The Future I'm Working to Avoid

We’re back! It’s been a busy, but wonderful few months. I got engaged, stepped into a new role at work, and this past weekend, my Dad visited me in Austin.

He recently turned 67, so our plans were mostly laid back— family meals, chatting about life, playing board games. But there was one active thing he really wanted to do together: play pickleball.

We walked to the courts across the street and after a few minutes of playing, his neck started hurting so badly that he had to call it a day. Sadly, I’d watched this scene before.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve watched my Dad gradually lose the ability to do many of the things he loves.

10 years ago, he went from being the first one in the ocean on family vacations to watching us from the shore.

5 years ago, he stopped joining us for walks around the neighborhood.

Last year, at my sister’s wedding, he couldn’t join my family on the dance floor.

Every once in a blue moon his body cooperates and he can squeeze in a quick game of pickleball, but we weren’t so lucky this past weekend.

My Dad still has many years ahead of him; the possibilities for what those years can look like have just narrowed.

Seeing his physical world shrink has forced me to think about all the things I still want to be able to do when I’m 67. We talk a lot about lifespan: how long you live. But I care even more about healthspan - the quality of your life during those years.

The graphs below are my favorite way to visualize the difference between the two.

A common path looks like this: The run becomes a walk. The long walk becomes a short one. In your 40s and 50s, small aches and pains turn into giving up activities you used to love. By age 60, you’re constantly in pain, and the next 10, 15, 20 years, you’re a shell of your former physical self.

Modern medicine (the gray dotted line) helps us live longer and manage disease when we’re old, but adding years spent immobile and in & out of hospital, is not the goal.

The goal is to fill our later years with as much life as possible, just as much as the years before. That’s the third path- holding on to our ability to do the things we love for as long as we can.

For me, that looks like playing sports with my kids in my 40s.
Running without pain in my 50s.
Hiking national parks in my 60s and picking up my grandkids in my 70s.

What does that look like for you?
What do you want to be able to do when you’re older?

Whenever I feel unmotivated to find time to exercise, take a walk, make a nutritious meal, or do something small, this question is an easy fallback for me.

The third path is built by taking care of the small things, over and over, to keep your body capable. So do one of them today!

talk soon,
Nico