Inspiration, motivation, determination — and resignation, too. These are feelings you can feel at any age, even 92.

And whether you’re 92, 62, 42, or 22, these feelings to some degree, sometimes a large degree, determine the state of your physical and mental health. Which is why you’ll now read about a guy who’s the oldest of those four ages and’s been experiencing the last of those four feelings.

He just happens to be my dad.

For what I believe to be my father’s most significant health hurdle at this point in time is not a result of his age and it could very well be a health hurdle for you, too.

Before you hear about it, however, it needs to be said that for a guy who should’ve been dead twice in his 80s — once from seizures (the source of which were never determined) and once from COVID-19 (a four-month battle during which doctors suggested hospice instead of hospital treatment) — John Francis Kolodziejski’s in good shape. At least that’s what his primary care doc keeps telling him at the end of each check up and in response to dad’s two major complaints.

The older one’s that he lacks pep. After he griped about that to me more than a few times years ago, I suggested a few exercises as well as some dietary alterations to combat that.

He tried them and about a week later announced he was feeling less like 87 and more like his old, I’m-77-and-still-rollerskating-twice-a-week self. About three weeks after that, though, when I asked how the workouts were going, I learned they were no longer ongoing, just long gone.

Dad simply said, “You should know how I am.”

I do. When it comes to things that concern his health, dad doesn’t always see things through. How about you?

It’s a character flaw that’s a pretty sizable stumbling block when it comes to improving or maintaining your physical fitness or mental health. One that may actually rival it, however, is that aforementioned feeling of resignation.

Which’s exactly what I detected in dad’s voice every time he expressed his latest complaint. That even though he began using a cane a few months ago, he’s having even more difficulty walking than before.

So the last time I heard it, I replied with all the sarcasm I could muster (as well as extra volume because dad doesn’t always clean his hearing aids), “No kidding, dad.” What came out of my mouth next, though, lacked any sarcasm and was purely matter of fact.

I said the “use it or lose it” maxim is true whether you’re 42 and no longer a serious jock or 72 and hoping to avoid the doc. That, in his case, he was losing muscle from his legs and thereby the strength in them, not just because he was aging but by sitting for too long each day.

That sitting causes his hip flexors to shorten and tighten, which restricts his range of motion and shortens his walking stride. A stride that’s been even further shortened by his new reliance on the cane, a reliance that makes his effort easier — and easier for muscle to waste away.

Before he could marshal a response, I added that walking better was doable — and maybe even without a cane — if he just started using his legs more.

He bought it. Lock, stock, and barrel. I could hear it in his voice.

The motivation and determination that had been lacking. Any hint of poor-me resignation was gone.

Dad’s now doing a series of exercises designed to make him walk better, along with more overall walking each day. He’s been at it for nearly three weeks, and by the end of the first week, you could already see a difference in his walking pace.

As to whether or not he keeps it up, I can’t say. What I can say is that he no longer talks about trading in his cane for a walker.

If he ever does that again, he’s going to hear about Art Ulene, MD, a guy about his age who celebrated his 90th birthday by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Granted, Ulene was already an experienced climber, and he had scaled this 19,341-foot mountain the other times, but it was the first time he had done so in his tenth decade — and since undergoing spinal surgery and having his right hip replaced. Since that birthday climb, he’s had the left hip replaced as well and made an interesting purchase.

A season pass for a local ski slope.

Yes, Ulene plans to do a full slate of skiing this season. For as the former Today show medical expert says in a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center press release about his exploits and surgeries, “Life has peaks and valleys. [Living’s] an up-and-down process.”

So whenever he wants or needs to climb a figurative or literal mountain, here’s what he says to himself: “‘Can I take the next step? Of course I can.’ [Then] you just repeat that 800 times and you’re at the summit.”

So let’s all keep on stepping.

Hear that, dad?