Understanding your identity and what to do with one’s life is the real value that lies in greater longevity says Professor Andrew J Scott
In a recent podcast – the Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway – London Business School’s Professor Andrew Scott says that in the past, we rushed adult development because we didn’t have the life expectancy that we have today. Now we can look forward to new skills, new careers and new passions.
“How do we adjust to ever longer lives? We need to be ‘evergreen’ and continually invest in our future because there will be so much more of it,” says Professor Scott. “The young and middle aged can expect to get old so we need to act well throughout our lives in order to age well and be more productive for longer. It is about devising a new map for our longer lives.”
In terms of health and longevity, Scott says we need to be more mindful for our own health and we need to switch our health systems from intervention to prevention.
“We are living a longer life, but what is the point of it? You can starve yourself at breakfast; you can do high-intensity interval training. There’s a great quote by the Greek poet Pindar which says the point of life is to become who you are, having discovered what that is: 'Become who you are by learning who you are'. That notion of adult development, of using a longer life to change and become who you want to be, having asked the question, who really am I? I think that is the really interesting thing about longevity. We have scope now to decide what do we really want to do, and how do I want to spend my time.”
To listen to the entire podcast, click here
