Do we encounter limitations as we get older? Of course we do. All too many self-help authors try to tell us we are limitless and if we can imagine something, we can do it. But we have to DO something to make our capabilities exceed those limitations.
This question popped up while I was re-reading Zen and the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams, a noted former newspaper writer and Hollywood biographer from many years ago. He was taking lessons from the famous martial artist and movie actor, Bruce Lee, and commented to Lee about how, at age forty-five, he felt he was too old and his body was too stiff to achieve any ability in martial arts.
Bruce Lee replied: “You must accept the fact that you are capable in some directions and limited in others, and you must develop your capabilities.”
Yes, as we age we develop limitations we didn’t have when we were younger. Some of us lose our hearing. Others of us lose visual acuity. Some of us have arthritis in our fingers and it hurts to open jars. Hmm, I have all three. But within those limitations are solutions to help us increase our capabilities.
I have hearing aids which I don’t wear often enough according to my wife. Hearing aids enhance my capability to hear clearly. I wear glasses. They help enhance my capability to see. I have arthritis in my fingers and use those terrific round rubber grips to make opening jars possible. I also do exercises to strengthen my fingers. In other words, I have accepted those limitations but have enhanced my capabilities to exceed those limitations.
Most of you either will encounter some or more of the above limitations, or have already. You have encountered limitations and have taken steps to increase your capabilities to counter them.
The same is true with other parts of our bodies. Our muscles atrophy as we get older and we become weak and frail — unless we exercise those muscles with moderate weights or bands to keep them strong. They can become strong points instead of limitations.
The magazines and medical journals tell us to keep doing mental exercises like crossword puzzles to keep our minds active, alert and functioning at our best, and as a result our minds stay strong for longer.
There is an article in today’s (January 10, 2023) Health Section of our local paper (The Washington Post) about how medical doctors are finally recognizing the importance of (and medically prescribing) certain foods to help us ward off chronic illnesses. We can help stave off the limitations of chronic illness by eating doctor prescribed foods.
Two more lines from Zen and the Martial Arts stand out:
1. “My capabilities exceed my limitations” and,
2. “As we discover and improve our strong points through practice, they come to outweigh our weaknesses.”
One of Bruce Lee’s legs was an inch shorter than the other. For most martial artists, this would be a limitation. He learned that because his right leg was shorter, he developed and practiced a method of kicking that gave him an advantage over his opponents. He turned a limitation into a capability and practiced it until it worked as an advantage.
Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer was leading the pack during an event when his goggles slipped off and he couldn’t see to make his turns. But in his practice sessions, he had recognized this as a potential limitation and had practiced counting strokes and timing turns in case this happened. He won his race by turning something that would have limited an ordinary swimmer into a capability that made him a champion.
So when we are faced with the potential limitations that come to us through aging, we know that we can turn those limitations into capabilities and enjoy a far better quality of life as a senior. It’s up to us to do it. As to the HOW? I’ll be writing about that in future SeniorFlow Moments.
Thank you for reading this SeniorFlow Moment.
