Longevity expert Peter Attia talks about the Centenarian Decathlon - the idea that if we want to maintain our physical abilities into old age, we should consider the body's natural rate of atrophy and plan in advance to counteract it.
The analog I developed for myself years ago was preparing for my mental prime.
We typically hit our mental prime in our 40s and 50s. By age 50 you're roughly at your peak earning potential and can make decisions with the highest level of impact, using all the knowledge you've gained up until then.
An underrated secret is that you're already a time traveller.
They need every advantage they can get.
If you want your 50-year-old self to lie back and think fondly of travelling memories, or be able to paint, or be able to recite poems on a whim, you don't have to wait and see. You can pass those gifts on through time.
So to preserve the optionality of my future self, I've been gearing up for a knife fight.
For me, this has meant saving and investing, travelling widely, reading as much as possible each year, and trying to take my health seriously.
It also means trying to gather as many data points as possible, trying new things, going to interesting places, getting lost, making a variety of friends, quitting misaligned jobs, and developing my skills as much as possible.
These are all things I'll benefit from today, but they're also gifts to my future self. They mean I'll be able to make better, more-informed decisions later on in life, with more lessons learned.
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