I’m pretty bad at content consumption. For all my bluster about media, the reality is that I have a real challenge keeping track of things beyond their 1st season in most cases. The list of things I’ve started but never finished is enormous.
But regular readers of this newsletter* know that I’m semi-obsessed with my physical fitness and my health - what I put into my body. As of late, that’s manifested itself as a deep dive into longevity. I’ve read more than a few things about this, including a super interesting book called Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity. It’s pretty likely that the first person who will live to 150 has already been born. We can argue whether that’s good or bad or whatever, but given that in the US a hundred years ago, life expectancy was 57 for men and 60 for women, that’s an astonishing possibility.
*Thanks again to both of you
In my obsessive drive to consume everything I could on the subject, I came across a limited documentary series on Netflix* about Blue Zones. Blue Zones, in short, are areas in the world where people live substantially longer than the average person in the country in which they live by an order of 4, sometimes 5x. As an example, Okinawa has 80 centenarians per 100,000 residents. The average for the whole of Japan is 20 per 100,000.
*The rule of thumb for Netflix documentaries is as follows: if it’s 90 minutes, it should be a half an hour; if it’s 3 episodes, it should be 90 minutes; if it’s 8 episodes or more, it should be 3 episodes
The guy who made the docuseries, Dan Buettner, has been studying these Blue Zones for 25 years and the series itself seeks to understand why these folks outlive their fellow countrypeople by so much. It’ll come as no surprise that there are shared values across these societies like exercise, community, local food sourcing, etc. and also some things unique to the places themselves. The last episode deals with whether Buettner can create his own Blue Zone where one doesn’t currently exist. It’s fascinating, at least it was for me, so give it a watch if you’re so inclined.
Anyway, one of the Blue Zones is in Costa Rica up near the Nicaraguan border and while they’re going through the culture and what they do to stay healthy and fit well into their 80s and 90s, Buetter (who is conversational in Spanish) asks one of the centenarians how he gets up every day to do his work at his age. And the guy responds pretty simply “es mi plan de vida” - it’s my life’s plan - and then says “¿cual es su plan de vida?” - what’s your life’s plan?
So … ¿cual es su plan de vida?
Before you think of an answer, let me take a moment to clarify what I *don’t* mean here. I don’t mean what are the discrete things that you’re planning to accomplish with your life.*
*My daughter is in high school and it sounds like when kids apply and commit to colleges, they’re going into specific schools within the school (business, liberal arts, whatever) and also effectively declaring a major (!). Which seems right. I assume every 16-year old dreams of being a CPA for a mid-size firm and retiring to Boca after a stable 50 year career
What I mean is “what’s your purpose?”
Do you even think about that? Does anyone?
Honestly, I’m not sure I have, at least not with real depth. I’ve set goals and intentions - sometimes I’ve met them and sometimes I haven’t. I’ve built things, helped move businesses, given my clients direction. I’ve trained for races. But does that qualify as purpose? Or is that just positive inertia or momentum?
I’ve actually been sitting over this newsletter for days trying to figure out where to go and what to think through - and sitting here right now on Thursday June 5th, 2025 at 8:21pm in the City of Angels* - Not just “What am I doing?” but “What’s the point of it all?”, which I recognize is an out there thing to think about between meetings or while making one of the last bag lunches of the school year**. But it’s been hanging over me. In a culture obsessed with performance - physical, professional, personal - asking about purpose feels like the epitome of privilege. Like a luxury we can’t be afforded in the face of our overwhelming and insane Outlook calendars. But what if that’s backwards? What if purpose is the thing we’re supposed to start with?
*Shoutout to Vin Scully
**This is the time of year that I’m so done with making lunches for my kids that I’m pretty sure they go to school with a half made sandwich and fruit that’s just on the good side of the fresh-rotten continuum
I’ve spent a lot of time focused on the what. What is my purpose? What gets me out of bed in the morning? What is my own personal North Star? Those are important questions to ask. I don’t think a lot of people are asking those questions of themselves, so I’ve actually shifted my thinking to “why” - why don’t people ask themselves these questions.
I’ve got a few guesses:
The hyper-productivity culture we live in
The pressure to define identity by career/title/output
The lack of stillness or reflection in American life at all and/or the passive judgment someone feels or puts on themselves when they stop to smell the roses
And when you’re cranking along in your day without a minute to eat or use the bathroom or even rest your brain, it’s impossible to even realize that the net gain of increasing the load from 75% to 125%* that you’re putting on yourself (or is being put on you) barely moves the needle positively while having the negative effect of pushing you past the point of exhaustion.
*When I started working, my day was 8:30am-5:30pm. 9 hours and one of them was allocated for lunch, where we would frequently pull together a small group of people, walk somewhere and sit down for 30 minutes and eat and talk. And as I’m writing that, it sounds like I’m describing a scene from before the war or something
What’s the secret to a long, productive life? The secret to finding yourself in a personal Blue Zone? Maybe the secret isn’t in the mitochondria or the collagen peptides or the wearables. Maybe it’s in having a reason to get up every morning that isn’t simply optimized for efficiency. When I’ve thought about longevity in the past, I’ve thought about simply living longer. But is that it? Or is it something bigger? Perhaps longevity isn’t about the time, but what you fill it with.
So one more time for the people in the back … ¿cual es su plan de vida?
OK, team - I’ve got one more of these coming (Issue 10 - pub date June 17), before I take a small break to refresh and recharge. We’ll be back after the Independence Day break.
Let’s take a moment to recognize two phenomenally talented sitcom actors who passed recently. If you know me, you know how formative 1980s sitcoms were for me, and even though M*A*S*H* is mostly a 1970s sitcom, it was ubiquitous in syndication when I was young. So RIP to Loretta Swit - acid-tongued, intelligent, unsympathetic turned super interesting Hot Lips Houlihan.
And RIP George Wendt - there were a ton of great entrances by a superbly talented comic actor, but none better than when Frederick Crane - yet to utter his first word - shouts “Norm!” when Wendt greets everyone with his customary “Afternoon, everybody”
Legends never die.
That’s all for this week. Until next time, friends.