Ep 240 | Build a Longevity Mindset

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about health, and I want to discuss what building a longevity mindset entails. Building a longevity mindset. Now this, this concept of longevity mindset, it comes from a guy named Peter Diamandis. Peter is a brilliant, brilliant guy, entrepreneur, pretty well known in terms of his thinking and the way he operates. Peter's also the founder, along with Tony Robbins, of this, this, this health and longevity center known as Fountain Life. Uh, if you've been listening to the No Days Off podcast for a little while, you may have heard me share about a trip I made over to a facility in Dallas. That was in fact Fountain Life, where I did a bunch of different, uh, testing, blood work, EKG, MRI, all sorts of things. And the idea with that testing was to better understand, you know, my physical health. As well as how to improve and extend the— my longevity, my health, not just the number of years that I live, but the number of years that I am actually very active in that lifespan. Peter Diamandis talks quite a bit around longevity mindset and how building a longevity mindset could actually help you live longer. Now, what are we talking about when we say longevity mindset? What is it? A longevity mindset helps people prioritize healthy aging and to do more understanding of, or greater understanding of, risk factors and to take action early. The body hides disease. It really does. It's pretty impressive at doing it. And the chances are you really have no idea what's going on inside you. Most of us, according to Diamandis, and I think it's a great great statement and analogy. Most of us know more detail and perspective about what's going on inside of our car or inside of our refrigerator than we do inside our body. So what Diamandis advocates for is for you, for us to go find out more before it's too late to do anything about it. Now, the longevity mindset The concept is that somebody who's got a longevity mindset believes that there are breakthroughs coming. There's opportunities coming that are going to actually enable us to extend our healthspan, the number of years that we're active during our life, right? And it's going to allow us to extend our healthspan. And we've got to be willing to put in the work now so that we can be part of those breakthroughs. So you can choose to accept that you're going to live 'til you're say 75 or 80 or 85. But if you're actually looking to extend your healthspan, then you're gonna need to go beyond what the average American thinks about. So what I'm really telling you now, and what Diamandis would tell you, is do not accept that you're gonna live to 75, 80, or 85. That is the average mindset. And there are many like Diamandis that are saying, right now, with the way that technology is evolving, with the way that science is evolving, we will have, and we do have an opportunity to extend our healthspan. But we've got to change our mindset around it. These longevity, you know, clinics, and these, these, this ongoing testing that's, that's, that's currently going on right now, is really kind of the precursor to these breakthroughs. And there will eventually be a broader public availability of all of these breakthroughs, but we've got to be thinking different. Okay. And when we think about longevity mindset, I guess what I'm saying here is stop accepting that 75 or 80 is in fact your number. Start treating yourself, start acting though you're going to live to 100 or 110 or 120. Also, Stop with the news. Stop with the negativity around aging and ageism, right? We're all guilty of this. Well, maybe not all of our listeners, but a lot of us were like, oh, I'm starting to feel it in my body now. I'm 50. Or, oh, you know, I can't really do that. I'm 55 or I'm 60 or whatever it may be. There's just this natural tendency to start blaming age. And longevity mindset says, knock it off. Instead of blaming age or accepting what's been, you know, the status quo, let's change the way we're thinking about it. Now, when you study longevity, again, in specific to healthspan, healthspan being the number of years that you're active during your lifespan versus inactive versus kind of, dare I say, waiting to die. You know, letting— naturally your body's going to age, no question about it, but not accepting the fact that, hey, we're on the downslope. That's what we're talking about when we say healthspan. How do you go about, you know, playing this longevity game? I'll tell you what a number of experts will tell you as it pertains to changing your mindset around longevity. The steps that you can take right now with respect to your health goals that'll help you with your longevity mindset. Okay, number 1, start booking more what I would call me time, right? So many of us here at No Days Off, we're entrepreneurs or business owners, we're, you know, we're family people. We got a lot of daily priorities. We got a lot going on. But in terms of changing your mindset to one of a longevity mindset, start booking more me time, meaning that you literally are going to take time for yourself and work on integrating things like mindfulness and meditation and other things to manage stress and optimize sleep quality. The idea being here, here, have more effective rejuvenation, have more effective recovery. While maintaining social relationships are super important, and we're gonna talk about that here in a moment, they're super important to your wellbeing and your longevity, me time ensures that you have the opportunities to relax and recharge. Generations past did not think around me time in that same sort of way. Next, prioritize social connection. If you've been listening to NDO, No Days Off, for a little while, you remember that we talked about a Harvard study that said the key to happiness, the key to happiness studied by Harvard was social connection, friendships, relationships. Knowing that the key to happiness are relationships and those that are happier tend to live longer lives, healthier lives. Focus on cultivating habits that enhance your wellbeing, like spending quality time with people you love. This is proven. This has been proven to lead to a happier life, which leads to a healthier one. Next, when, uh, when, when building this longevity mindset, you gotta break out of the workout rut. In other words, when you lose rhythm with your workout, don't just accept it. We got to get back into action. If we believe that we have an opportunity to extend our healthspan, we've got to stay on course. So improve your diet, prioritize that. No one eats perfectly, of course, but strive to be healthier, but also aim to prioritize more diverse exercise this year. Get out of the rut, right? Like, get out of the routine. Doing some of the same things over and over again, like running, for instance, which I do a fair amount of— doing that actually is, is, is less healthy. It's been proven. Now, don't get me wrong, running is good, but diversity of exercise makes a big difference with respect to longevity. So mix it up more this year. Support all different sorts of muscle types. Some of you may prioritize, say, yoga, whereas you weren't doing that before. I could tell you, for me, uh, I am very focused on resistance training, strength training in 2024, which is quite a bit different than, uh, for me than last year. When I was focused more on endurance. Now I'll get back into endurance and running and hiking, still doing that, but with a greater emphasis on muscle and strength building. Next, slow the aging process, right? Slow the aging process by supplements, taking the things that are right for you, which means you need to do blood work. You need to be meeting with somebody that understands this, that can help you build not just a diet, not just your food, but leverage the data that you could have through blood work and more, right? There's these age clocks, like these chronological age, you obviously know, but then there's this internal age. Like when I went to Fountain Life, it told me the age of my brain. Like, yes, I'm 45 years old, but my brain health actually indicates that my brain is younger. Now, unfortunately, the same could not be said for my heart, which isn't— bad. It just showed that it was in line with my chronological age. So what's my game this year? How do I create a younger heart? That's going to be done through exercise, but it's also done through supplementation and diet and all of these things. So slow the aging process. That's what we're talking about when we say longevity mindset. It's not just about new habits, but understanding how each habit specifically contributes to slowing down the aging process. Couple other things you ought to do if you're trying to embrace this longevity mindset. Morning exercise. I just, I think the research shows, and I can tell you for me personally, getting outside in the mornings, prioritizing exercise in the mornings doesn't just wake you up, it also boosts your metabolism. It lifts your mood. It improves your mental clarity. When you study exercise, when you study health, morning exercise, you know, especially being outside, is better for you than most anything else. And again, we're on this longevity path. Last thing I want to mention, aside from, you know, the obvious things like managing your worries and, and getting better sleep, we all know we've got to be able to do these things. The last thing I want to mention, if you're on this longevity kick like I am, Learn from the blue zones. Learn from those regions around the world that have the longest living people. You may have seen there was a documentary, I think it was on Netflix recently, about blue zones. Just go Google blue zones, right? And you're going to see different places around the world, places in Italy, Mediterranean, places in Asia, in the Far East, that individuals are living longer there than most anywhere. And there's a lot to learn from those blue zones. What you'll find in those blue zones is more, more daily movement of their people, not necessarily always through exercise, but just through living. You'll find higher quality sleep. You'll see better diets, specifically diets that are more anti-inflammatory. So go learn from blue zones if in fact you want to, do you want to build your longevity mindset? So a lot to think about here. I just want to circle back to the whole point of this conversation today. Do not accept the status quo with respect to your lifespan and your healthspan. Peter Diamandis, pretty bright guy, says, and I believe he's absolutely right, we are on the verge of massive breakthrough. I want to be on the cusp of that. I want to be ready for that. And so I am taking all the steps I can, and I'll capitalize on these breakthroughs with the idea being not just live longer, but actually have more health during those years in which I live. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.