Dick Van Dyke is in reflection mode.
The beloved actor will officially become a centenarian less than a month from now, on December 13, and has been looking back to the moments that brought him to where he is now.
In honor of the special milestone, he also released a new book, his ninth, 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life, and has been further reflecting on his ten long decades as he promotes it.
Speaking with People about the early days of his career, Dick got candid about the difficulties of trying to further said career while also caring for his family, particularly his four children, who he welcomed with his ex-wife Margie Willett, who died in 2008.
"In the beginning I was [raising] a family with no money, so the whole thing was getting some money together and getting a home," he recalled, adding: "I bought a home on the GI Bill, finally, but I think the toughest was [when] I did game shows. I played nightclubs. I did about everything. At one point, I was doing a disc jockey show at five in the morning, and then at night I was working with a partner in nightclubs."
"They probably got neglected at some point, because I was really working hard to get out of poverty, so to speak, but I haven't had any complaints from anybody," Dick said of his family.
"I think of how rare it is that a person gets to do for a living, what they love to do," he went on, noting: "Most people have to go sit in an office. I never forgot that I look forward to getting up every morning and going to work, because it's what I would've done for nothing. "
"I was getting like three or four hours [of] sleep in between, but that's the only thing I can remember, is working so hard to get going, to get a foothold," he further recalled, though maintained: "After that I've enjoyed every minute of it."
Dick similarly reflected on his career and his gratitude for it speaking with TODAY's Al Roker earlier this month. As the veteran TV anchor asked him about a point in his book in which he claims no one is born miserable, he noted: "I'm speaking from an advantageous position, I got to do for a living what I would have done for nothing."
Dick also briefly reflected on the horrific wildfire crisis that ravaged parts of Los Angeles in January, including his neighborhood of Malibu. His home with wife Arlene Silver was narrowly saved, and he shared: "I have a sense of gratitude about a whole lot of things, my whole life."
Arlene, who Dick married in 2012, made a brief appearance in the conversation, and Dick gushed: "She keeps me young, we sing, we dance, she just keeps me a teenager," adding that singing is the one other thing maintaining his energy. "Singing is the best thing you can do for yourself. Usually I wake up with an old tune going through my head."
Later as Al asked Arlene, who met Dick in 2006 when she was working as a make-up artist, how her life has changed since meeting him, she couldn't help but tear up as she shared: "It has totally changed. I am always on the verge of tears because he's just the greatest human being ever, and you just changed the way I look at life."