Episode 38
Why Retirement Fails and How to Reinvent the Second Half of Life
Everyone talks about living longer. Far fewer people ask what happens if we reach those extra decades without purpose, identity, relevance or a clear idea of what we actually want to do with them.
In this episode of Beyond Longevity, I speak with Paul Long, a third-generation storyteller, former major-market television reporter, anchor and special projects producer, and Emmy-winning content creator. He went on to run his own production company before making a major pivot in his own life.
Paul now runs New Way Forward, a platform helping people rethink the second half of life, not just financially, but around purpose, health, relevance, contribution and continued income. His starting point is simple: the traditional path of work, retirement and gradual withdrawal no longer makes much sense if people may have decades of active life ahead of them.
We discuss why retirement can leave people struggling once the initial honeymoon period wears off, why losing identity and relevance may matter as much as losing income, and why financial planning alone does not prepare people for what comes next. We also look at who tends to reach this point, whether reinvention is realistic when someone is already in survival mode, and what society needs to change as people live longer.
Paul shares practical tools he uses himself, including an adapted Wheel of Life exercise and writing a letter from your 95-year-old self. And rather than advocating one dramatic leap, he explains why small, repeated actions may be a much more realistic way to build a different life.
About the guest
Paul Long began his career in television news, working as a major-market reporter, anchor and special projects producer. He later became an Emmy-winning content creator, receiving an Emmy for Best Documentary for A Passing of the Torch, and founded his own production company, producing work for major companies.
Around 2006, Paul began seriously questioning what he wanted the next stage of his own life to look like. That process eventually led to New Way Forward, where he now shares the ideas, tools and lessons he has gathered on purpose, health, income and reinvention in the second half of life. New Way Forward is still in launch mode, with content across YouTube, LinkedIn, Substack and its own website.
Site: www.NewWayFWD.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newwayfwd/videos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-long-nwf/
Substack: https://newwayfwd.substack.com/
Chapters
00:00 Who Is Paul Long?
01:42 What Is New Way Forward?
03:11 Why Does Awareness Come Before Answers?
07:15 Who Starts Looking for a New Direction?
11:42 What Can the Wheel of Life Tell You?
15:02 How Do You Find the Common Thread in Your Life?
17:47 What Forces Us to Reinvent Our Lives?
22:11 The Different Versions of Paul Long
24:09 Why Can Retirement Leave People Unhappy?
29:08 Why Does Relevance Matter as We Age?
30:29 Why Does Pleasure Fade So Quickly?
30:40 What Creates Lasting Satisfaction?
32:23 Who Is New Way Forward Designed For?
36:39 Which Tools Help People Reinvent Their Lives?
38:48 Can Small Steps Really Change Your Life?
40:56 What If You Are Just Trying to Survive?
44:29 Can Society Adapt to Longer Lives?
47:52 How Do Identity, Meaning and Regret Change With Age?
52:33 How Can People Use New Way Forward?
54:44 How Do You Move Past Fear and Start?
57:10 Rapid-Fire Longevity Questions
01:01:09 What Makes a Good Second Half of Life?
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to Beyond Longevity, the podcast that explores not just how we age, but how we can build a longer, healthier future for ourselves.
Speaker B:My guest today is Paul Long, a third generation storyteller who has reinvented himself more than once.
Speaker B:He built a high profile career in television as a reporter, anchor and special projects producer.
Speaker B:He later won an Emmy for Best Documentary for A Passing of the Torch and then made a very different move away from broadcasting and towards helping people rethink what the second half of life is actually for.
Speaker B:After years of success in television and then running his own production company, Paul reached a point where the old script no longer fit.
Speaker B:Out of that came a very different mission.
Speaker B:He now runs New Way Forward, a platform built around helping people rethink the second half of life, not just in terms of money, but in terms of purpose, health, relevance, contribution, and continued income.
Speaker B:Everyone talks a lot about living longer, but we talk far less honestly about what those extra years are actually meant to hold.
Speaker B:Identity, reinvention, usefulness, energy, meaning financial reality and a real reason to get up in the morning.
Speaker B:Paul is stepping into that gap with a far more ambitious vision of later life than most people ever come across.
Speaker B:Hi Paul, thank you so much for joining me today on Beyond Longevity.
Speaker B:Before we rewind through the twists and turns that brought you here today, let's start with where you are today and the work that defines this chapter of your life.
Speaker B:You run New Way Forward, which is a platform helping people to rethink and redesign the second half of their life.
Speaker B:For someone hearing the phrase for the first time, what exactly is it?
Speaker B:Who is it for?
Speaker B:What kind of people tend to come and why?
Speaker A:It really emanates from about 15 years ago when I started figuring out now what for myself, kids going off to college, getting older, what I was doing professionally, I didn't want to keep doing anymore.
Speaker A:And it was really like, okay, so what is my future going to look like?
Speaker A: And Briefly, back in: Speaker A:And I realized it was a monumental mistake because that's all I thought about.
Speaker A:And I wasn't going to do that again.
Speaker A:And so without going into detail now, I said I got to step back and not try to answer it, but almost do an update both internally and externally of what do I want my life to be like.
Speaker A:In other words, design, customize my future for myself in all parts of my life, not just a couple of things.
Speaker A:So I started with awareness, internal awareness of like, what Do I really want and need and what does it look like?
Speaker A:And then I did the external awareness, which was, okay, what are other people who are my age or older doing?
Speaker A:And almost everything I learned was the complete opposite of what I expected.
Speaker A:You know, retirement is bliss.
Speaker A:Here's a major trend of people being miserable in traditional retirement.
Speaker A:Here were people designing and customizing this amazing life.
Speaker A:And then I also discovered that being old, let's say older, isn't a stereotype of automatic, inevitable, major decline, loss of relevance, and things of that nature.
Speaker A:So as I dug into it and I'm figuring out what my path is, which I came to call, you know, what's my new way forward in life?
Speaker A:Well, my background is a storyteller and a journalist and then a content creator for major corporations around the world.
Speaker A:And you know what I love is these stories, these things that people need to know that was imbued upon me by, like, my father, who was a journalism, my grandfather.
Speaker A:And I'm like, nobody's talking about this.
Speaker A:Nobody's aware of this.
Speaker A:People are just kind of, and this is generalization, automatically assuming, well, I'm supposed to do this retirement thing and it's supposed to be blissful and I'm supposed to decline and I can't be that healthy.
Speaker A:And, you know, I don't want to live past 75 because I'm going to be old and decrepit and I'm going, wait a minute, no, that's not the story I'm seeing.
Speaker A:And so personally, sharing those kinds of stories is something I deeply value in life.
Speaker A:So this is what evolved from that.
Speaker A:It's like, what am I going to do in my.
Speaker A:I'm not going to call it retirement.
Speaker A:I'm going to call it my olderhood, you know, childhood, adulthood, olderhood.
Speaker A:And this is going to become, among other things in that the different things in life.
Speaker A:This is going to become my purpose, this is going to become my thing, something to do and express myself and something that when I was in news, I felt like I was making a difference.
Speaker A:By the way.
Speaker A:I was one of those honest, you know, you want to be credible, unbiased and clear and accurate journalist.
Speaker A:And I missed that when I made my transition.
Speaker A:And it's so, it's like, you know, I want to put things out there that are helping people to basically be aware of this new reality which has become global.
Speaker A:It's the major trend right now.
Speaker A:And in five years or so, it's already not becoming a trend anymore.
Speaker A:It's becoming the new standard.
Speaker A:But you Got to tell that to people.
Speaker A:You got to get the word out.
Speaker A:And so that's how I ended up with this.
Speaker A:So to answer your question, what is it in the content that I put out, whether it be on YouTube or LinkedIn or Substack or website, is a bring in this awareness.
Speaker A:But also, okay, how do you figure it out?
Speaker A:How do you figure out how to find a new way forward that is aligned with who you are now and what you want your future to be be?
Speaker A:And then how do I go after it, which includes things like health.
Speaker A:The whole bio age thing is a little sketchy right now, but generally speaking, from what I've been able to find, I'm decades younger in my health compared to other people my age.
Speaker A:And it wasn't that hard to do.
Speaker A:And this was one of the things I wanted to be healthy, active, not sick, not on a lot of drugs, and able to do pretty much whatever I want to do.
Speaker A:And so sharing it with people, this new possibility for them.
Speaker B:There are so many things that you said that I want to pick up on.
Speaker B:Let me go through them one by one.
Speaker B:Let's stay with new Way Forward for a moment.
Speaker B:When people arrive at your platform or like you said, substack, YouTube, what are they actually looking for in practical terms?
Speaker B:Are they looking for clarity, structure, direction, community, maybe even a permission to change, or is it something completely different?
Speaker A:Really, all of those things.
Speaker A:And this is, of course, in general terms, because everybody's a bit different, but especially now, people who are right now between, let's say, 50 and 65.
Speaker A:So I started with the boomers.
Speaker A:I launched the effort in, if people know this from business startups, ready, firing, just start doing something to learn what are people resonating with.
Speaker A:And it was called Pro Boomer.
Speaker A:What I realized is, is that in the first place, it was mostly going with the generational thing, which I don't really prefer, but it was mostly people who were Gen X and millennials, because a lot of what I'm talking about you can do at any time in your life.
Speaker A:So you said a moment ago, permission.
Speaker A:It's like you get permission when you know how you can do it and you find out that a lot of people are doing it.
Speaker A:Generally the 50 to 65 cohort right now is in a bit of a crisis because of AI and ageism.
Speaker A:In a lot of cases, they're even wondering, can I afford to make it to 65, let alone what am I going to do after retirement?
Speaker A:People are very concerned about their finances, but also it's this generation, that this age group right now that's really starting to say, wait a minute, do I even want to do this traditional retirement thing?
Speaker A:I mean, they're realizing what they went through as a generation or as.
Speaker A:As an age group causes them to question everything, Whereas boomers were little bit more inclined to just accept it, that this is what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker A:But the challenge, I say is, is that, wait a minute, you've strategized and thought through and, and planned your whole life, and you're just going to assume this is what you're supposed to do and that it's going to fit you.
Speaker A:One size fits all.
Speaker A:We know doesn't apply.
Speaker A:And so a lot of them are just really unsure of what to do.
Speaker A:They're at that point where things are getting scary, and it's like, I'm not sure what I want to do or what I'm thinking about doing.
Speaker A:I don't know if it's right.
Speaker A:And the world is changing so fast, so they're looking for some grounding and some ideas.
Speaker A:And then one of the things that I do is I offer kind of an array.
Speaker A:Some of them are to do similar things and similar results, but different things work for different people.
Speaker A:How do I start figuring it out?
Speaker A:I don't even know where to get started.
Speaker A:And that kills some people in.
Speaker A:In terms of their drive to do it.
Speaker A:Well, I can't figure it out right now.
Speaker A:I don't have an answer yet.
Speaker A:By the way, my big thing is good, don't try to have your answer.
Speaker A:Do that awareness thing first.
Speaker A:And then, lo and behold, the answers avail themselves.
Speaker A:So a lot of very.
Speaker A:Of course, the world's very turbulent right now, but there are a lot of people who are scared or getting scared about their future and especially as they get older.
Speaker B:One thing sort of about your personal story I find very interesting, and we will go back to that even more because your life story is just incredible.
Speaker B:But, but you said that your pivot wasn't just about finding purpose, but also about a need to keep earning, to stay relevant, staying healthy, and building a life that felt like it was yours.
Speaker B:Why was it important to hold all of that together rather than just reduce this to a softer, more idealized story about your reinvention?
Speaker A:That idealized notion of what you want is fine, but it's kind of like, hey, make this thing.
Speaker A:Deliver this thing.
Speaker A:Great.
Speaker A:How are you going to do it?
Speaker A:How are you going to pull it off?
Speaker A:How are you going to market it?
Speaker A:Manufacture?
Speaker A:I mean, it gets Complicated, which shouldn't deter people.
Speaker A:So I'll give you a great example in a method that I stumbled across on my own, trying to figure it out again.
Speaker A:When I left television news, all I thought about was career and money, and I didn't think about the rest of my life.
Speaker A:And it was a mega life mistake.
Speaker A:Because if I had saw this thing that I'm about to tell you about in 10 seconds, it would have changed the trajectory of my life by just that awareness and to the point that that idealized concept is not enough.
Speaker A:Because all of these different things make up life.
Speaker A:There is nothing that stands alone in our life.
Speaker A:Everything is interconnected.
Speaker A:Everything affects each, and you need them all.
Speaker A:So what I came across is that life coaches and therapists and stuff use something.
Speaker A:Have you ever heard of the wheel of life?
Speaker B:I have, but do explain it to everyone.
Speaker A:Yeah, so it's a circle.
Speaker A:So imagine we're looking at a pizza or a pie that's been sliced.
Speaker A:And so there are eight slices in this wheel.
Speaker A:And each slice represents a different area of life.
Speaker A:And you look at different life wheels.
Speaker A:They're different categories and such.
Speaker A:The ones that I dealt with is finances, career, intimate relationships, happiness and life satisfaction, then health, then meaning in life.
Speaker A:Meaning, purpose, relevance, fulfillment.
Speaker A:That deep satisfaction that comes from something important or challenging, social and fun and family and friends.
Speaker A:So that's a fair representation of all parts of our lives.
Speaker A:So in this wheel of life and the way that it's been used is there are 10 concentric circles from the center to the outside, numbered 1 through 10.
Speaker A:And it's generally used as, here's an inventory, an audit of where you are in these areas right now.
Speaker A:And I did that.
Speaker A:But then I thought, wait a minute, here's the big kicker.
Speaker A:I'm trying to figure out my future.
Speaker A:It's good to know where I am now.
Speaker A:So what level do I want my finances to be?
Speaker A:What level do I want my health to be?
Speaker A:Where do I want that to be in this new life that I'm designing?
Speaker A:Now, most of those will probably mark it down as 10.
Speaker A:That's fine.
Speaker A:But here's the big, big, big part.
Speaker A:Well, what does a 10 in health look like?
Speaker A:What does a 10 in meaning, relevance, purpose look like?
Speaker A:I mean, I'm actually having to define what that looks like, feels like kind of how it manifests itself.
Speaker A:And then the last big kicker is, so what is it going to take for me to get it there?
Speaker A:Now, one of the biggest underlying things is that you're actually thinking about it a Lot of people amazingly, just have vague concepts about things, but you're actually having to think this through.
Speaker A:You're actually training your brain to work with you.
Speaker A:Like when you get ideas out of nowhere, well, that's your brain because you've told it that this is important.
Speaker A:And then two, you start also seeing the interconnectedness of this.
Speaker A:Okay, I want to make a million dollars, but what I'm going to have to do to make a million dollars is going to kill my social and fun and maybe my intimate relationship.
Speaker A:So it just avails itself to you and it becomes that great starting point so that as you keep pursuing it again, those opportunities, those ideas not only come up, but this is the big thing, but they're going to be aligned with what it is you want your life to be.
Speaker A:You're not going to make the mistake I made and other people make where we just focus on one thing or an assumption.
Speaker A:I've actually had to look at everything and so it's not that hard to do.
Speaker A:And the really cool thing is once you start doing it, you start getting excited.
Speaker A:And so you've taken the fear and the resistance of change or figuring it out and you've turned it into something that just kind of happens in a very positive way.
Speaker B:When you look at the very different versions of your life so far, sort of from newsroom storyteller to Emmy winning creator, and lots of other things in between to the work you do now, do you see for yourself a common thread that, that you think has actually been there all along or are they completely sort of different entities or versions as you call them, of your life?
Speaker A:That's a good question.
Speaker A:Yes, I definitely would say that at the core there is a consistency and again, that's what something like this life wheel, as I call it portends to.
Speaker A:There was a very interesting exercise.
Speaker A:I, I, I don't do coaching, but I took a really excellent coaching course for instance, and in teaching you the different things we would do breakouts, we would have to do the exercises ourselves and, and all in a context of ourselves and our life.
Speaker A:You know, it had to be real, not made up.
Speaker A:And one of the techniques was helping people determine what they really value in life.
Speaker A:And by value I don't mean I value honesty, I value integrity.
Speaker A:It's more like what are the things that are really big must haves in your life?
Speaker A:You may have heard people say that we always live up to our standards.
Speaker A:And if your life isn't what you want it to be, then you need to raise your standards the must haves in your lives, what you value in life, are at least foundational, if not one of those things.
Speaker A:And so for instance, what I was missing while I became that content creator was what what I really valued in life in terms of what I mentioned before, making people aware of things that will make a difference in their life.
Speaker A:Well, helping sell Jaguars, Jaguar was one of my clients was a great thing and it was a lot of fun and I made some money at it.
Speaker A:But that's not the same as like what I'm doing now or what I did in news.
Speaker A:And also to this baseline of me of being a very expressive, some, including my lifelong companion, might say overly expressive, you know, is a part of me, you know, getting it and putting it out there.
Speaker A:And also I like the challenge.
Speaker A:I enjoy the challenge.
Speaker A:Like right now I'm, I'm still in launch mode and some things are doing great and some things I can't believe how badly they're doing, but I'm all in.
Speaker A:So yes, I feel like I'm being very true to myself now and in my other parts of my life, which in the past I sacrificed.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's very deep.
Speaker B:Probably with life experience you can sit back and sort of gain all this realization about, you know, what matters and what wasn't.
Speaker B:So was there a clear breaking point that forced you to pivot or was it more a slow, you know, this break realization that the life you had built wasn't quite the right fit for you anymore?
Speaker B:And did you feel like something was off?
Speaker B:And if so, what did this off to you really feel like a lot.
Speaker A:Was off from that choice that I made.
Speaker A:So again, I love news because again it was like what can I succeed at, earn a living at?
Speaker A:Well, I did see exceed there, but life balance.
Speaker A:And of course there is no such thing as true balance, but people understand what you mean.
Speaker A:That was missing.
Speaker A:My health was suffering.
Speaker A:The important lesson for everybody is just because you can succeed at something does not mean you should do that something.
Speaker A:And I think too, for instance, my two sons who are in their early 30s of a lot of their cohorts, realize I can't tell you how many people you know, well, I'm great in math, so I went to engineering school and I became an engineer.
Speaker A:But for those that were self aware enough, they're doing something that is almost unimaginable that they would do.
Speaker A:I'm in sales now because I love selling.
Speaker A:In other words, we follow this rote path of what we think we're supposed to do and how we're the default life, what we're supposed to do.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I reached that crisis where I knew that, you know, Paul on productions was not what I should have been doing.
Speaker A:And it's not what I want to continue doing, and it's not sustainable.
Speaker A:Plus, the pricing for what I did was starting to.
Speaker A:Because of technology, anybody could shoot video or edit.
Speaker A:It didn't mean they knew what they were doing, but they could.
Speaker A:I had to get out of that, and I didn't want to keep doing it.
Speaker A:And then the other thing too is, is I wanted to recapture my life.
Speaker A:You're right about when we get older, our perspective, you know, it.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's known as wisdom.
Speaker A:You know, you know more.
Speaker A:And if you take the time to leverage it and, and actually consider it, you may know who Steven Pressfield is.
Speaker A:I loved his characterization.
Speaker A:I'm going to modify it.
Speaker A:So he inspired this.
Speaker A:The old life map was in our youth, we learn, like, everything, from walking to relationships to school to whatever.
Speaker A:And then in our adulthood, the old life map is you, you earn, you maybe have a family, and then you get older, you retire, decline and die.
Speaker A:And the new life map is in our youth, we learn.
Speaker A:And in some ways, you could look at adulthood as a apprenticeship on steroids.
Speaker A:What does an apprentice do?
Speaker A:They learn about it, and then they start putting things into practice and learning what works well, what doesn't work, refining their skills and things of that nature.
Speaker A:And then at some point when you get older, which could be 35, let alone 45, 55, 65, 75, as Pressfield characterizes it, it's time to go pro with your life.
Speaker A:This isn't like a moment of decline and stepping back.
Speaker A:This is kind of like, what better time in life?
Speaker A:When have you ever been better suited because of all you know about yourself and about the world and about life, to make the right choice and go after it and achieve it and enjoy it, it's a payoff.
Speaker A:Now, for some people, traditional retirement is the payoff.
Speaker A:I don't have to do anything.
Speaker A:I honor that.
Speaker A:We're all different.
Speaker A:And for some people, traditional retirement works.
Speaker A:I just started finding that more and more people who didn't really think it through, they have a year or two of retirement bliss, and then they're in the retirement nightmare because causes a loss of relevance and fulfillment and purpose and meaning in life, for one thing.
Speaker A:So, yes, I was in that place where I'm like, I can't keep living like this, so it's my turn.
Speaker A:Without really realizing it.
Speaker A:That way, it's my turn to design a life that is as perfect and ideal for me as possible.
Speaker B:You spend years telling other people's stories.
Speaker B:Did this new chapter in your life, which I think you call version 4.0, begin when you realized you needed to rewrite your own story?
Speaker B:And what did the earlier versions of Poor Long get right?
Speaker B:And what do you think they got wrong?
Speaker A:Well, version one was a kid, and that learning part of it.
Speaker A:And overall, it was a blessed childhood, but it was a tumultuous one, and especially that moment.
Speaker A:My father, who was a newsman also, who I was very, very close with, we did a lot together, died suddenly when I was 15.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And I've even written about this, out of tragedy can come important things.
Speaker A:And shortly after his death, I actually thought, no one's gonna save me.
Speaker A:And that's actually true for all of us.
Speaker A:Only we can save ourselves.
Speaker A:People can.
Speaker A:Hell, let's say.
Speaker A:And at 15, that's a big lesson.
Speaker A:And so then version two was going into the news business.
Speaker A:And the success that I had there, my trajectory changed because in college I dated, but I didn't want a relationship because I wanted to just get out there.
Speaker A:You can work at the local TV station for a while.
Speaker A:And then even if I had to freelance, I wanted to have a Hemingway esque experience.
Speaker A:Experience, you know, I wanted to go to Cambodia and El Salvador and, you know, and.
Speaker A:And do that kind of thing.
Speaker A:But I inadvertently met Kim and we swept each other off each other's feet, and we're still together.
Speaker A:And so that changed the trajectory.
Speaker A:Those were really good news years too, where I was able to do my thing and, and succeed and love it and great relationship and fun.
Speaker A:And then version three was really having a family and my content creation business, which didn't work out so well.
Speaker A:And so version four was to learn from that mistake and now set up the custom design life that fits me.
Speaker A:And what I need is again, kind of like a payoff for everything I've learned and all my efforts.
Speaker B:One of your strongest ideas is that the.
Speaker B:The old script was basically work hard, retire, and then fade out.
Speaker B:What is broken with that model?
Speaker B:And when you say the old script is dead, but nobody handed people a better one.
Speaker B:What should replace that old broken debt script?
Speaker A:I'll start with the customization of it.
Speaker A:You know, I say we need to throw out the concept, let alone the word of retirement.
Speaker A:I mean, first of all, what an awful word.
Speaker A:You know, what are the synonyms?
Speaker A:Withdraw, quit, go away, retire, go sit.
Speaker A:And I Don't even like using the word.
Speaker A:Because if I say, you know, people say, paul, how are you in retirement?
Speaker A:I'm not retired.
Speaker A:I retired from a business, like a American or British football player would retire from a sport.
Speaker A:But they move on to other stuff.
Speaker A:And if you think about it, first of all, traditional retirement is a modern concept.
Speaker A: It really started in the: Speaker A:Like in the United States, you had Social Security, but then you had pensions.
Speaker A:But also, two people weren't living that long when Social Security came out.
Speaker A: ted it in Germany in the late: Speaker A:And generally it was men, and generally they had worked in toxic environments.
Speaker A:And it's also this broad concept of, here's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker A:Do you want to take something off the shelf that really nobody thoroughly or cognitively developed and just say, this is going to fit my life?
Speaker A:And so I say, take away the word retirement and instead design, customize the life that's right for you.
Speaker A:Now, it could look a heck of a lot like traditional retirement, but I bet even if you've thrown in, oh, but you know what?
Speaker A:I need this.
Speaker A:And this is really important to me.
Speaker A:Well, you may have made the difference from what I discovered.
Speaker A:And here's characterization, because I heard this characterization a lot of times that people retire and they have the retirement honeymoon of that one or two years of bliss, but then with that loss of relevance and everything, they start falling off the cliff.
Speaker A:And alcoholism, drug abuse, gray divorce, many different reasons for all of those, but some of that is because, you know, people coming in.
Speaker A:Dorian Mentzer was one of the first people in this space, and she's a therapist and a coach and a TEDx talker and an author and podcaster.
Speaker A:And she said, I had people coming in saying, I'm failing at retirement.
Speaker A:How can I fail at retirement?
Speaker A:And it's like, they weren't failing at retirement, they were failing at life.
Speaker A:Life didn't offer it.
Speaker A:The last thing I'll also say is, is that here's kind of a double whammy.
Speaker A:Up until the 50s, you were relevant until the day you died.
Speaker A:Generally speaking, I mean, going back throughout human history, elders were venerated in communities and in families, and they were still contributing.
Speaker A:They still had purpose, they still had relevance.
Speaker A:And that started going away a bit.
Speaker A:But the other thing, too, that really almost kind of started in the 60s with everything that happened then, was we all started saying, wait a minute, I'm not going to live the default life I'm going to pursue the life that I want, make the difference in the world that I want.
Speaker A:And that's in viewed in globally now.
Speaker A:And those things are important to us.
Speaker A:But when we buy into just the automatic traditional retirement thing, we're not doing any of that, we're not expressing ourselves.
Speaker A:One recent retiree said to a colleague of mine, when my colleague said, hey, you must be loving this retirement thing, blah blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:And he's like, whatever you do, never retire because you won't mean anything to anyone else anymore.
Speaker B:That's a very important aspect of, I guess, longevity in general.
Speaker B:It's that you mean something to someone, you have a meaning in your life.
Speaker B:I think without that there is no longevity and there is no life really.
Speaker A:You know, for my wife, she was a stay at home mom.
Speaker A:And so when the boys went away and we knew they were not moving back to our hometown and stuff, they were going to be out there, they'd been all over the world.
Speaker A:And she's like, I've lost my career as a stay at home mom.
Speaker A:I didn't just lose a job, I lost a career.
Speaker A:Well, that's a loss of identity.
Speaker A:This is the big thing, like if I didn't have anything from Poland Productions or whatever, you know, I lost all those relationships.
Speaker A:I lost all those relationships and my self identity, which was this creative, producer, director, it's gone.
Speaker A:All of those things that even though people say, well that shouldn't be your full identity, well, it's a big part of it and all of a sudden it's a vacuum and so many people didn't see it coming and they are lost before they realize they're lost.
Speaker A:And that is not a good place to be.
Speaker B:I have so many questions.
Speaker B:I hope I don't forget them all because I want to hear all your answers.
Speaker B:I want to speak a little bit more about your platform.
Speaker B:But before we do that, let me just very briefly go back to something you've mentioned, the word relevance, and I think it's such an interesting word because it goes so much deeper than money or status or any of those things.
Speaker B:Do you think people have not yet realized how important relevance is and that then causes a big problem once they enter retirement.
Speaker B:They planned for their financial security and all these things, but they just didn't figure in that they need to have a purpose, they need to be relevant?
Speaker A:Yes, very good question.
Speaker A:And the answer is yes in the first place.
Speaker A:Sometimes you don't know how important something is until it's missing.
Speaker A:And sometimes you didn't even know that it was there.
Speaker A:Like that value thing I said with myself that I wasn't getting from.
Speaker A:I didn't even think about that.
Speaker A:So many people, or Victor Frankl, you know, as he wrote, and so many people will agree that the ultimate human need outside of physical needs is meaning in life, that it means something.
Speaker A:And certainly when people say, well, what are you going to do in retirement?
Speaker A:Oh, I'm going to travel, going to play golf.
Speaker A:And of course, first of all, that's not very sustainable.
Speaker A:How many times can you travel?
Speaker A:How many times can you play golf?
Speaker A:You lose the contrast in life.
Speaker A:Why did you love that vacation?
Speaker A:Because you've been working so hard.
Speaker A:Relevance is, yes, is a part.
Speaker A:So I, I say that meaning is in general is besides happiness and, and, and things of that nature.
Speaker A:It's that relevance, purpose.
Speaker A:It's satisfaction.
Speaker A:Arthur Brooks, great author, I heard him in an interview say satisfaction's become a vanilla word.
Speaker A:We think of satisfactory job report, satisfactory meal, sexual satisfaction.
Speaker A:He's like, that's not satisfaction, that's satiation.
Speaker A:He's like, what?
Speaker A:True satisfaction is when you accomplish something, when you took on something hard.
Speaker A:And I thrive on that.
Speaker A:It's fuel for me.
Speaker A:And unless you go deeper, unless you really start thinking of these things, you don't recognize these fundamentals of life, like relevance, meaning something to people.
Speaker A:Because with the, the colleague who's in this space, I said, well, wait a minute, aren't you still relevant for your kids?
Speaker A:And, and he's like, no, in a way you're not.
Speaker A:That they love you and that you help and that you're still important to them, but they characterize it.
Speaker A:And I've even gotten a little bit from my kids, even though, because, you know, they're in their early 30s, so they're, they're rocking and rolling and everything.
Speaker A:It's kind of like being a soccer player.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden it's your kid that's a soccer player and you're on the sidelines, so you're cheering them on, but you're not in the game.
Speaker A:And so, yes, those things.
Speaker A:And by the way, especially with a lot of people who left professional careers, they'll use that term.
Speaker A:I don't feel like I'm relevant to anyone anymore.
Speaker A:You know, I don't feel like I have any relevance.
Speaker A:I'm just somebody kind of taking up space on this planet.
Speaker B:Let's go back to your new way forward platform.
Speaker B:Tell us a little bit more about who exactly is it for?
Speaker B:Is it for a Certain age group is it for people that feel a certain way, do they need to be at breaking point and sort of see no way forward?
Speaker B:Or do they just want a soft push or a soft shift?
Speaker B:And also what do I get from the platform?
Speaker B:What is it going to give me?
Speaker B:Is it going to give me a ten step plan for my life or explain that to us?
Speaker A:What I think both of what you and I are doing can benefit people of all ages.
Speaker A:And as a quick aside, when I was doing my ready, fire, aim and I was still doing work for my clients and I'd have 30 something people on the client side say, oh, Paul, tell me this new way forward thing, what are you doing?
Speaker A:And I would express it to them and they're like, I get two responses.
Speaker A:One.
Speaker A:Oh my gosh, this changes everything.
Speaker A:This view of not just automatically retiring, this view of this brand new phase of life, which is true.
Speaker A:Stanford Longevity center brought in hundreds of experts across all spectrums and they identified olderhood.
Speaker A:They don't call it olderhood, but that this phase of life is a brand new phase of life that's never existed before because of the way the world is, because of the way that we are now, that it's not what it used to be.
Speaker A:And they not only see that, but then how the changes that you can make and the empowerment that we have, the power that we have as individual to, to take control of our lives and design our future.
Speaker A:And so these people would say this changes everything.
Speaker A:It changes the way I look at life right now.
Speaker A:And other people would say, you know, that's interesting.
Speaker A:I'll, I'll think about that.
Speaker A:And then I'd see them a month later and they're like, you know what?
Speaker A:I can't stop thinking about it.
Speaker A:So it goes for anybody, but my core audience is like 50 to 65, because these are people that are at a tipping point not only with again, ageism and AI and everything else radically, you know, will I be able to keep my job?
Speaker A:Do I have to duplicate careers?
Speaker A:I don't have enough money for retirement.
Speaker A:I don't even know if I really want to retire.
Speaker A:They're faced with all of these issues.
Speaker A:So what I'm putting out there is the awareness in a multitude of different levels, contacts, contexts and different specific things to help people have the awareness and the knowledge and then the tools to figure it out for themselves.
Speaker A:I did a video that'll be going up on YouTube on Sunday that was talking about this thing of updating yourself and your awareness that otherwise it's not that you designed the wrong life, you designed it for someone who doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker A:You, that's why you gotta update yourself the week before that.
Speaker A:It's like you're worried about having enough money, stop thinking necessarily about employment and think about income.
Speaker A:And that the world has changed now to enable us to make money in a multitude of different ways.
Speaker A:And that people over 50 and over 60 lead in many surveys and categories.
Speaker A:I mean a few years ago the Kaufman index came out with a report that showed or a survey that showed that baby boomers were outpacing millennials in the number of startups every year by a 2 to 1 margin.
Speaker A:And other surveys show that they have a 5 to 7 times margin higher likelihood of success.
Speaker A:And then Gen X is the entrepreneurial.
Speaker A:Most entrepreneurial endeavors are Gen Xers in the world.
Speaker A:And so it's like don't just think about employment and trying to hold onto a job or find a job despite your age.
Speaker A:Think of the ways that you can earn an income and not just earn an income, well mistake but to do it in a way that you, you enjoy this fulfilling and meaningful to you and can even, and yes, this can happen, can fit this new lifestyle that you also want.
Speaker A:Well, you're not doing what I do, working seven days a week and on the road all the time.
Speaker A:And when you get on a plane and the flight attendants recognizes you and you're like, oh my gosh, I gotta change this.
Speaker B:Let me push a little bit on that though.
Speaker B:What exactly does the user of your platform get out of using your platform?
Speaker A:A quote that really helped me when I was starting out came from Max, Nobel prize winning physicist, came up with quantum theory, worked with Einstein.
Speaker A:When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Speaker A:And so I help people change the way that they look at things, bringing this awareness to it.
Speaker A:And then I give them tools like the life Real assessment or even like how to redesign your life the way a business owner would redesign their lives.
Speaker A:I give them the tools or well, it's really hard to do this.
Speaker A:Well then choose your hard.
Speaker A:You know, it's hard to change your life.
Speaker A:It's hard to get healthy, it's hard to clean up bad finances.
Speaker A:But if you think about it, it's harder to be unhealthy, it's harder to be in financial trouble and it's harder to live the life that you don't like.
Speaker A:So which hard do you want give you get you choose the one that gives you return on your investment.
Speaker A:So Where I am right now and again I'm still in launch mode, is that I am putting this information and awareness and tools out right now for nothing.
Speaker A:So I don't have this come to this site.
Speaker A:Here's this process that's coming that's in the works, but on LinkedIn, on YouTube, on Substack, on my website, which desperately needs updating and will be done so in the next few months.
Speaker A:Like I say, I'm in launch mode.
Speaker A:It's a place where people can go to get ideas, to get their awareness, to say, oh, here's this Life Wheel thing, here's a link to a free PDF to download it and do it for myself.
Speaker A:I gave you a tool or when I improved my health and I'm trying to be the poster boy for health.
Speaker A:The way I did it is I knew I couldn't go on some strict regimen of working out and diet and such.
Speaker A:And so what I did is I took baby steps that every day I was doing one little easy, healthy thing I didn't normally do.
Speaker A:And what happened?
Speaker A:Just like a baby, I tripped, I fell, but I got up and before you knew it, I was walking and then I was running and jumping and riding bicycles and things of that nature.
Speaker A:So I'm giving people tools that I'm giving people the awareness to do it.
Speaker B:You've mentioned baby steps.
Speaker B:You built your own shift over time through years of reflection, learning, and habits.
Speaker B:How much of reinvention comes from one brave decision and how much comes from much smaller choices repeated over and over?
Speaker A:Much of it are those small steps.
Speaker A:The brave decision is to go in the direction that you're taking those steps in.
Speaker A:I'm sorry if that was a bit cheesy, but it's.
Speaker A:The brave thing is saying it's my turn and I want to live my life on my terms.
Speaker A:Now, why that's brave is you're putting yourself on the spot saying, okay, I need to go through this process.
Speaker A:I need to follow this Paul Long guy and get these ideas.
Speaker A:First of all, you need the information and awareness before you make any decision, right.
Speaker A:To make it a good decision.
Speaker A:And then I'm going to put in the work.
Speaker A:And that's a brave decision because our brains are actually, in doing what they're supposed to do.
Speaker A:They can work against us in terms of instituting a major change in our lives.
Speaker A:We view it as daunting, we view it as scary.
Speaker A:And our brains are even like, well, yeah, you know, I face a defense mechanism.
Speaker A:You want to maintain the status quo even if it's unacceptable.
Speaker A:So it's a great decision to put yourself out there.
Speaker A:I'm putting myself out there and I'm doing it in public and I mess up sometimes.
Speaker A:And of course, I also am not 30 years old anymore, and what I'm doing, you know, could become an unmitigated failure despite my best efforts.
Speaker A:And it's like, wow, I've been blessed with all of these successes and everything.
Speaker A:Do I want to go out this long now?
Speaker A:It does become a bit of a motivating factor for me to not have that happen to me.
Speaker A:I think for a lot of people, it takes a lot of guts to say, I'm not going to accept what's on offer.
Speaker A:I'm going to define my life and I'm going to go after it.
Speaker B:Reinvention sounds inspiring, but it can also sound like a privilege.
Speaker B:What do you say to the person who hears all this and thinks that's all good and dandy, but I'm exhausted and I'm just trying to survive?
Speaker B:And as an add on, let me also ask you, what are the biggest mistakes that people make when they do try to redesign their life, to design their next chapter?
Speaker B:Are they waiting too long, staying too vague?
Speaker B:You know, confusing fear with practicality?
Speaker A:First of all, if you're in survival mode, then yes, you have to survive.
Speaker A:However, with that said, and I know this can sound maybe insensitive, but I've been there too.
Speaker A:And quite frankly, I was just trying to survive when I started my path.
Speaker A:There is a phrase that a lot of very successful people use in sharing their wisdom.
Speaker A:There's 24 hours in the day.
Speaker A:That's all all of us have.
Speaker A:It's what you do with it.
Speaker A:So for instance, one of the biggest things I did is I developed a morning routine.
Speaker A:I got up an hour earlier, I went to bed an hour earlier.
Speaker A:And the morning was my time, my time for reflection, to work on this, to do yoga, stretching, really, just on my own with a DVD of somebody's.
Speaker A:It was all about me and being in good health, being in a good mental and emotional place and also giving me time to work on this.
Speaker A:And sometimes it can only take 15 minutes.
Speaker A:So I sympathize and I've been there, but it's possible to cut out that time.
Speaker A:I also want to say that one of the things that scared me, it wasn't exactly the word survival mode, but it was the same thing.
Speaker A:And it's like, do I want to just stay in survival mode or am I going to get out of Survival mode.
Speaker A:And the only way I can get out of survival mode is to start doing this thing.
Speaker A:The other thing, too, is, is that a lot of people, and I've used the term reinvention, too, but in a way, you're not really reinventing.
Speaker A:You're reimagining, you're reconsidering, you're redirecting, you're redesigning.
Speaker A:It's not something brand new.
Speaker A:You want to look back 10 years ago and say, what?
Speaker A:A logical, conscious flow of my existence or life ended up where I am now because it fit me, you know?
Speaker A:So the biggest mistake that I think people made and I've made this mistake is, okay, I got to figure out what I'm going to do in my life or, you know, how I'm going to change my career and everything.
Speaker A:I'm gonna make a list of what I'm good at, what I'm not good at, what I want and what I don't want.
Speaker A:And it's like, that's great.
Speaker A:That's absolutely.
Speaker A:Sure, do it.
Speaker A:Just don't do it yet.
Speaker A: te your awareness of where in: Speaker A:What do you love, what do you not love?
Speaker A:Which, by the way, yes, was part of that risk.
Speaker A:But then go deeper into it, too, to have that internal external awareness that you need, so that when you're choosing the right direction, it's the direction you need to be going in.
Speaker A:Because some people just go, oh, well, I can do this.
Speaker A:Like I did, and I went to the left when I needed to go to the right.
Speaker B:With the changes in the demographic structure of societies, have you seen any changes made by either individuals or companies, organizations that you think would be beneficial for everyone?
Speaker A:There are a lot of changes going on.
Speaker A:It's later than it should be, and it's slower than it is.
Speaker A:But globally speaking, across all areas, it ranges from a crack in the old wall, which means it's going to come tumbling down to we're seeing the radical changes.
Speaker A:So, first of all, you've got baby boomers, you know, the largest generational cohort that's ever existed, and that's a global thing.
Speaker A:For instance, governments and societies and business look at the fact that there's been this huge fear that as people leave the workforce, the gross national product was going to go down, while the cost and demands for services and support was going to go up.
Speaker A:Now, a lot of governments around the world, in the uk, by the way, congratulations.
Speaker A:You all are really at the forefront of it and Singapore is another country by example and other things happening around the world where they're catching on to like wait a minute, in the first place, people aren't done at 65.
Speaker A:You aren't all of the sudden adult brained and shuffling through life.
Speaker A:And what do we do with that?
Speaker A:Well, I mean, for instance in Singapore they've got all these initiatives of like retraining and reeducating people for different types of jobs.
Speaker A:People who had physical labor intensive jobs from hotel maids to construction laborers, and they're offering them free retraining or more desk bound or less physical stressful work so they can keep working.
Speaker A:And then I think too here again it's this.
Speaker A:I think some people kind of feel like wait a minute, I might be missing something or there might be something more without being able to put their finger on it.
Speaker A:Or people who fortunately wake up in that retirement nightmare and going oh my gosh.
Speaker A:So again that's what I'm trying to do is put it out there saying look at what this person did, look at what I did across the spectrum.
Speaker A:Because when even businesses now are realizing that just because you're 65 years old, you suddenly don't know what you're doing anymore and that you're still a valued resource for a multitude of reasons which may just even include the basics of your qualifications of experience and skills.
Speaker A:And two, one problem with people who were older and why they were getting boomed out of jobs was because the cost of healthcare, for instance, or the fact that they're making more money.
Speaker A:Then I can hire a 20 something or 30 something to do.
Speaker A:But now we have the world of gig work of freelancers and contractors.
Speaker A:I know people, including one of my sons who's making more money at the same place, they worked as a contractor for less hours than they were as a paid employee.
Speaker A:They don't have the benefits, they ain't cheap here.
Speaker A:But I mean it's like this is that open your mind to the possibilities of what exists there.
Speaker B:Do you think the word, you know, longevity, that's been thrown around a lot.
Speaker B:Do you think that sometimes we feel that the world has become very sophisticated about the body and not sophisticated enough about identity, direction and meaning of longevity.
Speaker A:The body thing's pretty obvious.
Speaker A:I woke up this morning with the so lower back, but of course it was due to working out and hitting two buckets of balls yesterday to get my golf swing back at the end of winter.
Speaker A:And so it's, it's obvious it's there, but it's more subtle it's more this, this whole thing about who we are and what it is that we really want.
Speaker A:Yes, you're right.
Speaker A:It's not as apparent to us as something physical, of course.
Speaker A:And the challenge at any time in life, but especially when you get older, is that because you didn't really think about that because you're not really tight, tuned into it, there's that awareness thing again that you miss it.
Speaker A:You miss it until it gets to a point point where it's a serious problem.
Speaker A:I don't think they have Panera Bread in the uk, but it's, it's, it's a great.
Speaker A:I've seen people stop for coffee and donuts and bagels and, you know, they also have plated food.
Speaker A:And the founder of it and a number of other restaurants read an article about him years ago that what he does every year around New Year's is he does a pre mortem.
Speaker A:So you know what a post mortem is, which, you know, like an autopsy after the fact, after you're dead.
Speaker A:So I'd say He's in his 50s and obviously rich and highly successful, but he every year looks at his life from a standpoint of where am I now?
Speaker A:And where do I want to be?
Speaker A:But even a bit of the element of how do I want to show feel about my life in my final days Now, I came up with this before I read that.
Speaker A:But one tool that I used, and I've gotten a lot of good feedback from other people who have done it, is that in trying to figure out how I wanted my life to look like, feel like and be like, there was a technique where you do your obit, write your obituary, and then maybe write an obituary of what you'd like it to read.
Speaker A:But that really wasn't so going in for me.
Speaker A:And then I thought, oh.
Speaker A:So what I did is I wrote a thank you note from my older self to my current self.
Speaker A:I chose 95.
Speaker A:You could choose five years from now, 105, 85, whatever.
Speaker A:But it was basically like thanking me for everything I did now and the life that we've had in between now and when I'm 95.
Speaker A:And you couldn't be specific, you certainly couldn't give stock tips and won the British Open in ten years from now.
Speaker A:And you clean up on the bed, you really had to kind of look like, what, what would I thank myself for doing now?
Speaker A:And the trajectory and what would be the things that I would be sitting there saying?
Speaker A:Like in my note too, I said, hey, I'm 95 I had a great day today.
Speaker A:I'm still independent and mobile.
Speaker A:I'm really happy, you know, this relationship with the kids and the grandkids and this is giving me purpose and this is giving me fulfillment.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:If I go to bed tonight and don't wake up, I'll do it with a smile on my face.
Speaker A:Because where I got this idea by the way is using the power of fear and regret.
Speaker A:Using it as a power because what I had discovered.
Speaker A:There are multiple surveys that have been done of the regrets people have on their deathbeds.
Speaker A:And consistently the number one regret is that I never lived a life that was right for me.
Speaker A:I never went for it.
Speaker A:And I actually went there.
Speaker A:It was a very unpleasant 10 minutes where I pictured myself on my deathbed regretting.
Speaker A:And that drives me because I want to be in my final moments going, yeah, this was a great life.
Speaker A:This was a great life because of all of these things.
Speaker A:And Paul, you did a good job.
Speaker A:That kind of chokes me up when I think about it.
Speaker A:That's my intention and for me a major motivation.
Speaker B:I hope that is on your platform for people to do that.
Speaker B:I can't.
Speaker B:This is now, I think the third time I'm asking you about your platform.
Speaker B:You're so humble and I don't want to say shy about it but you are a bit humble about it.
Speaker B:It's such a fantastic idea and a wonderful resource for everyone.
Speaker B:Like you said, people of all ages can benefit from it.
Speaker B:How do people access these resources and all these tools tell us.
Speaker A:Well, they can come to my soon to be updated website which is newwayfwd.com so newwayfwd.com really a great place if you like video and or listening is you can go on YouTube and the best way to do it is to to put in search Paul Wong L O N G new way forward and you'll go to my channel and there will be an array of videos that you can pick and choose from.
Speaker A:By the way, I've had people say that they did that or they went to the site when they felt trapped, they felt like they didn't have any options and they said I just skipped around.
Speaker A:And the big thing that it did is opened up my head to the fact that wait a minute, there's hope, there's possibilities.
Speaker A:I thought I had no options and all of a sudden like wait a minute, I got a lot of options.
Speaker A:That's huge, you know, for that to happen.
Speaker A:And then also Paul Long L O N G on LinkedIn and then new Way Forward on Substack.
Speaker A:If you prefer reading that website, I promise by the end of summer it's going to be updated.
Speaker A:It's got a lot of old stuff on there, but it's ever.
Speaker A:It's what's called evergreen content, meaning it's all still good.
Speaker A:And there are links to all of my other stuff on there.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:We will put all these links and notes and everything in the show notes.
Speaker B:And I'm very happy that I pushed you on it because it's an amazing platform and really everyone can benefit from it, no matter what stage of life you are in.
Speaker B:And there's a final question.
Speaker B:If someone listening fields they're outgrowing the life they have built, but fear is keeping them stuck, what would you most want them to hear?
Speaker A:First of all, you're not alone.
Speaker A:This happens to everyone.
Speaker A:It happened to me and I think I've been pretty bold in this effort in my personal life.
Speaker A:So the fear is natural.
Speaker A:It's the fear of the unknown.
Speaker A:It's the fear of failure.
Speaker A:Failure.
Speaker A:It's a fear of, I don't know, I don't have it figured out yet.
Speaker A:It's the fear that I may look foolish.
Speaker A:All of that is normal.
Speaker A:And that's why, using the baby steps concept though, there's an answer out there for you.
Speaker A:The biggest problem you may have, which is a good problem to have, is that you may find two or three different routes that you verified are good for you and you got to choose between them.
Speaker A:That's a great problem to have.
Speaker A:The answer is there.
Speaker A:The way for you to live your life is there.
Speaker A:The difference between people who have a happy life and an unhappy life overwhelmingly, is because those people have the courage to take those first initial scary steps and then find out.
Speaker A:It's like working out.
Speaker A:You hit the wall.
Speaker A:You don't want to do it, but you do start doing it.
Speaker A:You start feeling the effects of it.
Speaker A:You start feeling good about yourself doing it and you get through that wall and it becomes a habit and you are so grateful that you're doing it.
Speaker A:It's the same thing with this.
Speaker A:So I just say that the fear, the reluctance, even the I have no idea what to do.
Speaker A:Well, go to see Paul Wong.
Speaker A:You will get through that quickly and then it will become something in and of itself.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Even before you find your result.
Speaker B:Magical words.
Speaker B:Thank you so much, Paul.
Speaker B:I could talk to you for hours on end.
Speaker B:You're so inspiring and I have so much respect for the work you do and I don't want to call it the service you offer, but it is, it's sort of a service to humankind.
Speaker B:So it's really wonderful.
Speaker B:And I'm sure going back to what we spoke about, being so relevant and being a fundamental part of society, I'm sure also gives you lots of energy to live many, many more happy years.
Speaker A:More economics.
Speaker B:Keep it up.
Speaker B:I always ask my guests rapid fire questions in the end, and no exception today.
Speaker B:So here we go.
Speaker B:Okay, what's the single best piece of advice you would give your younger self?
Speaker A:To do what I started doing 15 years ago, ASAP, as soon as possible.
Speaker A:Because quite frankly, fundamentally what we're talking here, and I will put it in a context and some specifics are, you know, aligned with people who are quote, unquote older.
Speaker A:This is available for people at every age, let's say start certainly starting in your twenties when you've learned it seems to be turning out is the right answer.
Speaker A:I wonder if for me there wasn't another answer.
Speaker B:What microdose habits.
Speaker B:A five minute routine or small daily action yields outsized longevity benefits.
Speaker A:Exercise, snacks.
Speaker A:And so this is something which I do in the room that I'm sitting in or in the storage room that's behind this wall of when I get up from the chair at my desk, I do five pushups, I'll do 10 goblet squats, I'll do a wall squat, I'll, I'll go in here and take a big ball and lie on my back and pass it from my feet.
Speaker A:You know, core exercise, it takes one to two minutes and then coming back in the room, I'll do something.
Speaker A:And there's like a lot of research now on it that's saying, I mean, vigorous exercise is the ultima, but that stuff can really make a difference.
Speaker A:And especially for people who are in bad shape, that, that can be both a great trigger and you could.
Speaker A:There are lots of exercises out there that are safe and easy to do that get you going baby steps.
Speaker B:What's the craziest longevity myth you've encountered and is there any truth to it?
Speaker A:For me, the craziest aging longevity myth is that serious cognitive and physical decline is inevitable.
Speaker A:There are exceptions, of course, people with congenital diseases, injuries, toxic environments, but overwhelmingly the rate and severity of decline is self inflicted.
Speaker A:It's your fault.
Speaker A:It's my fault.
Speaker A:Because of the choices that we made of what we ate, what we didn't eat, of having purpose and relevance and meaning, which is critical, can add years to your life because it also gives you the motivation and inspiration to be healthy.
Speaker A:And the same thing with cognitive decline.
Speaker A:And so all of these people self inflicted ageism of like, well, I'm supposed to be old, you know, wow, you know, it's, it sucks getting old.
Speaker A:You gotta be brave to be old.
Speaker A:And it's like that kind of thinking enables you to miss the opportunities that exist there.
Speaker A:My greatest compliment that I get from people is, is that you in no way, shape or form remind me of somebody who's your chronological age age.
Speaker A:Well, there you go.
Speaker A:And I'm the exception to the rule.
Speaker A:Well, very soon I'm not going to be the exception of the rule.
Speaker A:People are catching on to this.
Speaker A:I think it's horrible when people say, oh, your bio age is 20 years younger than chronological age.
Speaker A:Well, that means that everybody else who's my age isn't doing as well as they could.
Speaker A:So it's a myth that that's inevitable.
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker B:Fantastic answer, fantastic answer.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:Thanks Paul for being on Beyond Longevity.
Speaker B:It was so amazing to talk to you.
Speaker B:What an incredible career you've had.
Speaker B:You've always entertained and helped people in one way or another, maybe to better understand the world or to better understand a story.
Speaker B:And I love how now you're helping them to better understand themselves.
Speaker A:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker A:It was a pleasure.
Speaker A:And love what you're doing.
Speaker A:It's needed.
Speaker B:That was Paul Long, founder of New Way Forward.
Speaker B:What makes Paul's work so striking is that he's not just asking how people can live longer.
Speaker B:He is asking how they can remain useful, energized, economically active and fully themselves as those extra years unfold.
Speaker B:And that is why what he's doing matters.
Speaker B:He's offering something far more important than a nice extra for later life.
Speaker B:Paul is addressing a real need because if people are going to live longer, they cannot simply drift into those extra decades without purpose, direction, health, relevance or a plan.
Speaker B:In, in that sense, the kind of work Paul is doing is not a luxury.
Speaker B:It is something many more people will need to take seriously.
Speaker B:He is not offering a softer version of aging.
Speaker B:He is pushing for a better one.
Speaker B:If you enjoyed this episode of Beyond Longevity, please share it and leave a review.
