The last five years of my life have surprisingly turned out to be the best years of my life. Not believing in divine intervention or miracles, I am nevertheless in awe of the unknown factors that have created the wonderful gifts that I continue to experience at the age of 96.

Never in such a long life could I have anticipated that three years ago I would meet and fall in love with a partner who would eventually become my soul mate. A second gift that I benefit from is the remarkable genes that I inherited from my parents, which currently enable me to climb seven flights of stairs without stopping in under a minute and a half, and to ride a bicycle for fourteen miles in a little over fifty minutes. I have been asked by a number of friends whether I had a magic formula or some secret for my physicality and happiness at such an advanced age.

While I have no secrets, what I can talk about are those things that we can control to make those last years as satisfying as possible.

I believe that maintaining physical fitness throughout my life has been the single most important factor for my longevity. To accomplish this requires an attitude that includes motivation, perseverance, the ability to endure pain and suffering, specific goals, and a plan and system to maintain it throughout one’s life.

My goal for the last twenty years has been to be physically fit and happy at the age of one hundred.

I have found that there was no road map or formula to help me deal with the physical and emotional challenges that I had to face during those last five years. That is because although excellent writers like Peter Attia could present helpful data and studies on aging, none of them were in their nineties and had yet to experience those challenges. I currently have six activities that I either do daily, such as core exercises and pilates, or those that I do every four or five days, such as weightlifting, bike riding or stair climbing.

I regularly walk at least a mile with my partner. I record these activities on a monthly calendar in order to keep track and make adjustments. Learning to read one’s body is a critical and continuing necessity. When are you doing too little or too much? What have you learned about injuries and what is needed to successfully recover from them in order to avoid unnecessary pain and suffering? There will be many times when you don’t feel like continuing with your exercise routines and many reasons for giving up the continued discomfort. The self-talk has to end on a positive note in order to reinforce the commitment to meet our goals.

I am convinced that it is necessary to have a philosophy for one’s life. My purpose in life is to be happy, and that life is a gift. When I wake up each day, I feel gratitude for another day. When I go to bed each night, my thought is that if I don’t wake up tomorrow, I will have enjoyed a wonderful life, and I will have died a happy man. When I do my fifteen minutes of core exercises each morning, I include a gratitude meditation. It helps me appreciate what works in my life, so that I am able to overcome the negative consequences of a planet that is suffering from a nervous breakdown.

I also believe that one of the most important factors for my happiness has been the relationships that I continue to enjoy with family and friends. Letting them know that I value them and sharing those feelings with them has resulted in similar responses. It guarantees that I will not die alone, like so many elders who have no spouse, children or friends to be with them at such a critical time.

I am not alone in enjoying a physically active and happy life in my nineties. I have two friends, Oak Thorne and Len Barron, who also believe that their good fortune was achieved by continued physical exercise and a positive attitude.

Milton Slater lives in Boulder.