The Well-Lived Life: A 102-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age
Gladys McGarey, M.D.
Atria Books/An Imprint of Simon & Schuster (May 2023)
What you see in a mirror can reveal possibilities to increase your health and happiness.
Frontiers was founded in 2007 by Henry Markram and Kamila Markram, two neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is now the #3rd most-cited and 6th largest research publisher and open science platform. Its research journals are community-driven and peer-reviewed by editorial boards of over 202,000 top researchers.
I recently read one of its articles: “Measuring What Counts in Life: The Development and Initial Validation of the Fulfilled Life Scale (FLS),” in which Doris Baumann and Willibald Ruch (Department of Psychology, University of Zürich) share the results of their research on a subject of special interest to me: the well-lived life. Here is a direct link to their article.
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Over time, Gladys McGarey identified six articles of faith that enabled her to achieve and sustain her own health and happiness. They serve as the focal points in her remarkable memoir, shared with a fervent hope that her insights help others to achieve a well-lived life. Here are the six principles:
“l. You are here for a reason.
2. All life needs to move.
3. Love is the medicine.
4. You are never truly alone.
5. Everything is your teacher.
6. Spend your energy y wildly (even if you’re 102!)”
She devotes a separate section to each. Presumably those who read this book will no doubt have their own “secrets” or would rephrase McGarey’s. She developed a perspective and then a mindset that enabled her to examine human experience in general — and her own experiences in particular — [begin italics] holistically [end italics]. More specifically, she focused on various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) that should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term “holism” was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book Holism and Evolution. The modern use of the word generally refers to treating a person as an integrated whole, rather than as a collection of separate systems. For example, well-being may be regarded as not merely physical health, but also psychological and spiritual well-being.
Over the years, I have developed a set of what could be viewed as my own secular articles of faith. It remains a struggle to follow all of them to the full extent. They include:
o With two eyes and two ears, and only one mouth, observe and listen to others at least 80% of the time.
o Help those who cannot help themselves.
o In business, feeling appreciated is more important to employees and customers than almost anything else.
o You get only one chance to make a positive first impression.
o In a moral crisis, never remain neutral.
o If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
From others:
o Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”
o Hippocrates: “Do no harm.”
o Theodore Roosevelt: “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
o Steven Wright: “The early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.”
o African proverb #1: “Trust but verify.”
o African proverb #2: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Do you have a set of your own principles? If not, I suggest you formulate one. It is a difficult but enlightening exercise. HEre are two suggestions: Highlight key passages in Gladys McGarey’s book, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand while reading it in order to record your own comments, questions, page references, and (I hope) efforts to identify your values and principles based on them as well as specific (ambitious but doable) goals, and perhaps a”To Do” list with deadlines.
Those who share my high regard for The Well-Lived Life are urged to check out three others: Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture (2008); Clayton Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life? (2012), written with James Allworth and Karen Dillen; and Find Your Why (2017), written by Simon Sinek, with David Mead and Peter Docker.