You Are Your Choices!

The art of living well is the art of aging gracefully and healthily.




Aging begins as soon as we reach the peak of your performance curve in your life. In general, men peak their performance curve in their late twenties, while women peak theirs in their mid-thirties. That may be one of the reasons why women live longer than men. The performance curve is a turning point in your body when it just doesn’t grow any more and starts the aging process. It is believed that after the age of thirty-five, each biologic function declines by approximately 5 percent every 10 years. Over time, deterioration accelerates, resulting in disease and disorder.


Scientists have striven to measure the rate of aging in humans. They have been able to come up with an average number, but averages cannot take into account the significant variations among individuals; even the variations in the elderly are so great that there is no meaningful average at all. In other words, numbers are not only unreliable but also misleading. A case in point, according to a study at Harvard University, there was a 5 percent decrease in IQ every ten years; however, another scientific study indicated that some individuals actually improved their IQ even at the age of eighty. So, how could one explain that?


Does the speed of human aging have to do with genes? Yes, absolutely! But the genetic factor accounts for only about 25 percent of your aging: the rest has to do with your lifestyle and behavioral choices. The older you are, the more your choices determine how long and how well you are going to live—in other words, the speed of your aging process.


If you wish to live longer with a better quality of life, focus on your lifestyle and behavioral choices. You are your choices, and you become what you choose. Living is all about your choices—a sum of all the good and bad choices you have made. Truly, we all make bad choices every now and then, but there is no reason why we should continue with the bad choices we have made. Understandably, you may have the will to make the right choices, but your mind is weak. This is where you need to learn how to harness your brain power to turn things around in your favor. Visit my web page: Brain Power.


Also, visit my website: The Art of Living Well to find out how to live well.








Copyright© by Stephen Lau