I've tried to learn from other's mistakes for many decades. That health in truly the #1 priority. Cutting corners on simple safety can have forever life changing results. Two years ago I was at PT for a hip replacement when I met a 90 yo woman who was in therapy for a fall. She had fallen down the cellar steps just before Thanksgiving and I was meeting her in early April. It was her first visit after a long painful recovery in both the hospital and then a rehab facility before finally going back to her home. I'll never forget what she opened with... "I went down those steps for seventy years without a problem."
My own mother was about her age and I often warned her about steps. I told her about the woman and she told me she knew her. Went to church with her and didn't know about her injury. Here's the interesting part. My mom always answers my warnings this way, verbatim, "It'll never happen to me."
Seriously, she's been like that her whole life as I've known her. She's had some death defying experiences which basically were death defying because she ignored serious symptoms. First a stroke, then her heart wasn't beating correctly and she finally told me. A pacemaker fixed that. Then she called one night complaining of back pain, saying the PT had been hurting her back. I physically carried her to the car and then the ER. She objected all the way. She had a serious UTI and was close to death from the infection. The back pain was from her kidneys, not her back. So a week in the hospital on antibiotics and six more weeks at rehab and she was like new. I could tell you all about her driving, which she's doing as I write. She's amazing. There's a few more falls that she denies are falls. She knows to dial 911 but never carries a phone. Uses her cane when it looks good so people will help her at the store.
So I have plenty of examples of how aging can be taught, if we are willing to watch and listen. Oh by the way, I'm 72 this month and now learning about her periodontal disease and oral infections. And really bad dentists who put $$ above people.