Each year, Americans spend close to $1 billion on over 30,000 different self-help books, seeking guidance to life’s challenges or simply finding inspiration to live the “good life.” But who are the wisest people, the real experts on life? As Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie) and Karl Pillemer (30 Lessons for Living) have discovered, the best persons to ask about persevering through hard times, living a life with fulfillment and without regret, and learning to love authentically are the people who have already done it themselves — what Millenials refer to as “oldies.” Invariably, those who have lived longer have also learned longer — with age comes experience and the wisdom gained from reflecting on that experience.
For truly timeless wisdom, let us turn to a very select group of oldies — supercentenarians: people who are older than 110 years. According to the Gerontology Research Group, as of this writing, there are only 35 supercentenarians alive today: 33 are female, and only 2 are male; their average age is 113 years. Over the years, in various interviews, these remarkable human beings have shared their secret for a good and long life. Basically, if you want to live past 110 years, you have to subscribe to the philosophy of “Don’t worry, he happy.” I know — easier said than done. Here are some of the highlights (name followed by age):
Jeanne Calment (122, died 1997): “If you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it.”
Sarah Knauss (119, died 1999): She explained that not letting things upset her was her secret to long life.
Marie-Louise Febronie Meilleur (117, died 1998): “Hard work could never kill a person.”
Violet Brown (117, died 2017): “Hard work; I was a cane farmer. I would do every work I could manage to help myself.”
Emma Morano (117, died 2017): “Being single” and getting to bed early each day.
Maria Capovilla (116, died 2006): Her daughter said, “She always had a very tranquil character and she does not get upset by anything.”
Susannah Muscat Jones (116, died 2016): “I have no secret. I just live with my family. That’s the only thing I can say. My family makes me happy.”
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Read related posts: Letters to a Young Poet
The Wisdom of Pi Patel
The Wisdom of Hindsight
For further reading: www.businessinsider.com/the-secrets-to-long-life-according-to-the-oldest-people-in-the-world-2016-12
http://www.grg.org/Adams/TableE.html
http://www.dailyinfographic.com/lessons-from-oldest-people-ever-recorded?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DailyInfographic+%28Daily+Infographic%29
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