don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath provides six principles for making a message memorable. The first four involve creating messages that are simple, unexpected, concrete and credentialed. In the last essay, I showed how each principle can and will be used in one of my upcoming talks about aging well. Here are the last two sticky principles and how I plan to approach each in my aging well talk.

Principle Five: Emotions
Why should people care? You have to make them FEEL it, or feel something, such as disgust at the unhealthiness of the typical senior or resentment at the duplicity of one villain or another, (May I suggest the Bush Administration for policies that did nothing to promote personal responsibility amongst seniors or anyone else?)

OK, consider the activities you enjoy today. Is it acceptable to become too infirm to enjoy your passions and delights at age fifty or sixty? What if limitations, physical and otherwise, that could have been avoided, were to someday prevent you from doing the things you value so much today? Do a worst-case scenario. Imagine the consequences of dissolution. Then get mad, and resolve to invest in strategies that will alter that grim trajectory. Begin the process of aging well now, despite the obstacles -- and continue living healthfully up to and throughout the later years.

I've almost done it. Five sticky principles--count them: 1) Age well - the payoffs are great and 2) the odds are against you if you try; 3) ponder the image and meaning of Gary Larson's famous "Far Side" cartoon and enjoy life every day; and 4) recall the positive and negative models of aging and act now to emulate to a greater degree than ever the former; and 5) work the emotions--make them feel it. One to go.

Principle Six: Stories
The Heath brothers believe stories create a richer, more complete connection. In this case, the right stories will capture the payoffs of aging well far better than abstract words. Stories help others to mentally rehearse their own situations, such as concrete images of their capacities decades into the future.

This step has me baffled. Where am I going to get an emotional story that leads to enthusiasm for aging well? Do I tell them about Lance Armstrong? (No, they know that story.) Do I reveal some amazing personal tale of how I turned my pitiful life around by following the principles of wellness I'm recommending? (No, I have no such tales to tell.) What, then? I'm stuck. If only there were licensed stickologists I could consult.

Well, let me look on the bright side for a moment, as I'm fond of suggesting for others. I almost accomplished what the Heath Brothers advised for creating a sticky speech, one my audience will remember. I organized my aging well speech in a manner that is likely to "create messages that are simple, unexpected, concrete and credentialed." That's five out of six. OK, I'm at a loss regarding how to make an "emotional story" of the task, but cut me a little slack, ok? Five out of six isn't so bad. Maybe not an A+ performance, but I think I'm entitled to at least an A-, don't you? More important, even if I don't get a standing ovation, I'm counting on a bit of polite applause and the promised honorarium.

Maybe you could suggest a story. If you know of one that would enable me to create a richer, more complete connection with the audience in discussing how to age well, please send it along. 

Story or not, stay well and always look on the bright side of life.

Wait! I've got one. Not mine, but still a good one. It's a story told by Dick Cavett ("The Day A Guest Died On My Show," St. Petersburg Times, May 13, 2007, page 7P). The guest was Jerome I. Rodale, founder of Rodale Press and Prevention Magazine. He died at the age of 72 while participating as a guest on the Dick Cavett Show. As described at Wikpedia, "he was still on stage, having finished his interview and was seated next to the active interviewee, New York Post columnist Pete Hamill. The episode was never broadcast, although Cavett has described the story of Rodale's death in public appearances, on his blog and in the column cited above. Ironically, Rodale had bragged during his just-completed interview on the show that 'I'm in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way.' He also said, 'I've decided to live to be a hundred.'"

All this makes an interesting story but the highlight and, I believe, moral of the tale derives from Mr. Rodale's last words, uttered just before he slumped over, dead. He said, "I never felt better in my life!"

And there you have it. My story to tell, the point being try to live as well as you can, every day, to the extent possible. Live so as to celebrate good health with ample joy and exuberance, in a manner that boosts the chance that you might someday die healthy. Since we all have to die sometime, eventually, why not late in life at a moment in time when you have never felt better in your life?

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of appearance and aging. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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