LONGEVITY – LIVING TO BE 100 YEARS OLD AND BEYOND. ARE WE READY FOR INFINITY?

The search for the longest, healthiest and most fulfilling life possible has been with mankind since the beginning of time. The ancient Egyptians were already striving for immortality. They went to great lengths over thousands of years to make themselves comfortable in the afterlife. Towering pyramids, tombs hidden deep in the rock and magnificent treasures bear witness to what people can achieve when their thoughts and actions are directed towards eternity.

Today, eternity is rarely felt. Our actions are characterized by fast, short-term, impulse-driven thinking – with all the disadvantages that this entails.

?We wander through the superficiality of our lives like sleepwalkers: we let ourselves be driven by image-driven media and their rapid shots into the brain. We follow the uninterrupted buying impulses of an economy striving for growth. We assume that healing is taking place where only symptoms are being eliminated, we believe in healthy food because it is adorned with colorful organic labels. We see no escape from stressful employment relationships because the fear of possibly being left without them forbids it. We ignore the suffering of farm animals, the oceans and the planet because meat and fish have to be cheap. We think climate protection is too expensive and climate stickers are stupid. We eat microplastics with every meal and still find plastic packaging practical. We don't care about ourselves, our children or others because we don't have the time. And we don't question anything, we just believe everything our brain presents as the first answer. And so we follow old thought patterns because they come to us effortlessly.

Or as Daniel Kahneman so aptly puts it: "Those who can fall back on experience, automatisms and impulses save energy and do not have to make an effort." And that‘s why everything stays the way it is. After all, we are all called upon to save energy!

I CONFESS: I AM AN ENERGY WASTER!

Yes, I'll come clean here: I just throw energy around. Positive energy that makes my clients, their companies, customers and employees shine. I go full throttle where others like to switch to eco mode. And why? Because I want things to change! I like things to be different, new and always better. You can't achieve change in neutral. To bring about change, you have to be courageous, tackle challenges and ask yourself questions about everything: Do I still want this or can it go!

?That sounds like a pithy statement – especially in a system that seems to be built in concrete: the healthcare system! Because here, the imperative to save, the focus on security and budgeting reign supreme – alongside hierarchies that seem to have been left over from the days of the Kaiser. The squaring of the circle, which no longer really works.

FROM NOW TO ETERNITY: LONGEVITY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Longevity, or the pursuit of a longer, healthier, more vital life, is not a sprint. Two weeks of longevity vacation at a luxury longevity resort, such as those currently being built from Sylt to the Red Sea, certainly provide valuable and beneficial impulses for lasting youthfulness. But they are far from enough. Just as it is not enough to go for a professional teeth cleaning twice a year, but to refrain from brushing your teeth in between. This is no way to stop aging. And once again, it shows that our society is all too willing to focus on the how and the what, without asking why. Longevity per se is not necessarily a desirable state.

WHAT'S YOUR WHY? LONGEVITY NEEDS TO MAKE SENSE.

?A JAMA Network Open study from 2019 found that in a group of almost 7,000 adults over the age of 50, those who scored highest on a scale measuring "life purpose" were less likely to die during the four-year study period. They were also less likely to die from heart, circulatory or blood diseases during the same period than those who scored lower.

This study has shown that the meaningfulness of life is associated with certain causes of death, and that is an interesting advance in knowledge. In this study, a higher purpose in life was associated with a lower mortality rate during the study period overall, for cardiovascular disease and blood disorders, and for digestive system disorders.

What characterizes a meaningful life?

The meaning of life is defined differently by each person. But in general, it means that you have a goal in life and pursue goals. According to the study authors, this sense of purpose contributes to the likelihood that you will engage in behaviors that are good for your health. The Japanese call this sense of purpose:

IKIGAI – that which is worth living for

The Japanese live exceptionally long lives, especially the inhabitants of rural Okinawa. The islands at the southern end of Japan have always been known for their longevity and were once called the land of the immortals. Okinawans have less cancer, heart disease and dementia than Americans, and the women there live longer than any other women in the world. There is a reason for this: a principle that is deeply rooted in everyday Japanese life, which the Japanese call IKIGAI, which means "that for which it is worth living".

?The brain researcher Ken Mogi has studied IKIGAI scientifically. In his book "IKIGAI – the Japanese art of living", he shows how it works and why it makes you happy and healthy to feel a deep sense of purpose in life.

Do we see enough meaning in our achievement-oriented society in growing older, or do we far too often expect the worst: no longer being needed? Loneliness? Illness? Cancer? Assisted living? A nursing home? The need for care? The end??

MONEY OR MEANING – OR BETTER BOTH?

Do we lack meaning even at a young age? Has earning money become the guiding principle of our society? Do most people just struggle to make a living? The Gallup Engagement Index has been reporting on this for years – and nothing changes. And in 2023, it is once again written how little emotional attachment German employees feel to their company. 19 percent of them have already mentally resigned. The number of employees in Germany without emotional ties is thus at its highest level since 2012. Gallup calculates the potential cost of the lack of emotional ties for the German economy at €167.2 billion due to productivity losses. The damage to companies is immense.?

But what does it do to a person when they work for a company at least 5 days a week, for at least 8 hours a day, subjecting themselves to the demands of their superiors and having to work towards goals that are not their own? Is it worth living for? Does it encourage the impulse to jump out of bed with joy Monday to Friday? Can we and do we want to live to be 120 years old like that? Or do we need fundamental changes here?

DOES THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM PROMOTE LONGEVITY??

We have already recognized that our working world is not necessarily geared towards a longer, healthier, more meaningful life. Not least because of the constant stress it causes. But now we come to our healthcare system. It certainly promotes longevity at all levels. After all, health is already in the name and therefore inherent in the system. Or is it?

?If you want to live to be over 100, you must not die before then. So far, so good. The healthcare system helps as much as it can. Acute medicine does a great job of keeping us alive when we've been hit by a bus and our spleen is bleeding. At this point, I would like to thank all the wonderful and highly committed lifesavers of this system! Unfortunately, there are many diseases that cannot yet be cured – and that will inevitably lead to death sooner or later. The good news is that some or even many of these diseases could be prevented. Through prevention, a healthy lifestyle, healthy and conscious nutrition, regular exercise, mindfulness, ikigai and much more.?

Longevity means prevention!

But where would we be if everyone suddenly went to the doctor to stay healthy? Longevity means actively changing your lifestyle? Isn't there a pill for that? Longevity means living full of energy, with the full power of the mitochondria? Almost all employees in the healthcare system are completely exhausted, at least at times or even permanently. Not a few of them work beyond the limits of what is humanly possible, without the corresponding (monetary) energy compensation.?

How can such a system produce energetic people who are bursting with strength and look forward to living to be 100 or even more years old?

As the saying goes, those who want change will find ways. Those who don't want change will find reasons! So let's find ways!

THE LONGEVITY REVOLUTION | LIVING FOREVER BEGINS WITH THINKING FOREVER!

So let's turn to what we can do ourselves to live a long and fulfilling life:

Longevity means rethinking the future – as an endless game. The common factor in many illnesses, mistakes, setbacks and failures is that we think too short-term. If you want to focus on longevity or even the infinity of life, you have to actively open yourself to a new way of looking at things.?

Short-term thinking always follows the quick impulse, the "I want it" voice in our head. Now. Right away. Immediately! Short-term thinking wants quick impulse gratification. Those who set themselves the goal of infinity – or even "only" 100+ years of life – are willing to forego short-term gratification in favor of long-term success and sustainability – especially when it comes to health. Longevity often requires us to renounce instant gratification in favor of a longer, healthier and more vital life. That may not be so nice at the moment, but it will be all the more so in the future!?

However, thinking about yourself, your own company or even the world in terms of infinity is a concept that can be quite frightening. It shows us that many of the decisions we have made so far were wrong. The idea of infinity makes us aware that we ourselves are part of the problem. But it can also strengthen us and inspire us to want to be part of the solution in the future.

Thinking in the short term in terms of finiteness seems to make all our big and small transgressions disappear into thin air. Why give up cheap meat and thus accelerate climate change? The future will take care of it! Why switch to a healthy diet? It will catch up with everyone sooner or later! Why let others share in the profits when more is clearly more? Why worry about health, personal energy levels and the emotional ties of employees? There are always new ones coming along! Why bother about meaning, joy and fulfillment in your job when retirement is already looming on the horizon? Why leave the (uncomfortable) comfort zone and change everything again? It's only another 10 years!?

WHY THINK ENDLESSLY WHEN FINITENESS ULTIMATELY LEVELS EVERYTHING?

Quite simply because it looks as if our ignorance and self-centeredness, our fear of change and our lack of courage, our conformity and desire for conformity, our hunger for more and more and eternal growth could catch up with us and bite us hard on the backside. The weather is playing tricks, the poles are melting, forest fires are blazing and the global south is slowly becoming uninhabitable. Nevertheless, the highways and airports are just as overcrowded during the holiday season as the vast cattle ranches of Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, which are being cleared to make way for forests.

If we really want to fulfill the dream of a long life in the best of health – and the possibility has long existed – then we have to say goodbye to the maxim "After me, the deluge". "After me" could come sooner than we think and turn into "with me".

Even the eternal pursuit of money and profit will not help us. It will certainly not heal the wounds we have inflicted on our relationships, friendships, health, joy of being, life energy, employees in our companies, business partners – or the planet.

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If you have time, think about it. And if you like, think about it for a while! In this sense: Live long and prosper!

An article by Daniela Wiessner

Credits: istockphotos.com