Anti-Aging Advice: 99 Steps to 100 by Walter M. Bortz, M.D.

The most important step is the first. A journey of a hundred miles or years begins not with the first movement forward, but with the thought that precedes it. "The belief in 100" is so important because you are moldable, shapable like clay under a sculptor's hands--yours. The ultimate challenge of anyone's life is the opportunity to make the most of it that can be made. "To thine own self be true" becomes "to thine own best self be true." Who you get to be--how old, wise, competent, active, creative, sexy, fun you become--depends on how you plan. Decrepitude and loss are not predetermined. Like the turtle, how you set your course is highly predictive of the journey you will take.

How lucky we are to be alive at this time of history! Until now we have had no dependable road maps. We didn't know how far our journey might be, how we should provision ourselves, how many resources we might need, how much gas would carry us the whole way, and what degree of maintenance our vehicle would need to ensure our safe arrival at our final destination.

Highway 101
It is true that an occasional discovery will occur by chance, but far more likely is the situation in which we know where we would like to go, and plan accordingly. Before now, reaching 100 years of age was a mythical prospect. As a young boy, I recall thinking anyone over 70 extremely old. But now 100 years is common. Every month I see someone over 100 in my medical office. Take Clara Willman, age 101. She came in by herself. She still lives by herself and takes full charge of her affairs. She came to my office simply for my approval of her anticipated six-week trip to Minneapolis to be with her family. She would travel alone. I found her as fit and eager as on previous visits and wished her a good trip. When Clara was a little girl, she didn't believe in reaching 100 because she didn't conceive that the possibility existed. She got to this "miraculous" age by accident.

For the rest of us, the fact that she has made it makes it easier for us. The trail is broken and the way shown. As more of us do it, the easier it will be for the rest of us to believe.

One hundred years is not freakish. It is a natural endowment. It can and should be ours, if we don't mess it up, or unless lightning strikes. In the Will to Believe William James wrote, "Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. It is only by risking your person from one hour to another that you live at all. Your faith beforehand in an uncertified result will make the result come true."

Bottom line:
Believe in 100.

Back to 99 Steps Intro