Longevity Thinking: The Key to a Long Life?

Can we think our way to 100?

Photo by Jason Krieger on Unsplash

At the end of my freshman year in high school, I attended the school’s spring graduation ceremony. I watched as the seniors in their white gowns processed down the long staircase from the gymnasium to the football field and took their seats facing the family and friends who filled the bleachers.

Several graduates received special awards, and one delivered a speech to the class. I pictured myself someday walking down that staircase and receiving my diploma. At that moment, I set two goals for myself. When it was my turn to graduate, I wanted to receive the award for Outstanding English Student, and I wanted to be the graduation speaker.

Fast-forward three years. Graduation day arrived, and I walked down the staircase with my classmates. During the ceremony, the school principal called my name to receive the award for Outstanding English Student. And, having been chosen several weeks earlier as the graduation speaker, I delivered a precocious message to my classmates about the possibility of achieving perfection.

Goals set. Goals achieved. It seemed easy.

Of course, this early success gave me an entirely unrealistic view of what life would be like in the future. Over the next few decades, I would fail and fail again. I would disappoint myself, and others, time after time.

But looking back now, I realize that I might learn something valuable from my high school triumph. As a freshman, I thought that I would like to earn those two distinctions. My thought led to an intention. I made achievement my goal. My intention influenced my behavior. I worked hard in high school to be the best thinker, reader, and writer I could be. Consequently, my behavior facilitated my success.

Of course, chance and luck played a part in my being chosen for those honors. That, and maybe a pinch of fate. But in the process, I stumbled upon an insight about how our thinking influences our circumstances.

Thought leads to intention. Intention leads to behavior. Behavior leads to success.

Longevity thinking: from mindset to lifespan

Now that I’m over 60, I still think about the future. I hope to live for many more years so that I can accomplish all the things I’d like to do.

I’m not alone in that desire. A 2016 survey conducted by Time.*com* found that 77% of the people surveyed wanted to live to be 100. A majority of people think about living long into the future.

I don’t have a target age in mind. It doesn’t have to be 100. Fewer years or more years would be fine. I have goals for the time I have left, and I would like to live long enough to achieve them.

Setting our intention to live a long life: that’s longevity thinking.

But will setting an intention to fulfill my goals actually increase my chances of living long enough to pursue them? If I practice longevity thinking, am I more likely to live decades into the future?

People who have made it to or beyond their 100th birthday seem to think so. Nineteen centenarians interviewed about what they believe contributes to longevity agreed on four conditions that lead to a long life. One of them is “goal setting and attainment.” The people interviewed believed that having “a sense of purpose and direction for the future” helped them maintain their physical health, mental acuity, and enthusiasm for living.

Lifespan experts agree. Behavioral psychologist Michael Brickey suggests that certain habits of mind can help us live a long life. He recommends practicing what he calls the “be-attitudes: optimism, gratitude, being proactive [about dealing with life’s problems], and embracing lifelong learning and change.” We can choose each of these mindsets, he says, and thereby think our way into our ninth or 10th decade.

Health reporter for The New York Times Dana G. Smith writes that maintaining a sense of purpose in our lives as we age benefits our physical health and ultimately promotes longevity. Believing that our later years matter and that we can fill them with meaningful experiences may help us to survive to enjoy those years.

I can easily believe that life habits that promote our physical health, like diet and exercise, can help add years to our lives. The benefits of those habits can be quantified and confirmed. But can our thoughts keep us alive? Can working toward a goal, living for a purpose, and feeling that our later years matter help us survive? Mindset is difficult to substantiate. The benefits of our habits of thought may be impossible to confirm.

Only time will tell if longevity thinking works

If I look back at my experience in high school, I can understand why what I think may influence my lifespan. By thinking of what I want to accomplish in my remaining years, I set my intention to live long enough to succeed.

My intention prompts me to imagine a timeline — my timeline. Like a road striper painting a line on a highway, I draw my bold line into the future. I envision the many miles from where I am now to the end of the road. My intention then urges me to adopt health-promoting behaviors — diet, exercise, and positive mindsets — and to plan for my long-term financial well-being. Those are the behaviors that may take me from here to there.

If I maintain those behaviors as I draw my imaginary timeline into the future, will they lead me successfully to my 100th birthday, or beyond?

That’s the perplexing thing about life. I won’t know until I get there.

But I’ll keep drawing that line, bold and straight, into the distance ahead of me. Something may get in the way. Any number of circumstances may obscure my path or threaten my progress.

But I will keep drawing my line, full of hope, into a bright unknown.

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