Healthy To A Hundred: Robin Shear of Joy To The World Coaching On 5 Things You Need To Live A Long, Healthy, & Happy Life

An Interview With Savio P. Clemente

be mindful of how joy actually feels in your body. When you feel it, does your chest swell? Does your heart pound? Do your cheeks get warm? Do you feel lighter? Tingly? Swirly? When you feel joy sensations in your body, pay attention to what causes them. Write the specific sources of joy down in your own personal joy bucket list. When you don’t feel like yourself, incorporate one of your joy bucket ideas to intentionally choose joy in the moment.

The term Blue Zones has been used to describe places where people live long and healthy lives. What exactly does it take to live a long and healthy life? What is the science and the secret behind longevity and life extension? In this series, we are talking to medical experts, wellness experts, and longevity experts to share “5 Things You Need To Live A Long, Healthy, & Happy Life”. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Robin Shear.

Certified Joy Coach, speaker, and author Robin Shear founded Joy To The World Coaching. She has spent decades helping depleted givers like health care professionals, educators, and parents feel good so they can give from a place of fullness and lead effectively again. Her first book about how to choose joy when the circumstances of life are messy will be published in January 2023.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

I’m a married mom of two great young adult kids, both of whom will be married in 2022. I bounced around professionally, following my heart, never once planning to become an expert in joy. I didn’t even know that was possible. I became certified as a life coach by the International Coaching Federation only after the suggestion of friends who observed I’d been coaching unofficially all along as a parent, dietitian/nutritionist, youth director, and senior living activity director. I founded Joy To The World Coaching to help the depleted givers of the world feel good again so they can lead from a place of fullness. I love serving in this capacity because helping people fill up with joy keeps them in giving mode, which does spread joy to the world.

It’s been said that my superpower is connecting with people who are different. I enjoy meeting people where they are and learning what matters to them as quickly as possible. Time is fleeting and I will not waste it talking about surface topics like the weather. I can’t tell you how many times strangers have poured out their life stories in 5 minutes and concluded with, “Wow, I’ve never told that to anyone before.” It’s important to me that people feel known, seen and valued. Establishing trust means people will take the next steps with me and allow me to begin helping them view their lives with optimism. While we can’t always change our circumstances, we can change our perspective of and response to them. We really can choose joy. This is my favorite speaking topic. If I could speak to a different group every week about how to live joyfully despite the circumstances, I’d barely be able to sleep due to excitement. I love presenting to groups because the challenge of connecting with a room full of strangers and quickly taking a journey to something meaningful together makes me feel fully alive. As a kid, most of my school report cards said something like “Robin is a good student, but she talks too much.” Now, I get paid to speak. It’s awesome, and even my second-grade teacher (who will probably read this… Hi, Mrs. King!) would say so.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

One thing you should know is, I am drawn to people on the street. As often as time allows, I offer financial assistance, conversation, and prayer to people asking for help, holding signs. I have met some wonderful homeless people over the years and remember each of them by name. One time, I was hired to coach a very educated man from another part of the world (my coaching sessions are online). Before the first call, I was intimidated by his breadth of knowledge of the human condition. He was a psychologist, educator, and long-time student of the world’s religions. He had helped thousands of couples with their relationships. When he scheduled a call with me, I thought, “What on earth do I have to offer this man that he doesn’t already know or have?”

As I coached my new academic client, we dug into what sparks joy in his heart. We explored what mattered most to him, and what he wanted in life. We examined his values and factors that drive his decisions. When the session ended, we prayed together. After the prayer, I could see that something had changed in his expression. This man who had the world at his fingertips, who knew so much and had helped so many people, looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “I feel like I am seeing myself for the first time. And I am a good person.”

I am so thankful for the time spent coaching him, because I learned an important lesson: The most successful people, folks on the street, and everyone in between need the same things:

• Loving relationships.
• A safe space to share without judgment
• Hope.
• To be seen and heard.
• Purpose in life.
• Family.
• Faith in something greater than themselves.
• Laughter.
• Financial stability.
• Resilience.
• Community.
• Fun.
• Time to examine what matters.
• The ability to dream, learn and grow.
• And always, joy despite the circumstances.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Humility is important to me, but I will gratefully brag about the community I am surrounded with. There are so many wonderful people willing to do life with me, it’s impossible to say which one I’m most grateful for. I can’t believe how supportive and faithful people have been. Everyone should be so well-loved!

My husband and kids especially come to mind. My husband works in a hot factory day after day so we can have a roof over our heads and food on the table, while I get to do the fun helping jobs that don’t always pay what they’re worth. He never questions my crazy ideas. He gets behind them even when they don’t make financial sense. We’ve been married 28 years and there’s no way I could have served in any of the capacities I’ve been called to serve in without his willingness to stand beside me and encourage me to dream without limits.

I once heard someone say, “To look at your child is to look at your own heart beating outside of your body.” For me, it’s entirely true. I adore my kids. As much as I’ve loved the various stages of their lives, they are such insightful and caring young adults, I’ve especially cherished this stage. Our son is in grad school for social work and plans to become a clinical therapist. He is always there to help me reframe my thinking when being an entrepreneur is challenging, which I’ll admit happens often. Running a business isn’t for the faint at heart and he can gently get the deeper issues out of my spinning mind so they can be put in proper perspective. His helpful, caring nature is invaluable. Our daughter is a recreational therapist who knows how to love people well. She is currently serving senior citizens with memory loss and also loves working with kids with disabilities. When I was at a career crossroads and didn’t know where I was being called (as it turns out, life coaching), she bought me a necklace that signified she’d be with me, whatever mountains I chose to climb. I have made my family sit through my favorite movie too many times to count (“The Sound of Music”) and this necklace represents the message of the “Climb Every Mountain” scene. I wear it every day and love being reminded that I’m not on this adventure alone.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Purpose: Without purpose, success would be empty. I need to know that my work has meaning, that I am contributing to the well-being of other people. Whether I am on stage, inspiring 200 nurses on the verge of burnout to fill their joy buckets and give more of themselves or coaching a teenage girl with a host of issues who declares, “I like talking to you because I can tell that you get me,” success, for me, is serving with purpose, on purpose.

Faith: I believe that God has called me to share His love in ways I never dreamed were possible. He has been so good to me! Without prayer, I never would have become a joy coach, and I certainly wouldn’t have written a book or put videos on YouTube, because they would have been too scary for me to attempt alone. If the world equates these things with success, great. While my Christian faith is foundational to how I view life and why I want to help others, I have many clients and friends from other faith backgrounds. I believe life gets rich when we learn from and with each other.

Curiosity: For my speaking engagements to be successful, life change or transformation within the audience needs to happen as a result. Stories stick long after facts are forgotten, reminding attendees to put into practice what they’ve learned. Curiosity is the root of most of my best stories. Some of my favorite experiences came from thoughts that began with, “I wonder what would happen if…”. One of my most-requested presentations is “Burnout Buster: The Joy of Being Spontaneous” and it’s filled with real-life adventures that only happened because curiosity is alive and well in my heart. I mean, did you know you can drive your car in reverse through a drive-thru line, get your food, and bring laughter to a stressed-out fast-food worker? You should try it sometime, Savio! Curiosity begins with, “I wonder what would happen if…”.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview about health and longevity. To begin, can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fields of health, wellness, and longevity? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

Being a professional joy coach with experience in long term care and a background in nutrition gives me a unique perspective on health, wellness and longevity. My love of seniors comes from having rich relationships with my grandparents, both of whom were key players in my character development and love of life. As an activity director and life enrichment team member at senior living communities, including two for people with Alzheimer’s Disease and other causes of memory loss, I learned that seniors want these things at the very minimum: Fun, food, family, friends, faith, adventure, and a sense of purpose. Joy ties into the entire list. I witnessed the lasting difference that joy made in the seniors’ lives on a daily basis.

Now I am on a mission to help people know what joy is and how to get more of it, because it significantly impacts quality and length of life. And it’s contagious! Because feeling good enhances longevity, it’s important that people prioritize optimism and joy as the substantial life-enrichment tools they are. The sooner they are incorporated into life, the better. It’s one thing to live a long life, it’s quite another to love your life. My unique contribution to the world of wellness is helping people of all ages with both.

Seekers throughout history have traveled great distances and embarked on mythical quests in search of the “elixir of life,” a mythical potion said to cure all diseases and give eternal youth. Has your search for health, vitality, and longevity taken you on any interesting paths or journeys? We’d love to hear the story.

Could we please have more fun? My life has been an interesting journey of living youthfully. People often laugh when they hear my age because my actions don’t match up. I’m a responsible contributing member of society, but I thrive on having fun and I refuse to drink coffee as my last holdout against full adulthood. It feels good to feel good and prioritizing fun helps me maintain my vitality. One of my favorite activities is riding my bike through the puddles. The way I see it, the ride doesn’t count unless I get mud in my teeth or on top of my helmet.

I believe that viewing life through the lens of childlike wonder has kept me young at heart and young physically. Try seeing things like a child and notice if it affects your thinking. A few beginning questions to ponder that could remove the years are:

• Why do we stop swinging on swings?
• When did we start believing dandelions were a weed
• When did dirt become something to avoid?
• Why do things happen the way they do?
• Aren’t people fascinating?
• Don’t we have so much to be thankful for?

Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Live A Long & Healthy Life”? (Please share a story or an example for each)

1. Joy! Joy isn’t fluff, it’s foundational. Being joyful makes a difference in the moment and in the long run. The Harvard Study of Adult Development, which began during the Great Depression, found that happiness in relationships at age 50 was a better predictor of health at age 80 than anything else. Read that again. Close relationships keep people happy and help delay mental & physical decline. Think about your own life. Which relationships bring you the most joy? If you want to be thriving well into your golden years, make more time for them… and give yourself permission to spend less time on others. Let joyful relationships keep you young!
2. Being optimistic. A study by the National Academy of Sciences found that people who had higher levels of optimism had a greater chance of living past age 85. The researchers analyzed data gleaned from two large population studies: about 70,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and about 1,400 men from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. Plenty of research suggests optimistic people have a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, early death from cancer and infection, and declines in lung capacity. How awesome! If you’re ready to give optimism a try but struggle to see the positive, an easy starting point is to train yourself to notice good things when they happen. Don’t let anything positive take place without acknowledging it right then and there. Catch all the little things. Soon, you’ll realize goodness is all around you, even if your circumstances do not change.
3. Adventure. Get out and do exciting new things to decrease the stress in your life. According to Dr. Margaret J. King, the director of the Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis, ‘There are lots of psychological benefits from change of venue from home and work to ‘third places’ devoted to just experiencing the environment. With a short list of activities each day, freed up from the complexities of ongoing projects and relationships, the mind can reset, as does the body, with stress relief the main outcome.” Even if your ability to leave home is limited, adventure can come in the form of reading books or websites about new places, engaging in conversation with people about places they have visited, and enjoying food music and art from other parts of the world.
4. Spend time with people who are young. Being around the young provides purpose and meaning — elements which are key to happiness and health. As author and social entrepreneur Marc Freedman says, “The real fountain of youth is in the same place it’s always been. The real fountain of youth is the fountain with youth.” George Vaillant, the psychiatrist who led the Harvard study for decades (that identified the importance of joy-filled relationships, above), found that those in middle age or older who invest in nurturing the next generation were three times as likely to be happy as those who failed to do so. How can you get involved in the lives of young people? Does your place of worship need a children’s teacher or nursery volunteer? Do you have neighbor kids who would love to come over and learn how to bake cookies or homemade zucchini bread? Could someone set you up on a zoom call with preschoolers who would be eager to listen to you read a story? The list is endless.
5. Curiosity. As shared earlier, curiosity can be a character trait that leads to success, but here’s an added bonus: if you want to stay young, it’s important to note that research shows that keeping a sense of wonder throughout life as well as a novelty-seeking behavior helps people to stay young. The more genuinely curious and interested you are in something, the better off you’ll be. This means shaking off the notion that aging means you’ve “learned it all already” and allowing yourself to get lost in the excitement of exploring and questioning new things. What topic is begging for you to dig into it? Can you ask “why” more often and really allow your imagination to run wild, just for the fun of it? Expand your mind with wonder and you just might extend your life span.

Can you suggest a few things needed to live a life filled with happiness, joy, and meaning?

It may seem obvious but know how you define joy in the first place. How is it similar to and different from happiness? If happiness is short term and tied to positive circumstances, and joy is a lasting inner effervescence for life itself regardless of the situation, where do you usually invest most of your efforts? Be honest: Does your focus need to change?

Next, be mindful of how joy actually feels in your body. When you feel it, does your chest swell? Does your heart pound? Do your cheeks get warm? Do you feel lighter? Tingly? Swirly? When you feel joy sensations in your body, pay attention to what causes them. Write the specific sources of joy down in your own personal joy bucket list. When you don’t feel like yourself, incorporate one of your joy bucket ideas to intentionally choose joy in the moment.

There are many things that bring joy and our responses to them will be unique. You may find it in:

• Relationships: family, friends, partners
• Movement: dancing, skipping, chasing your dog, playing basketball, and push mowing the lawn
• The details of nature: the pattern clouds make as they drift overhead, the sound of a cat’s purr, the rich color of the blades of grass, or the feel of water on your skin
• Giving and being generous: With your time, strength and energy, physical gifts, attention
• And gratitude for the big and small things: This list could be endless. I challenge you to list 50 things, and I’m guessing your list will grow even longer once you really dig into gratitude!

If it’s hard to think of things that bring you joy, that’s okay. Know that you’re not alone. Coaching can help. Take time to pay attention to the things that light you up and make you feel most alive. When you feel them, write them on your joy bucket list.

Some argue that longevity is genetic, while others say that living a long life is simply a choice. What are your thoughts on this nature vs. nurture debate? Which is more important?

These are great questions. It seems that longevity might be dependent on both. You can’t pick different parents, but you sure can win the genetic lottery without trying. Yay, nature! How many times have we looked at senior couples full of life and vitality and made a comment along the lines of, “Wow, what a gene pool!”?

As for the nurture side, even if Olympic athletes gave birth to you, if you trash your body, hole up and isolate, see the downside in everything, and go through life without joy and purpose, you likely won’t live as long as you could have. And on the flip side, most of us have met someone who outlived their parents by a significant number of years. How is this explained, other than by a person’s life choices?

It’s not a definitive answer, but I think both are very important and neither can be ignored. Hope for good genetics and treat your life like the gift it is.

Life sometimes takes us on paths that are challenging. How have you managed to bounce back from setbacks in order to cultivate physical, mental, and emotional health?

I had to laugh at this question because I love to build people up and generally focus on the positive — while not sharing many of my struggles — and… I have a very raw book coming out in January about finding joy during some very challenging personal times that I kept hidden from the world at large.

The book will contain heartfelt and sometimes laughable accounts of fighting for joy during a 4-year span of my life which encompassed being diagnosed with PTSD after 16 years of night terrors, making 26 distinct attempts at healing from chronic pain, putting life on hold to recover from a traumatic brain injury that took 21 times longer to heal than expected, and some other fun things. And, building a business from the ground up as a joy coach during the height of the craziness. It was an out-of-control period that basically forced me to focus on improving my physical, emotional and mental health. The great thing was, I felt that God met me in the mess and showed me how to choose joy. I never planned to write a book, but I’d like to share what I learned because my guess is, there are people who feel alone and discouraged due to their circumstances, and the concept of choosing joy could be very foreign, if not laughable. Believe me, I get you. I am living proof that choosing joy is possible without having to clean up the mess first!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

“Life is too short to fold fitted sheets.”

This needs no explanation. It makes me think about the importance of the things I choose to invest my precious time in. During my first week on the job as the activity director for seniors at a semi-independent living facility, I decided to write a “quote of the week” on a small white board outside of my office. I started with this quote about fitted sheets, hoping to represent my view of what matters in life. Even though most of their mothers probably would have disagreed with my statement, you would not believe how many residents threw back their heads in laughter as they read the sign on their way to lunch. Many of them agreed so strongly with the message, they popped in to give me thumbs up, introductions, and hugs. Sharing this philosophy got us off to a great start and put us on common ground about prioritizing laughter and moments of meaning, not drudgery that doesn’t really matter in the end.

To illustrate the point, let me share a story. Early on in that position, I took over as the leader of an exercise class that met a few times a week. I observed how the previous instructor led the group in the same exercises each time, so people knew what to expect. She kept the room quiet and orderly, maybe for safety reasons. About 6 residents faithfully attended the class. After teaching the class a few times, I began to add new exercises into the mix. Gone were the days of believing soup cans were the equivalent of real weights. People stepped up to the challenge, worked harder, and grew stronger. I shared funny stories about my naughty dog who thought Vaseline was a snack food and countless adventures with my family and youth group. The sound of our laughter drew more people into the room. After learning what the residents’ favorite songs were, we began to sweat to music. Loud music. By the time I left the facility for a new position elsewhere, the activity room was bulging at the seams three times a week. Residents packed in for tears of laughter running down their cheeks, friendship, sharing memories, and the YMCA dance routine and rowdy seated kickboxing moves. The walkers had to be stuffed in the corner “parking lot” to make room for the crowd, but by then, fewer walkers were needed. People were coming out of the woodwork to exercise because we had discovered the importance of investing our time in things that mattered.

Forget the fitted sheets and have more fun, trust me. Life is waiting.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Funny you should ask. I love this question! I named my business Joy To The World Coaching for a reason. I really do want to reach the world with these messages:

• Joy can be possible no matter the circumstances,
• It feels good to feel good,
• And when we fill up our joy buckets, we have something to give from.

Not only do I want to teach people how to choose joy, I want them to pass it on to other people. Joy can be more contagious than any pandemic, and wouldn’t it be great if we spread it on purpose? This can all be part of a movement to focus on the positive that helps people live fully… while secretly tying into my plan for joyful world domination. ;)

What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?

• Hop over to my website and while you’re there, take my “Are you headed for burnout?” quiz. It’s on joytotheworldcoaching.com.
• While you’re there, check out my “Joy Bites” blog tab and sign up in the purple box. Blog subscribers will be the first to learn when my book is released, and they’ll be invited to be part of my street team.
• I’d love to connect with readers on social media. I can be found on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Clubhouse @joycoachrobin.

Thanks so much for this great conversation about how to live longer, happier lives. Now, let’s go forth and be joyful to a hundred and beyond!

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.

About The Interviewer: Savio P. Clemente coaches cancer survivors to overcome the confusion and gain the clarity needed to get busy living in mind, body, and spirit. He inspires health and wellness seekers to find meaning in the “why” and to cultivate resilience in their mindset. Savio is a Board Certified wellness coach (NBC-HWC, ACC), stage 3 cancer survivor, podcaster, writer, and founder of The Human Resolve LLC.

Savio pens a weekly newsletter at thehumanresolve.com where he delves into secrets from living smarter to feeding your “three brains” — head 🧠, heart 💓, and gut 🤰 — in hopes of connecting the dots to those sticky parts in our nature that matter.

He has been featured on Fox News, and has collaborated with Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, Food Network, WW, and Bloomberg. His mission is to offer clients, listeners, and viewers alike tangible takeaways in living a truly healthy, wealthy, and wise lifestyle.

Savio lives in the suburbs of Westchester County, New York and continues to follow his boundless curiosity. He hopes to one day live out a childhood fantasy and explore outer space.