A few days ago I was talking to a colleague. He mentioned that in a recent jury duty stint that there weren’t many young people. He looked at me and said “there were a few people around my age (he is in his mid 60s) and several people around your age, 35 or so.”

Photo By Dennis Hill via StockPholio.com

The Funny Thing Is…

I smiled at my colleague, then he thought for a second, “Wait, you can’t be 35, you told me you have a son getting married.”  (Full disclosure, I’ll be 46 later this year.) Now, I certainly like this person more than before! But the truth is Sally and I get this all the time. People are frequently surprised to find out we have adult children. Like my colleague they look at our appearance, behaviors and activities and make an assumption about our age, generally 10 or more years younger than where we are biologically.

You’re How Old??

There is a common cliché, “you are as old as you feel”. It contains some truth but doesn’t really flesh out what makes you  “feel” old or young. I have some friends who are many years younger than me…but a stranger would judge them to be in their late 50s or early 60s. On the other side I have a friend I attended college with who still looks exactly the as he did more than two decades ago. Personally except for one or two small things I behave and feel WAY younger than 45. So the question is, what does it take to look and more importantly FEEL younger?

It’s Not One Thing

There are many advertisements for pills, creams, diets and such that make promises to turn back the clock. In truth diet and some products can help the process, but there is no one magic bullet to make you feel and look 10 or even 20 years younger. There are several considerations that can affect the age you look and feel.

The Categories

I’m going to break these into three basic categories: habits, behaviors and attitudes. Each category contributes to looking and feeling younger. Some may seem silly, but from personal experience they all make a significant contribution.

Habits

Let’s start with the obvious. If a person eats nothing but garbage then they will look and feel like someone who eats only garbage. Low energy, chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiac problems, stroke, etc.) follow those who have this type of diet. The effect will be to age a person considerably. Smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and the like cause similar issues. Cleaning up your diet will make the single biggest impact on how your body feels. Note I don’t mean you have to go all “eat clean” for every meal. We still have pizza, burgers and the like. But most of our meals and snacks are healthy. We use nutritious shakes, but you can accomplish the same results by taking on a proper diet of healthy foods. I’m just too lazy and cheap to buy and make it all. 🙂 We also use some great supplements with powerful health benefits.

Behaviors

You don’t want to feel like those you consider to be “old people”? Then don’t do what “old people” do. Do things that “young people” do. I know a gentleman who goes to the gym all the time, he is in his mid 80s…and working out with the best of them. My wife is in a class at the gym called “Fit for 50”. It’s designed for people 50 and over. She doesn’t meet the age suggestion but goes because it works in her schedule. However most of the other people are WELL over 50. Guess what…they aren’t doing what “old people” do. The are exercising their bodies, strengthening their hearts and building muscle. They are pushing their bodies to expand their physical capabilities. “Old people” don’t do such things. They sit around watching soap operas, reality TV, game shows and such while complaining about their sore joints, chronic diseases and failing organs. To summarize: if you want your body to feel younger then you have treat it like it is younger. If you want your body to feel younger then you have treat it like it is younger. Click To Tweet

More Behaviors

Some behaviors to keep you young aren’t necessarily about exercise. At times our boys come back home and Sally and I play video games with them, the interaction is fun and stimulating. When we visit family in Michigan we play board games, but not like “old people”, we stay up until 2 or 3 am laughing and having a great time. We also get out on the water and ride jet skis. This May we are going to an event in Tennessee to improve our marriage coaching skills. I hear there is a zipline on the property. You know I’m going to get on it! “Old people” would not do so. Keeping young requires behaviors that stimulate your zest for life!

Attitudes

I read books and blog posts a lot. I listen to podcasts. I don’t watch the news or regularly read newspapers. I fill my thoughts with positive and life affirming input. What I read and listen to encourages me to keep growing my mind. They push me to expand what I believe I can do with my life. They encourage me to find more and better ways to help others. They draw me closer to God. I’m going to tell you something you’ll never see on a 24 hour news station. Frequent input of negative news will age you. Frequent input of negative news will age you. Click To Tweet What you put in your mind is not neutral. It will either drag you down or fill you with renewed vigor. If you want to look and feel young then put things in your mind that will give you hope, vision and excitement!

In Closing

You get to decide how young you feel. To a degree you can affect how old you look. Both require modifications to your habits, behaviors and attitudes. Age is not about a number of years. It is about health of mind, body and spirit. So go for a walk or run. Jump on a bike or go for a swim. Call up some friends and play games late into the night. Then in the morning read your Bible and another uplifting book. On your drive listen to some great positive content. How you live your life will determine how you feel. Positive physical, mental and spiritual actions will lead to more vigorous physical, mental and spiritual results.

You can do it!

-Troy

I do odd things. Actually, I do relatively odd things. Relative to what most of my friends and family do. I didn’t used to do these odd things…but now I rather enjoy them.

Photo By Cameron Genereux via StockPholio.com

What Odd Things?

You know, odd things like go to the gym regularly, run 10 miles on a Saturday, swim through mud, climb over old cars and up ropes. Odd things like start my own business. Odd things like listen to podcasts rather than talk radio, music or sports. Odd things like work on putting together ways to coach other couples to have amazing marriages. Odd things.

What this Post Isn’t About

This post isn’t about exercise or working out. I’m not trying to convince anyone to run a 10K or half-marathon with me…and certainly not a Warrior Dash. No, this post isn’t about anything like that.

What this Post Is About

This post is about not being normal. This post is about finding your own odd things. Normal people do what most of their friends do. Normal people follow the trends of society. Normal people lead normal lives. Normal people have a normal impact. A normal impact is a nominal impact. Normal people miss out on a “life more abundant.” (see John 10:10) Normal people doing normal things don’t change the world. Normal people doing normal things don't change the world. Click To Tweet

What Time Is It?

It’s time to step out. It’s time to back to school. It’s time to quit school and pursue your dreams. It’s time to go to the mission field. It’s time to make your long time neighborhood your mission field. It’s time to start learning guitar, or Spanish, or write your book, or quit your job, or do what it takes to get promoted at your company. It’s time to sell the house. It’s time to buy a house.

It’s time to step out.

My friends, life is about experiences. Collect them. My friends, life is about experiences. Collect them. Click To Tweet

If you don’t try anything new how will you know what you can do? I promise that you can do more than you think.

It’s time for you to do something odd.

Drop me a note in the comments with the odd thing you are doing or are going to do.

Love you all!

-Troy

Welcome to Tuesday…where it’s not always about marriage. 🙂

So all of you know that I’m an IT geek. At my job I’m careful and fastidious to make sure details are covered and things are not overlooked. I teach this stuff so I had better know what I’m doing. But sometimes I’m the moron at home.

 Photo By HeatSync Labs via StockPholio.com

Setting up the Moron Story

Many years ago I set up a local backup of our primary home computer. It was set to back up to a local external USB hard drive so I could quickly recover lost or deleted files. In addition I expected the backup to protect us from a failure of our computer. One day the computer would not boot up. After extended diagnosis I determined that the hard drive in the computer had failed. No problem! I had it backing up to the external drive, so just reinstall Windows, recover the files and it’s all good. Three hours, max.

Here is the Moron Part

Apparently I had a “set it and forget it” mentality. Even though I taught others to check their backups regularly, I wasn’t doing it myself. After re-installing Windows I discovered that the backup had stopped working…SIX MONTHS AGO! We didn’t lose a lost of pictures, but we did lose ALL of our financial data from the previous six months. Even worse, Sally was the only one who had any idea what to do. So she painstakingly reentered as much as she could from receipts and bank statements. Much data was unrecoverable. she was kind and forgiving, but I caused her a great lot of trouble. Fortunately our marriage weathered this storm.

Lesson Learned

After this debacle I purchased an annual subscription to Carbonite (referral link), which is an online backup service in the cloud. That way even if the local backup failed I knew we could recover. For $59 per year it’s cheap insurance against disaster, or my stupidity.

The Hero Part

Some time later we were out of state visiting family. As sometimes happens there was a computer with an issue. Lo and behold the drive had failed. But THIS time we had already made sure that Carbonite was installed and functional. So I restored Windows, installed Carbonite and started the recovery process. Since it was a LOT of data coming across the Internet I knew it would take a while. So while we spent the next two days riding jet skis, playing in the water, enjoying games late into the night the computer was faithfully pulling down the files. After the two days I spent just a few minutes tweaking some items and it was as if nothing failed.

Moral of the Story

Make sure you practice what you preach…and keep more than one backup of your computer!

Have a great day!

-Troy

Get ready. For several months the Happier Husband blog has been primarily focused on the husband’s perspective on how to have a happier marriage. On our Monday blogs that will continue as we have fans who have repeatedly shown their appreciation. On Tuesday…

Broadening Our Horizons

Tuesday blogs will be different. I have two different blog “voices”. One of them is my serious “marriage mentor” type voice. That’s what you’ve read in the past and will usually see on the Monday blogs. On Tuesdays I’ll let go a little bit and lighten things up. Expect generous helpings of sarcasm.  Plus we will add new stuff to the blog mix.

What Kind of New Stuff?

Well we may talk about silly things such as the dress that broke the Internet or Kirk vs. Picard. You may see some great guest bloggers show up. There is a good chance you’ll see some health and fitness posts and maybe even pictures of me with loved ones covered in mud like this one:

Or the same group in our awesome Warrior Dash hats:

The Wrap Up

We may talk about books and podcasts. I expect there will be a fair amount of personal growth type stuff.  In short the Tuesday posts will be wide ranging and generally less serious. We will be playing around with them to see what sticks and what doesn’t. They probably won’t all be horrible, but no promises.

So prepare yourself…next Tuesday is coming! I cannot WAIT, this is going to be fun!!!!

-Troy