The 5 pillars to a well-lived life: Health

This is the first of a new series in which I look into the 5 pillars that to me, make up the components conducive for a well-lived life.

Health is a factor that, unfortunately, the healthy tend to ignore until they aren’t healthy anymore. As in most things in life, preventive measures are better than hoping to find a cure when shit happens. So, in lie with that, the first part of the pillars to a well-lived life will focus on something we all need to focus on more. Health.

We’re healthy until we’re not

Health and mortality can be a scary thing to think about. We’ve all heard of stories about that health and fitness nut that’s perceived to be super healthy until he passes out one day while jogging and never wakes up, or the chain smoking relative that lived till 90 and died of not lung cancer.

We’re then tempted to think “oh, this is all fated. If I’m going to die of this or that cancer, why bother doing any exercise at all?”. In fact, according to the National Cancer Institute, approximately 38.4% of men and women will develop cancer sometime in their lives.

In the face of such devastating statistics, it’s natural to feel defeated.

But it also emphasizes the importance of maintaining our health as best as we can, so that in case we do get afflicted with anything, we’re at the best possible state of health to mount a battle and fight it.

Physical Health

I’ve seen first hand how unpredictable life can be, and how debilitating a deteriorating health can get, especially as you enter into the age bracket where health becomes something you have to pro-actively take charge of, versus something you can brush off as “eh, i’m good”.

You don’t have to be ribbed like The Rock, but you definitely shouldn’t lead a sedentary lifestyle like a rock does, too.

If you’ve mainly lead a couch potato lifestyle, maybe now is the time to get up and make a change. You don’t want to spend all your hard earned money giving back to the hospitals in your later years.

*While writing this post over the weekend, the world learned of the passing of Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) after a 4 year battle with Colon Cancer. To think that he was up and about filming intense battle scenes in between surgeries and chemotherapy underscores just what a true hero he was.

He never spoke about his struggles in public (which was why it came as such a shock to so many people), and instead opted to show his strength and grace in his acting. A true king gone too soon.

Mental Health

Perhaps more insidious than physical health, is the mental health aspects of people. In general, even today, mental wellbeing is constantly neglected in the pursuit of productivity and “happiness”.

Because it is invisible to the eye, mental wellbeing is also easier to brush aside. You hear people say “I’ll take an off day when this project is done.”, but work is often never done, and projects have been known to overlap, so before you know it, ten years have passed, you’ve aged beyond recognition and jump at the slightest mention of JIRA tickets.

Jokes aside, please take both aspects of health seriously, even in pursuit of your goals, FIRE or otherwise. Because even if you reach your goal, but don’t have the health to enjoy it, it’s meaningless.

My view on this has been magnified with the experience of my mum who passed from MSA, and suffered greatly in the preceding years due to the neurodegenerative nature of the disease.

It really struck home for me that the traditional retirement route was something I definitely don’t want to sign up for, because I don’t have any clue how much time, and more importantly, quality time, we all have left.

Healthy Aging

A third factor of healthy aging refers more to our attitude and mindset we take into the aging process. This is the hill where a lot of opponents of retirement choose to die on. Their belief that retirement means literally sitting at home waiting to die.

If we bring on that mindset in retirement, then sure, we’re just waiting to lose both physical and mental capabilities and slowly (then very quickly) rot away. But if we choose to adopt a healthy mindset of learning as we grow (older), there’s no reason why we can’t thrive even in retirement.

In summary, I would like to say that health is unpredictable enough as it is. Let’s not give it more reasons to fail.