By the middle of this century, it will be commonplace for people to live to be 100 years old. This continues a remarkable trend that has led to a doubling of human life expectancy in the last century — faster than ever before in the history of human evolution. In the Western world, half of today's five-year-olds can expect to live to 100 years, and this could become the norm for newborns by 2050.

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However, our social institutions, norms, and strategies were developed at a time when life was only half as long, and so they need to be updated. The Stanford Center on Longevity has launched an initiative that believes that this profound change in human experience also requires significant and creative adjustments to make these 100-year lives meaningful at every stage. The challenges of longevity can be overcome if we act now and are guided by these principles.

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Make the most of the 100-year opportunity

The New Map of Life asks us not only to emphasize the negative aspects of aging, such as health problems, mobility restrictions or financial insecurity, but to consider the contribution of older adults to society in order to make a real balance sheet of the costs and benefits of our current population structure.

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Investments in future centenarians bring big profits

We can invest in tomorrow's centenarians by optimising every phase of life so that benefits accumulate over decades and we have more time to recover from drawbacks and setbacks. The crucial years between birth and kindergarten are the best time for children to acquire many of the cognitive, emotional and social skills needed to live a healthy, happy, and active life.

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Adjusting the health span to the lifespan

A central tenet of the New Map of Life is that a healthy long life requires investment in public health at every stage of life and that the health span should be the measure of how, when and where investments are made. Reducing health inequalities requires investing not only in better access to healthcare, but also in the health of communities, particularly those affected by poverty, discrimination and environmental degradation.

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Let us be surprised by the future of aging

Today's 5-year-olds will benefit from an astonishing range of medical advances and new technologies that will result in them experiencing aging in a completely different way than today's older adults. While the aging process cannot be stopped, the emerging field of geroscience has the potential to change the way we age by trying to identify and “reprogram” the genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms that make age the dominant risk factor for certain diseases and degenerative conditions.

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Transitions in life are an advantage, not a disadvantage

While the traditional curriculum vitae is a one-way street with prescribed stages, the new life map offers multiple routes that combine the roles, opportunities and obligations of a 100-year life, and people are expected to adjust their GPS over and over again. The map offers more opportunities for informal and lifelong learning as well as for intergenerational partnerships that improve the flow of knowledge, support and care in all directions.

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Lifelong learning

Instead of limiting formal education to the first two decades of life, the new life map offers new opportunities for learning outside the confines of formal education so that people of all ages can acquire the knowledge they need at every stage of their lives, in a way that meets their needs, interests, abilities, timelines, and budgets.

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Work longer and more flexibly

Over the course of a 100-year life, we'll likely work 60 years or more. But we won't work the way we do today, where we squeeze 40-hour weeks into a life filled from morning to evening with parenting, family, care, school, and other obligations. Workers want flexibility, whether it's working from home at times, or having flexible hours, including paid and unpaid breaks for care, healthcare needs, life-long learning, and other transitions that can be expected over a lifetime.

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Financial security right from the start

Financing a life of 100 years requires new forms of work, saving and retirement. It also requires a new policy that reacts to today's economic realities: working life has become more uncertain, family structures are more diverse than in previous generations, and many people have little or no retirement provision. The new life map is intended to offer more opportunities and starting points for building financial security, as individual action is placed in a larger social and economic context.

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Building sustainable communities

The influence of the physical environment begins even before birth. The pros and cons accumulate over a lifetime and determine how likely a person is to be physically active, whether they are isolated or socially engaged, and how likely they are to suffer from obesity, respiratory, cardiovascular, or neurodegenerative diseases. It is now necessary to start planning and building neighborhoods that are ready for longevity and to evaluate potential investments in infrastructure from a longevity perspective.

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Age diversity is a win for society — and for business results

The dynamism, energy and discovery of younger people, paired with the emotional intelligence and wisdom of older people, create opportunities for families, communities and jobs that did not exist before. Instead of worrying about the costs of an “aging” society, the remarkable benefits of a truly mixed-age society should be measured and reaped.

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The path to the future

Addressing the challenges associated with longevity is not the sole responsibility of governments, employers, healthcare providers, or insurance companies; it is a task that concerns everyone and requires the best ideas from the private sector, government, medicine, science, and philanthropy. It is not enough to redesign or rethink society to prepare it for a long life; it must be built, and quickly. The politics and investments that are made today determine how the young of today become the elderly of tomorrow — and whether we make the most of the 30 additional years of life that have been given to us.