Top Gun: Maverick is a throwback. They wink at great moments from the original: Shirtless volleyball becomes shirtless football; Ice Man is now Hang Man; Goose is now Rooster. There are wing men, missile locks, hard ass admirals and great balls of fire. At the center of it all is Maverick himself: Tom Cruise. He’s ageless; in part because he embraces discomfort.
And then there’s Tom Cruise
He’s tearing ass down the runway on his motorcycle; going mach 2 with his hair on fire. I know he’s had work done, I know 90 mph presses the flesh right up to the skull, but I still gotta admit: Maverick has aged as well as you can.
Is it good genes? Luck? Botox? A secret diet? I think it’s a bit of everything; and I’d add one more reason to the list, perhaps the most important one.
Discomfort.
Your body is designed for survival
Every day is a dog fight to stay alive. A fight against weather, competition, germs, viruses, hunger, enemy planes. Every day your body goes to war with it’s surroundings.
We’ve automated so many of these fights quicker than the body can adapt. The absence of hunger, cold weather, etc should create paradise, yet it seems that in the absence of opponents our bodies have responded differently than we thought. In the absence of discomfort our bodies have elected to fight themselves: Obesity, cancer, depression, autoimmune disease.
There’s a segment on ‘Real Time’ where Bill Maher shares things he doesn’t know for a fact, but he just knows are true: ‘I don’t know for a fact that Lacroix is French for Tap water, I just know it’s true.’ Here’s my fitness version:
I don’t know for a fact that your body needs discomfort in order to thrive
I just know it’s true.
The fight is in the weight room. How many before/after pictures do we need to see until we believe that?
The fight is in the elements. The benefits of fasting and cold showers have been documented.
You can live a comfortable life. But keep your edge. Don’t get too comfortable. Schedule in the suck (and don’t over do it). Plan it to shape an outcome.
Look at Tom Cruise. He has all the success and comfort in the world but he’s still strapping himself to the side of a plane (Rogue Nation); running on the side of the Burj Khalifa (Rogue Nation); or basically just running in every single movie (in fact he also produced the best movie about Running (Without Limits)). To do these stunts he’s gotta stay sharp. For the Burj Khalifa scene he went to his stunt designer, explained what he wanted to do, and the stunt guy balked. Said it was impossible. What did Tom do?
He found another stunt man
He could retire with his millions, or pass on the Mission Impossible Torch, but he keeps pushing. I don’t know explicitly that embracing discomfort has helped him age well.
I just know it’s true.
It goes without saying that Tom is a little extreme. You can look just as good without hanging from planes, driving NASCAR or yelling at Jack Nicholson. You just need to schedule in some discomfort. It’s that discomfort that, by and large, keeps you vital.
I can’t prove above all that seeking a little discomfort now will immediately shave years off your appearance…
I just know that the discomfort is coming. It can be training, cold plunges, or running a race or it can be obesity, back pain or sleeplessness. Pain is on it’s way…
The type is largely up to you.