Live Long, Die Short (37 page)

Masterpiece Living is both
who we are
and
what we provide
. We are a multi-specialty group with a vision of maximizing the potential of all older adults. Our strategy to achieve this vision is threefold:

• We empower older adults to take control of their own aging.
  
• We help transform communities of all kinds into centers for aging successfully—places where older adults will continue to grow.
  
• We are committed to influencing a public policy that acknowledges that all older adults have potential, can continue to grow, and are a valuable resource for societies.
  

Our tactics are to …

• provide tools to empower older adults to adopt lifestyles known to result in a better aging experience
  
• partner with communities to provide environments for older adults that foster growth, engagement, and purposeful living
  
• track outcomes in order to build compelling cases for a more enlightened aging policy
  

We provide …

• a
  partnership
  dedicated to making communities attractive to older adults who wish to be all they can be
  
• a
  respected team
  of multi-specialty consultants
  
• an ever-growing array of
  highly effective deliverables
  to educate, train, coach, track outcomes, and articulate success within the community
  

We have enjoyed robust growth within the senior-living industry, but even more rewarding is the intense interest, of late, in a better way to age from other sectors, such as senior centers, towns and cities, healthcare providers and insurers both private and government, and older adults living in their homes and wishing to stay vital and engaged longer than their grandparents and parents did. We relish working with these groups, for we know it’s the way to our ultimate goal of influencing a more enlightened public policy on aging. Clearly, expanding within senior living is an important goal for us, for we feel strongly that whatever public policy lies ahead to address an aging nation, the talented and dedicated people within aging services will play a major role.

Our potential influence of public policy was dramatically improved when, in 2012, the MacArthur Foundation awarded our joint proposal with the University of Michigan a grant to bring Masterpiece Living to affordable housing. With Drs. Toni Antonucci and Bob Kahn leading the effort, we have successfully introduced successful aging into two affordable-housing communities owned by our very first partners, American Baptist Homes of the West. We are very pleased with the progress in this very important initiative and await the data analysis of the outcomes.

Also exciting was the 2012 addition of our first senior center partner, Four Pointes Center for Successful Aging in Grand Haven, Michigan. Brigit Hassig and her team of talented and passionate people are out in front of the national movement to bring successful aging to all. And Worcester, Massachusetts, is seriously discussing a citywide initiative to bring successful aging to its older adults.

A strategic alliance with Sodexo Senior Living in early 2013 was a major step in the advancement of the Masterpiece Living approach to authentic health and successful aging. Sodexo is a quality-of-life services partner of over six hundred senior-living communities throughout the United States, specializing in building services, dining and nutrition, health and wellness, and strategic planning. In a total of more than 1,500 locations in the United States, Sodexo works to improve the quality of life for the customers, clients, and communities served. In schools and universities, in healthcare facilities and senior communities, in corporations and government sites, Sodexo’s commitment to making every day a better day is constant. This partnership extended the potential reach of Masterpiece Living even beyond older adults. Such visionary leadership in a health-related industry is a positive sign that we can indeed not only manage health and aging but also can make it work for us as a nation.

In the Fall of 2013, Masterpiece Living debuted a major innovation with the Guidelines to Become a Certified Center for Successful Aging. These guidelines provided criteria and a roadmap for a Masterpiece Living community to “bring it to the next level,” i.e., to become a recognized culture of growth for all in that community and a resource within its geographic region for successful aging. Such certified centers will be the leaders in the movement toward a more enlightened view of and subsequent policy on again.

We must continue to reach out to where most older adults actually live—in their homes, in towns and cities—and where they congregate: in senior centers (that name
will
change!), clubs, organizations, volunteer groups, and other places where they search for lives with meaning. The approach that is working so well for the thousands within our growing network can work for these people, and, I’m certain, for you. We will find ways to reach out to you, like the Sun Health initiative in Phoenix, or citywide initiatives like that being considered in Worcester, Massachusetts, or programs like that of the Four Pointes Center for Successful Aging, so that you, too, can find out what is possible and how to achieve it, can have the tools and resources to help you evaluate and modify your lifestyle, can
find coaching support and environments that will make aging successfully a natural occurrence. We are committed to that goal.

The growing number of inspiring stories like the ones you have read about in this book, and like the ones in the national data bank we are accumulating, will provide us powerful tools to influence those still burdened with unenlightened views of aging. As the evidence grows stronger and stronger, it will become clear that public policy must reflect this new view of aging. Our vision of a country—indeed, a world—where
all
can continue to grow and be engaged, vital, valued, and needed is becoming clearer. After two and a half centuries of blurring misinterpretation, we are restoring not only hope but also respect and appreciation for a vast pool of untapped potential.

When we began the journey of growing a network, Masterpiece Living was a solid product. However, we knew we were not done refining it. We, in fact, will never be done. We will continue to learn more about the complex and magnificent process of aging and will incorporate this new knowledge into all we do. Aging as growing is an idea whose time has come, and the seismic nature of what it can mean for individuals and societies is palpable. Our journey from a taxicab ride with Jonas Salk to a validated approach to successful aging may have been a long one, but we are certain it has not been wasted. We look forward to the road ahead, for we know we are not alone. We know that we are traveling in the company of thousands of older adults who are committed to realizing their full potential no matter what life has in store for them. We’re traveling with aging-services professionals who are not satisfied to just offer care, comfort, and security; with senior-living organizations, such as those noted in the appendix of this book, who are leading the way in the transformation of retirement communities; with passionate entrepreneurs such as Colin Milner of the International Council on Active Aging, Jack York of It’s Never 2 Late, Kay Van Norman of Brilliant Aging, Maestro David Dworkin of Conductorcise, and Beth Sanders of LifeBio, all of whom, recognizing what is necessary to age in a better way, have developed resources to assist older adults in doing just that; and we’re traveling with all who wish for a world where they will grow old with relevance. No, we’re not traveling alone but in an ever-growing convoy more appropriately called a movement.

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
—JACK LONDON

T
hese stirring words were written by the great author and adventurer, Jack London. Leave it to Jack to say it much better than I did with my leaf analogy. And what about you? How do you want to live? What do you want the rest of your life to be?

I hope your journey with me through this book has been enlightening, but more importantly, empowering. Jack London’s credo, my hope, your wish for the rest of your life—all these
are
possible. As Yoda counsels, “Do or do not. There is no try.” It is indeed only a matter of decision. The rest will happen. You will not fail. I’m sure of it. I’ve seen it in the thousands of older adults who honored me by allowing me to play a small part in their lives. How can I be so certain?

I’m certain because we know now that so much more is possible. We can indeed continue to grow physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually throughout our lifespan. And these possibilities are dependent mostly on our lifestyle rather than our genes or luck or fate; it is our
choices
that are the major determinants of the quality—and for many, the quantity—of our lives.

I’m certain because we have a standard with which to evaluate the avalanche of miracle cures, health and fitness claims, medical information and advice, and diet and weight-loss information that can indeed leave us overwhelmed. We have a set of basic guidelines to act as a solid base to maneuver through the growing volume of health and aging advice. Those guidelines, of course, are the core set of needs firmly rooted in our DNA over the eons when our human ancestors were struggling to survive and to flourish. Needs which, I believe, are distinctly human—authentically human. The need to move, to be socially connected, to have a strong purpose, to be close to the natural world, and to eat foods provided by the earth and not factories. Whatever lifestyle choices you are considering, ask yourself if those choices are consistent with this standard, this core set of authentic principles for living and aging well. If yes, you’re on course. If not, then you should seriously consider the value of those choices.

I’m certain you will not fail because if you use the principles of kaizen, of small, achievable steps that you establish and modify along the way, you cannot fail. If you do nothing, you won’t fail, but you will most likely not age successfully either. If you do something, however modest, on a timetable determined by your progress, you will improve. You will be healthier. You will be aging in a better way. In fact, the commitment itself to live a lifestyle of continuous growth should
be
the goal, for successful aging will accompany that commitment.

I’m certain you will become healthier and age in a better way because the Ten Tips are a solid foundation for success. They are authentic, addressing the core needs we have as a species. They are holistic, not only because they address the full range of our health and aging needs but because they acknowledge the
absolute necessity
to address all. The Ten Tips are easy, for they are completely customizable to help you grow in all dimensions of your life.

You will not fail because no longer will stress be an invisible, silent destroyer of all that can be good in our lives, no longer the invasive killer of our bodies, our brains, and our souls. The Big Uneasy has been outed in this book and in the new research on aging, fully exposed as a by-product
of an environment we were never designed to live in and empowered by our own thoughts and lack of mindfulness. So, now that it’s exposed, it’s vulnerable to our attention and to our desire to live lives free from fear, anxiety, and the illness that these bring. Stress need not be the constant, unwanted companion in our lives. We can be the masters of our internal selves and choose to be serene and fully present to all the beauty that is around us, seeing each moment as the gift it is and reaping the huge health rewards that are associated with that freedom from chronic stress.

Yes, you are now a warrior for a healthier life. You will not fail in your efforts to become authentically healthy. You will age in a better way—successfully, now that you know the stakes of inaction, now that you have guidelines, now that you know how to win over stress, now that you know you must pay attention to the physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual parts of you. You will not fail. I’m sure of it.

Let’s get something straight before we end our journey together and begin a new one. Just because you encounter conditions commonly seen as one ages, from arthritis to cancer to heart disease,
does not mean you’ve failed.
Let me say it another way. Getting cancer, or heart disease, or even cognitive impairment doesn’t mean it’s your fault. It just means you must
deal with it
if you are to age successfully. Maybe it was something you did that made you more susceptible, maybe it wasn’t. But this is a fork in the road for you. Your life’s long path has crossed one of the many threats to aging well, and if you’re going to stay on your current path to high performance and successful aging, then you must accept its presence and manage it to maximize the quality of your life. No beating the breast. No “Oh, woe is me” or “Why me?” or “I should have prevented this.” There are, in fact, three kinds of prevention. Primary prevention is all about preventing new cases of a disease or condition. Secondary prevention is about identifying disease and conditions early in order to limit the spread or impact of the disease. And tertiary prevention is about minimizing the negative effects of the condition by treating symptoms and complications.