My dad was the oldest of 7.  The Allen family long held the tradition of rotating through Nana & Grandad’s house on Christmas morning for the annual Allen breakfast.  This annual rite of artery stuffing included grandkids bringing their prized toy from Santa to share and show off with cousins, aunts, and uncles.  About 10 years ago, one of the cousins brought a brand new skate board.  My dad decided he wanted to give it a go.  He jumped on, pushed off with one foot, and immediately crashed straight over backward, hitting his head hard on the pavement.  I was genuinely worried he had seriously hurt himself.  We rushed over as he quickly jumped up and insisted he was fine, perhaps more embarrassed than injured.  Needless to say, I never saw him on a skateboard again.  

In his youth, my dad had served in the United State Navy, and for a time was trained as a search and rescue diver.  He reminded his kids that jumping out of helicopters into the boisterous ocean was just part of the job.  No big deal.

I thought about these two extremes of physicality in my dad’s life while listening to a podcast last week about how we have to deliberately fight to keep our mobility, strength, and confidence as we age.  The podcast guest, Vic Verdier, was a former French commando who held records for mixed gas deep water diving, and who insisted that we have to be deliberate in our efforts to keep our bodies primed for explosive movement, flexibility, and endurance.  He warned listeners about the negative consequences of letting ourselves go.  As he described different techniques and strategies for keeping our edge, he mentioned several times that it would require us to do things that people around us might find silly.  Climbing trees.  Crawling across the ground.  Squatting in front of our computers at work.  

Obviously, Vic’s recommendations were focused on maintaining our physical vitality and stamina.  Those are important elements of staying healthy in the face of leadership challenges.  But I couldn’t help think that there are also direct correlaries to our knowledge work as professionals.  Indeed, Stephen Covey’s famous 7 Habits of Highly Successful People suggests that “sharpening the saw” is one of the seven essential traits of leadership.  By sharpening the saw, he encouraged us to pursue constant renewal, in physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual endeavors.  Sometimes, when we get busy, we start to take those elements for granted.  We get comfortable and stop pushing ourselves to learn new things, challenge our thinking, or develop our spirituality.  We assume those things can either wait until later, or perhaps are no longer priorities that require our effort or attention.  When the moment of challenge or adversity comes when we need to draw on our strength, whether it be physical, emotional, spiritual, or intellectual, we may find that it has faded and we can’t quite seem to power through.  

So, today, I found myself squatting in the garden, or getting up from the floor where I had sat down to do some writing.  Simple things to try to maintain my physical mobility and strength.  Similarly, I’m trying to push my inner development, making sure to always have a good book near my bed, to stay engaged in my spiritual life, or to write in my journal to explore my ever-changing emotional outlook on life.   Keeping our edge is about making time for the little things, no matter how silly we may feel.  

What goes unused slowly fades, whether it be physical strength, emotional connection, or even intellect and memory.  Of course aging is a universal process that nobody can completely escape in the end.  It seems that eventually we will all face a gradual decline in strength and ability.  But, why not fight it as long as you can?