The Element of Focusing on Quality of Life Rather Than Quantity of Life and Its Hope for Living Well

Recently I was thinking about my Uncle Al.  He passed away in Feb of 2015. I wrote this tribute to him after he died.

The tribute I wrote, tells you Uncle Al was filled with vigor, had an active lifestyle, and was sharp as a tack.

He was health conscious, scrupulous about taking his medicines, seeing the doctor, and eating right.

He walked miles every day, and even bicycled in his seventies, having given up his car soon after retirement.

He played table tennis and pinochle, he played word games and card games, and he played sudoku.

He lived independently, and took care of himself.

He died at the age of 83, when he was still in excellent health.

I thought about other people, who had not been as active as Uncle Al, nor in such good health as him, who had lived almost the same number of years as Uncle Al.

Uncle Al's healthy living, and good physical and mental habits, had got him only a few extra years.

And then suddenly I halted this negative chain of thought. And a light bulb went over my head.

I was completely missing the point.

What my Uncle Al had, through all those 83 years, was a terrific quality of life.

I realized, it doesn't matter how long a life we live, or how short a life we live.

What is important is the quality of life we enjoy.

We should do what we can, to improve our quality of life.

To do that, we have to recognize we are all different, and the challenges we face will be different.

Someone who is pre-diabetic or diabetic, for instance, should strive to lower their insulin resistance, and improve their insulin sensitivity, by any means possible.

We owe it to ourselves, to find out what options are available, and the ways in which we can help ourselves.

It may mean we have to give up existing habits, and develop new habits.

This may be tough to do.

But the longer we do something, the easier it will become, and the more comfortably we will be able to do it.

When I started Intermittent Fasting a few months ago, it was hard. My body was not used to it. And my mind was not used to the idea.

I had never fasted my entire life, I had never skipped breakfast my entire life. The thought of it sounded crazy.

I am sure to collapse, I thought.

But I gave it a try.

I kept at it.  Now I am able to do it with more ease.

As I write this post, it is 1:14 p.m. My last meal was at 8 p.m. last night, and I have only had Bullet proof coffee since this morning.

I will wait till 4:00 p.m., and then eat.

Are you interested in improving your quality of life?

Examine your current health, and your current habits.

Go on the internet, and study what you can do, about each aspect of your health or habits that you need to address.

Then start applying some of the solutions.

Go for the free and economical solutions first.

That's the great part about Intermittent Fasting. I don't have to spend any money.

I just have to "not eat".

But Minoo if you don't eat, will you get enough micronutrients?

Yes, that is a very important question.  You are right to ask. 

Which is why, you need to research all the implications of any solution, before you try it.

My research led me understand, it would be beneficial to supplement with Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, folate, and B6, and to make sure I was getting enough Omega 3 fats.  And I am doing that.

If we want a better quality of life, we have to do our homework.

There was a time when I was addicted to Jim Cramer's Mad Money show.

He used to keep repeating, "you need to do your homework on the stocks in your portfolio.

Homework is not just for people who are in school. 

Homework is important to our investments. Homework is important to all our major life decisions. Homework is also important to our health and habits.

I keep saying "health and habits", because habits are often just as critical as our health. In fact our health is often an outcome of our habits. So in order to improve our health, we have to improve our habits.

After doing our homework on our health and habits, we will have to make some hard decisions.

We may have to do things differently, eat differently, spend our time differently.

We may have to devote our energy to something which was not on our radar previously.

Most importantly, we have to give up whatever is an obstacle to our quality of life.

In the food habits area, this may mean different things, depending on our health profile.

A pre-diabetic, or diabetic, will have to reduce their carbs, for instance.

What about the non-health area?

It all depends on what quality of life means to us.

For instance, if quality of life to us means good relationships, we may have to give up being opinionated, being hard on other people's weaknesses, demanding things of other people, and getting into a bad mood when things go wrong.

People with good relationships are usually easy-going, have high tolerance levels, do not criticize, do not fly off the handle, and do not pass their trips on to other people.

We are going to need to work on each of the areas in which we are deficient.

Just like nutritional deficiencies, we all have mental deficiencies.

We have to work on these mental deficiencies, if we are to have a good quality of life.

I have enjoyed a much better quality of life, after I became a low maintenance person, after I learned to meditate, after I became a Hippy Mom.

There are creative ways to deal with challenges and disappointments, ways I have outlined in The Element of Imagination.

We have to put our losses behind us.

Here's how I was able to put the loss I experienced buying Krispy Kreme stock behind me.

We have to also develop a philosophy, so we know how to deal with losses in the future.

Here's the philosophy I developed, after experiencing losses like the Krispy Kreme loss.

Losses and gains are a part of life.

We cannot remain bitter about our losses and thrive.

We have to move on, no matter how large or devastating the loss.

People have lost the use of their limbs without losing their sense of humor. 

Now that's what I call quality of life.

If you are easily offended, you will enjoy a lower quality of life.

If you are sensitive, you will enjoy a lower quality of life.

If you have a lot of expectations, you will enjoy a lower quality of life. 

If you dwell on the past, you will enjoy a lower quality of life. 

You will spend time mourning over things, stewing about things and hitting back, time you could spend on positive activities which could improve your quality of life.

So don't just work on your physical health, work on your habits, and habits of mind, to thrive and enjoy a good quality of life.

I speak as someone who was once hyper-sensitive, easily offended, and who would get terribly upset when my expectations were not met.

Negative events would throw me completely off kilter.

This has changed. I am now able to bounce back from negative events much quicker.

Recently, my car got towed from in front of my apartments.  Minoo 1.0 would have freaked out for days, and it would be the first thing she told everyone about and she would have moaned and groaned; Minoo 2.0 understands  that listening to someone moan and groan is a drag, and is able to resist moaning and groaning when stuff happens.

Stuff happens.

We will not enjoy quality of life if we can't handle this simple fact.

Stuff happens.

Quality of life involves all aspects of our functioning - our physical functioning, our mental functioning, our emotional functioning, and our social functioning.

We neglect any area at our own peril.

We shouldn't focus on our health to the exclusion of everything else, and we shouldn't focus on our social functioning to the exclusion of our health.

Some of the nicest people I know are very careless about their health. As a result of which, there are a lot of self-perpetuated events centered on their health.  This undermines their ability to enjoy life, as much as they would, if they took better care of themselves. 

Since their self-perpetuated health events usually cause anxiety and inconvenience for others, sooner or later, people in their lives will drop off - from being unable to handle these self-perpetuated health events.

So there's one reason to look after yourself.  No one but you can take care of yourself. And if you take care of yourself, you will attract people, rather than turn them off.

I will end with these 2 quotes from David Agus and Zig Ziglar:

David Agus: I believe we can prevent or delay most disease until the 9th or 10th decade. The goal is to prevent anything that can affect your quality of life prior to those years! By the time many of us get to the 9th or 10th decade, who knows where the new medical and science will take us? I am an optimist!

Zig Ziglar: Fact: If standard of living is your number one objective, quality of life almost never improves. But if quality of life is your number one objective, standard of living invariably improves.

Take your pick. Decide which one of them to make your motivation.

And here are what some people say has impacted their quality of life – I include these quotes to make you think. Usually if we can't relate to what one person thinks is a good quality of life, we can relate to what another person thinks is a good quality of life.  I can really relate to the one about telework, and to the one by Suzanne Somers.  Here you go:

Exercising with a trainer makes my quality of life go through the roof : Nadia Giosia

The quality of life is so much higher anyplace you can ski in the morning and surf in the evening - there's something to be said for that : Ian Somerhalder

I appreciate health care that gets to the root cause of our symptoms and promotes wellness, rather than the one-size-fits-all drug-based approach to treating disease. I love maintaining an optimal quality of life - naturally : Suzanne Somers

Whether you're married or not, relationships - and the satisfaction tied to them - are extremely important for increasing men's and women's quality of life : Helen Fisher

Quality of life is not only about what you find in the shops; it's about the landscape : Donald Tusk

Time is valuable, and telework is a viable component to help improve quality of life in many ways : Rob Wittman

It's going to start really interfering with your quality of life, your health, if you don't adjust to life as it's happening to you : Noah Baumbach

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day and week….M…..a Pearl Seeker like you.  Thanks to Anita, Ajay and Aarathi for their encouraging feedback on Ajay's post Why You Should Never Abandon Your Pet and thanks to the rest of you for your likes, pins, votes, tweets and shares.  Much appreciated!