The book Centenary Life tells you how to spend your centenary life scientifically.

For most of human history, our life is very short. Faced with food shortage, disease and the constant threat of violence, we are always fighting for survival.

However, with the increase of wealth and the improvement of medical level, our life expectancy will be longer, and more and more people will live to 100 years old. Compared with our elders, we have extra time to give us time and opportunities to explore ourselves and move towards a lifestyle closer to our personal values and hopes.

It is not easy to realize this sense of identity and get a complete life stage in the life of a centenarian. We need to maintain a high degree of autonomy and introspection, solve financial problems, pay attention to intangible assets and gain real insight. In other words, longevity requires us to fundamentally redesign our lives and readjust the time structure.

For this reason, we should foresee these changes today, instead of bumping into them suddenly in the future.

In the book "A Hundred Years of Life: Life and Work in a Longevity Age", lynda gratton, an economist from London Business School, and andrew scott, a psychologist, opened a course on "A Hundred Years of Life" for MBA students, which was shortlisted for the 20 16 Book Award of the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company. One year after publication, it has been translated into 12 languages.

Both authors are experts in economics and psychology, and have served as human resources and management consultants in many governments and multinational companies. They use forward-looking research results and practical experience in advance to show us that in the era of longevity, we have to evolve from the past three stages of life to a multi-stage life, in order to turn longevity into a godsend, not a curse.

Now, let's open "A Hundred Years of Life: Life and Work in a Longevity Era" and make a plan for a hundred years of life!

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time

In the past, we lived a three-stage life-receiving education in childhood and youth, entering the society after successful studies, and retiring when we are old. A hundred years' life has made our life a new possibility. We live a multi-stage life-when we are young, the gap year makes us stop and rethink our direction, while when we are old, the emergence of the university for the aged makes us return to school and learn new things.

The gift of time is the theme of this book.

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Time is equal in essence and scarce in essence. We should rethink how to use our time and live without regrets. When we live longer, we have extra time to create our own wealth, develop our own skills, relax with friends, partners and children, stay healthy, take vacations, broaden our social circle or explore different work and lifestyles.

So, what new factors will affect our view of time?

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Our working environment also plays an important role in determining working hours. With the increase of income, people have more trust and expectation, but their leisure time is more expensive.

At the same time, our understanding of leisure time is different from the past. Obviously, time without work and study is different from leisure time. You need time to deal with daily affairs or do housework. Another way to think about leisure and time allocation is to think about how much people can enjoy from different activities.

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On the other hand, we have different understandings of professional time. The emergence of multi-stage mode will replace the three-stage work and life mode, thus producing more diversified life stage modes. We also have different needs on how to best allocate time, such as when to go back to school for further study, when to have children, and when to leave the workplace.

In order to maintain a healthy life for a hundred years, investment in family and vitality needs more free time, and we need to continue to invest in skills and technology to offset the rapid degradation of roles and occupations. This is not only to accumulate knowledge over time, but also to thoroughly remould oneself and make substantial changes.

We should keep an open mind to new things, recharge ourselves, and at the same time establish good relations with people around us, so that emotions will help our future.

02

Prospect of future work

We will work longer hours to pay for the expenses in a long life. In this longer working life, the employment situation will change greatly, so it is necessary to make correct career choices to provide economic support for a longer life.

In fact, it is difficult for us to predict the future. The further the future, the greater the uncertainty. In the life of a centenarian, the scope of uncertainty has greatly increased, and dealing with this uncertainty is an important part of a long life. Therefore, for those of us who have a long life, the vision related to our future work is very important.

Let's talk about the changes in the industry structure. Looking forward to the future, with the rise of information technology, the rapid development of robotics and artificial intelligence, the increasingly prominent environmental problems and the influence of the aging population, the economy will respond and the employment situation will change more.

When dealing with the contradiction between supply and demand in primitive economy, the structure of an economy will change greatly with the evolution of time.

Some industries, such as agriculture, will shrink sharply. Because the potential supply brought by technological progress is far greater than the growth of food demand and income, the total agricultural output value has fallen sharply.

Other industries, such as service industry, will rise sharply. Demand is increasing, but productivity is not increasing accordingly, so service prices are rising, attracting more labor to enter the industry.

The influence of population on employment is also one of the factors we should consider. With the growth of population, the population will have a great impact on the economy. Environmental and sustainable development issues will also have a significant impact on prices, resources and the relative scale of different industries.

It can be seen that a lot of industry changes will take place, and people will be more flexible in mastering skills and possible workplaces. People's work objects will also change greatly, which will be reflected in the future enterprise structure, and large enterprises will be more and more surrounded by small enterprises and start-up enterprises. These ecosystems, which are composed of enterprises with fewer employees but usually more professional, will become growth points.

Technological changes make it easier for buyers and sellers to find each other and determine each other's reliability and quality through independent sources. This will connect individuals with companies that want to buy personal skills, making self-employment possible at a certain stage.

Not only will your work object change, but your work place will also change. Living in cities, especially smart cities, will become more and more important. Moreover, as the economic value of creativity increases, we can predict that there will be more clusters in the future, which will appear in places where anyone wants to provide creativity, support each other and establish an entrepreneurial ecosystem. These smart cities will play a leading and exemplary role in workplace flexibility.

New technology means the end of old work, usually means the emergence of new tasks and new roles. From an economic point of view, technology will bring supplementary employment, increase output and increase employment. At present, unknown products will promote economic development and new industries will be created. Technology not only helps us to do middle-skilled jobs, but also complements high-skilled talents.

In the book, the author suggests that we should develop jobs in which human beings have absolute and relative advantages.

Having absolute superiority means that people perform better than robots or artificial intelligence in this task (such work includes creation, emotional and problem solving, free communication and a lot of manual labor, etc.). ).

Having a comparative advantage means that people can cooperate with machines. For example, people can work through computers or mobile phones.

In the future, as American novelist paul auster said, "We must be prepared for all kinds of changes, so that the enemy can stop us and the water can drown us. 」

03

Redefine assets

With the extension of life, it is possible for us to save more assets, but only considering finance and work is denying the essence of human beings. Therefore, we should not only pay attention to material assets (tangible assets), but also pay attention to intangible assets.

Intangible assets play a vital role in our life. For most of us, money is really important, but money itself is not our purpose. We make money to get what money can buy. For most people, a good life needs the support of family members, making excellent friends, mastering excellent skills and knowledge, and being physically and mentally healthy.

However, these intangible assets are not independent of tangible assets, they play an important role in the growth of tangible assets, and they promote each other. For example, without excellent skills and knowledge, our career and income potential may be very limited.

Therefore, intangible assets are the key to a long-term and efficient life-whether as a purpose or as an investment in tangible assets. In fact, a good life needs both, and both need to achieve balance and coordination.

Intangible assets such as friendship, family, physical and mental health, skills and knowledge are the key framework of centenarians' life, and we should carefully safeguard and consciously invest.

However, intangible assets are neither irreplaceable nor irreversible. If you immigrate, you can't sell a friend and buy a new friend in another place; When your knowledge is no longer valuable, you can't sell it, so buy new skills, and so on.

Although tangible assets are really important, having no money or having less money than peers is the root cause of dissatisfaction. However, the deep and solid relationship people have established in life is one of the key factors of life satisfaction. For example, happiness has two pillars, one is love, and the other is a lifestyle that keeps love. Earning more money can really make you happier, but love will make you happier.

Excluding those intangible assets that are born with personal endowment, we focus on intangible assets that choose variables.

In the book, the author divides intangible assets into three categories.

The first category is productive assets, which can help individuals to be more effective and successful in their work, thus increasing their income.

(1) The reserve of valuable skills and knowledge, the return of study and education, and knowledge-we should not only have excellent book knowledge, but also have a mind to cope with the real world. This enables you to match a company correctly when looking for a job.

(2) Companions-We should establish a close professional network where people trust each other, teach each other, support each other, introduce each other and provide valuable support.

(3) Reputation-A good reputation must be obtained through long-term investment and will appreciate with the deepening of time and contact. The social structure around you is like a broadcasting system, constantly transmitting information to the audience, and the spread is multiplied. At the same time, social media will increasingly convey your image and value to others.

The second category is dynamic assets, involving physical and mental health and well-being, including friendship, positive family relations and partnerships, and personal health.

(1) Bodybuilding and Health-A healthy life based on best practice suggestions is the cornerstone of fully enjoying longevity gifts. Poor health is impossible to achieve a multi-stage centenarian life, which will lead to financial and non-financial vicious consequences.

(2) Balance livelihood-to some extent, enhancing and maintaining dynamic assets is the trigger of management stress. Lack of emotional resources and vitality will have a negative impact on creativity and innovation.

(3) Renewing friendship-forming a "small group" with like-minded peers can enhance professional social capital and make us gain something at all times.

The third category is transformational assets, which refer to self-awareness, ability to contact different networks and openness to new experiences.

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If you want to transform, you need to know yourself now and in the future, and at the same time, you should take action, keep open and welcome changes. As you live longer, your identity depends more on what you do than on your starting point. The more roles you play, the less roles each role plays in your identity. Once you are ready to receive feedback, find and listen to other people's ideas, and then reflect on the problem, you will have a better understanding and perception of yourself and change the way you look at things.

The self you want to be will become a powerful action force in the future, such as what to approach and what to avoid, and use this to specify the action framework and guide the implementation of the action.

At the same time, when you are in the transition period, your relationship with others will inevitably change, and you will also look for new role models and similar spirits during the transition period with you. Of course, you are bound to give up the old contact information.

At this time, you need to find a way of doing things that you appreciate or believe is suitable for transformation in a broader and more diversified network of friendship and partners.

04

mood

Longevity will bring new experiences to your family.

A marriage will no longer be based on the traditional contract, but only seek what the relationship itself can bring to both parties. This relationship is instinctively organized, and it is open to constant remolding and questioning, rather than static, and it is easy to produce inertial resistance.

Commitment and dedication play an important role in these relationships. Partners' choice of each other is based on their trust in each other, and this bond can withstand future trauma. This kind of commitment needs some kind of guarantee, and at almost any characteristic point, any party can terminate this commitment more or less. In this case, there are many possible tensions and conflicts in many places, and for a long time, the ability to deal with these tensions and conflicts is crucial.

While this intimate relationship has changed, the economic characteristics of marriage have also changed dramatically. What everyone is more concerned about is whether the husband and wife can promise each other and share the risks.

Multi-stage life needs to improve skills, meet new challenges and invest in new networks, and partners need to work closely together to overcome difficulties. In the long life, partners provide emotional support for each other, provide suggestions for discussing difficult decisions and sincere criticism, and help each other focus on important things and make careful calculations for their limited time and energy.

In marriage, the husband provides material security, and the wife assumes the responsibility of family life, providing a good atmosphere for the survival of children. In a multi-stage life, this balance and coordination takes decades, not just weeks, but also requires a high degree of trust and a lot of planning.

Children will begin their own exploration of the future at home. When children choose to leave home, parents should choose to let go.

Work is an important part of family and personal life. Partners need to consider who will do the housework and who will make money. At multiple stages, each partner can switch between taking on family responsibilities. For example, A pursues his career, stands by 24 hours, and B works flexibly to help support his family; At another stage, their roles were reversed.

In addition, longevity will make many generations live under the same roof. Only when the relationship between them crosses the age limit will prejudice and prejudice decrease. Continuous familiarity seems to be very important, which means that the relationship will become more and more lasting and stable over time.

05

A new module of life

The gift of longevity gives us more time to create the meaning of life. This diversity is the essence of a century's life, not just the characteristics of social experiments. Once you have a multi-stage life, you will have many choices.

With the decoupling of age and life stage, we will see that the characteristics related to specific age in the past become more common. The characteristics of young people will become a normal state.

The first is youth and plasticity. On the one hand, the extension of life gives us more strength to maintain a more lasting youth, which allows us to explore and create options and prolong time. On the other hand, with the continuous disconnection between age and life stage, it will create an excellent opportunity for people of different ages to mix and match, and people of different ages can easily play together through the same activities. This creates opportunities for everyone to combine the flexibility and curiosity of young people with the wisdom and insight of old people.

The second is fun and improvisation. Play allows us to boldly try various combinations, immerse ourselves in the joy of doing things, so as to find our true inner voice, and then listen to our intuition, put it into practice and improvise.

The third is to keep trying new things. These new stages give us a good opportunity to take action and then think about how we feel when we act. It guides us to think about time in a positive way, so that we can really live, instead of letting life be filled with a bunch of wired numbers that keep slipping away.

In our hundred years of life, we will become explorers in the stage of thinking and exploration, looking for new experiences. We will investigate the world around us, find the fun, understand how it works, and know what they like and are good at.

In the exploration stage, we move to a new city to meet other people, or go to a new country to explore the lifestyle of the local people. We ask ourselves, "What is really important to me, what do I care about and who am I?" ? 」

The b exploration always involve painful experiences. We truly experience other people's lives, their pain, anger, excitement and happiness. We learn to put ourselves in each other's shoes. At the same time, we will introspect and create an opportunity to change the way we see the world, and then share our stories.

At any stage, we can become explorers. Adventure gives us time to evaluate our living conditions, understand life choices more deeply, and think more about beliefs and values. In the end, we benefit from thinking and planning.

In addition to explorers, we also have the opportunity to become independent producers, cultivate professional knowledge and learn production. We look for opportunities in the crowd and get a wide range of contacts. When we are regarded as the creators of new ideas, our reputation will be greatly improved and we will gain economic benefits.

Although the initial investment is low, we can gain action-oriented reputation by doing practical things, and then overcome obstacles and win intangible assets.

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For independent producers, the ability to establish, plan and publicize their own image is very important. We can learn a lot from our peers and mentors. Social media also allows us to promote ourselves more widely. For example, Linkedin, Zhihu and WeChat official accounts are all platforms for us to promote ourselves.

It is very important to become an independent producer, study, take exams and get a certificate in a specific field. Experiential learning enables us to learn from previous experiences and past experiences.

In order to live our life for a hundred years, we need to build a portfolio. Among them, a series of motives of portfolio are related to fund accumulation, motivation and exploration, vitality and stimulation, learning and social contribution.

When building a portfolio, you need to have flexible thinking ability and flexible working mode. When working full-time, you should be prepared in advance and start a small-scale experiment.

We should try those valuable projects, imitate those who live an ideal portfolio life, and start to reverse the balance, from the original internal corporate network to a more external and diverse interpersonal network.

When building a portfolio, it is necessary to establish synergy between different components, find similarities between past activities and future activities, reduce time and complete them efficiently.

The above is the essence of this book.

There are many exciting possibilities for longevity: more time to spend, more opportunities to seize and more identities to explore.

Your choices will be quite diverse, and these choices will reflect your personal preferences and circumstances. You will need to think: what kind of work do you want to do, what kind of education do you need, what kind of person you will become, and what are your goals?

There are many unknown things. In order to live the life you want, you must open your heart and accept change.

Now, have you figured out how to spend your centenary birthday?

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