You look down at your watch.
It's around lunch time, but that's not what your watch tells you.
It reads 27 years, 6 months, 9 days, 3 hours...
This is no ordinary watch.
This watch predicts your future and specifically, your death.
You are now face to face with your mortality.
You can see every second tick away...
BUT there's more,
This watch also gets a reading from every cell in your body through nano technology. It has a mainline straight to your biology and recalculates your lifespan every single minute.
Most minutes tick away 60 seconds at a time, as you'd expect.
Then, you take a bite of junk food, you chew it for a few moments and swallow. You notice 3 minutes disappears off your watch in seconds.
As you have more and more bites of this junk food meal, each time a few more minutes come off your lifespan.
An alert flashes on the watch face *Heart disease risk recalculating*
It jumps from 8% to 8.1%.
You've lost an hour in the last 10 minutes.
...
Later that night you're up watching TV, it's after midnight and you're snacking. Another day has gone by without you having exercised and you haven't checked your watch since lunch.
You're shocked to see the watch read
27y:6m:5d:15h
You've lost an extra 3 days on top of the last 12 hours!
Your risk of every major disease has gone up even though it's just a little.
If you keep this up, by the end of the year your life will have shortened by 3 years or more! Your risk of every major disease will be up by 5-10%
Carry on further and those 27 years will take you 9 to burn through and those years will likely be filled with many hospital visits.
Obviously this story is fiction (although it might not be too far from a future reality!) but what would your watch say based on your last 12 months?
It's very hard to contemplate our mortality but ignorance and avoidance is not the answer either.
The unpleasant and sobering fact is we have a finite time on this planet; in this body.
Think of it like a bank account.
When you're born you receive, on average, 85 years into your account. How you spend it is entirely up to you, but wouldn't you want to spend it wisely?
Sure sometimes we need to splurge a little, just like with your money - We aren't robots. But this whole "YOLO" (you only live once), "You have to die of something" attitude is not helping anyone.
It may seem tough or carefree on the surface but a lot of the time I see avoidance and a lack of personal responsibility.
Now I'm not talking about saying YOLO before you go for something big, when you take a risk. I'm specifically talking about when it's used to justify partying all night, going back for more cake (all the time), or otherwise indulging in harmful behaviours.
Why do we have to do things that harm us... Because YOLO?
When that knock at the door comes, are you really not going to regret some of those decisions? You don't get a second chance!
Case in point.
I was once at a funeral for a woman in her early 50's who died of a heart attack. Now that's sad enough but apparently it was a bit of a running joke in her family about how fussy of an eater she was and how much she loved her fish and chips, they even joked about it at the funeral.
Sometimes bad shit just happens, but I'm willing to bet she contributed to it with her lifestyle choices.
And that's it.
You've spent your account.
I hope the chips were worth it.
I know that's full on but this is the harsh reality we avoid.
What if she swapped the takeaway once a week for a salad for the last 30 years?
She would probably still be here...
What if she added an extra hour a week of moderate exercise on top of what she was doing for the last 10 years?
She'd probably be quite healthy.
This is a real person we're talking about. Someone's mum, someone's daughter, friend, colleague, relative.
And we're not talking about much, one meal and one hour a week.
To possibly still be alive!
It's not a high price...
Look, if you want to claim YOLO by staying up late, smoking, drinking, eating crap and not moving then I can't stop you, it's your decision. But know that you can't change your mind when it all catches up with you, and it will eventually.
Am I trying to scare you? Maybe a little.
But what I really want to do is open your eyes to what you're actually doing when you make these decisions, it's a harsh reality check.
So what's the answer?
Why can't we live fast, die old? We can! It's just a shift in attitude.
Take responsibility of your account and start making some deposits.
Eating healthily, moving daily, lifting and running often, sleeping well and at a reasonable time, having strong relationships and getting outdoors. These practices and others all add more to your account than it takes to do them.
And funnily enough, they also make you feel better!
That is how we can do it, however it breaks down because we don't hold each other accountable, we don't hold each other responsible.
We seem far more willing to allow bad habits - "Yeah have that piece of cake, you deserve it" - then to call each other out - "You know, it's your decision but you have been complaining about your weight lately, maybe best to leave it".
If we don't keep others accountable, that means there's no one keeping you accountable.
Your bad habits are enabled or even encouraged.
We want to belong and belonging means having shared experiences - Do you enjoy this in the same way I do? Does this make you feel what I feel?
The people you surround yourself with make a big difference. If everyone around you likes to complain about life or go out drinking after work and you want to feel a greater sense of belonging, you will meet them at their level to show that you are the same, even if it's detrimental to other aspects of your life.
We are social creatures. It's very important to us.
This is why people who teach others how to become successful will tell you to surround yourself with successful people.
If you want to get fitter, surround yourself with people who are really fit or who are at least actually increasing their fitness.
You'll start to notice things.
Like why they are getting their results. You'll notice they won't cancel when the last friend or group you tried to get fit with would cancel.
You'll notice they don't stop when you think they should. They keep going.
You'll notice they won't complain, even when they have every reason to. In fact, it often makes them dig deeper.
When you stop or complain or comment about how nice it would be to partake in one of your bad habits, they won't agree with you or laugh it off like your other friends would. They'll remind you that's not why you're here, that's not how you be successful.
You learn through osmosis - how to think, how to act - and through increased expectations of your behaviour. They will hold you to higher expectations then you will hold yourself. This is a very good thing.
This is an important reason for having a coach or mentor. Whether it's to help you in fitness, health, money, business, relationships or anything else.
A good mentor will not only hold you to higher expectations then you hold yourself to, but they will teach and show you how to meet those expectations.
They have taken ideally themselves but certainly others through the same journey you want to take, they know what it takes to be successful and will hold you accountable to those success building habits...
You wake up. It's 6am
You look down at your watch:
27y:6m:5d:9h
You know you can't keep doing this.
You make a decision in that moment to not be a passive bystander anymore and watch as your life literally ticks away.
You find your runners, go outside and go for a run.
You return home 20 minutes later and notice your watch hasn't moved.
That run actually gave you 20 minutes back!
You're invigorated and feeling great!
You take a shower then have an engaging conversation with your partner over a really healthy breakfast.
You walk out the door at 8.30am with your watch reading 27:6:5:8
You've gained an hour and a half across the morning!
You're so happy you bounce in to work. You have meaningful conversations with your colleagues and take joy in working on your projects all day.
On your lunch break you walk with some colleagues and eat your healthy packed lunches together in the park.
After work you stop and pick up something special for your partner and some more healthy ingredients for tea.
You cook the meal together and feel very connected and grateful.
You eat at the table, or out on the deck, the TV off, and talk to each other about your days.
Maybe you even take the conversation to the bedroom for some more "exercise" ;)
It's a little after 9pm. You've had such a full day even though all that's changed is your attitude. You're winding down to go to bed.
Your watch flashes *All disease risk down 0.5%*
The watch now reads
27:6:7:16.
All the time you lost yesterday, you've gained back today!
You realise finally that you do have a great degree of control. You can make an impact!
Living fast doesn't have to mean indulging our every desire and forgetting the consequences. True happiness has nothing to do with pleasure!
Living fast can mean truly engaging with others - friends and strangers - taking pride and enjoyment in performing your work and challenging yourself to become a better human being.
We don't get the final say about when the clock will run out and maybe that fear of a lack of final control manifests itself as this indulgent "YOLO" attitude. It can be incredibly overwhelming.
If we don't know when it's coming then we should indulge in whatever we want while we can? Is that really an attitude to live by?
We don't let our kids do it because we know it harms their future and makes them miserable and/or entitled in the long run.
So why do we get to?
So we can complain, make excuses and be miserable until our watch ticks to zero?
You have so much more control over your future than you may ever realise. We all do.
You can alter its course dramatically with a single decision.
To put in more effort at home/at work, to try new things, to not complain so much, to read more, to move more, to eat less, to listen first before speaking, to be kind, to find a mentor, to enjoy your work and/or job, to be honest, to laugh, to love.
Your clock is ticking.
What will you do?
Are you looking for a mentor for your health and fitness?
Someone who has done it themselves and helped others?
Contact us to find out if we can help! (Click link)
