Just Six Years To Live. The Longevity illusion.

The biggest risks in life are the ones we do not see.

The greatest risk in life is not death.

It is not living life.

This mistake is something I see over and over again.

And it is a mistake that can be fatal without even realising it.

Because what is fatally wounded is not life but your enjoyment of it.

The Longevity Trap

When we talk about longevity, we often have goals such as being able to travel independently in our 80s or still play with our grandchildren in the final decade of our lives.

These noble and worthwhile goals often cloud a very important interim goal.

That is, to live an enjoyable life now.

Today. This year. This decade.

The science of longevity is clear:

If you hit specific health and lifestyle metrics, you significantly increase your odds of living longer and of a higher quality.

But they do not guarantee it.

They just increase the odds of it.

All of us know of someone who ‘did everything right’ from a health perspective but still got unlucky.

A car accident. A rare illness. Even a common one just too early.

None of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

The factors that take someone’s life at a young age are usually down to just sheer bad luck.

We can rarely prevent such events.

Even with all the caution in the world, we cannot 100% immunise ourselves from such tragedies.

We are all left with the realisation that although life will likely go on, it is also immensely fragile.

And someday, it will end.

But that end seems far aware and unreal.

So, we often ignore it.

Usually, at the expense of not living the life we know we should live today.

I spoke to someone recently in their 80s, healthy and who still felt young.

But even though they were well and felt young, they also realised they had waited too long to do so many of the things they felt they should have but no longer can.

Some of these things were activities and trips.

But mostly, it was a way of being in life.

To have had the courage to live in alignment with who they truly knew they were.

They had waited. And regretted it.

It was as the French philosopher John-Paul Sarte so famously said:

I have led a toothless life’, he thought. ‘ A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting. I was reserving myself for later on-and I have just noticed that my teeth have gone.

The man I spoke with was in his 80s and was in good health.

He had done everything right and likely has many years of life left.

But he knew he had waited too long to live the way he knew he should have.

It doesn’t mean he can not change. I hope he does.

But he knew he had waited too long.

It was a stark reminder to carefully examine my own life and assess whether I am being courageous enough in my decisions.

It should be a reminder to us all.

It Is Never Too Late, But That Is Not An Excuse To Wait.

It is sometimes hard to reconcile these two poles.

Most of us know we have time but routinely ignore it.

We know that we should be living more in the present but are also mindful that with our responsibilities in life, we cannot live as if we are going to die tomorrow.

We have bills to pay. We have jobs. There are things to be done.

This is where the ‘Six Years To Live’ concept works for me.

Imagining I have only six years to live is a hugely helpful way to decide how to spend my time.

It is a long enough time scale that I still have to work and meet my responsibilities in life, but it is also short enough to prompt action on things I previously might have waited on.

It is a time horizon that means I still have to save money, but it is short enough to allow me to spend it on things that will truly matter, such as time with family.

It is a time frame that is far enough away not to be too scary but close enough to motivate action.

I am betting that if I continue to live my life this way, I will decrease my odds of regretting how I lived it if I am indeed fortunate enough to live into my 80s and beyond.

I am hoping I have many more six-year blocks ahead of me.

But someday, I will only have six years left in life.

There is even a chance that the six-year mark has already passed.

But even if it has, I hope I can honestly say I am living my life in a way I would have chosen to.

I hope that I have a long and healthy life.

Filled with activities and experiences that are aligned with my highest values.

But I have no guarantee of that.

None of us do.

And this is the biggest risk we face in life.

And the factor that helped me have the courage to live my life the way I know I should.

And hopefully provides a framework for you to think about also.

Because all we have is today.

And how we choose to act.

“Death destroys a man: the idea of Death saves him.”

EM Forster

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