Planning for the Future

I have frequently written about the need to plan your life and not be a floating feather on the breeze, as the life of Forest Gump was portrayed.  It seemed Forest always landed in the right place at the right time.  Despite his physical and mental challenges, he lived a kind of charmed life that most of us would envy.  Forest had no long-term plans.  For him, “life was like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get”. The fictional character is rewarded by blessings and good fortune as he floated through life. Life tragedies become new opportunities as he proceeds from one phase of his life to the next.

In the real world, of course, we don’t bank on winning the lottery to achieve our goals. We realize our dreams and ambitions through our own hard work and determination.  It’s nice to be lucky, but we don’t count on it. In the normal course of our life we figure out the steps necessary to succeed and, one by one, take those steps toward realizing our goals.

The life you lead has a lot to do with the choices you make.  Luck plays a part, and I know I am blessed, but as my father would often say, “you make your own luck”. I would add, “… both good and bad”.

When I was diagnosed with lung cancer, the cruelest side effect was my inability to plan ahead.  I was stuck scheduling my life around treatments and doctor appointments. I could not think past the next month, not knowing what would come next.  It took time for me to look beyond a year, and ever since I won back my life, I have not stopped planning for what comes next.  It’s a blessing to once again have the ability to plan for the future. No one is going to live forever, but we will live longer and happier lives if we wake up each day with purpose.

I have exactly 1728 days to my retirement date of October 16, 2020. Between now and then I am planning to continue to live an active life and travel as much as I can.  But I am not waiting until I retire to hit all the travel destinations on my bucket list. What if I relapse before I retire? What if my health declines to the point where I can’t travel anymore? I don’t want to take the chance of not living out some of my life’s ambitions.

Growing up I wanted to work in international business and travel the world. I realized that ambition in the first half of my career.  Circumstances lead me to leave Japan and return to the US to be near my parents here in Florida.  But my dreams of living an international life have never really faded.

Yoko can attest to the fact that I frequently wake up dreaming about Japan, a place where I lived a good portion of my adult life. But I also have a deep desire to see other places around the world.  When I worked in Tokyo, I frequented countries on the Pacific Rim, including China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, The Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore. I still want to take the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Vladivostok to Moscow.  I have also dreamed about riding horseback in Mongolia, visiting India and Nepal, and going on an African safari.  I also want to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Maybe one day I will. 

My daughter June and her betrothed are planning a fall wedding in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this year.  It is one of the most beautiful spots on the face of the earth, where we once had a second home.  I am looking forward to an intimate wedding celebration with our closest friends and family this fall.  June will be the last of my three daughters to get married, marking another milestone in my post-cancer life.

Today I made reservations to take a 15 day tour of the Holy Land. The excursion takes us to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, following the biblical path of the exodus. After that we plan to fly to Dubai for a little rest and relaxation before returning home. Yoko and I have talked about going to Middle East for years. We’ve now finally made plans to do it and I’m pumped for yet one more life adventure!

Behavior Change for a Healthier Life

Every year I write about the New Year resolutions I have adopted.  It’s a good tradition to encourage people to work on improving their life in just one or two ways. This year my resolution is to become a better person in every way I can. I know what my faults are and I am trying to correct them.

For motivation I have resolved to read a daily devotional from the bible and to eliminate swearing and bad language from my vocabulary – especially on the golf course! Most important, I am working to improve the relationship I have with my family, starting with my wife and children, who I love.

I quit smoking as a result of a New Year’s resolution 10 years ago, so I know that making a resolution can change my behavior and my life for the better.

In prior years, I resolved to do things like become healthier through aerobic exercise. I have still not made aerobic exercise a habit, although I am walking about a mile every day in my daily routine.  I am resolved to double the distance by walking the dog twice a day instead of just once.  I am tracking my progress with the iPhone Health app.

I am also trying to reduce my weight, which had inched up to 184 pounds.  I want to get back down to 170.  I’ve already lost 9 pounds by eating right, reducing my intake of alcohol and sugary drinks, and walking a bit every day. Right now my body mass index is 24.6, just barely under the benchmark to being overweight.  Getting down to 170 should not be hard if I follow the Japanese saying to “eat 80 percent of full”, endeavor to eat a balanced diet three times a day, and do some light exercise, like walking.

I spent the Christmas and the New Year holidays in Japan with my wife and her family. The last time I was in Tokyo was August of 2004.  On this year’s trip Yoko and went on a nostalgia tour all our old haunts to see how things had changed. That day I walked nearly 17,000 paces.

The first thing I noticed was how clean the city is. There is no garbage in the streets or cigarette butts on the ground. No one is smoking and to the extent there is anyone smoking in public, it is behind a designated smoking area.  That is a vast improvement from the days I lived in Tokyo, when people smoked everywhere and anywhere.  Even my brother-in-law, who was a devoted nicotine addict, has finally quit.  Cigarette smoking is no longer socially acceptable in Japan.

I averaged about 8000 paces a day walking around Tokyo, versus about 3000 paces a day on average since I’ve returned.  My 3000 daily paces at home includes 1700 paces walking the dog. If I didn’t walk the dog, I’d only be walking 1200 paces a day!

I don’t think I saw an overweight person in Japan the whole time I was there. People look healthy and it appears that they are consciously cutting back on unhealthy habits.  It got me to wondering why we can’t get our act together here.

We have become one of the most obese societies in the world, despite the movement to improve nutrition and exercise. Unhealthy lifestyles is leaving to high healthcare costs. Dr. Thomas Weiss, CEO of Naples Community Hospital says “we (the hospital) needs to get out of the repair business and into the maintenance business.”

The reasons we are obese are obvious: overeating (portions too large); too much sweets and processed foods vs. fresh fruits and vegetables, high stress in our daily life, lack of exercise in our daily routine, and our increasingly sedentary lifestyle thanks to technology (i.e. too much screen time).  The jobs we have today are not as physically taxing as they once were.

For the past few years I have been a member of CHIP (Charlotte Health Improvement Partnership) whose mission is to improve the overall health of Charlotte County. Recently I suggested that CHIP consider undertaking the “Blue Zone Project”, which is based on the findings of Dan Buettner who travelled the world for National Geographic to see why people in certain locations around the world tend to live longer and happier lives.

Buettner was looking for the commonalities that made Blue Zones healthier places to live. After identifying 5 of the world’s Blue Zones, Dan and National Geographic took teams of scientists to each location to identify lifestyle characteristics that might explain longevity.  They came up with nine factors that appear to be the common elements for producing longer, happier lives.

It is natural to want to improve your life to be both healthier and happier.  The beginning of a new year is a great time to resolve to do better. If you are looking for a new year’s resolution to improve your life visit www.bluezone.com  and learn about the Power 9. It is time to get involved and get healthy!