If you make it to age 65 in the US today, there’s a 50% chance you’ll make it past 85.

Chip Conley, ex Airbnb boss, has just written a book about redefining mid-life.

And I’ve added a few thoughts of my own as I enjoy the third half of what I’m hoping will be my century.

So here we go – six thoughts on why we should enjoy our back third.

1. You know who your true friends are; you know who you can count on.  You’ve weeded out the false friends.
2. You know not everyone likes you.  You also know not everyone matters.  You can’t please everybody, so make sure you please yourself and make happy choices.
3. You know stuff.  Your ability to think holistically – crystallised intelligence, wisdom – improves with age and doesn’t peak until your 70’s.  Knowledge, experience, patterns – we learn more every day.
4. You know where your story’s going, and where it’s likely to end.  We are the ones we have been waiting for.  Don’t do dumb sh-t.  And everything will be OK in the end – if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.
5. We have realistic expectations.  We know what we know.  We do what we can.  We believe.  We’re not as good as we once were.  But we’re as good once as we ever were.
6. We step off the treadmill.  We live life slow.  We move from doing, teaching and making others do – to – letting others do.

And finally – everything becomes more interesting.  Just like most sports matches and the last acts of a play – all the real excitement comes later on.