A 100 Year Life?
I first became seriously interested in “future of work” conversations in July of 2006. That was the month before my first ever legitimate contract with a client as I dipped my toes into the waters of working for myself, and one or two months after teaming with a good friend to present at a BITAC (Buyer Interactive Trade Alliance and Conference) event in NYC on the subject of creativity and work. That summer, the same friend sent me a pdf of a particular creative design firm’s “Future of Work Thinksite”, and I was hooked.
A three-stage life
What I do NOT recall in 2006 is any conversation around a 100-year life or a “three-stage life.” At that time, though I was not yet in the throes of mid-life, I have no doubt I was implicitly “following in the footsteps of my parents (generation)…assuming a three-stage life.”[1] Whereas authors Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott do indeed talk about the future of work in The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, it was their discussion around the three stage life (“full-time education, work and retirement”[2]) that stood out to me. They explain, “In a three-stage life there are two key transitions: from education to employment, and from employment to retirement.”[3] In a life where one lives beyond 90, or even 100, the current script of going to school full time, working full time, and then retiring to Florida is outdated. What a longer life needs is something different, something with multiple transitions instead of two: “a multi-stage life with a variety of careers, with breaks and transitions.”[4]
The reframing of a multi-stage career and life from an implicitly held three-stage paradigm has become somewhat of a threshold concept for me this summer. Much like never being able to watch The Matrix or Harry Potter again without seeing Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey woven throughout those narratives, I’m not going to be able to unsee the way previous generations approached the three-stage life and the necessity of change when it comes to my and future generations, now that I’ve read The 100-Year Life.
I would like to think that I’ve made multiple transitions over the course of my half-wayish to 100-year life. However, have I truly considered the time and resource commitment necessary for re-creation? Will I “devote considerable amounts of time to developing new skills and foresight about (work)(?)”[5] Will I rethink “leisure” to incorporate more time to “reinvigorate and retrain”[6] in my life and work rhythms? To help with this, it probably wouldn’t hurt to use the authors’ diagnostic tool on their website (https://www.100yearlife.com/diagnostic/). After all, If Gratton and Scott are right, I have more than a pretty good chance of living past 90 or 95.[7] I’d like to think that the investment I’ve made in this doctoral program is a step in the right direction.
Final thoughts: the where and the what
First, there’s definitely a WHERE question in the 100-year life. Where these longer lives will be lived out will be interesting. In our present day, humanity has been moving to cities. However, while geographic proximity to the present and “future corporate landscape(s)” which are “surrounded by smaller businesses and start-ups”[8] around large cities probably does matter, where this plays out may not be exactly as we once thought prior to the pandemic. The authors pointed out in 2016 that the world was moving to the great global smart cities of the world. I wrote a piece for Joel Kotkin’s newgeography.com in 2020 titled “Networks and Cities in a Post-Covid Era”[9] that addressed this conversation, so I won’t say much more about that here.
Second, regardless of distance and proximity, “for those destined to live a long life across a sixty-year working career, who they work for, the type of work they do and how they perform this work will change significantly.”[10] Additionally, the authors note, “It is still hard to get a new job if you are over 50, and there are still relatively few people over the age of 70 in paid work.”[11]
However, I think of two mentors, ages 78 and 90, who counter the present “hard to get a job over 50” narrative. The 78-year old leads a 501c3. So does the 90-year old (as founder and president). Both have had multiple career transitions. They’ve turned the dominant “three-stage life” with its two transitions on its head. The first has a career path that traversed healthcare, ministry, and nonprofit leadership. The second has an entrepreneurial posture that had stops in education, church planting, denominational leadership, church renewal, and nonprofit leadership. For them, “re-creation (became) more important than recreation.”[12] These two mentors aced the authors’ desire to “bury the three-stage working life and in its place consider ways of redesigning life so that long lives become a gift that is energizing, creative and fun.”[13] I know these leaders do take time off, and I know they have a Rule of Life governed by a deep commitment to prayer. They live well-differentiated lives. I believe their “leisure” time has been time “spent, with less focus on consumption and recreation and more on investment and re-creation.”[14] They accomplished “career development” while building the plane and flying it at the same time. They sought out godly counsel for their endeavors. These men, though not perfect, at some point saw “that there are many more possible future selves to be considered,”[15] either implicitly or explicitly, and they went for it. They did as the authors predict people will need to do to engage with the 100-year life: They “set out themselves to experiment with different ways of working and living.”[16] And they continue to be engaged to this day. I routinely tell my wife, “I want to be just like (these two men) as I grow older.” They have lived lives worthy of their calling, lives worth emulating.
[1] Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott, The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, London: Bloomsbury, 2017, E-edition published 2020, Kindle, 10 of 258.
[2] Ibid., location 100 of 5034.
[3] Ibid., 6.
[4] Ibid., 3.
[5] Ibid., 114.
[6] Ibid., 181.
[7] At the time the book was published, Gratton and Scott wrote, “Over the last 200 years, life expectancy has expanded at a steady rate of more than two years every decade. That means that if you are now 20 you have a 50 per cent chance of living to more than 100; if you are 40 you have an evens chance of reaching 95; if you are 60, then a 50 per cent chance of making 90 or more.” (Gratton and Scott, 1) In 2016, I was 44 and 45.
[8] Gratton and Scott, 52.
[9] See https://www.newgeography.com/content/006709-networks-and-cities-a-post-covid-era.
[10] Gratton and Scott, 47.
[11] Ibid., location 141 of 5034.
[12] Ibid., 6.
[13] Ibid., 46.
[14] Ibid., 7.
[15] Ibid., 218.
[16] Ibid., 242.
About the Author
Travis Vaughn
6 responses to “A 100 Year Life?”
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Hi Travis,
Nice post.
You wrote, “I would like to think that I’ve made multiple transitions over the course of my half-wayish to 100-year life. However, have I truly considered the time and resource commitment necessary for re-creation? Will I “devote considerable amounts of time to developing new skills and foresight about (work)(?)”[5] Will I rethink “leisure” to incorporate more time to “reinvigorate and retrain”[6] in my life and work rhythms? To help with this, it probably wouldn’t hurt to use the authors’ diagnostic tool on their website (https://www.100yearlife.com/diagnostic/)
I did the tool and it sort of confirmed my thoughts about my part two in retirement.
I really think that GOD had a hand on my lifelong learning habit. Each academic step prepared me for something in HIS plan.
Sadly, I don’t ever remember stopping to pray for his career guidance. I think I am going to do that now, “Heavenly Father, I am grateful for the physical, mental, financial and spiritual place that you have brought me to. I do lift up my post doctorate career. How and where can I glorify you? In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”
Shalom brother.
Russ, I read your prayer, and it is one that I want to adopt as my own. This is THE conversation my wife and I were having as recently as this week (Monday, to be specific). And so, I pray this WITH you: “Heavenly Father, I am grateful for the physical, mental, financial and spiritual place that you have brought me to. I do lift up my post doctorate career. How and where can I glorify you?” I’m curious, how are you processing that prayer (and how the Lord may be answering it), right now? Should the Lord give you (and me) many more years, what do you think you will do more of, and/or what do you think you will do less of OR do for the very first time? What would re-creation (instead of “leisure”) look like for you over the next five years (65-70)?
Travis, you write, “I’m not going to be able to unsee the way previous generations approached the three-stage life and the necessity of change when it comes to my and future generations, now that I’ve read The 100-Year Life.” Yes. This book is helping me be a bit more at ease about my own young adult’s choices. Just because I was raised into one formula does not mean that same formula will fit this generation.
When you watch your own kids or people of their generation make their own life-choices, does it bring you joy, anxiety, hope, none of the above?
Great and timely question, Kally. My answer is mixed. As of right now, like this week in 2024, there is great joy, a bit of anxiety, and some sadness. We have three children, and each one is now engaged in their post-college careers. Our oldest, now 28, has already changed his career once. In fact, he went back to school and is now in a completely different career than the one he pursued for three years after college. I would imagine each of our children, particularly two of the three, will likely experience the multiple transitions the authors wrote about…before they hit 30. I will add that “parenting” adult children has been more difficult/challenging than we ever imagined.
Travis,
You ask many good questions but one caused me to pause: “Will I rethink “leisure” to incorporate more time to “reinvigorate and retrain”[6] in my life and work rhythms? ” We were chatting with my daughter, son-in-law and their friends, all millenials. We talked about there being a much more tangible effort to guard work and life balance in their generation. They mentioned that options were very important to them and a job shouldn’t limit the options. It made me realize how very different our thoughts on work and life balance were. My generation made work the end all in so many ways. Having more years to contend with will necessitate healthier rhythms of rest and play.
Thank you for your thought-provoking post.
Hi Travis,
I enjoyed your post and was so impressed by your two mentors. They are truly men to emulate. I’ve had a few role models of that nature myself. Such a blessing! I don’t know that I ever had a three-stage model of life in my head, but I’ve also only worked part-time. My husband has never talked about retiring just “shifting gears” and we’ve both pursued additional areas of specialty. I think finances and generativity have both played into those decisions. We want to keep contributing as we age and don’t want to be a burden. I wonder if the three-stage model itself might have contributed to the “mid-life crisis” experience. I wonder if that model left a lot of people with little to look forward to. The thought of an endless vacation doesn’t seem satisfying and isn’t realistic. What would you advise or dialogue Gen Z about longevity and planning for it? What do you think about multi-generational living?