Well

Aging well. People want to know how to do it. They hope for a magic pill or a list of steps to follow. That’d be nice—and maybe include a check list to ensure the “aging well” plan is happening. How “well we age” is highly influenced by lifestyle choices, which we probably know already. But many of us don’t realize aging well is also influenced by our mindset.

Recently, seniors at Seven Oaks community center in Florence were asked to define what aging well meant to them. Of the 18 who responded, 16 felt consistent exercise and healthy diet were keys to aging well. When pressed on current efforts, they ALL admitted there was plenty of room for improvement — they knew changes to their habits should be made in order to help themselves age well. After more discussion, what surfaced was how they thought about attempting to do things better. Someone said it’s human nature to lose motivation after a while and head’s nodded in agreement. It was clear that a mindset change was imperative to their success in setting goals to change lifestyle. But how does one do it?

If you Google “tips to aging well”, hundreds of suggestions pop up. Most are obvious and people KNOW what they should do…but they don’t do it. They set a goal and don’t follow through. This was the issue with the seniors at Seven Oaks. They had good intentions, but really, that was it.

One of the stumbling blocks to success is that people mistakenly focus on the goal itself, rather than the mindset, feelings, and intentions behind it. U.S. News and World Report showed that 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. Why? Because people don’t change their mindset. They focus on the goal and end result.

IF YOU WANT TO STAY COMMITTED TO AN AGING WELL HEALTH GOAL, AND IT BE A LASTING CHANGE, THE KEY IS TO CHANGE YOUR MINDSET.

One way to focus on mindset change is to know your true intention behind wanting to make a change. What’s you “why” for doing it? Think about your goal. It’s important to have feelings about it because that draws you close to your intention for change...which forces action and eventually impacts your lifestyle.

Making a change and ensuring it sticks and becomes part of your lifestyle, means you have to fall in love with the process—the journey—of working to reach your goal, especially when the newness of your efforts has worn off. There’s a way to help you do that. There’s a strategy to follow in order to see mindset change as you work toward your health goal. It’s called S.M.A.R.T and means:

SPECIFIC (what exactly do I want to do?)

MEASURABLE (how will I track my progress?)

ATTAINABLE (is this realistic for me? Do I have what I need to make it possible?)

RELEVANT (why am I doing this? Does it matter to me?)

TIME-ORIENTED (when will I have this completed?)

Get out a sheet of paper and grab your calendar. Answer these five items. People will set themselves up for failure by setting general and unrealistic goals such as “I want to lose weight.” The goal is vague with no sense of direction. But not you. Not this time.

SMART goals set you up for success by forcing you to identify specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely characteristics behind your goal, which in turn gives you better control over your outcome, begins to change your mindset and becomes part of your lifestyle.

YOU CAN DO IT!

By Lisa Dempsey, Hospice Volunteer Coordinator