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Take a Number: Five Ways to Look at Age
One for the Ages
Satchel Paige was a great baseball pitcher, one of the greatest
of all time. He was an African-American and, due to the racial
discrimination of the time, most of his outstanding career was
not spent in the (white) major leagues. However, after the
historic breakthrough by the courageous and talented Jackie
Robinson (Mr. Paige's junior by about 14 years), Satchel Paige
pitched in the major leagues for a number of years. In fact, he
was still able to get major league batters out at the age of 60!
(Mr. Paige's age at his retirement from baseball is not known
for certain because no one, probably including Mr. Paige
himself, knew his exact year of birth; some thought he was older
than 60). Mr. Paige revealed a mind as sharp as the break on his
curve ball when he asked this profound question for the ages:
"How old would you be if you did not know how old you are?"
These writings are dedicated to the memory of Satchel Paige and
to all the so-called "over-the-hill" guys and gals in every
sport and in every area of life, from Churchill and Reagan in
politics to Jessica Tandy in acting and Paul McCartney in
fatherhood. They and many like them in the past and present will
be joined by many more in the future who are not really "over
the hill" because they are too busy taking the hill.
Five Ways to Look at Age
Chronological Age
The most common way to look at age is the Chronological. This is
the one that everyone is familiar with. It is simply the time
that has passed since your date of birth to today. It is the one
that governments and insurance companies require of you and that
your Doctor knows, even if your boy friend doesn't. It is a
unidimensional measure because it considers only time. It is
uniform because everybody who is 48 years, 6 months, and 3 weeks
old is exactly that, chronologically. People who view age only
from the chronological perspective are somewhere between dumb
and dumber.
True Age
True Age is another and better way to look at your age. True age
is basically what a measurement of all the biomarkers of aging
would reveal about you. Here's four points about true age. One,
if a well-trained physician did NOT know how old you are but
reviewed a print-out of your biomarkers, she or he could
accurately estimate your true age. Two, your true age is not
uniform but varies by individual: you can be younger or older
than your chronological age. Three, true age is multidimensional
rather than confined to time. Four, absolutely nothing can be
done about chronological age because it is fixed, but a great
deal can be done about true age.
Appearance Age
Appearance Age is the age you appear to be to others. It no
doubt has some relationship to both chronological age and true
age. Yet it is different. This is because it is heavily
influenced by a number of factors outside the scope of biomarker
measurement, not the least of which is attitude. We all know
people that appear to be quite a bit younger or older than their
chronological age. But the only scientific way to measure a
person's appearance age would be to have a representative sample
of the population observe a person for at least a few minutes. A
quick glance is not sufficient because appearance age includes
factors such as movement of the body and alertness, not just a
frozen face. Then the estimates from all members of the
representative sample would be gathered, simple statistical
measures applied, and Voila! You have the person's appearance
age. Of course, unless we are part of a study, none of us will
ever get this scientific about it. We will just have to rely on
random comments from friends, family, and nice or mean strangers
to estimate our appearance age; and usually it's a pretty good
estimate.
NEAT Age
A new way to look at age, which occurred to me awhile back, is
what I call one's N.E.A.T. age. This is simply one's time left
on the planet from right Now to the time of death. This age is
unknowable by readers or anyone, except those committed to
imminent suicide (and these poor folks are no more likely to
take the short time remaining to do age calculations than they
are to be caught dead reading an article about lively
longevity). The best we can do is make a calculated estimate
based on what we know about the general population and factor in
any pluses or minuses that apply to us
individually.
The N in NEAT of course stands for Now since the calculation is
from the present, today, right now. E is for Elusive because I
believe moments of time are elusive. As we humans try to hold or
capture a moment of time it eludes us because the next moment is
here, and then the next. Time and life are a flow.
The A in NEAT is for Allotted. Everyone who has ever lived has
only so much time to live. Some have short lives, some have long
lives, and some have lives neither particularly long nor short.
But human life is finite and almost certainly will remain finite
into the distant future if not forever. We do not need to take
sides in the age- old debate about whether or not our allotted
time is predestined by God in order to recognize that the amount
is finite.
Of course, T is for Time. Time remaining is what it is all
about. As has been oft noted: a millionaire on his death bed
would gladly exchange his riches for a little more time, say one
more day of healthy living.
So one's NEAT age is one's Now Elusive Allotted Time. It is a
concept that provides a different perspective on aging and on
life. For example, let's suppose there was a 30-year old person
named Terry and a 60-year old person named Sydney living in the
same town in 1960. Conventional wisdom and simple arithmetic
agree that Sydney was twice as old as Terry at that time. Such
wisdom carries the (usually) unstated assumption that Terry is
about 30 years further from the grave than Sydney.
Statistically, this is difficult to argue with. But statistics
are oft off for an individual and sometimes by a wide margin.
Let's suppose that Terry had a lifetime of very bad health
habits and, never having had the opportunity to read my
writings, continued the very bad habits. Poor Terry expired a
little shy of 40. (The same fate could have befallen Terry due
to a dreaded disease or tragic accident.) Sydney, on the other
hand, decided at some point to lead a health-conscious life.
Sydney made good choices and stuck with them. Sydney enjoyed
basically good health beyond age 100 before passing on. When
Sydney was 60 and Terry was 30, Sydney had a NEAT age of 40+ and
Terry had a NEAT age just under 10. So way back in 1960, who was
younger: the one with less than a decade of life left, or the
one with more than four decades of vibrant life left? One of the
neat things about the NEAT age is that the bigger this age
number the better.
Ideal Age
The fifth and final way that we will look at age is one's Ideal
Age. Your ideal age is your age of choice, your preferred age.
The concept of ideal age brings us back to Satchel Paige's
question:
How old would you be if you did not know how old you are?
In a sense, perhaps most of us do NOT know how old we are
anyhow. Sure we know our chronological age, and some of us have
a rough gauge of our appearance age. But few of us know our true
age, and none of us knows our NEAT age. So it should not be so
difficult to put chronological age aside for a few moments and
answer Mr. Paige's question.
Before leaping to an answer like 21, keep in my mind that
successful living usually involves a combination of physical
vigor, mental acuity, and wisdom. Personally, my ideal age is
37; thus even at my next birthday I will still be one year
younger than all the women over 40.
What about you? What's your number? What's your ideal age? The
way my anti-aging program works for you is that after reflection
you establish your ideal age. Then we work with all the tools
and techniques of the program to bring your true age into ever
closer alignment with your ideal age. There is a balance to be
struck. A 90-year old reader shooting for an ideal age of 19 is
setting up way too much of a challenge and thus is setting up
for failure. A 50-year old reader settling for an ideal age of
45 is not challenging herself or himself enough.
Take a number.
Satchel Paige was the impetus for me to write the close to this
article:
When it comes to matters of age, It is best to take a page out
of Paige, And move forward with grace, Paying no mind to this
myth of the human race.
About the author:
Gary Patrick is a certified anti-aging professional (Giovane
Medical Services). He is also an author, hypnotist, personal
trainer, and speaker. Free stuff is available for a limited time
at his web site: http://rapidresults.biz
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