If you're 55 today, twenty years takes you to 75.
If you're 60, it takes you to 80.
If you're 65, it takes you to 85.
Read those numbers again.
Not because they're frightening.
Because they're full of possibility.
Twenty years is enough time to become remarkably good at something you've never tried.
It's enough time to improve your health, start a business, travel to places you've always wanted to see, deepen friendships, learn new skills, mentor someone, build something meaningful or completely change the way you live.
You don't have to do all of those things.
But there's one thing worth considering:
Do you really want the next twenty years to happen by accident?
The old map of life is changing
For generations, adulthood followed a fairly predictable path.
Learn.
Work.
Build a career.
Raise a family.
Pay the mortgage.
Save for retirement.
Retire.
Slow down.
It was almost as though life came with a map, and once you reached retirement, most of the important destinations had already been visited.
But we're living longer, healthier and more varied lives than the generations that created that map.
Stanford University's Center on Longevity has been studying this shift through its New Map of Life initiative. Its central argument is fascinating: longer lives require us to reconsider how we think about education, careers, health, financial security and the stages of adulthood.
In other words, longevity isn't simply about adding more years at the end.
It changes what might be possible throughout life.
And that raises an interesting question.
What if 60 isn't primarily the beginning of winding down?
What if it can also be the beginning of something else?
Retirement doesn't have to mean disappearing
Something interesting is already happening in Canada.
Statistics Canada found that among Canadians aged 55 and older who had previously retired, some returned to paid work.
And when they did, their relationship with work often looked very different.
Almost three quarters of those working after retirement were working part time.
One third were self employed.
That doesn't necessarily mean people are failing at retirement.
It may tell us something more interesting.
Some people still want to contribute.
Some want flexibility.
Some want additional income.
Some enjoy working, but no longer want work controlling their lives.
Some finally have the experience, confidence and freedom to build something of their own.
The choice doesn't have to be:
Work forever or do nothing.
There is an enormous amount of territory in between.
Consult.
Teach.
Mentor.
Volunteer.
Create.
Build.
Work part time.
Start something.
Help someone.
Learn something.
Or simply design a life where work occupies a different place than it did before.
If that idea interests you, How to Become Your Own Boss After 50 looks at what that shift actually involves.
Don't just retire from something
For decades, retirement planning has focused heavily on one question:
When can I stop working?
It's an important question.
But maybe there's another one that deserves just as much attention:
What am I moving toward?
You can retire from a job without retiring from curiosity.
You can retire from a career without retiring from contribution.
You can retire from a schedule without retiring from purpose.
You can even retire from one identity and discover another.
The goal isn't to stay busy for the sake of being busy.
It's to have something that gives you a reason to keep participating in your own life.
Don't only think about lifespan. Think about healthspan.
There is another part of the next twenty years that deserves attention.
Living longer doesn't automatically mean living better.
The World Health Organization describes healthy ageing around something called functional ability: our ability to continue doing the things we value.
That includes being mobile.
Learning and making decisions.
Maintaining relationships.
Meeting our needs.
Contributing to society.
That's a much more interesting way to think about ageing.
Instead of asking only:
How long will I live?
Ask:
What do I want to still be able to do?
Walk through a new city?
Ride a bicycle?
Carry your own luggage?
Play with your grandchildren?
Live independently?
Travel?
Learn?
Work if you choose?
Get up from the floor without assistance?
Go out with friends?
Those aren't small things.
They're freedom.
Your health isn't simply another item on the list of things you should manage as you get older.
Health creates options.
And options create freedom. That idea deserves its own essay, and it has one: Health Creates Freedom.
The 20 Year Mindset
Most of us are used to planning.
We plan vacations.
We plan renovations.
We plan investments.
We plan weddings.
We plan careers.
We plan retirement.
But strangely, we don't always spend much time designing the life we're actually planning all those things for.
Try a different exercise.
Forget about retirement for a moment.
Think about your next twenty years.
Not as one enormous goal.
Think about them through five questions.
1. How do I want to feel?
Start with your health.
Not your weight.
Not how young you look.
How do you want to feel?
Strong?
Energetic?
Mobile?
Independent?
Confident?
Capable?
What would you like your body to still allow you to do ten or twenty years from now?
The decisions you make today influence the possibilities you'll have later.
Exercise.
Strength.
Sleep.
Nutrition.
Recovery.
Preventive care.
None of these guarantee a particular future.
But taking care of yourself increases the number of futures available to you.
2. Who do I want around me?
A successful life can become surprisingly empty if nobody meaningful is there to share it.
As careers change and children build lives of their own, relationships can change too.
That's why community matters.
Friendships don't always maintain themselves.
Neither do family relationships.
You have to participate.
Call people.
Show up.
Join things.
Invite people.
Meet someone new.
Be the person who organizes the dinner, ride, trip, coffee or gathering.
Some of the best investments you can make in your next twenty years won't appear on a financial statement.
They'll be sitting across the table from you.
3. What do I still want to experience?
Most people have a someday list.
Someday I'll travel there.
Someday I'll learn that.
Someday I'll try cycling.
Someday I'll take that course.
Someday I'll start writing.
Someday I'll spend more time outdoors.
Someday I'll take the trip.
Someday is useful when you're 25.
As you get older, it becomes worth asking when someday is supposed to arrive.
You don't have to rush through a bucket list.
But experiences deserve a place in your plan.
There are things you can comfortably do at 60 that may be more difficult at 80.
Use the seasons of life while you have them.
4. What do I still want to build?
This doesn't have to mean a business.
Maybe you want to build a garden.
A community.
A stronger family.
A personal brand.
A consulting practice.
A book.
A side business.
A charity.
A healthier body.
A creative project.
A second career.
Or something that doesn't even have a name yet.
One of the great advantages of getting older is that you aren't starting from zero.
You're starting with experience.
You've accumulated skills, relationships, mistakes, judgment, stories and perspective.
Those are assets.
The question is whether you want to do anything with them, because turning your experience into your next chapter begins with recognizing what you already have.
Starting something later in life isn't as unusual as popular culture sometimes makes it seem, as You're Never Too Late to Build Something Meaningful explores.
The twenty something founder isn't the only model.
Experience can build things too.
5. What do I want to contribute?
At some point, success can become less about what you accumulate and more about what you can give away.
Not necessarily money.
Knowledge.
Experience.
Encouragement.
Leadership.
Connections.
Time.
Perspective.
Think about what you know today that you desperately wish someone had explained to you thirty years ago.
Somebody else might need that knowledge now.
Teach them.
Mentor them.
Hire them.
Encourage them.
Introduce them.
Help them avoid one of your mistakes.
Contribution doesn't have to be enormous to be meaningful.
Sometimes changing one person's direction is enough.
You don't need a twenty year plan
Here's the good news.
You don't need to know exactly what your life will look like twenty years from now.
You probably shouldn't.
Life changes.
People change.
Priorities change.
Opportunities appear that you couldn't possibly predict.
The goal isn't to control the next twenty years.
It's to become more intentional about them.
Choose a direction.
Then stay curious enough to change direction when life teaches you something new.
Be a learn it all, not a know it all. Or, as another essay here puts it, Never Stop Being a Beginner.
Your future self doesn't need you to have every answer today.
That person just needs you to start.
Start with the next year
Twenty years can feel abstract.
So bring it closer.
Ask yourself:
If the next twelve months represented the beginning of my next twenty years, what would I do differently?
Maybe you'd start exercising.
Maybe you'd call someone.
Maybe you'd finally take the trip.
Maybe you'd learn how to use new technology instead of deciding it's not for you.
Maybe you'd start the business you've been talking about.
Maybe you'd write.
Maybe you'd volunteer.
Maybe you'd stop spending so much time with people who drain you.
Maybe you'd make new friends.
Maybe you'd finally give yourself permission to become a beginner again.
You don't need ten changes.
One might be enough.
Small decisions have a way of becoming extraordinary lives when they're given enough time — which is the whole argument of Small Decisions, Extraordinary Lives.
Twenty years from now
Imagine yourself twenty years from today.
You probably won't wish you'd spent more time worrying about getting older.
You may wish you'd started sooner.
Started taking care of your health.
Started learning.
Started travelling.
Started building.
Started strengthening the relationships that mattered.
Started sharing what you knew.
Started doing the things you kept promising yourself you'd do someday.
There are no guarantees about how many years any of us have.
That's exactly why the years we do have deserve some intention.
You don't need to reinvent yourself.
You don't need to become somebody else.
And you certainly don't need to have everything figured out.
You simply need to keep participating in the design of your own life.
Twenty years is a long time.
Don't underestimate what you can do with it.
Your future isn't something you wait for.
It's something you design.
Sources
Stanford Center on Longevity, The New Map of Life. Statistics Canada, research on retirement and post retirement employment among Canadians aged 55 and older. World Health Organization, guidance on healthy ageing and functional ability.