I often negotiate with myself to justify skipping a habit, like exercising, taking a cold shower or going downstairs to take my supplements after I’ve crawled into bed at the end of a long day. 

I’m very persuasive and creative in my arguments. I come up with all sorts of clever reasons. At least, that’s how they sound at the time in my head. 

But I’m not as persuasive as my counterargument, which asks me to imagine my life in thirty to forty years when my children are parents. I ask myself, ‘Do you want to be around for that?’ More importantly, ‘Do you want to play an active part in your grandchildren’s lives?’ The answer is yes. A million times, yes.  

I’d do anything to be involved in that. 

So, I get to it. I do my squats and my push-ups. I turn the shower as cold as it will go and stand under it. I take my supplements. 

If I want to delay the onset of the inevitable decline in my physicality and my mental faculties, I have to start looking after future me today. Not only for me but for those I care about, even if those people don’t exist yet. Even if they never exist. Because who can afford to gamble on something like that?