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As any coach of a sports time can tell you, you can’t win in overtime if you lose in regulation time. In my role of coaching people in the process of WINNING IN OVERTIME, I also have to remind you that getting to overtime is a critical step in the process.
My rather loose definition of OVERTIME includes exceeding what your projected lifespan was at birth and enjoying the physical, cognitive, and emotional health to enable you to keep growing, achieving, and enjoying your life. The mark of someone who has won in overtime can be measured by how small a gap exists between the person’s healthspan and lifespan. Some people say that it counts as overtime if you’ve reached a retirement age – whether you’re retired or not and whether or not you’ve exceeded your projected lifespan, and I’m OK with that.
The time to start think about winning in overtime is long before you are faced with going into overtime. The way to do it is to create the habit structure and mindset that enables you to enter overtime with confidence.
When I speak to younger or middle-aged adults, they are sometimes shocked to hear me say that the habit part is the easy part to accomplish. We now have the evidence-based science to provide a factual basis to support a habit structure that includes physical exercise, the recommended components of a healthy diet, individualized regular sleep patterns of 6-9 hours, with most people needing 7-8, avoidance of too much sedentary activity, regular social involvement, keeping the brain active, and ways of managing stress.
It's pretty straightforward. If you believe the science that says the world isn’t flat, you can take a plane to any country in the world without fear that you will fly off the end of the earth. If you believe the science of climatology, you purchase different winter clothing if you are living close to the arctic circle than if you are living closer to the equator. And if you believe the science and you want to get to overtime, you build in the habits that have the best chance of getting you there. See; it’s easy.
The hard part for most people is the mindset that enables them to believe that overtime can be a wonderful time in life that makes it worth it to engage in the type of self-discipline and delay of some gratifications in return for increasing the odds of living a good quality of life for a very long time. Remember, in the past we didn’t have many role models who lived long enough in good health to win in overtime. But just like a mediocre sports team can become a dynasty by changing its mindset, we can also become winners in overtime by acquiring a winner’s mindset.
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