Optimising for 80: The Lens of Longevity

I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of today’s most sought-after wellness coaches, Olly Wood, founder of Body Reset, to pick his brain on how exactly he helps business owners (like you and I) get their health back on track.

 

Olly’s goal is to get you to re-evaluate your current state of wellness. As you know I love to preach, there’s always room to do a little better!

 

Let’s start with the foundation – your mindset. Everything to do with your wellness is based around how your body responds to what you do with it. Think of it this way, it’s not necessarily what you eat that matters, it’s what your body absorbs. This small shift in mindset has a huge impact on your overall well being. 

 

So what’s standing in the way between you and your better state of health? There’s a few things that will probably all sound familiar…

 

• Frustration

 

One feeling that often arises when we think about our own health is frustration. We know we want to get back in shape, but somehow we keep getting sidetracked whether it’s by a stimulating social season or a lazy daze followed by a busy workweek. 

 

At this point we become more of just how tough it is to get back on track, making it feel way harder than it should, and so we start beating ourselves up for not meeting our own unrealistic expectations.

 

When life feels full-on and we start to feel this frustration creeping in, zoom out and revisit the bigger picture.

 

• A vague target.

 

There’s so much chatter in the space of health and wellness these days, it’s hard to know what the right thing is for you and your body. Fad diets are never the right answer because they focus so fundamentally on fat loss at all costs.

 

This mindset is probably throwing you more off course than helping you hit your target.

 

Knowing where to kick off your new wellness regime begins with understanding what your health goals actually are and what they’re going to mean for you in the long run.

• Short term goals.

 

Like those fad diets, short term goals are based on empty tactics. Olly’s work is all about getting a strategy in place to help you win the long game.

 

These strategies become successful when they focus on stacking habits and enjoying the results rather than trying to hit it out of the park in 30 days. 

 

Let’s take that one step further and hone in on what anchors your goals. For instance, building healthy habits isn’t just important to you so you can look good on the beach, it’s about feeling confident in your own skin.

 

Here’s where things get serious. Olly brings us a fresh perspective that he calls Optimising for 80. It’s all about looking at our health and wellness through a lens of longevity. Again, we’re not just trying to get into shape for our next holiday, we actually want to live our fullest lifespan. 

 

Olly reminds us of a really impactful quote from Joyce Sunada that’s worth sharing: “If we don’t make time for our wellness, we’ll be forced to make time for our illness.”

 

So what level of health are you after? Not everyone wants to be a bodybuilder or a triathlete. 

 

The key to answering this question is looking at the commitments you want to make to your 80-year-old self. If all goes well, ideally, you’ll be able to keep doing the things you love for as long as you possibly can, whether that’s running marathons or walking the dog. Remember, it’s all about your personal perspective.

 

Did you know that every hour of exercise you do today equals approximately 2-3 hours added on to your life at 80? If you ask me, that’s a deposit worth making!

 

So with this perspective, if you miss your planned day at the gym, don’t panic. Just make up for it with a second deposit somewhere else. See how things slowly become a little easier with the right mindset?

 

Now let’s do a little exercise to help you optimise for your ideal 80:

 

• What do you want to still be able to do at 80? Get specific about things that are important to you. (Eg. Walk the dog, have sex, play golf, pick up your grandkids, etc.)
• What do you still want to be doing in 20 years from now?
• What are two things you’re currently doing to help your 80-year-old self?
• What are two things you want to start doing to help your 80-year-old self?

 

As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly pushing ourselves to give everything to our work. We’re always in the mindset of being successful at work, so it’s easy to let the other things slide. But as you’ve probably heard, “the man that can afford the beach house is usually the man that can’t enjoy it.”

 

In other words, what’s all that hard work for if you aren’t in good enough health to reap the rewards?

 

Stop wasting time with empty short-term goals. The same way you plan for the future of your business, now’s the time to start planning for your future self!