Age, and setting priorities

Each birthday is a chance to reflect on achievements, but not knowing how many birthdays I have left only sharpens my priorities. NAOMI SIMSON

By Naomi Simson 

I recently had a birthday, and as I do each year it puts me in a space of reflection… “Am I doing the things I wanted to do?”, “What is it that I always wanted to achieve/do/be/have/experience?”

It’s at this time that you review the “things I’ve always wanted to experience” list, the “top 100 things before I kick the bucket” list. The reality is that there are not 100 things on my list; I cut it back to doing 10 things each year that I have always wanted to do. Some get carried forward.

But what if instead of being halfway through my life, I was only 4% through my life?

I am just back from a conference in India, and there I met a futurist, Rohit Talwar, who had some very interesting things to say. And if some of his ideas could be true, this will have huge impacts on business and government policy.

Those born in the 1950s can expect to live beyond 90, but those born in the 60s can expect to be 100 (the Queen is going to be very busy writing letters). By 2020, those over 50 will outnumber the young, and they will be increasingly wealthy.

Retiring at 60 takes on a whole new meaning (imagine retiring and having half your life left to live…)

Dr Aubrey de Grey, a Cambridge geneticist, believes that with the current rate of technology development it could be possible for people to live to be 500 or 1000. In fact “the first person to live to 1000 might be 60 already.”

See his talk below: “Why we age and how we can avoid it”

But of course there are no guarantees – so I plan to live each day as if it were the only day I have, and I am on to my list.