Courtesy of Maxpixel.net
Your mindset is an important aspect of how you will experience your life. Not only that, it may also have a big influence over your longevity!
One of my favorite podcasts is called Exponential Wisdom – where Peter Diamandis (of Singularity University and X-Prize) and Dan Sullivan (of Strategic Coach) riff on different topics. As the title suggests, they explore how exponential technologies will impact our lives – not unlike the RetirementSingularity.com blog.
In episode #47 “Retirement the Ultimate Casualty” they explore how increasing longevity will impact the notion of retirement. Aging is now an engineering problem – albeit a very complicated one – but we are knee-deep in solving the problem of aging as a disease.
Dan, who is in his early 70’s, talks about how in his Strategic Coach program he gets people to identify at what age will they die. Dan, who has a personal longevity goal of age 156, asked a student who said 85 was his expected age at death – if you live a good, healthy, active engaged life (which he helps people do) what shape will you be in at age 85? Quite likely in good shape – so why would you die at that point? He gets them to add another 20 years or more to their concept of how long they will live. And if living to 120 was in your future, why would you want to retire at say age 65?
Peter goes even further. He believes we will be able to live drastically longer – i.e. hundreds of years, with his personal target of 700 years! These very long lifespans are mental frameworks for Peter and Dan. They live their lives with a mindset that assumes this to be true – partly as a way to influence their mind and bodies to live up to the task! With the amazing advances now occurring in healthy life extension, the scientific justification to take this mindset seriously is emerging.
Dan also “disabuses” his students of the notion of “retirement” – as an outdated, and bad idea altogether. Slowing down and not being useful will lead you to give up – like a signal to the universe that you are done.
Knot of Eternity
So consider establishing a 100+healthy lifespan target in your own psyche. This goes beyond just thinking about it now, and then forgetting it. To really implant this, you need to regularly contemplate what living in a healthy state to say 120+ means to you, your relationships, your career and how you lead your life. Implant the mental framework “habit” of a very long and healthy lifespan, and your mind and body will be attuned to this being actualized.
Live long, live well and prosper!
Michael
p.s. check out this post and video on longevity mindset.
