What Does It Mean to Finish Strong?
Lifespan, Healthspan and The Last Watch
Lifespan is the length of your life from birth to death.
Healthspan is the period during your lifespan that you remain healthy.
Ideally you want your healthspan to be as close to your lifespan as possible.
There are two general healthspan trajectories as we age.
The first trajectory sees our physical and mental health sliding inevitably to a flat-line. This manifests itself with ever increasing health issues and doctor visits. Pharmaceuticals. And more pharmaceuticals to counteract the side effects of first ones. And, at the end, lengthening hospital stays, from which it is ever harder to recover. For the unprepared, this Last Watch (sometimes “the Marginal Decade”) generally covers 10 years or so. It can be shorter or slightly longer in individual cases. But 10 years is a reasonable mean.
The second healthspan trajectory is where we have driven the metrics of our physical and mental health to optimal levels and have become the curator of our healthcare. As a result, we remain relatively fit and healthy. This is Finishing Strong. Finishing Strong means the Last Watch is productive and joyful. See more on Finish Strong Metrics here.
Physical and mental wellbeing are the purest form of wealth.
Maintaining peak physical and mental health ensures Finishing Strong. And extending your wellbeing and joy through your Last Watch. The 40 Day Grit Challenge has two objectives:
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- To achieve short-term, immediate goals. Goals like improving core strength, improving discipline as the basis of character, weight loss, injury rehabilitation, etc.
- To achieve the long-range goal of Finishing Strong, of maintaining peak mental and physical health that allows the Last Watch to be lived out with purpose and vigor. Finishing Strong is the icing on a life well-lived.