As I celebrate my dad being 97 on Monday, I look at the characteristics that he shares and shows on a daily basis. He, at 97, is exercising two hours a day, except for Sunday. He’s taking one hour of stretching and isometric exercise, floor exercising, and then he goes down to some somewhat primitive stair stepper and stationary bike pieces of equipment, and he does it every day except for Sunday, like clockwork. If he has an appointment, he gets up early and does it. He doesn’t skip this exercise.

As a result, he’s a 97 year old who’s extremely muscular. He used to be a runner, he stopped running at about age 62 or 63, and he just continued to always transition to something he was able to do. He still does his yard work, he still carries heavy things, he lifts things, he helps move furniture. He has a use it or lose it attitude.

And I’m bringing this up today because sometimes I feel like weaseling out of my daily exercise, and I think to myself, “Dad is exercising today, why aren’t you exercising?” So just to let you know, there are people who continue to be vital into their older ages. There’s some research that’s been done that researched 70 year olds and older who began weight lifting, some weight training, and they started to produce growth hormone again in their bodies. There’s a lot of evidence as to how you can keep your brain youthful, and continue to create brain cells.

When I was younger, we were told that once a brain cell dies, that’s it, but it’s not true. We now have new information about that. So our body continues to be able to create newness, and if we allow it to and we have a mindset for it, we can continue to stay youthful in many ways.

So my father spoke at his birthday about how his eyesight is going, he has macular degeneration, so he is seeing primarily out of the sides of his vision, his peripheral vision is his real vision, and then he has lost some of his hearing. They say that it won’t get any worse, it’s as bad as it’s going to get. So he said considering those two limitations, he’s maximizing everything else that he has to offer on a daily basis. His goal is to be the best he can be every day. That’s been his goal for as long as I’ve known him, for 57 years.

So just some inspiration today from someone who is thriving into their old ages by focusing on what he can do, and doing it on a daily basis. Have a beautiful day, everybody.