One thing you notice as you get older is that ‘basic maintenance’ - keeping yourself running in optimal possible condition, same as you’d want to do for a car or bike - seems to take more time.
As with a car, younger models can often get away with limited maintenance in a way that older ones can’t, but a lack of care tends to show in later years. To be clear: Of course great maintenance habits doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, either with vehicles or humans. Most of us sadly know people who “did everything right” but had terrible luck with genetics or their environment. Or, maybe they did what was considered “right” years ago but that turned out to be wrong. Anyone else remember advice to consume trans-fat-laden margarine instead of butter? Or swap out healthy fats to eat more highly processed, “fat-free” foods? Yikes.
In general, though, we increase the probability of humming along better in the long term if we follow a common sense self-maintenance schedule. And not only in the long term! Self care often helps in the short term, too.
Eat well. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Manage stress. Tend to our personal connections. Keep our brains active.
Skimping on these now can have more immediate impact than when we were younger and, say, were able to live on junk food, party late into the night, and still have enough energy to work a full day the next day.
But there are reasons why people skimp. If you start calculating how much time it takes to do all these things, it’s not surprising how hard it is to take care of yourself properly if you work full time.
Take “eating well.” Maybe I’m just slow, but the prep times I see for most recipes seem wildly optimistic. Nor do those times account for things like grocery shopping, finding a spice jar buried w-a-a-a-a-y in the back of a kitchen cabinet, or cleaning up. It all takes a lot more time than, oh, calling for pizza delivery.
Exercise, which I actually enjoy, also takes time – often more time overall now that I’m older. Back in my younger running days, warm-ups were a couple of minutes stretching. And, I could take a vigorous run in the morning, work a full day, and have energy to go out after. Now I do around 15 minutes of flexibility and stretching exercises just about every day before my main exercise sessions. My actual exercise time may be the same or shorter than it used to be; but if I’ve had a particularly vigorous session, I’ll probably need more down time to regroup before going on to my next thing of the day.
Add in meditating, eating healthy meals that don’t involve multi-tasking, maintaining real connections with people instead of cross-broadcasting on Facebook, going to medical appointments and screenings that I wasn’t dealing with when I was younger (top of mind for me today as I dread my colonoscopy prep next week) . . . . Self-care may not take up as many hours as a full-time job, but it can be challenging to squeeze in along with chores and a demanding job – and still have time for anything else.
What often ends up getting tossed overboard when working 40+ hours a week? Self care.
“I’d like to have more time to take care of myself properly” may not be what people say or even think when deciding if they want to retire. But I believe that’s what a lot of us mean when we say things like “I’d like to be less stressed” and “I want to have more time for myself.”
“I’d like to take better care of myself” doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as “I want to travel more” or “I plan to audit some college courses.” It may not be enough on its own to fill many people’s Next Chapter. But it sure is a good item to put near the top of a retirement to-do list. It’s definitely moving toward the top of mine.
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