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A sense of purpose is very important

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 

Key messages
  • Everyone should assume that they are going to reach their 90s 
  • Planning is a dynamic continuous process not a bit of paper 
  • It is good to think about what you would like  your life to be like in your 80s and 90s, and what risks you would like to reduce
  • A sense of purpose, particularly a purpose to help other people even more, is a very important focus for planning 
 
“ Do just want to reach your 90s or do you want to have a good quality of life too?”
 
 
We assume your aim is for life to be as good as, or better than, your life to-day so the next step is to set specific objectives. It’s more like preparing for  the decathalon than preparing just for the 1500 metres so decide what success would look like for you. Set out below is an example of what someone has written out after thinking about their future   
 
“In my eighties and nineties I aim to be able to 

  • Live in an independent dwelling without help more than once a week
  • Walk for at least ten minutes 
  • Continue to support friends and family
  • Continue to raise funds for the World Wildlife Fund
  • Enjoy discussing books and music with like minded people 
  • Do the same number of press-ups as my age, in three batches
  • Die in my own home with the wishes in my advance directive respected”

It is also helps focus the mind to identify what you don't want to happen so let’s review what bothers people most  and what they fear  Listed below are some common fears 

Heart attack 
Dementia 
Not being able to go out by myself
Cancer 
Not being able to get to the toilet in time 
Stroke 
Being in a home
Parkinson’s disease 
Being a burden for my children 

 
It is a pretty daunting list but the good news is that the risk of all of these challenges, except one of them can be significantly reduced, not by the medical profession but by what you can do with the support of family, friends and your community and we will provide the knowledge .    
 
One important aspect of planning is to focus on purpose or as the Japanese call it Ikigai 

What are we talking about?

In her book titled  Extra Time Camilla Cavendish describes how  on the island of Okinawa where the  Japanese people have a famously long life they have a term Ikigai where Iki means life, and gai means purpose  which may be defined as what makes you get out of bed in the morning and motivates you to do things. 

 
Of course if things are difficult because of some disabling disease, purpose may include tasks that were previously taken for granted, like walking to the shops or dressing, but the type of purpose that is good for wellbeing is broader and bigger than self-care. 

As a parent, purpose is bringing up children, at work, the purpose may be working for an organisation with a clear sense of mission or the purpose may be simply to keep the boss happy.  For some people  retirement may result in a loss of purpose but researchers have shown that many people have been doing the job so long that retirement gives them a new opportunity and they find a new purpose, in fact there is a move to rename retirement as renaissance - rebirth!
 
The importance of purpose was emphasised by one of the world’s top medical journals in 2020 whose ‘prescription for longevity ‘ was not a new drug but a range of activities including purpose
 
 



Particular problems are faced by people with limited mobility, that is people who cannot get out of their house or cannot move very far out of their house because they have lost the ability to drive or they cannot walk more than twenty or thirty yards without a seat, face limitations.  For those people of course the purpose of looking after themselves becomes a higher priority , more obvious and more pressing, but it is not particularly motivating or stimulating and it is now clearly understood that people have a sense of purpose to change the world in some way feel better and think better, whatever their age

What are the effects of ageing?

Ageing by itself does not reduce the sense of purpose but it is important to understand the impact that pessimistic and negative attitudes towards older people. which stem from the mistaken beliefs that as people age they have a significant loss of intelligence, may make it difficult to maintain the sense of purpose or define a new sense of purpose.
 
How can you minimise the effects of ageing and living longer?

Perhaps the most important thing is that you continue to have a sense of purpose and don’t feel you should give up simply because you have reached the age of seventy, eighty or ninety. People in their seventies, eighties and nineties play an invaluable role in supporting others, either individual family members or other people in their same village or community.
 
What can you do to reduce the risk of loss of purpose?

The most important thing is to believe that you have a positive contribution to make. .
 
How can you maintain and increase a sense of purpose?
 
Here is one way to look at purpose and even if you are no longer in paid employment there are lots of opportunities to focus on
  • Things you love
  • Things the world needs
  • Things you are good at 
 


The simple answer is to get more involved in difficult and challenging tasks. This is easy to write but of course much more challenging to put into practice if someone has limited mobility. 
For children supporting parents who become disabled and of limited mobility it is very important not only to help those individuals do things for themselves, for example get to the shops rather than sending a shopping delivery service, but also to create a new sense of purpose. This may be linking the person with up again some cause that they have been committed to for some time such as Cancer Research, aid for people in poor countries or the prevention of climate change. The housebound person  can become a supporter and raise money.  Intergenerational learning is also very important and if there are grandchildren they could be set a project to find what life was like for children sixty years before or to review memories of significant events such as the Iraq War or the Miners’ Strike.


The key issue is to help the person get online and interact with others preferably using some technology that allows groups to communicate, the Echo Show for example. It is also important  to think of ways in which they can directly link with a cause or mission.  
 
Who can help?

There is no professional service but it is possible to help people reflect and review their assets.  In the book called The 100-Year-Life the authors very usefully summarise assets not in terms of financial assets but in terms of the social assets that a person has developed.  Often these assets are not being put to good use both because of loss of mobility and because of depression resulting in isolation and negative thinking so the key is to encourage positive thinking and engagement.

Here are the three types of asset they have identified 

1.    "The first category of intangibles is productive assets.  These are the assets that help an  individual become productive and successful at work and should therefore boost their income.  Obviously, skills and knowledge will be a major component of this category,

2.     The second category is vitality assets.  Broadly these capture mental and physical health and well-being. Included here are friendship, positive family relationships and partnerships,
        as well as personal fitness and health.

3.     The final category is transformational assets.  Across a 100-year life, people will experience great change and many transitions.  These transformational assets refer to their self-   knowledge, their capacity to reach out into diverse networks and their openness to new experiences."
  
Source: Lynda Gratton & Andrew Scott (2016) The 100-Year Life.  Living and Working in an Age of Longevity.  Bloomsbury. (p.71-72). 
 
 
Of course this is more difficult for people who are immobile and housebound but by using the internet people can work in group , for example all doing virtual cycling to raise money for their chosen cause.
 
Of particular importance is social action that is “inter-generational”, with different generations learning form one another 
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