Are you ready to live 100 years?

Like most readers of this article, you probably grew up seeing the “100 years old” as a rare achievement in the life of a few lucky ones. You remember your friend’s grandmother turning 100, still lucid. You read about that 102-year-old author and his secret for a long life: “Smile,” he said. We all know a wise old lady who crossed the limits of human condition and placed three candles on her birthday cake.

The imaginary of longevity sends the 100-year-life to a place very far from us – and from our reality of mere mortals.  But is it that far? In the book “The 100-Year-Life, Living and Working in an Age of Longevity,” Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott consider the following fact: over the past 200 years, life expectancy has grown by more than two years every decade. In other words: if you are 20 today, you have a 50% chance of living more than 100 years. If you are 40, you have a 50% chance of living to your 95 years old. The pace has been the same over the years. If your son was born today, he has a 50% chance of living more than 105 years. (A century earlier, the chance of him becoming one of those wise old men would be 1%).

The most surprising part of that story are not the stats. What is really chocking is the fact that we are living much longer than our previous generations, but we have been repeating the life model of our parents and grandparents. What life model is that? The three-stage life: first education, then career, and finally retirement. It might sound like mere theory, but our whole social organization and our life choices are based on those three moments. This is such an unquestionable structure that we forget its root: a 20^th century social construction. A reflection of an era that no longer exists.

But if we live longer, where do we accommodate our extra years? If we simply stretch the old model and apply it to our longer life, we might create two possible scenarios: a crawling retirement stage (one that doesn’t make sense financially-wise) or a work stage that looks like the real version of “Groundhog Day”: it never ends.

The essential discussion here is how we can transform a longer life in a better life. And this is about rethinking the present, not the future. Living longer has nothing to do with adding years to the end of our lives. It is about restructuring our whole existence: education, career, finances, relationships, health.

Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott suggest we replace the three-stage life for a multistage one: a more flexible life, with a variety of careers, breaks and transitions. In a shorter life, the things we learn in our 20s can last all our whole work life. A longer life demands constant investments in education and real pauses to relearn. The 100-year life is based not on one, but on two or three different careers. In one of them, money can be your focus; while at another moment, you might want to work less and spend more time with your family. Maybe you want to focus on social causes at some point. There is no need to choose your path in advance: transitions are expected. “Transitions will become the norm,” the authors say.

This great change affects not only the individual, but the whole society and work scene. One of the main differences is the definite separation between age and life stage. This is how it works today: if you are 18, you are starting college. If you are 40, you have a senior position at work. If you are 60, you are about to retire. This is how it works in a multistage life: your age reveals the years you have lived, no more than that. Beginners in their 30s are welcome. Retirement can wait. Health is a priority: living longer only makes sense if you improve quality of life. New phases of independent production and exploration emerge. Men and women take turns in life cycles to maintain the balance between family and work. Both corporations and executives benefit from a diversity, productivity, and constant learning scenario.

Just as globalization and technology transformed our lives, longevity is also setting up (at this very moment) a social and economic revolution. It is up to you: to be part of it, or to be part of it.