My cousin Ed turned 69 this year. Not a milestone, but pretty close to 70. While chatting with his doctor about daily activities, what he is doing for his health, and his overall life at this time, the doctor asked, “When you are 90 years old, what are you going to wish you had done now?”

That question really struck a chord with me. I hope I live to at least 90, but if I don’t start improving my health now, and my physical life is challenging at 61, it’ll be significantly tougher in 29 years. If I make it to 90, it’ll be a miracle.

I use a walker, and getting around is hard but possible. I could be taking a walk outside while the weather is nice. I could walk around my house more. I could do chair aerobics, exercise my arms with hand weights, take the garbage out more often, and perform balance exercises. But honestly, it’s hard, and I just don’t feel like it.

I follow Nikki Aguayo on Facebook. She began her weight loss journey at 730 pounds and has lost 300 so far. One of the things I love most about her is she tells you her journey wasn’t a straight line. She’s lost, she’s gained, she hasn’t been perfect, but she has never given up. She always says she “does hard things” and she inspires me to do hard things, too. Self-talk is crucial. When I think I “can’t,” I remind myself:

• I do hard things.
• I can get up from that chair—I have a 100% success rate.

And now I’m adding, “If you don’t do it now, what’s 90 going to look like?”

A physical therapist once told me that I can’t walk up steps without holding on unless I can balance on one foot. You have to lift one leg long enough to get the other foot onto the next step without falling. Seems obvious, right? But it wasn’t something I had considered. While in physical therapy, we worked on balance, but after my sessions ended, I didn’t follow through.

It occurred to me that the same principle applies to walking. You have to be able to lift your foot and stand on the other long enough to walk steadily. Seems obvious, but it was a new realization.

So, my commitment to better health this week is to practice balancing on one foot. Every time I use the bathroom, I’ll spend a few minutes working on it by the sink, where I can hold on and be safe.

Do I want to? No. Am I going to do it? Yes. Because I want to be healthy at 90. And I do hard things. And, I’m going to report in to my community at the Health Warrior Tribe every day, to hold myself accountable.

When Ed told me this story, he mused that 90 was not that far away—only 20 years. I disagreed. People live a lot of life in 20 years. You can get married, have a baby and send that baby off to college in 20 years, among other things.

20 years is a very long time to live if you’re unhealthy, in pain, and unable to live the life you want to live. Because of that, I’m going to do what I can now, so my years between now and 90 are as good as they can be.

What hard things do you do? And how do you practice positive self-talk?