Sir Christopher Ball: ‘Avoiding a Victor Meldrew miserable mindset is the key to longer life’

The man who set a world record when he ran 10 marathons in 10 days, aged 72, shows how a positive attitude can work wonders as we grow older

When I meet Sir Christopher Ball at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford, he tells me that he has a bold goal. 
“I’m planning to live to 100 and run a marathon on my 100th birthday. Don’t laugh,” says Sir Christopher, who is currently 89. 
I do laugh, not because his plan is ridiculous, but because he is one of those people whose enthusiasm for life is immediately infectious. 
Ball is one of the co-founders of the Oxford Longevity Project, which is behind the annual Smart Ageing Summit. Their stated mission is to “empower you with the knowledge and tools you need for a healthier, longer life”. 
According to Sir Christopher, staying positive and avoiding a miserable mindset is a key part of a healthy, long life. 
“I’m making a strong claim that this positivity is as important for health and longevity, if not more important, than the more obvious things like exercising and eating a healthy diet. And that means arranging your life in such a way that you have loving family and friends, and fostering them,” he says. 
It also means avoiding what we’ll call the Victor Meldrew syndrome, and turning into the archetypal grumpy old man. 
“Older people would probably say they’ve got a lot to complain about, and that’s true, we do all decline. Adopting being miserable may bring short-term rewards, in that people are sorry for you, until they get bored. But as a way of life, it is a death sentence. I say smile, talk to strangers in the street, and make somebody a cup of tea. My doctor and I talk a lot about these things and he confirms the importance of this medically,” he says. 
Ball had a long and distinguished career before getting involved with the science of longevity. After serving in the Parachute Regiment, he was warden of Keble College, Oxford, then the first chancellor of the University of Derby. He didn’t take up running until he was 67, after his doctor told him he was overweight and had high cholesterol. At 72, he achieved a world long-distance running record for completing 10 marathons in 10 days.
He traces his conversion to the power of positive thinking to his late 70s, when he survived a heart attack and triple heart bypass surgery. 
“I went to see the chief executive of the hospital afterwards and told him how grateful I was, and that I wanted to give something back. I said: ‘I’m a good fundraiser, would you like any help?’ And he said yes, we have an appeal for our heart unit. Two weeks later I was chairing it and helped them raise £1.25 million. I tell that story to show that if you have a positive outlook you can always find things to feel good about even in a grim experience,” he says. 
The experience also helped him formulate his belief in the importance of being “responsible patients” rather than relying on the NHS to fix our bad choices. 
“I’m somewhat ashamed that in my earlier years, I carried on as if health was my right, and if anything went wrong, an expert would fix it. I now realise that I should be responsible for my health just like we are responsible for our income. We get a job, we save for our pensions, we don’t sit around saying, why doesn’t the Government pay me more money? I believe that we need to feel the same way about our health and indeed our happiness,” he says. 
To that end, based on his own experiences and what he has learnt through his work at the Oxford Longevity Project, Sir Christopher has some advice for how budding Victor Meldrews can escape their miserable mindsets, become responsible patients, and live a long and healthy life.
“If you’re old, then declining in old age is the nature of the game you’re now playing. If your habit of thought is to look back to the good days and wish you still had them, you’re bound to be miserable. The solution is to be rather fierce with yourself and discipline yourself to have a coherent plan for the future.
“When my wife and I were students in Oxford, we saw a musical called Salad Days that included a lovely song, We Said We Wouldn’t Look Back. We promised ourselves we’d always look ahead. 
“I know I’m not going to get the next big job; I’ve had that bit of my life and it was very enjoyable. But now I am thinking and planning for the longevity project. We all need goals to give purpose and meaning to our lives. Your plans can be anything; if you want to keep playing bridge when you’re 100, for example, you’d better keep your brain sharp to do it. 
“Part of my discipline is also to enjoy the present. There is always something to enjoy, even when it’s raining.”  
“I’ve always been busy and my wife says I have a bad habit of taking on too much. Stress is very bad for us, so at the age of 70, I made a promise to myself that I was time-rich and I made it public to family and friends. It’s astonishing, but just by reminding yourself that you are time-rich and that time is under your control, you can cope with the demands. 
“I’ve had 20 years of having that attitude and I find it wonderfully settling and cheering. 
“Of course, you do have to make it real for yourself by being ruthless about how much you take on. People have jobs, children, family, relationships and so on. Of course, you can’t go back and make different choices, but you can learn to moderate the pressures of the diary.”
“I usually recommend a vegan-ish diet to give people a little wriggle room; however, I eat a strict vegan diet myself. My granddaughter started me on this journey when she asked me: ‘Grandpa, do you think it’s kind to animals to eat them?’ I was so pleased with that question, and we had a great debate about it and concluded that it would be kinder not to eat your cousins, the other mammals.
“I started by becoming a vegetarian and then got concerned about farming practices and global warming, so became a vegan, and learnt that is very healthy for longevity also, and that was game, set and match. It’s not easy and involves a good deal of social skills in navigating family and friends who aren’t even vegetarian, but that’s part of the fun of the game. My wife eats meat, and we live happily together and tolerate each other’s choices.” 
“Highs like chocolate, sweets, drinking a lot of alcohol, whatever it is, feel good at the time, but do they bring true happiness? No, they don’t. 
“Happiness is something that lasts, and it lasts at least until the next morning. Yet if you overindulge, what you’ll have the next morning is regret. 
“Think about the famous marshmallow test. You put a marshmallow in front of a child and tell them you’re going to come back in 10 minutes. If they have eaten it then that’s the end of the game; if they haven’t, then they can have two and eat them both. 
“The test is a very good predictor of future success. Learning to control impulses is an important part of growing up, and it doesn’t stop just because you’ve become an older person. You still have to learn not to choose immediate pleasures, tempting as they are. True happiness comes from a different source.”
“The easiest way to get true happiness is to do something nice for another person. It has a double whammy of goodness. It makes them feel better, and it makes you feel better. So go into the street, and pick up the litter smilingly. Strangers will thank you and you’ve made the street cleaner. 
“My father taught me that human beings, whether they like it or not, always behave selfishly. So learn what I call subtle selfishness. Doing something for other people is subtly selfish because it makes you happy, as well as them.”
“The feeling of being encircled by people who care about you and who you care about is terribly important for our health. We are very fortunate. Our eldest daughter lives next door, and we make it our business to be in regular contact with our other four children. One of our children sadly died, and yes, that is one of the experiences of ageing: people you love start to die, and you have to learn to cope. But I have very happy memories of our time together. 
“We also have eight grandchildren, and that’s a glorious relationship because you don’t have to parent them like you do with your children.
“Choose your friends carefully. I had to let go of a couple of friends who didn’t bring out the best in me. They probably felt the same way about me. 
“If you don’t have good friends, go out and find them.  
“Cherish the friends who are good for you, who accept your loving care and interest, and provide it in return. I keep a list of people that are important to me and I make sure to be in regular contact.” 
“I had an extraordinary experience a few months ago, with my eldest son, now in his 60s. He was a difficult child, and he’s been a difficult adult, but we’ve managed. And we were having a cup of coffee, and he suddenly said, ‘Dad, you know, you were a very severe father.’ 
“My immediate thought was, no, I wasn’t, I was a loving father. But then I thought, hang on, this isn’t going to help. So I said: ‘I’m really sorry. I obviously owe you an apology. But I hope I’m not that severe a father now.’ And he said: ‘Dad, because you’ve said what you’ve just said, everything has changed between us.’ We’ve been best friends ever since.
“All I did was accept his judgment. I’ve proved the power of an apology, and it’s available to you to knit a relationship back together again, at the cost of your pride. Who wants their pride when they can have a good relationship? Acceptance can be a powerful tool in old age.” 
“We are animals, and for many thousands of years, our lives were governed by the rising and the setting of the sun, so a simple rule is to live in tune with our circadian rhythms, eat in the daylight, and sleep in the darkness, and sleep longer in the winter. That’s what we have been designed by evolution to do, and now we live in our clever modern world with electric light and we start infringing on that.
“In old age, we need to connect to these things in nature and live a more natural, simpler life. In the Blue Zones of the world, which have the oldest healthiest people on the planet, there are an extraordinary number of contented older people living a relatively simple life with families, and growing their vegetables. We need to be more like them.”
“I begin each day with what I call my ‘sauna/shower’. Get in the shower and turn the heater to the level that’s just about as hot as you could bear it. That’s the sauna experience; enjoy it for a minute or two. Then turn the shower to as cold as it will go, and start counting in your head. In the summer, do it for two minutes, but in the winter, you’re allowed to do it for a minute and a half, because it’s cold in the winter. 
“My doctor tells me it’s good for my blood circulation, but it also invigorates me and makes me smile.”
“Many people see life as a constant series of crises which we must respond to. And of course, it’s true, there are crises. But the challenges need to be balanced by the relaxation our bodies and minds need. 
“My mother was a smoker and she used to sit down with a cigarette in a comfy chair for a few minutes; that’s what her generation did to relax. Her instinct was right, but the cigarette was a bad choice.
“In my case, I sit quietly by myself, looking out of the window at our trees in the garden and beyond them to the sky, and say a positive mantra, ‘All manner of things shall be well.’ Any mantra works; it could be as simple as ‘it’s OK’ or ‘yes’. 
“I have that in my mind for around 10 minutes. I don’t let myself go to sleep, and when other thoughts disrupt the process, I quietly re-focus until I have trained my brain to set aside concerns and worries until I have fully relaxed. It’s magic. Try it.”
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