Leadership Longevity: Lead Well Live Well

Thrive to 95 – A Conversation with Elizabeth Phinney

• Dianne

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This episode will challenge your own thinking around ageing. 
How old do you want to live to?  What are your plans to get you there?
Fitness expert Elizabeth Phinney works with older people at all levels of fitness to help them achieve the strenght, balance and flexibility in order to the things they want in their life.  Like hike or play with grandbabies or both!

Elizabeth invites us to realize how much power, control and responsibility that we each have for how we age.  Power with the decisions we make, control with the daily behavior we choose and responsibility for maintaining our independence for our entire lives so that we don’t interfere and impose our disabilities on others.

Places you can find Elizabeth.
 www.fitnessafterfortyfive.com/products
www.fitnessafterfortyfive.com/programs/membership - to sign up for the BodSpir Meditative Strength Training Exercise Videos.

Thanks for listening. Feel free to follow the Leadership Longevity conversation on LinkedIn as well.
Just click here

Dianne Flemington:

Welcome to The Healthy Ageing coach podcast. I'm your coach, Dianne Flemington welcome tribe to another episode of the Healthy Ageing coach. Today, I am so happy to introduce you to Elizabeth Feeny. I have known her for gosh, we wrote a chapter for a collaborative book, I'm gonna say 15 years ago call, it was inside the expert series. And each of us was assigned a chapter was the first time I met her. We've stayed in connection. You know, that's one of the beautiful things of social media. There are lots of negatives about social media. But being able to connect with people that we've met in our past or through courses, or retreats, or things that we engage in has been beneficial. And I had a meeting with Elizabeth recently, and it felt like a really great fit to have her come in the episode and share what she's been up to. So I'd like to just read through what she shared with me as her bio and things that she's been up to. So her. Elizabeth Finney specializes in inspiring women to recognize the control they have over their aging and how to better understand the mind body partnership that we all have. She created BOD spur, meditative strength training for fitness after 45 and has been an ace. So that's an American Council on Exercise Certified Personal Trainer since 2000. She holds specialty certifications with ace for fitness, nutrition, older adult fitness, and weight management, all very important to us. She is long standing associate member of the American College of Sports Medicine. And lately, her book thrive to 95. And beyond, which totally caught my eye. Taking control of your aging journey was released in August 2023. And it's filled with a ton of tips and techniques and how to control your aging or take control of your aging. So I'm really excited to have her here. There are some surprises and treats in this one. So go grab your pen and paper, make sure you have that handy and be ready to take some notes. And let's get this ball rolling. Because there's lots of juice in this conversation. So in case of that you are all prepping and not listening to the intro. This is I would love to say a longtime friend of mine, Elizabeth City. And I think she has to correct me. But first of all, let me say the coolest book title that I've come across in a long time and a very much needed one. Yeah, the book title that Elizabeth has created is drive to 95 and beyond. So all of you in the tribe who know that I'm aiming for 120 Very rarely do we see you know, aspirational statements like this and to see it on a book cover. I was like, This is it. This is my girl. So we're really happy to have you here with us, Elizabeth today. Thank you very much for coming.

Elizabeth Phinney:

And thank you very much. No, it's nice to be actually I did have some arguing with my business coach. She said no, at 95 is too old. You got to do thrive to 85. I said that's not a no, not. Yeah, no, I agree. I'm shooting for 104. So I admire your 120. Oh,

Dianne Flemington:

thank you. Yes. It's a very small club, wouldn't you say right now that we're trying to grow?

Elizabeth Phinney:

People don't? Yeah, it's yeah, it's the whole concept of what the number means translated as far as their health is concerned. And that's what determines how old people want to live, how long people want to live. Yeah.

Dianne Flemington:

And to that point, the second part of your title of your book, taking control of your aging journey. That's it, right. And one of the things when I'm working with my leaders with when I'm coaching or mentoring them is, I think maybe 1% have actually thought about how old they want to live to, nevermind, how much focus they want to make sure are put on to that it's healthy, a healthy lifespan overlaying their lifespan, right. So what you're talking about here, what you're up to is fantastic. So can you share a bit about your story and how you got to be in this place of wanting to inspire women, you know, to recognize the control that they have over their aging? Sure,

Elizabeth Phinney:

sure. So I was about 45 years old, and my youngest child was five. And so I so I had her at 40. And while it was actually one month shy of my 40th birthday, and so I thought, well, if she waits till 40 to have children, then I'll be 80. And I wanted to be healthy and you know, do something about that. So I started working out. And at that point, it was Susan powder. I don't know if you remember Susan power will totally right with the crew cut bleach fine. So I was doing videos and woman, she always talked about modification. So she had old people, young people, pet fat people, thin people in those classes, high steps, low steps. Anyway, so that kind of got me, that's pertinent to what I teach now. But anyway, so I started working at a gym, and then somebody just simply suggested me, you know, you can make a living at this. And I said, What do you mean, she said, You can be a personal trainer. And I was like, oh, at that point, I was a single mother, I had three very young children like five, three, and one. And I was on food stamps, Section eight and Medicaid. And so I thought, I can do this. So I studied, I researched and found the American Council on Exercise, which is pretty much the very high standard. It's not the American College of Sports Medicine is the number one. And ACES is next to that, but I wasn't going to get my master's degree ever imagine. So. So I went to ace and I got certified and I hung a shingle and where I was living, we had a second living room. So I was able to set that up as a gym, and there was no other trainer in town. So if you build it, they will come. And so I never that just started my career. And I had client after clients, ranging in age from, oh, gosh, starting, I want I was 45 When I started, so I didn't want to take women in their 20s and 30s. So it was pretty much in there. I think 42 was the youngest I took and all the way up to I've done 96

Dianne Flemington:

anything, that's that's a gift, actually, I look at that as a privilege to be able to be amongst people who are aspiring and inspiring in their 90s and beyond. That's why I love you, you're entitled to

Elizabeth Phinney:

be with them for like, you know, the 96 year old who unfortunately recently passed, but she man we were together for 20 years. You know, that's a new when you're meeting with somebody twice a week for an hour each time you get to know people you know very well and you know, their families and you know, so it's a really Yeah, it's a very, I loved it, I loved it everything until COVID. Of course, shut down. So, so

Dianne Flemington:

tribe, we're talking something that I want you just to land here for a minute and think about because I'm always inviting you to look across your systems, your people. And notice if there's anybody in there that is inspiring to you, and living a healthy life that you would look up to that's older than you, especially if they're in their 80s and 90s. And there's someone you can aspire to. So just just wanted to pause here and remind those tribe members who can who haven't identified a mentor for themselves that are later in their age and just rocking it, that you kind of hook up or line yourself up with somebody. And especially someone like Elizabeth here who reached out to I mean, there's lots of networks that you're going to make here inside the podcast group. So identify with someone and start making the effort to find that mentor. It's super important. Thank you, Elizabeth. So you talked about the mind body partnership just a little bit briefly, what is it? What is that? And why is that important for us know about? Well, as

Elizabeth Phinney:

as in medical science basically has completely compartmentalized our bodies, right. So they so there's a heart doctor, and there's a bone doctor, and there's a you know, stomach doctor. So we tend to think of our bodies as being different parts that aren't related. And of course, the homeopathic and natural medicine is much more all encompassing, and involves the entire body. And so everything that controls our body is actually controlled by our mind, because, you know, we get what we think about we become what we think about. And so we need to really nurture that mind body partnership. You know, if you think that 80 is old, it's old. Whether it is or it isn't, is irrelevant, it's because it's what you think. So when your body is the biggest thing is when your body's trying desperately to communicate with you. So you eat and you get, you get that heartburn, you know, so you take a couple of times or you take a role or you take whatever you take, and it kind of appeases it and that's fine. In the meantime, your body's going, please don't eat pizza. Pizza does not agree with your system down here. So I'm signaling to you in the way only way that I can that this is not something that you want to eat. But because we're not taught that instead of trying to mask the symptoms to respect the symptoms, and recognize why they're there. And so that's what the whole mind body partnership is about. So when your body's talking to you Stop, listen, what is the body trying to say? And we do that sometimes we if we hurt our ankle or something. And then so you want to respect it. So you if you fall down and you've, you've sprained your ankle, so your body's talking to you, it hurts. You got to ice it. And that'll help. But we tend to ignore the pain, because we've got too much to do. And we've got to go here and we've got to go there. And they don't have time for a sprained ankle. In the meantime, maybe you fell down because it was time to kind of sit down for a few days, maybe just something preempting? Yeah. And the universe just kind of threw this at you. And, you know, and it's, I mean, it happened to me. I was in California last year, it's the beginning of March. And it was awful. Because I fell. I mean, I just felt bad, bad, bad. I broke my ankle, I hurt my hip hurt underneath my arm, I was a mess. But as soon as I fell down, I'm screaming at the universe going, Why? Why did this happen? Why did I do this? Because I had to figure out what did I need a right, I didn't need a rest what's going on. And then, of course, my body completely healed within four weeks, which is unheard of, at 70 years old. So it completely healed. So that was why I fell was so that my body could show that everything that I am doing for myself is working, because I can heal, I can heal a fractured ankle, nevermind all the 10 tendons and ligaments and muscle tissue that I strain everywhere, I couldn't even roll over in bed, it hurt so much over here, but within a month, to have all that tissue healed was remarkable. As a matter of fact, that's the introduction book, I changed the introduction to tell that story. Because that's why people need to read the book. But that's why they need to pay attention to what we're talking about is that, really, if you just listen to your body and give to your body, what it needs, it's going to give back to you. So when you get to your, your party will respond to you in kind. And so that's I love that.

Dianne Flemington:

So hold on a sec there. That's because it's a couple of things I want to draw out. One is that there's that there's the mindset and the language we're using as we're talking about aging. And I have my 88 year old father here with me in Australia right now everyone is like, wow, he flew over there. That's amazing. So there's, it's, it's quite fascinating, because his language is like, I'm not an old man. And yet, he didn't listen to the body symptoms. So now he's dealing with some lots of knee pain that has limited his ability to walk, right? So there's there's that the not having that learning that you're talking about now, right is we didn't know to or that genre didn't learn to listen to their body was kind of like, segregated. Listen to that doctor or that doctor. And so this is where he's sitting at now. So I'm just kind of pulling that into, like, real time. And those are really good points. And also, oh, yeah, no, I

Elizabeth Phinney:

was just gonna say his mindset is fabulous. But the need to match the mindset with what your body needs physically, in order to accommodate what his mind is saying. It doesn't just happened, you know, you've got to strengthen your legs. And that trip was from his body. You know, that's, that's a, that's a big trip for an 88 year old. prepared for it, you know what I mean?

Dianne Flemington:

I bought this kind of sporty fancy, I call it a wheelie chair rather than a wheelchair. Trying to entice him into it, so I can at least take them for walks around the river around here or something. They won't have anything to do with it. Right. So another mindset thing, right? So it's interesting what we're up against. Oh,

Elizabeth Phinney:

yeah. My never put her in a wheelchair. No, she will take no, absolutely not ever it was it was awful. And because it'd be easiest.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah. And it opens up their world like the least they can get out on the nature see some things that they may not be able to see. But that's our issue. Right? Well,

Elizabeth Phinney:

let's just so their ration It's too embarrassing. It's just too serious. And

Dianne Flemington:

maybe that answers the My next question when you're wanting, you know, why is it so hard for people to change their behavior and get into a workout routine or change their diet or sit in a wheelchair or you know, do what's necessary?

Elizabeth Phinney:

Well, because we, we are all taught and trained to think about how we're going to do things and we'll get our lists out or we'll you know, we'll do our to do list and we'll figure it out. We're going to do is start the calendar on this thing and doo doo doo. And everything is coming up here we get motivated, right? We get the dangling carrot and we know what we want. We want to you know, lose 10 In pounds, or whatever it is. And so that works, I was in the incentive business and the incentive travel business people worked really hard, sold a lot of widgets, so they could win the trip. Right. And that was motivation. But in order to really, truly change your behavior, it has to come from your heart, it's, it's, you were inspired to do it. Ah, now we're talking about, now the whole Mind, Body Spirit is involved. And so now we're talking about our life purpose, we're talking about why, why we're here and what we're trying to accomplish in our lifetime. And so now it's coming from a whole different place. So and this is the hardest thing, I think, for people who are extremely overweight, there's such a discord going on, in their mind. And it's very hard for them to get to their heart. And, and so and that's, and so weight is having a weight problem is really a no pun intended, it's a huge issue. And it's, of course, never bought the health issues that are perpetuated because of it. But I'm at least what I found in people that I've worked with, as soon as we can get to their heart, and there are some things like in the book, there's an exercise you can do, that kind of helps to bring you it has inspired gotten people to their inspiration point a lot quicker, and it has to do with you know, thinking about your future and stuff like that. But it's, you know, why it's so important isn't? Yeah.

Dianne Flemington:

Um, in the book you talk also about, and I've seen this before, and I'm not sure if it's just because I'm going through that menopause stage, and everything seems to be about strength training, but also, you know, you're talking about that too. But in your words, you know, why is strength training so important for us?

Elizabeth Phinney:

It's really the, I will say for in order to not have happened, like, what happened with your dad, you know, is, in order for us to be more vibrant. Of course, a good diet is probably even more important than strength training. But if you're going to do activities, if you're going to take a really long plane ride, if you're going to garden, if you're going to play sports, you really need to strength train first, because what happens is, your joints will do anything that your brain tells it to. Okay, so if your brain is telling your body to run over and hit that tennis ball, your body is going to get over there come hell or high water, whether the muscles have the strength to do it or not, is irrelevant, because the joints can take over the joints will get you there, your hips and your knees and your ankles catches the ball. But as you do that over and over and over again, you're going to wear out your your joints. Perfect example of this is pickleball. Right? This

Dianne Flemington:

plays, okay, can over the world, over the world, right?

Elizabeth Phinney:

I mean, fabulous. I just admire the guy who created it so much. But so you have the hip replacement, and knee replacement from Pickleball has increased 62% In the last year. I mean, it's insane. Because people are older, they're in their 50s and 60s, and doing pickleball. Maybe they played tennis in their 20s and 30s. Or maybe they even now play paddle ball. That's cool. It's all racquet sports, right? But they're not strength training. And when you get into your 60s, your atrophy level of muscle tissue is dramatic. If you're not strength training to stop it, we lose a half a pound of muscle mass a year. So in 30 years, that's 15 pounds. And we stopped that starts when we're in our 20s. Right, so by the time you get to 50, you've already lost 15 pounds of muscle mass. Regardless of what your weight on the scale says it doesn't matter. It has to do with how strong you are. And we don't necessarily feel it. Because we're still we're our bodies still doing it. When you keep that up for 10 or 20 years by the time you're 70 your joints are shot. And that's and so and what I found is that heavy people tip now this is typical. This is my my survey. Typically, if you are overweight, by 30 or more pounds, your knees will go or your ankles will go. But if you're a slider build, your hips will go. But something's gonna go. Right. And it's it has nothing to do with strength training. I was just the other night. I was I went to a funeral of a college friend's husband so there was some college friends in there. Right? So we're talking 50 years ago, Diane, that we graduated from college, which is

Dianne Flemington:

awesome. I know right? Amazing. I'm sorry, but that's an amazing reunion. I want to go to a reunion like that, you know where there's people that are living long into their life when you come back and go how's it going for you? Right?

Elizabeth Phinney:

Well, and the fun part is is that we're we're those quote unquote old ladies now but we look nothing like the ladies didn't when we were there, right that we're back in there, right? But anyway, it was just one friend of mine. And so we're walking and she's slow walk and I said, Okay, what's going down. And so she told me the dramatic story about her hip and the hip replacement. She she had four hip replacements. And the last one they put in the her leg isn't is a half an inch shorter than the other leg. And I said, Well, are you going to have it fixed? And she said, Oh, God, no, I can't be I can't do it. And I'm thinking, okay, and I let it go. But I'm so think that over time, she's only 70. And you start walking like that your hips. It's just the pain. I mean, it's just her spine is going to get out of line. The knees are going every everything.

Dianne Flemington:

Wow, okay, pause Elizabeth, because I want the tribe to hear this. This has been a monumental story for me. So I make up their listening to this closely enough. We can't forfeit our muscles. Because what I just really drew the line. And I think I was pretty smart around workouts and knowing what's going on. But you really drew a nice clear line for me that I cannot sacrifice my joints, my hips, my knees, my ankles at the cost of no muscle, right? Because that's what's gonna go and that's the wear and tear in the long game. So very much older. Yeah, shoulders, all of those joint areas are going to take the brunt of non muscle strength. Yeah, got it. Got it. So I hope the tribe heard that too. Thank you for driving that point home. Thank you. So what role does stress play in controlling how we h2 Because that's mentioned in your book?

Elizabeth Phinney:

Right. Well, my favorite chapter title stress the silent saboteur. I mean, yes, I, I'm very proud of myself for that chapter title.

Dianne Flemington:

And so you should be, I guess, right. So

Elizabeth Phinney:

because and the reason why it's the silent saboteurs this and so you can be eating a perfect diet for you. You can be exercising on a regular basis, you can be doing yoga, you can be walking, you can be getting good night's sleep, you can be hydrating, having enough water every day. So everything is balanced in your in your in your life, and you're doing really, really well. However, if you are living with someone who you just can't stand or you hate your job, the stress that you create and the cortisol that is pumped into your body, because remember, our physiology was creating a few 100,000 years ago, and we have not evolved very far. So when stress strikes, we go into fight or flight. And that's what we did back then in caveman days. And that's still what we do now. But we don't have the freedom to flee, we have to physically exist in that stressful situation. So the cortisol just kind of wreaks havoc all over our bodies. And so if we do not find a way to deal with that stress, it will it to me it's one of the key precursors to disease because it's dis ease, right? And so it really it can make us sick. So if you have a precondition, a genealogical precondition to breast cancer, let's say because your mother had it, and your sister had it, and you could get it, it's more feasible or more possible to get it if in fact, you don't handle your stress because the cortisol has to go somewhere the negativity has to go somewhere. So it's going to gather in your body in your most vulnerable spot. So now meditation is hard, right? I mean, for me to sit still, for 20 minutes a day is nigh on impossible, but I do it. And I do it my way. And my way that I have found that works for me is I cannot empty my brain than work. I put me on very quiet, relaxing music. I do deep breathing. I do very long, slow inhales through my nose, long, slow exhales and you purse your breath like you're blowing through a straw in its controlled breathing. And on the exhale, I count 22 of those in honor of my best friend business coach who passed away on 222 2020. So I took that 22 number, and I do 22 breaths every morning. And it takes me it takes about 17 or 18 minutes. So 22 breaths and 18 minutes are pretty long, slow breaths. And so that just completely slows everything down in my system. And it's almost a it's a gift. It's my gift to my body in the morning. I do with a David Yi I think his name is Rhys P meditate rpm and I do I get it I can't dress P RPM right right. And it's but before I go downstairs before I leave that bedroom, I'm totally ready to go do my workout or whatever. I lie down and I lie down. I don't sit up. I lie down. I put the headphones on have it I bagged on and and I Oh, and I keep a rose quartz crystal over my heart and some other crystal that I never remember the name of it over my abdomen. And then I can I count with my fingers as I do the breasts and that that's what works for me. And okay. Dramatic Yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

I was gonna say I just wanted the tribe to notice see how Elizabeth has made it her own way I don't want what's been the biggest challenge when I work with leaders is they they read away you know, they read a book or they listen to it now is because faster is the listen to an audio book at two times the speed. And that's my leaders. Hello, hello, my highperformance leaders are in visiting. And they're like, Okay, now I gotta meditate. It's like, a break or something, or, okay, it's not working for me, right? So I want you people to get really handle on how you beautifully demonstrated just making it your own and finding your own time of the day that works for you. And building an environment around you that allows it to be a successful experience. So make it your own readers and listeners, just don't worry about what you're seeing out in the world. Just find that time to deregulate your nervous system and just calm breathing. Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

Elizabeth Phinney:

I can just add to Yeah, because if you can't do 20 minutes, and I certainly get that, at least take five minutes, and just down and look out the window. And look at nature, right and just look at nature. Look at the trees, Look at the birds look at the grass, look at anything on he has engraved and just do long, deep breaths if you can just do five minutes is better than no minutes. Right? Yeah. And that's yeah, that's, that's the key thing is just some, do something to give, again, give back to your body.

Dianne Flemington:

Maybe this is a good time, because I know you have a gift for the tribe. And I'm wondering if this is probably a good time before we get into other aspects or before we run out of time. Would you be able to walk us through a little experience for ourselves in this moment with us?

Elizabeth Phinney:

Oh, what a very good segue. Okay.

Dianne Flemington:

Excellent. All right, I'm gonna play along. I mean, I'm going to participate not play, I'm going to participate.

Elizabeth Phinney:

Okay, so you're going to sit up straight in the chair, and your feet are flat and the floor, you're going to put your hands on top of your knees, okay. And just close your eyes and just do some nice slow deep breaths in through the nose. And exhale through whichever portal you'd like. And now I want you to focus on your feet. And I want you to think about your feet, what they look like what they feel like on the ground. Think about your ankles. And I want you to say thank you, thank you feet for always me to always taking me where I need to go for always being there every time I stand up. And every time I get out of bed and every time I sit down Thank you feet for all that you do. deep breath and thank you ankles and calves every time I walk. You are there to help support my legs and support my body. Thank you calves and ankles and onto your knees. Oh those fabulous knees that bend so much all the time and hopefully are not hurting. But when they are you pay attention to that. Thank you knees for all the bending that you do. To the thighs, you gorgeous thighs, you strong thighs that hold up my body all day every day. Every time I stand though thighs are there to help keep me straight. Thank you thighs for being there. And your hips. Sometimes the hips are bigger than you'd like but it's okay because they do their job every time you sit down every time you stand up, your hips are there to bend for you. Thank you hips for always being there and helping me and onto your lower abdomen where your intestines and colon are for digesting all your food, the good food and the bad food the intestines do the best job that it can to help take away the nutrients and store them for you and to get rid of the toxins. Thank you intestines for all that you do. And above the navel all the other organs that we have, from the gallbladder to the spleen to the kidneys and all the other ones thank you so much for All you do and making this miraculous system, all the systems that you have throughout our body thank you for all the work that you do. And to you lungs, you incredibly strong pair of air sacs, it's remarkable what you do to provide the oxygen that gets into my blood that circulates throughout my body. Thank you lungs for providing all the purity that you do and cleansing the air the way that you do. And, of course, the heart, your wonderful warm heart, your center for inspiration, your center for your emotion, the mind and the heart are very connected. And you need to understand that. And the heart is strong. The heart is where your intention comes from. Always listen to your heart, and trust your heart, it should be the loudest voice that you hear. Thank you hard for all that you do. And your wonderful hands and arms, oh my goodness, carrying everything that you carry, whether it's in front of us out to the sides, or over our heads, thank you hands and arms for all that you do for us. And thank you to your throat and your voice. How we communicate with the rest of the world is through our voice. Thank you voice and thank you throat for all that you do. And for the other senses, our five senses of sight and sound in and smell, etc. Thank you for all that you provide to help us know what is right and what is wrong for our bodies. And to help us get pleasure out of different things for our bodies to thank you to the five senses. And to that incredible mind and brain that we have. Thank you so much for all the thinking that you do. The good thinking and the bad thinking allowing us to discern the good from the bad and the right from the wrong. Thank you so much brain for always being there when I need you. And one more step outside of our bodies in our aura in our energy field. It spreads more than three or four feet around us. That is how you sense people who they are and what they are when you get in their presence. Thank you energy field for always tuning in to what I should know. And a deep breath and put your palms together thumbs to heart and bow your head namaste

Dianne Flemington:

Oh, that's beautiful. I feel expanded and taller. And just how much I can't remember the last time I think on my body parts. Right? I mean, that's yeah,

Elizabeth Phinney:

that's it's it's it's that simple. It's that simple.

Dianne Flemington:

All right. Thank you so much for that a little bit. I hope the tribe you really got presents for what it feels like to be in relationship with each of our body parts and what they do. And I love how you move that even outside of our body to get us present to you know that energy field that does serve us. Beautiful. Now I got some questions for you, girl. Oh my god. Okay. So what age do you want to live a healthy life to?

Elizabeth Phinney:

Well, 104 Yes.

Dianne Flemington:

Okay. There's a reason.

Elizabeth Phinney:

There's a reason for that. Is I came across a woman. I don't know, how many years Well, when I started all this like 25 years ago, and her name is Beatrice wood. Yeah. And she was a Sculptris in California. And she was 104. I never met her in person. But when I discovered her, and I started reading about her, I read her autobiography, and she was pretty much like a debutante out of New York City, but very much ahead of her time. And she was so vibrant at 104 and I thought okay, I'll shoot for 104 Now mind you, that was 25 years ago. Now shooting for 104 is not quite as abstract as it was back then. But it's still so I'm Yeah, so I've got 104 on the brain. Okay, great. Yeah till then

Dianne Flemington:

so so what will that allow you to be do and have to live to 100 and then

Elizabeth Phinney:

well, I figure I'm, I'm I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing which is doing workshops. I love getting in front of a group of people and having a I call it my conversation. Let's let's take control of your day. Eugene Purani, let's thrive to 95 and have a conversation about it. And let me share what I know. So I'm doing that all over the place. And I love it. And it's so much fun. And I meet tons of different people. So that's, that's, I'm doing that. And then I figured I'll do that another, I don't know, eight or 10 years, and then I'll be on the speaking circuit. Yeah, traveling all over the place and speaking and yeah, and I figure, I have a vision. I got I've had this vision for about at least 20 years, where I'm on a stage. And there's about 1000 people in the audience, men and women standing ovation, and I'm taking my curtain calls taking my bow saying thank you and everything. And and people in the audience can can you believe she's 95? Yeah. So that was that's, that's my vision. So

Dianne Flemington:

you'll be doing that for sure. Yeah, yeah. So what is something that scares you about growing older? Well, it doesn't.

Elizabeth Phinney:

I don't really not really anything. I know what I have found with people with the biggest thing I think, for older adults, is what their biggest fear is, is losing control. And I have seen it happen time and time and time again. And it, it breaks my heart, what happens to adults in their 90s, who are still driving and their kids come around and take their keys away. And it's like an eye, I go crazy. And I can't tell you, the deterioration that happens when that happens is dramatic. And it's when when it's not the person's choice. It's one thing, my mother, God bless her, she lived to 98 when she was 91, I think, or 90, she drove her car into the general store all the way into the general store in town didn't hurt anybody. But we had everything from coffee pods to gardening gloves inside the car when we got it out. So she decided, she said I'm not driving anymore. I said, Okay, got it. So I think it's the law or, or, you know, you're not going to put me in one of those homes or one of those places. It's when they when they lose control. So what my whole shtick is, is that, don't let that happen to you. You have the power, it take control over how you age, it's the choices that you make that determine how you will age don't make, you know, so it's, it's like, I don't want my kids to have to go through what I went through with my mom ever, ever. And so I want to be as as healthy and as physically independent as I can for as long as I possibly can. So that I don't have to put that burden on my kids. I mean, that's my big thing. So I had to you know, I took care of my mom for eight years, which I love her to pieces, but that's not the point at all. You know, it's it's, it's, it's what it takes away from my life. While I'm taking care of her as much as I love her and people some people have no problem with it. God bless them. But I just my life. I choose not to do that to my kids. So that's why I do a lot of Yeah, yeah.

Dianne Flemington:

I think you already shared this, but I think you already gave us her name from an earlier answer. But who is the coolest older person you know, that are alive? Oh, well,

Elizabeth Phinney:

I will I have to say that BHS would just she just pretty. But now I just this morning I just watched an interview with Jane Fonda. And I gotta know, right? Are 80 years old that woman, but I that's that's I'll do that. I'll let me let Jane at 80 and I'll emulate Jane at 90. Now, you know really? Yeah, she I'm very, very much her mind is very there. And she's very strong willed. Yeah, she's she's a powerhouse. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

yep, she is. Thank you so much for being with us and taking time out of your life and your mission, which is so important. We need you out there. We need people like you out in the world, making us getting us inspiring us to think about how we need to journey into our aging life. And having little disciplines which you offer in your book, like really great tips and tangible ways to start implementing into our day to day life. So we can aspire to live a healthy life and hopefully reduce the amount of those hard decisions that we have to make, like you were talking about there where we're, you know, things are taken away from us, not from our own choice, but, you know, by someone else. I think that's a really great point. So thanks so much for taking time today to be able to share that with the tribe. They are going to love this. And in all of this, you've been an inspiration to me, you really highlighted a handful of points that I'm going to integrate into my life and one is I need to put more time and into my aura energy, I've kind of neglected that. And though I do five minute meditations, you know, three times throughout the day as my habit, I do body scans, but I've never given gratitude and I'm going to add gratitude during that meditation now, so thank you for that as well. And the other bit is supporting the people around me with not just the to dues, here's how it has to be, but help assisting them with their mindset a little bit more. I think that's a really important place that we need to start with the ones that are around us that we care and love, and help them with their mindset. So thank you for that. That's a big gift from from my side. And for those of you who are interested in working with or learning more about Elizabeth below and in the podcast in the YouTube channel, if you're watching us you'll see below all of her contact details. I'm sure Elizabeth would love to hear from you and help you in any way she can. And those leaders who would like to have Elizabeth speak in their organization do you speak in organizations Elizabeth to help the aging workforce work with their aging a

Elizabeth Phinney:

lot of corporations to you know, I'll also planning fiscal retirement let me help plan the physical retirement.

Dianne Flemington:

Great, that's beautiful. Yeah. And online or just in person? What's your point of preference? I never didn't know what to do. Can you do online if there? Oh, sure.

Elizabeth Phinney:

I was do online, but I much prefer to get the energy of the people I yeah, I like to be in the room. Okay,

Dianne Flemington:

so that's good to know, you know, if you'd like to the in person presence. And for those of you who are looking to work with me in terms of your legacy, or your leadership journey, and how you might be exiting the career that you've been working so hard in. Feel free to reach out with any questions or if you want to talk about any of what Elizabeth has been sharing, I'm happy to be a go between as well. So I wish all of you nothing but health and long, fulfilling life with passion and loving and kind connections with each other. So thank you, Elizabeth, and Ciao for now.