Teaching the Old Dog New Tricks

Hello Team.

Just a quick update on our book review thingy before we get started with today’s post. As you may or may not know, we have started a book club (of sorts) here on medotcom and last week I asked for people to apply for the ‘position’ of being one of my highly unpaid book reviewers (enticing I know). To my absolute amazement, we ended up receiving over 50 email ‘applications’ from a bunch of very enthusiastic book worms and would-be reviewers. Some might say, weirdos. Love you weirdos. Even more surprising was the overwhelming percentage of applications that we got from men. We got… zero.
Zero blokes!!

What’s that about?

I expected way more girls than guys but… none!! Seriously. Maybe we need a section on the site where we review power tools, things that go fast and stuff that can blow other stuff up? Anyway a BIG thankyou to everyone who sent in an email and offered their help. Johnnie and I genuinely appreciate you taking the time and making the effort to write. I wish we could have fifty reviewers but it may get a little messy. To make it fair we simply took the first eight applicants, otherwise it could have turned into a logistical nightmare for us.

Our book reviewers for 2008 are:
Sue Nyoni (New Jersey), Kris Rollag (USA), Tami Brinkley (Alabama), Dee Briton (Melbourne), Terri-Anne Harris (Melbourne), Jo Deeker (Melbourne ), Dianne Davidson (Ontario, Canada), Victoria May (Melbourne ). Thankyou so much ladies for joining our team, I’m excited to be working with you and learning from you. We will have a brief bio and photo of each reviewer up in the next week or two, so you can ‘meet’ our team. We will have two book reviews per week and our first two reviews (from Sue and Kristy) will be up this week some time.

Anyway… on with today’s post: Teaching the Old Dog New Tricks.

Recently I was at a social function talking to a couple who are in their fifties and they were discussing the need for some significant change in their lives, specifically, weight loss (they initiated the conversation and had sought my advice). Both being over-weight, unfit and unhealthy, it should have come as no major revelation when I shared the ‘obvious you-need-to-change-your-life-right-now’ message with them. However, neither of them looked too excited or confident about any of my suggestions for them. No wonder, with crazy outdated notions such as regular exercise and less calories being thrown about – I’m so wacky. At one point the alpha-male-warrior husband opened his mouth to share some age-old wisdom…

“Yeah but you can’t teach an old dog new tricks Craig”

… was his philosophical offering (you know that when people start a sentence with “yeah but”, that there’s an excuse on the way). “What a load of self-limiting, convenient, stupid psychology” was my slightly-less-than-philosophical response (so unusual for me). “Old dogs can learn new tricks but not when the old dog has a crappy attitude”, I shared. He wasn’t so happy.

What followed was ten minutes of less-than-productive conversation with me offering advice and them telling me why that advice was probably: 1. Not realistic for them (apparently they can watch TV for three hours a day but they can’t exercise for thirty minutes) 2. Not practical with their commitments and current lifestyle (code for we can’t be stuffed and we love eating junk and drinking alcohol) 3. Great for them if they were both ten years younger (when in fact they probably need to follow my advice now more than ever).

The magic pill.

The truth is that they didn’t really want to change their behaviours or habits, they wanted a magic pill. They wanted the results without the work. The woman even asked me what I thought of fat-metaboliser pills. When I said “crap”, she was disappointed. “But surely they can’t hurt?” she enquired. “Neither can moving your body more and putting less calories in it”. We kept coming back to the ‘age’ issue and that seemed to be their escape clause. I told them that their age wasn’t the problem, their thinking was.

Always making friends.

I get so excited when I see older people get serious about self-improvement because some of the most amazing results I have seen have been achieved by people fifty and beyond. Sometimes, way beyond. When they shift their focus from their ‘age’ to developing their potential and creating their best life, then they usually ask me something like “what could I have done if I had this mind set thirty years ago?”

If you are an old dog (so to speak) or you know one, you may want to consider these thoughts or pass them on…

1. Old dogs absolutely can learn new tricks but they need to be willing students. They need to move beyond their old-fart, self-limiting thinking and destructive habits and open their mind to a world of new possibilities. Success is not age-related, it’s attitude-related.

2. The biggest hurdle for old dogs is not their body, their ability or their potential, it’s the mental and emotional barriers and ‘rules’ they have created for themselves. “Don’t be stupid, I’m too old for that.”

3. Most old dogs base their expectations (and beliefs about what is possible) for the future on their past, when in reality what they’ve done (or not done) to this point in time is usually no indication of what they can achieve (in terms of absolute potential). Past only equals future when we choose to make that our reality. Just because you haven’t done something before (run a marathon, lifted weights, been to college, written a book, started a business, been overseas) doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you haven’t done it yet.

4. Bodies and minds have the ability to learn, grow, adapt, improve and change at any age, but too many of us get to the point where we start to deteriorate (physically and mentally), not because we’re old, but simply because we stop using our brain and our body the way they should be stimulated. Aging (as we observe it in many people) is more often about lifestyle choices than it is about advancing years. That’s why we see young eighty year-olds and old fifty year-olds.

5. Your mind might know how old you are (chronologically) but your body doesn’t. We can lower our biological age drastically (which translates to improvements in strength, aerobic fitness, power, flexibility, overall health, energy levels and emotional health) by simply using what we’ve got and not acting ‘old’.

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