69. The New Map of Life
The one we've been taught is no longer ideal. We need a new one.
Longer lives are, at once, among the most remarkable achievements in all of human history and the greatest challenges of the 21st century. — Stanford Center on Longevity
I was excited to learn about the Standford Center on Longevity.
It was founded on the premise that 100-year lives will be common to those who are born today. The problem is — institutionally, economically, and societally — we are not ready.
Its ultimate mission is, quite simply, to get us ready. To help shape “social and political choices to support lives that are longer, healthier, and more rewarding.”
Century-long lives are here. We’re not ready.
To be clear, the Stanford COL is not simply trying to address how we can manage a “longer” second act.
The idea of a 100-year life requires looking at all phases of life and adjusting what each phase means or looks like — not simply tacking on an extra 20-30 years at the back end.
It’s about living a longer life, not simply a longer old age.
If kids today were to assume they’ll live to 100, how might they approach their lives (differently from ours)? If, societally, people were expected to live that long, how might we view education and school and college? How might our relationship with work and work-life change? When should people join the workforce, or leave it? How does one finance a 100-year life? How does one live a healthy 100-year life?
Huge massive, paradigm-shifting questions, to be sure.
If it’s accepted that people lived century-long lives, perhaps taking a long career break in our 30s for raising kids and taking care of family would be normal. Perhaps, returning to the workforce after such leave would be easy; there would be standard and accessible mechanisms for that to happen.
Perhaps graduating college at 21 or 22 would not be the norm. Perhaps people would not be rushing to join the workforce, preferring instead to extend their experience of early adulthood.
Perhaps people would not be expected to retire from work at 60 or 65 or 70. And perhaps our society would no longer be as youth-obsessed as it is today.
In 2018, the Center on Longevity launched an initiative called “The New Map of Life”.
In the United States, as many as half of today’s 5-year-olds can expect to live to the age of 100, and this once unattainable milestone may become the norm for newborns by 2050. — Stanford Center on Longevity
In November 2021, it released the New Map of Life Report outlining 10 guiding principles for planning and living 100-year lives.
It’s a great start. But we have a long way to go.
It’s hard to turn the Titanic, as they say. And we’re talking about not only changing hearts and minds. We’re talking about changing institutions and systems that are so deeply entrenched in the old ways.
I think the New Map of Life is most useful for the younger generations. The more kids today think along these lines, the better they will be able to navigate a longer lifespan and ensure a longer health span.
But for those of us knocking on 50 and over, I think the New Map of Life is… let’s just say, less useful.
The guiding principles are still absolutely valid and it makes sense to adopt as many of them as we can. But really, our best use for this new map is as a guide to help our children and their children prepare for their future.
I think for our generation, there is no map.
We are at the leading edge of this change and therefore bound to experience the brunt of the “unpreparedness” that Stanford COL was so apt to point out.
We have to be the ones to devise our own map. We have to craft our own path and plan for what a longer life could mean (if not to 100, then certainly longer than the average lifespan when we were born).
Over the course of 100-year lives, we can expect to work 60 years or more. But we won’t work as we do now, cramming 40-hour weeks into lives impossibly packed from morning until night with parenting, family, caregiving, schooling, and other obligations.
— The New Map of Life
For us, the additional 20 or so years will, in fact and obviously, be tacked on to the second half of our lives — not the ideal “spreading out” across our lives.
Such is our exciting challenge and opportunity.
One life milestone, one that no longer has a clear definition or map, is retirement.
This word, which used to mean one thing, isn’t that anymore. What many of us were taught to imagine about this milestone is no longer practical or even something we would want for ourselves anyway.
For corporate workers, the word retirement is increasingly about transitioning from one form of endeavor to another, which can come in various shapes and configurations.
And that it is happening for us at a time when the world is changing so fast, barrelling toward the future at uber speed? Oh boy. It just adds another layer of challenge and adventure, doesn’t it?
We need a new map.
In the latest episode of Second Breaks, I offer a framework for navigating modern retirement in the 21st century.
A framework gives us flexibility and adaptability while serving as a guide and organizing tool. It meets us wherever we are and whatever we think of retirement.
Used in conjunction with the skills we need to navigate modern retirement, this framework can help us design and navigate the life experience we want as we transition to our next act.
My fellow midlifers, we are the voice of a generation. Our experiences are (and will) not be like that of our parents', and we have an opportunity to influence the narrative not only for ourselves but for the succeeding generation.
📖 a fine read
The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity
by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott
“Life expectancy is rising, final-salary pensions are vanishing, and increasing numbers of people are juggling multiple careers. Whether you are 18, 45 or 60, you will need to do things very differently from previous generations and learn to structure your life in completely new ways. Drawing on the unique pairing of their experience in psychology and economics, Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott offer a broad-ranging analysis as well as a raft of solutions, showing how to rethink your finances, your education, your career, and your relationships and create a fulfilling 100-year life.”
💬 last word
On a personal note, there’s quite a bit of travel for me in the near term. My plan is to continue Midlife Cues. But if things go haywire and I don’t show up in your inbox, you’ll know why!
Here’s to a joyful and easeful week ahead.
Cool Beans,
Lou Blaser