It’s amazing, considering I’ve listened to every word of Dr. Wayne Pickering’s advice on my “Older & Active” show, that I fell into that trap he often mentions. I let age be my cage.

Back when I was in school, I had a teacher tell the class that us guys could expect to live to be seventy and the girls would reach seventy-two. Now I know he meant that as an average, and that it was based on the insurance industry estimates at the time. But just like a lot of the things that get stuck in our sub-conscious at that age, those numbers took hold.

For the last few years, living in a state of semi-retirement, several times I’ve come across a business venture that piqued my interest and each time I’d get briefly excited and then let it go and never really stopped to think why. Then, early last spring, two things happened that changed all that.

First I had an epiphany – it’s almost mandatory these days to have one of those. You can’t just have a standard old realization that you’ve been thinking wrong, or even the more modern ah-ha moment. You have to have an epiphany. My epiphany was that the reason I wasn’t doing more with my life was that I’d been canceling every bright idea and opportunity with the sub-conscious thought that I’m almost seventy and there’s no sense in starting anything new at this point in my life.

For one reason or another, I get a pretty good physical at least once a year and I’m in better health, according to the doctors, than most men half my age. All the standard markers for health are fantastic. My eyes are weaker and there’s not near as much hair on my head (don’t know why it comes out my ears and nose now), but I have no problem participating in sports, putting 100 miles a week on my bike, or any other physical activity. Yet here I am thinking I shouldn’t start anything new because I’ll be seventy next year.

So the first thing I did after I had this epiphany was to change my thoughts and attitude. I’ve decided to live past one-hundred. Does that mean I’ll automatically make it? Of course not. But the fact that I’ve now put that in my head increases the chances exponentially! And it certainly changed my attitude.

One of the first thoughts I had with this new attitude was that I now have over thirty years to put into a new career! I’ve already proven to myself that I don’t like retirement. So why not build a business for the next twenty years and look at it again. Maybe by then I’ll be ready to retire – or maybe I’ll just decide to live to 125.

Then the second event happened that put me on my current path. I had an ECG that came back perfect. “If I didn’t have your age on here, I’d swear you were in your twenties,” the doctor told me.

That really hit me. About fifteen years ago I took up running again and began to have slight chest pains and decided to have it checked out. After an exhaustive series of tests they told me that there was ischemia on the septum of my heart, and that was the cause of the delay that showed up in my ECG. They told me that there was no cure, but not to worry as it wasn’t all that serious and that I could lead a normal life, that it was probably from the years when I’d been into drinking and smoking and that since I’d given all that up years earlier, it shouldn’t get any worse, or any better either.

So when I got that ECG back that showed no delay, and a second confirmed it, I was ecstatic and knew what had caused it.

Last fall I’d begun taking a Shaklee product, “Vivix.” It was the only thing that I’d changed in my health regimen in five years. I’d heard several wonderful testimonials from people that had been taking “Vivix” but until I had one of my own, and the ECG to back it up, I wasn’t that bubbling-over with the urge to tell others.

It’s one thing to decide to live past 100 and another entirely when you realize there’s a VERY good chance you’ll do it! I suppose you can guess by now what I decided to do for that new career. I’m going to share the Shaklee story and opportunity with as many people as I can possibly meet in the next 30+ years!

Is it time for you to think about a new career? No matter your age, it can happen.

One quote that I enjoyed was a witty remark I’d seen before: “A woman’s dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.” I expected to see a few more like that, but was pleasantly surprised to find many with much greater depth.

“After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” That is very much like our motto, “It’s not the years in your life, it’s the life in your years,” that I immediately gained new respect for Ms. Loren.

However, the one that caused me to stop and think, and assured me her birthday was worth mentioning in this website, is the following: “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

Many people have said, in a variety of ways that life isn’t about what you get but what you give. It’s in the Bible in several places, including 2 Corinthians 9:6, and in countless self-help and other books of inspiration. I like the way this ‘young’ lady puts it: give of your talents, your creativity, and your love and you’ll be ageless.