Imagine knowing that you will be living in your body well past a century. It’s a given. Assuming that medicine has risen to such levels that your quality of life is sustained rather comfortably, would you still want to be you? Not the body - but you the person, the mind, the heart, the consciousness – with all the good character traits and disturbing flaws.
The questions started mounting this morning upon reading David Stipp’s article on anti-aging drugs in Fortune Magazine. He writes about the development of various drugs that might expand the average life span to about 110. The article ends with insight into the lucrative market of biodegrading baby-boomers whose purchase power might result in billions of dollars for the drug makers. Drugs might allow the body longer life, but that just creates another set of obvious circumstances that we have to deal with.
-
Who is going to take care of us into the later years?
-
Who is going to pay those health care bills?
-
How will we deal with the stress, which might have physical and psychological implications?
But the deeper question is - can we make use of that extended time to grow as human beings, or contribute to society? I think it comes down to the way we are living our lives now, not our hopes for the future. Most hope and pray for good health, but how many of us hope and pray that as we age, our growing wisdom and insight take us to a higher level of consciousness?
Whether at work or in our daily lives we so often remove ourselves from the moment or task at hand in favor of looking ahead to a future goal, a future worry, or a future challenge yet to be defined. The concept of living longer lays the foundation for more time to get life right, but it also provides a great platform for procrastination. I’ll bet that if we live longer the stress factors currently in our lives might still make an appearance. The harder we work on ourselves now, the more doors we open for expansion as we grow as individuals.
A longer life requires those brain cells to function and for us to do some internal work. Here are a few practical weekly reminders that can bring us right back into the moment, away from the confusion of what is to be in the future. The object is to reduce, even minimally, some of the stress in your life. I offer the following suggestion. Choose one day a week to do an internal inventory. The following ideas are designed to make you think.
-
How do you feel about your current financial situation. Is there one thing you can check into, one bill that needs a phone call, one credit card that you might be able to negotiate a lower interest rate?
-
How do you feel about your health? Is there one issue that you have been ignoring that can use some special attention. Might just be a yearly check-up or getting your eyes examined.
-
How do you feel about your workplace or business? Perhaps there’s a person you need to communicate with better, an assignment that has been put off for a while, or a conversation with a client that needs to happen.
-
How do you feel about your home life? There might be a pressing issue that needs to be addressed, a person who needs a little extra care, a child that needs attention.
-
How do you feel about your personal growth? If you have a daily practice which helps you de-stress, are you practicing enough? When is the last time you read something inspirational or some uplifting material to soothe your inner dialogue?
We might live longer, but how we live will greatly influence our later years. Every action, every moment impacts our future. When we take personal inventory, we take responsibility for who we are, how we form our perceptions, how we experience life, and how we impact those around us in life and at work.
"The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences." – Jean Jacques Rosseau
