The Last List
By Stephen Doherty
October 19th, 2025
“The end is where we start from.” -T.S. Eliot
Man is a species that has long held a peculiar fascination with lists. This infatuation is not merely about organization; it speaks to a deeper desire for order, meaning, and control in a chaotic world. The linearity of a list offers the comforting illusion that life itself can be itemized and completed step by step. To that end, let’s discuss one of life’s most important lists.
The list I’m referring to is, to me – one of paramount importance. It’s a list of activities that I want to be able to pursue when I retire. Period – full stop! To many, throughout the course of their lives, just reaching retirement is the ultimate objective. This is understandable given the almost infinite litany of obstacles and challenges that exist and endlessly morph as we get older. Perhaps, no greater obstacle exists than our own human nature and penchant for conflict, struggle, and self-sabotage.
Assuming we’ve made it to retirement in one piece, what now? Of course, the usual suspects abound. Travel! Time with the kids and grandkids. Golf! Leisure and recreation. It’s a time of life when we want to maximize our interface with all the exciting and enjoyable things we’ve either waited a lifetime to pursue or simply activities we’ve always enjoyed and want to continue now that we have a more flexible schedule. Each of us will (or should) compile an exhaustive list of the things we want to be doing five, ten, fifteen, and even twenty years from now.
Why the urgency of this list? Because knowing what we want to do for the next twenty years, we can begin planning now, how we are going to accomplish it. Because like it or not, your wishes and desires are going to collide head-on with the realities of a dual nemesis. A harsh Father Time and an even more unforgiving Mother Nature. Combined, their ability to accelerate our physical decline after the age of sixty – is spectacular and breathtaking. There’s going to be a significant level of physical fitness required to be able to – not just exist. Not just live. But to thrive during this stage of our life!
Peter Attia, the author of the best-selling book, “Outlive” is trying to bend the cultural and societal arc of public perception on the critical importance of physical fitness as we age. He has coined the term health-span as opposed to life-span to distinguish between just living long versus living well! He’s provided a blueprint for the latter. Besides his book, he has literally hundreds of tutorials on subjects crucial to living long and well. I highly and enthusiastically recommend his work.
Could there be a greater tragedy in life than to survive life and not be able to fully enjoy life to the fullest in its final chapters? The message I hope everyone gleans from my words is this. We ALL have SO much more agency over the health outcomes in our lives than we allow ourselves to believe. There is SO much information out there on exercise, nutrition, and living well, well into our final chapters – that it opens up entirely new possibilities on how far each of us can push the envelope of the joy of living and being.
So, make your lists! Make them exhaustive! Make them aggressive and exciting! Here’s a link with some examples of just a few things you might want to still be able to do as we navigate these final chapters – starting with just getting up off of the floor or lifting up your grandkids. And yes, it’s a GAME! The ultimate game! The game of LIFE! ( The “Centenarian Decathlon” Is An Excellent Longevity Checklist – InsideHook )
“To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.” -Oscar Wilde
