The 80-Year-Old Life Decathlon
Today at a Glance
- Dr. Peter Attia uses a framework with his patients called the Centenarian Decathlon to organize physical aspirations for life’s later years. The idea is to choose 10 physical tasks the person wants to be able to do at 100 and then reverse engineer the necessary actions in the present to achieve that future.
- Using a similar exercise to look at the broader scope of your life can be very helpful. What does your ideal life look like at age 80? Who are you with? What are you doing? How do you feel? Where are you?
- To create that future, what are the necessary actions in the present? What actions, habits, and behaviors do you need to adopt today to create that end?
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In his best-selling book, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, Dr. Peter Attia proposes a novel framework to establish and organize physical aspirations for life’s later years.
He calls it the Centenarian Decathlon, a reference to the Olympic event that combines ten track and field events held across two consecutive days.
In the book, Dr. Attia describes the Centenarian Decathlon as “the ten most important physical tasks you will want to be able to do for the rest of your life.”
The items on the list should be specific, but can include actual athletic feats (Attia’s personal list has “Do five pull-ups” and “Swim half a mile in twenty minutes”), personal interests (“hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail”), or simple, important activities of a high-functioning daily life (“pick up a young child from the floor” or “carry two five-pound bags of groceries for five blocks”).
My list looks something like this:
- Walk for an hour in the neighborhood.
- Pick up a small child off the floor.
- Perform 30 minutes of resistance training.
- Perform 5 pull-ups, 5 push-ups, and 5 body squats in 5 minutes.
- Chase grandchildren around yard for 15 minutes.
- Carry heavy suitcases or groceries into the house from the car.
- Walk up flights of stairs without assistance.
- Toss a small child up in the air in a swimming pool.
- Hike 3 miles on a moderate difficulty trail.
- Get up off the floor without assistance.
Dr. Attia uses the list as a visual stake in the ground to inform the training and lifestyle actions necessary in the present. To do these things at 100 (or 80 or 90), you need to be working on them today.
Imagining the ideal future implies a clear set of necessary actions in the present.
While Dr. Attia's Centenarian Decathlon is grounded entirely in the physical, I think it's even more informative to go through a similar exercise that covers the full breadth of our lives.
Your Ideal 80-Year-Old Life
What does your ideal life look like at age 80?
- Who are you with?
- Where are you?
- What are you doing?
- How do you feel?
Here was what I imagined as my ideal life at 80-years old:
- Healthy mind and body
- Relaxing on a sunny porch
- Smiling wife at my side
- Children chatting with us
- Grandchildren playing in yard
- Friends walking over for a big dinner
Note that most of the items on my list have very little to do with money or financial wealth. They are things that cannot be bought, things that are earned through consistent behaviors and actions.
Beginning with the ideal future end in mind allows you to reverse engineer what is important to focus on in the present:
- Want a healthy mind and body at 80? Exercise your mind and body daily.
- Want a smiling wife at your side at 80? Be a loving partner daily.
- Want kids who choose to be around you? Be a supportive and caring parent daily.
- Want good friends who you share laughs with? Be a loyal friend daily.
This simple exercise can have a powerful impact on how you live your life in the present.
It forces you to begin with the ideal end in mind.
Sit down with a journal or piece of paper and sketch it out:
- What does that ideal future look like?
- What does that imply about how you need to live today?
Write it down and place it somewhere that you can reference it—a compass to guide you to the beautiful shores at the end of your journey.
Remember: Your daily actions, habits, and behaviors shape your future. Small things become big things.
