Eternity Can Wait

Weekday mornings usually began with the radio tuned to the local PBS station. The broadcasts were mainly interview shows with interesting people who had something to say. Though this particular interview was years ago, it still resonates. It’s not possible to recall who asked the questions, but the man with the answers was Dr Caleb Fitch, a professor at the University of Southern California. His topic was gerontology (study of aging) in general and specifically how long we can expect to live. Dr. Fitch was discussing his new book, Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome2. What made the interview so memorable was his mention of a creature living in the cold deep water around British Columbia. This fish seems to be ageless with a lifespan of >140 years! Several years later Leonard Hayflick wrote How and Why We Age3. It had startling (to me) information in it, too, such as the Hayflick limit, which says human cells can’t reproduce more than about 50 times. This figure would provide a maximum life span of 110-115 years. Successful Aging4 (Rowe & Kahn) followed in the 90s, describing the maximum life span for many mammals as six times the time to takes to grow to maturity. For a human that would equate to (6 X 18 - 20 yrs.) = 108 - 120 years. Recorded history supports this formula, with the oldest human living 122 years. Now, think about this: If you lived for 115 years, you would have more years after age 65 than the adult years between age 20 and 65! We have all we can do to get the most out of our first 65 years. We haven’t begun working on the rest. Free preview Eternity Can Wait, Page 2 After hearing all of this information, I wanted to see what problems people have that keep them from reaching their maximum life span or life expectancy. Current thinking is to just live as long as you can. While today’s American is a goal-seeker, no one mentions setting a target age. Without a target there are a number of life issues that can hold us back from reaching our new goals. While few people are living to the potential maximum life span of 115+ years, many are exceeding their life expectancy of 80.4 years for women and 75.2 years for men. After looking at these two numbers it seems reasonable to set a target between life span and life expectancy. Our choice for a target is 30,000 days.5 (30,000 days is 82 years, two months, and 19 days.) There comes a time when we began to see the possibility for a real change when we began thinking of retirement. It’s usually expressed by the more than 45 million5 American women and men in the 50+ age group. Most of you are getting to the point where the kids are gone (hopefully they've moved out for good), the house is just about paid for, but the thought of making personal choices about your future seems impossible. Many in this group have twenty to thirty years of working history and a well-deserved feeling of accomplishment. And, if asked, many would say that at their age they just want to make it to age 65 or retirement. But history suggests you can do better. Therefore, as a minimum, set a target on how long you’d like to live. Ideally, beginning this process when you’re in your 50’s leaves time to work your plan for the future. You’ll want to expand your life expectancy from a statistic to a fact. Establishing 30,000 days as your objective is a new way to look ahead. Surpassing 30,000 days is perfectly okay. Fewer days for a healthy person Free preview Eternity Can Wait, Page 3 are a shame. This new focus can help you discover meaningful things that you’ll want to do starting now. One person called this new approach “lively living.” Eternity Can’t Wait will discuss issues that are not the usual, but exist and affect your life’s outcome. Some of these issues have been excess baggage for years, and now it’s time to unload the unnecessary burden and prepare for your future. If you’re reading this, you are probably between 50 and 65 years old. You need to review your financial plan. Investing, budgets, and taxes are topics left to the experts. Here we’re concerned with the issues that follow the money and now may be changed because of it. While leaving full-time employment and reestablishing yourself sounds easy, it can be difficult without some perspective and practice. The objective is to help you create a roadmap to live 30,000 days.