Use It Or Lose It

In Connection with Longevity

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

I’ve found new meaning in the adage "use it or lose it." Typically, it refers to a person's need to continually engage in and practice an ability or risk losing it—like Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who makes 500 shots daily to improve his basketball game, or Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, who works out four or five days a week—sometimes four hours at a time—to excel as a quarterback.

However, it also applies in other ways. If I don’t get together with other people regularly, I lose confidence in my social skills. If I cook only occasionally, I forget the recipes and how to use the air fryer. If my brain is a muscle, I should use it often—or it will get lazy.

Use it or lose it" in relationship to longevity means that to maintain physical and cognitive abilities as you age, you must actively engage and use those abilities regularly, or you risk losing them over time; essentially, staying active and mentally stimulated is crucial for a long and healthy life.

So, it seems that anyone wishing to age well must keep preparing now to do what they want in their later years.

Previously, I’ve mentioned that Peter Attia, author of Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, introduced me to the 80-Year-Old Life Decathlon, which organizes physical aspirations for life’s later years. He explains it this way.

His idea is to choose ten physical tasks you want to do at a given age and then take the necessary actions in the present to achieve them in the future.

• What does your ideal life look like at that age? Who are you with? What are you doing? How do you feel? Where are you?

• To have that future, what are the necessary actions in the present? What ten actions, habits, and behaviors do you need to adopt today to create that end?

I want to expand my decathlon to include more than physical tasks. I’m 86 now and plan to live to be 100. I want to walk, maintain independence, write articles, paint, and play with my great-grandchildren. I may not make it to 100, but just in case, I want to be healthy enough to live as fully as possible.

So, today, I walk and exercise regularly even though my knee hurts, go on trips and get-togethers, continue writing and doing art even though I get discouraged, and make choices to stay engaged.

So far, so good!

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Janice Walton is a psychologist, a widow, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, and a writer. Her book Aging Well: 30 Lessons for Making the Most of Your Later Years is available on Amazon, and she has written articles for Substack.