092: The Case for a More Sustainable Lifestyle as You Age

It's amazing how when you're young you give little if any thought to pacing yourself.

I mean, why should you?

You have energy to burn and not much holding you back.

As you age, well, you tend to feel burned out and prefer to hold yourself back.

Had you lived more sustainably when you were younger, who knows, maybe you'd feel more energized and forward thinking now that you're older - but it's not too late.

There's something to be said about sustainability.

Life is a long-haul adventure.

It requires pacing yourself, testing and knowing your limits, and keeping enough in your "tank" to keep going in spite of the obstacles you face.

Someone said, "I'd rather rust-out than burn-out."

But think about it - either way, you're "out!"

Whether you go-for-broke (to avoid burn-out) or preserve your energy ("rust") - out is out!

Sustainable living provides the energy that longevity requires and the drive to keep moving in a fulfilling direction

Sustainability comes down to some core practices as you age.

• Discovering a sustainable pace
• Forming and following sustainable habits
• Creating sustainable outcomes

Discover a sustainable pace for your life

My running routine, whether training for an upcoming event or logging my weekly miles, requires that I pace myself.

Next to my running shoes, attire, and supplements the most beneficial gear I use is the running app installed on my iPhone.

Paired with my AirPods, the running plan I follow - via the app - paces me on each run.

The gentle yet compelling voice encourages me to speed up or slow down based on pre-established pacing.

I can ignore it and hit a wall of fatigue.

Or I can keep pace and sustain the energy I need to complete the training session.

Pacing is a choice.

And if you want to live sustainably it's essential!

• Pace is personal: find yours and monitor it without comparison to those running alongside you - your pace is your pace...trust it.
• Pace is practical: lack of pacing in relationships causes emotional fall-out, lack of pacing in decisions creates regret, lack of pacing in your health and wellness threatens your longevity.
• Pace is purposeful: without pacing yourself you'll follow every whim or societal tangent - a sustainable pace prevents mental and emotional clutter from increasing anxiety and stress.

Form and follow some sustainable habits in your life

Your habits make you or break you.

Blunt but true.

But not just any habits - sustainable habits!

Not all habits (even some good ones) are sustainable.

And maybe that's why establishing beneficial habits is so dang difficult on occasion - the ones we favor lack sustainability.

For example, you could desire to form a habit around waking and arising at 5 a.m. to pray/mediate or exercise.

But if you're a night-owl who prefers to stay up until past midnight, the early-riser habit will not be sustainable.

Habits require energy and the lack of sleep will tank you before you even get started on that one.

Sustainable habits are those that produce small, incremental achievements that eventually lead to a longterm routine that you can't help but take action on.

Sustainable habits become part of your physical, emotional, and spiritual DNA.

• Form sustainable physical habits: move one step at a time, sleep according to nature's rhythms (waking sun-slumbering stars), eat to fuel not to fill.
• Form sustainable emotional habits: use but don't abuse media (social media, newsfeeds, etc), manage yourself without micro-managing others, believe the best and leave the worst to themselves.
• Form sustainable spiritual habits: seek wisdom from deep sources (not shallow "streams"), see and live your life from an eternal perspective, be radical with your love not merely with your doctrine or ideology.

Create sustainable outcomes to improve your life

Sustainable pacing and sustainable habits will naturally produce sustainable results or outcomes.

Your life improves as you age alongside the sustainable outcomes your create through your established pace and habits.

Some results are a flash-in-the-pan.

As such, they create a momentary rush you enjoy but they lack sustainability.

It's why you get an adrenaline rush from clicking the order button on Amazon, hearing the delivery arrive at your door, unpacking the box, and admiring your purchase.

But the outcome fades, am I right?

A sustainable outcome has a long shelf-life - it doesn't go out of style, depreciate with usage, or require replacement when it's worn-out.

There's a reciprocity to the sustainable pacing you discover and the sustainable habits you form and follow.

• Energy is a sustainable outcome you can expect from setting a sustainable pace in your for life.
• Physical and emotional rest and renewal is a sustainable outcome you gain from forming and following sustainable habits in your life.
• Longevity is the sustainable outcome you can enjoy when you have sustainability in both your pacing and your habits - physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Age, like life, comes at you fast and furious but sustainable pacing, habits, and outcomes gives you the essential energy your longevity requires

• Discover a sustainable pace
• Form and follow sustainable habits
• Create sustainable outcomes

Press on...

Eddie