Role Models Are Pathfinders To Success
Role Models
This past Wednesday was one that relates well to this blog site. I enjoy serving the Seniors, and so I picked up an 89-year-old survivor of Normandy, and an 80-year-old who had gone skydiving in her 70s. That’s what is so phenomenal to me. Throughout all my years, I have noticed how people "copy" those who are successful. As a teacher, I recognized the significance of "role models." When you see a person, who is always finding ways to make money and picks the right stocks, has the best doctors, lives in the best neighborhoods, belongs to the right clubs and lives the life of the "rich and famous," you begin to get the idea that there is a time when "following" is not the worst position to be in.
How do people survive the worst diseases, know the right people, buy the right products and look amazingly healthy and without a care in the world? While I can’t give you specifics, I can share one thing with you that may help you immensely.
Follow the winners. When I first had the experience of dealing with my 12-year-old stepdaughter, I asked her who her friends were. She told me and then explained that there were groups in the class that would keep to themselves. I asked her the names of some of the people she admired and she told me. Then, I asked her to try getting into the activities they participated in. We installed an answering machine so that we could avoid some of the losers in her life. She was the second in birth order and was very observant of others and, especially, the mistakes they made. Second children usually don’t want to get into the same trouble as their older siblings. I am proud to say that she caught on fast and went on to succeed well beyond the expectations of even her own, biological, father. Today, she is still using that M.O. in her life. She noticed that she was not making enough money to enjoy the lifestyle of some of her peers. And so she pushes on and finds the answers are not that difficult to obtain.
These seniors are survivors, who found healthy activities, lifestyle and foods which allowed them to live a healthy life well into their eighties. Now, enter the baby- boomers, and they see these people in their late eighties running around like children, laughing and loving every minute of their time on the tennis courts. They notice that these people are amazingly strong and athletic, even those with some arthritis and other ailments. However, they are usually a healthy weight with a glow and exude confidence and show interest in others. They share their health experiences, discuss the foods they eat, the doctors they trust and how it is that they look so healthy and attractive. It’s called networking. They take the time to write a "get well card" or a "sympathy card" and they call and express support in times of need. Without getting corny, they really care about people. They really love being with others and sharing in a healthy activity where hate, worry and anxiety just don’t fit. Laughing is more common, although they will share their concern for family and friends while they unwind over lunch after tennis or badminton. They truly are in a "League of Their Own."
Now, they wonder if they can get off a lot of prescriptions and they ask others about "Integrative Medicine" and they search the internet. But more importantly, they are observant of those who live a long, active and loving life and so they "follow." They copy the winning strategies of older people. Don’t tell the Chinese or the Japanese about these secrets. They would only laugh. Older societies have known this for centuries and their ranking in "longevity" proves it. Respect for your elders, was not just an empty rule. It paid off in dividends. Wisdom involves a direct line from those who are "in the know." You can read 350 books and never learn what they could tell you directly about "how to live."
Role models are not football players making 25 million dollars a year nor are they entertainers married a dozen times and bragging about how they survived drug habits and wild living. If you’re wishing to have what they have, "Be careful about what you wish for." Watch those people who are very "civil" who treat others with respect and listen before responding — they are the real "role models." I don’t want to hear about people who get hit by a truck and then write a book on how to survive that and then learn to look both ways.
The song "Follow" is somewhere in my memory of songs, but I can’t recall it at this very moment. When love leads, love also follows. If you surround yourself with love — you win. Follow the advice of the Wizard of Oz, "It’s not how many people you love, but how many people love you" Did you ever notice how people who live the life of a "servant" seem to glow with love and purity of heart?
Eating healthy involves using the best information you can find and listening to your body’s response. Don’t eat foods that don’t agree with you. Your body gives you signals when the food you are eating is causing you major problems. Clogging your arteries leads to poor connections between your neurotransmitters and memory begins to fail. A lifetime of accumulated fat cannot lead to a happy ending — just a disease-filled existence and a shorter lifespan. Look at all the personalities who have died of lung cancer and picture them with their cigarettes dangling from their mouth. How many overweight stars with great futures died of heart disease? What you eat is what you become. Stronger cells are the result of eating foods chosen for their nutrition and good taste. They are your insurance to produce the best possible outcome when your body is attacked by disease.
Can we begin to appreciate that what we are wishing for in the way of health care may not be the answer to a healthier and longer life? Maybe I have been writing letters for universal health care for too long. I now have a sense that my ancestors had no such advantage and they lived longer than anyone in my family. However, they did not buy processed food, they did not eat at fat-food chains, they didn’t smoke and only drank a few ounces of wine before dinner. They were my role models and I didn’t realize it until my own health problems became overwhelming.
This past Wednesday was one that relates well to this blog site. I enjoy serving the Seniors, and so I picked up an 89-year-old survivor of Normandy, and an 80-year-old who had gone skydiving in her 70s. That’s what is so phenomenal to me. Throughout all my years, I have noticed how people "copy" those who are successful. As a teacher, I recognized the significance of "role models." When you see a person, who is always finding ways to make money and picks the right stocks, has the best doctors, lives in the best neighborhoods, belongs to the right clubs and lives the life of the "rich and famous," you begin to get the idea that there is a time when "following" is not the worst position to be in.
How do people survive the worst diseases, know the right people, buy the right products and look amazingly healthy and without a care in the world? While I can’t give you specifics, I can share one thing with you that may help you immensely.
Follow the winners. When I first had the experience of dealing with my 12-year-old stepdaughter, I asked her who her friends were. She told me and then explained that there were groups in the class that would keep to themselves. I asked her the names of some of the people she admired and she told me. Then, I asked her to try getting into the activities they participated in. We installed an answering machine so that we could avoid some of the losers in her life. She was the second in birth order and was very observant of others and, especially, the mistakes they made. Second children usually don’t want to get into the same trouble as their older siblings. I am proud to say that she caught on fast and went on to succeed well beyond the expectations of even her own, biological, father. Today, she is still using that M.O. in her life. She noticed that she was not making enough money to enjoy the lifestyle of some of her peers. And so she pushes on and finds the answers are not that difficult to obtain.
These seniors are survivors, who found healthy activities, lifestyle and foods which allowed them to live a healthy life well into their eighties. Now, enter the baby- boomers, and they see these people in their late eighties running around like children, laughing and loving every minute of their time on the tennis courts. They notice that these people are amazingly strong and athletic, even those with some arthritis and other ailments. However, they are usually a healthy weight with a glow and exude confidence and show interest in others. They share their health experiences, discuss the foods they eat, the doctors they trust and how it is that they look so healthy and attractive. It’s called networking. They take the time to write a "get well card" or a "sympathy card" and they call and express support in times of need. Without getting corny, they really care about people. They really love being with others and sharing in a healthy activity where hate, worry and anxiety just don’t fit. Laughing is more common, although they will share their concern for family and friends while they unwind over lunch after tennis or badminton. They truly are in a "League of Their Own."
Now, they wonder if they can get off a lot of prescriptions and they ask others about "Integrative Medicine" and they search the internet. But more importantly, they are observant of those who live a long, active and loving life and so they "follow." They copy the winning strategies of older people. Don’t tell the Chinese or the Japanese about these secrets. They would only laugh. Older societies have known this for centuries and their ranking in "longevity" proves it. Respect for your elders, was not just an empty rule. It paid off in dividends. Wisdom involves a direct line from those who are "in the know." You can read 350 books and never learn what they could tell you directly about "how to live."
Role models are not football players making 25 million dollars a year nor are they entertainers married a dozen times and bragging about how they survived drug habits and wild living. If you’re wishing to have what they have, "Be careful about what you wish for." Watch those people who are very "civil" who treat others with respect and listen before responding — they are the real "role models." I don’t want to hear about people who get hit by a truck and then write a book on how to survive that and then learn to look both ways.
The song "Follow" is somewhere in my memory of songs, but I can’t recall it at this very moment. When love leads, love also follows. If you surround yourself with love — you win. Follow the advice of the Wizard of Oz, "It’s not how many people you love, but how many people love you" Did you ever notice how people who live the life of a "servant" seem to glow with love and purity of heart?
Eating healthy involves using the best information you can find and listening to your body’s response. Don’t eat foods that don’t agree with you. Your body gives you signals when the food you are eating is causing you major problems. Clogging your arteries leads to poor connections between your neurotransmitters and memory begins to fail. A lifetime of accumulated fat cannot lead to a happy ending — just a disease-filled existence and a shorter lifespan. Look at all the personalities who have died of lung cancer and picture them with their cigarettes dangling from their mouth. How many overweight stars with great futures died of heart disease? What you eat is what you become. Stronger cells are the result of eating foods chosen for their nutrition and good taste. They are your insurance to produce the best possible outcome when your body is attacked by disease.
Can we begin to appreciate that what we are wishing for in the way of health care may not be the answer to a healthier and longer life? Maybe I have been writing letters for universal health care for too long. I now have a sense that my ancestors had no such advantage and they lived longer than anyone in my family. However, they did not buy processed food, they did not eat at fat-food chains, they didn’t smoke and only drank a few ounces of wine before dinner. They were my role models and I didn’t realize it until my own health problems became overwhelming.
If you don’t learn from the experience of others, then you must suffer the consequences. I remember Jerry Lewis announcing on radio the impending death of his dear friend, Sammy Davis, Jr. He was sad for his friend and Sammy Davis, Jr. was angry that all that he had worked for was lost — because he would not give up the demons of his existence: smoking and alcohol.
The new kids on the block can either repeat those mistakes or use the wonderful world of knowledge to live a better life. I see some of them following the winners and others announcing, with bravado, that they will eat anything they want. How long do people spend on death-row, before they finally find "RELIGION?"
The new kids on the block can either repeat those mistakes or use the wonderful world of knowledge to live a better life. I see some of them following the winners and others announcing, with bravado, that they will eat anything they want. How long do people spend on death-row, before they finally find "RELIGION?"
posted by Stan Kent at
10:39 PM
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