What would you change if you were to live another 100 years?
If you knew you were going to live another hundred years, what would you change in your behavior?
When I pose this hypothetical to most of my friends and family the first response is a combination of “That sounds horrible” / “Why would one want that?” / “That’s not possible because…” / “If everyone did that then…”. Which are all valid questions but they’re not an answer…
If you knew you were going to live another 100 years, what would you change?
Below is my current answer, however, before I go into that, let me say why I think this question is worth asking.
First, I believe we vastly underestimate the amount of change we’ll see in our lifetimes for how we treat diseases. The exponential increase in biological / genetic understanding from the 2000s/2010s combined with the deep learning advances over the same period will radically transform what we can do clinically later this century. We’re going from kind of understanding how cells work to being able to edit genes and create mRNA interventions (among many other innovations). The cumulative effect of these changes will be transformative. Of course, taking scientific advances and putting them into mainstream clinical practice takes a long time but over a long enough time period the changes will materialize. If you are in your 30s/40s while reading this in 2021, then you’ll likely reap the benefits by the time you’re in your 60s/70s in the decades after 2050.
Second, I think the answers to what one would do with 100 more years are pretty similar for what would you do with 80, 50, or 10 more years. If you’re reading this, it’s very likely you’ll spend decades of your life older than 50 or 60. Spending time thinking about what that means for you today is prudent.
Now for my list. These are the 9 things I try to live by with a long-term horizon in mind. It’s not one thing and I don’t do all of them well but I try to abide by them. The main one missing is saving enough for retirement, however, I’m not in the best position to advise you there so I’ll leave that topic to others.
With that, here’s my list:
FIRST BE HEALTHY
1. EAT FOR THE LONG TERM - It turns out that if you’re reading this in the US you have an about 80% probability of dying from one of four things: cardiovascular disease (e.g., heart attacks), neurovascular disease (e.g., strokes), neurodegenerative disease (e.g., Alzheimers), or cancer. Many of the diseases that are likely to kill you are things you can have some control over - mostly by changing what you eat. This isn’t shocking news and I’ll leave the eating tips to others but what’s clear is that spending the time eating well and in a way that prevents most of the most common culprits (e.g., obesity, smoking, drinking heavily) can help. Eating in am anti-inflammatory way seems to also be a good idea based on what I’ve read.
2. LOVE YOUR BACK & JOINTS - as my friend Rachel’s mom said “you're only as old as your back” so stretch. It would be a shame if you can’t walk around for a few decades of your life based on choices you made. For me, it’s been about starting a regular yoga practice. I’ve found a year of regular practice has made me more flexible than I’ve been in decades (probably since I was a toddler frankly)… It’s not too late to regain flexibility - it just needs to be a habit (a week of yoga ain’t gonna make a difference).
3. EXERCISE EVERY DAY - there are lots of ways of doing this but start the regular practice and build the habit. The older you get the more time you should spend on it each day. Once you’re in your 50s it should probably be more an hour a day or more. For me this means daily walks and then a schedule of strength and cardio. You do you.
4. MAINTAIN & EXPECT TO UPGRADE BODY PARTS - if you live another 100 years it’s certain that certain parts of your body will wear down. For many people this is their hearing, their teeth and gums, their knees, etc. This has two implications. First, spend the time on body maintenance (e.g., don’t skip the floss!). Much better to prevent poor health than fix it up after. Second, as you age spend the time on the upgrades - e.g., if you take the long term view it makes sense to spend the time and energy going to the doctor for improvements (e.g., the hearing aid) since you’ll be using it for decades to come.
SECOND, ENJOY EVERY DAY & REMEMBER 80% OF LIFE IS MAINTENANCE
5. MEDITATE - this is an imperative. Most of your life is not “exciting” in the traditional sense - if you’re going to live another 100 years and you are dependent on the highs and lows of a typical 20 year old experience, you’re going to be sorely disappointed for most of your life. As Thich Nhat Hanh says “If I don’t enjoy washing dishes, I won’t enjoy the desert.” You can learn how to enjoy every moment - this level of happiness is possible - and if you do this, then you can get much more from life… For me this has come through daily meditation (walking & sitting) and in particular from studying Zen Buddhism. I talk more about it in this post.
6. TAKE BREAKS (FRACTALLY) - In the book “Rest”, Alex Pang talks about the importance of rest both to your health and also to your productivity. Rest should is fractal - you need to rest on a daily basis (importance of limits and sleep), and also more regularly for vacations, and then every handful of years for even longer ones (sabbaticals). If you’re going to live for 100 years you need to pace yourself - what’s a three week vacation on this time frame?
7. DEVELOP A MEMORY HABIT - many of the joys of extended living is relishing the benefits of broader memories that can form new connections. To do that I believe it’s important to build a memory habit. I write more about that here.
8. MAINTAIN FRIENDSHIPS AND MAKE NEW FRIENDS - meet strangers and get into more of a flow of new people. Studies of centenarians show just how important it is for people to have close friendships to live longer. However, if you’re going to live another 100 years, you also need to get better at making new friends as old friends pass and people change. Meet a stranger every day and avoid isolation. We are social animals - embrace this.
9. ESTABLISH LONG-TERM AGE-FRIENDLY HOBBIES - In “Rest”, Pang talks about a study on what makes a good hobby - the answer is activities that give you relaxation + a sense of control + can create mastery experiences + provide mental detachment from work. The one I’d add to this is they also need to be age-friendly - activities that you’re able to do in your 60s and beyond. Some examples of this are music, painting, writing, gardening, and deep academic interests (e.g., studying history or physics). Investing in hobbies in earlier decades is a great investment if you take the long view that you’ll have ample time to spend on them in your later decades.
So that’s it. As Buddha is said to have said, there are two truths: we all die and the hour of our death is uncertain. We can’t choose how long we live but we can choose how we do so. If we end up living a year, a decade or ten, it’s worth thinking of how to make them count.
This is my list. What else am I missing?
photo for the preview. Big Sur
