Truthfully, there’s no secret to living longer.
Many studies will tell you that if you eat this or have a better outlook on life, you could increase the chances of living a longer life than others who don’t. If you’re an optimist, you might live past 85. If you play team sports, it could make you live longer. Oh, and even how fast you walk could even… you get the picture.
Getting to 100 is a big milestone. Recently, Sport Obermeyer founder Klaus Obermeyer celebrated his 100th birthday and he hasn’t stopped working. Obermeyer said he’d tell those younger than him to set priorities like your health through eating and exercising, living and breathing. He also suggested finding out how to make a living and most importantly, find out “what you want to do for your fun stuff.”
If you’re not a believer in science, take it from someone who is actually the world’s oldest living man.
Meet Chitetsu Watanabe, who will turn 113 next month. He was presented with a certificate from the Guinness World Records at a nursing home in Japan, where he became the world’s oldest man at 112 years, 344 days old, according to Guinness.
Watanabe, a father of five, worked in a sugar company for years before taking a career with Japan’s government until he decided to settle down and retire. According to CNN, he was also in the military at the end of World War II in 1944.
The once avid gardener who continued tending plants until he was 104 said in an interview last year that the secret to longevity is pretty simple.
“Not to get angry and keep a smile on your face,” Watanabe told a local paper in 2019.
Yoko Watanabe, the wife of Tetsuo, the first son of Chitetsu, said that Chitetsu’s philosophy is true — she never saw him angry.
“I’ve lived together with him for over 50 years, and I’ve never seen him raise his voice or get mad,” Watanabe said via the Guinness World Records. He’s also caring. When I was working on my patchwork hobby, he was the one who praised my work the most. I think having lived with a big family under one roof, mingling with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren helped keep a smile on his face as well.”
Recently, retired Brigadier General Charles McGee — a Tuskegee Airman and World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veteran — attended President Trump’s State of the Union address where the 100-year-old shared similar advice on his longevity.
“Thinking positive and the good Lord’s many blessings,” he told WTOP last year. “We human beings are just one small aspect in a mighty grand world.”Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!
McGee also shared this advice for young people, built on what he calls the “four Ps”: Perceive (Find something you like), prepare (education), perform (strive for excellence), and persevere.
If you’re more interested in the health and science route to live longer, John Hopkins Medicine suggested abiding by these four pillars:
1. Don’t smoke
2. Maintain a healthy weight
3. Exercise!
4. Make healthy food choices
And with exercise one you may want to consider in particular is swimming. According to a 2017 study by Swim England, swimmers have a 28% lower risk of early death and a 41% lower risk of death as a result of stroke or heart disease.”Swimming is good for individuals with arthritis because it’s less weight-bearing,” Dr. I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told Harvard Health.
This article was originally published on Ladders. If you like this article, then you will enjoy How to write a resume for 2020 and How to respectfully quit your job.
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