Unbreakable Episode 8: Your Unbreakable Legacy
Renowned orthopedic surgeon, expert in aging and longevity, and accomplished author, Dr. Vonda Wright on how small steps can lead to a longer - and larger - life.
Transcript
I've said it before. I'll say it again. The next 40 years are not for sissies.
When I think about my future and how I want to be when I'm 97 or older,
I realize that the next 40 years of my life are as important as the last 40 years of my life
when I was building every day, investing in my education, investing in my physical health and my family. Why should the next 40 years be any different?
We're not coasting along. We're building an unbreakable future. It can be hard. But when we reinvest in ourselves
mentally and physically, we can avoid the common myth that we go from the vitality of youth to frailty with old age.
I believe, because I see it in myself and my parents and the patients I take care of, that when
we invest every day in our health-- that we can be healthy, vital, active, joyful, long into the foreseeable future.
We can build an unbreakable future. Oh, I'm like the Cryptkeeper!
OK, that's enough. [UPBEAT MUSIC]
People think as you get older that age sands off the edges.
But that-- in fact, it's just the opposite. To me, this is the most exciting time of my life.
I'm 89 years old. And I do this two or three times a day. I believe the reason that I'm as healthy as I am
is because my priority that I place on health.
We all face our future starting in different places. But what I know is that, frankly, women are already
winning the longevity game. But here's what I also know. I know that women are suffering in those last 20, 30, 40
years, many times because they haven't taken the steps, or maybe they don't know what to do,
or maybe they feel like aging is an inevitable decline. And so sometimes, the first step is just
being willing to grab hold of your agency to decide what you want your future
to look like, knowing that it's a series of little steps. We don't instantly clap our hands and arrive.
But we build an unbreakable future by layering on behaviors, by giving ourselves grace,
by remembering our past successes and building every day towards a future where we can go strong and live long and age with power.
Because I've given myself grace, because I know myself so well now, because I have figured out how to go from menopause misery
to midlife mastery, there is the freedom to have some of the most amazing support I've ever had in my life.
So instead of the inclination we have when we're young to compete with each other, we raise each other.
And this is the most remarkable place to be such that all of us to a woman, say, I would never go back.
So in a society that worships our 26-year-old selves, giving glory to our younger days,
all of us that are living in this space with me now firmly say, because I have agency to make the choices,
because I am getting in front of the time bombs of aging and know how to build an unbreakable future, I would never go back.
I want to live today and every day in the future the best of the rest of our lives.
Whether we're talking about mental resilience or, in this case, physical resilience, lifting heavy represents strength and power.
Do you want to be that strong little old lady who gets to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it? Do you want the power, both physically and mentally,
to make your own decisions? When I talk about lifting heavy, it is about lifting iron in the gym.
But in doing that, you're proving to yourself mentally that you can do what you want to do when you want to do it.
longevity
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