earlymedical1.6.1. Activity
Your Marginal Decade™ Exercise
MARGINAL DECADE INTRODUCTION
As useful as the Timeline Exercise is to remind us of why we want to do the work, it does little to help us with what we want to do as we age. You’ll find thousands of training programs for running a 5k, racing an Ironman, or getting a perfect beach body on the internet. None of those things have much to do with living a long, healthy life—that’s where the Marginal Decade exercise comes in.
By figuring out exactly what we want to do in our Marginal Decade, we can gain insight into how we must train for our Marginal Decade. Let’s say that another way: having a goal to run a marathon points you toward a particular training regimen. Having a goal to play on the floor with your grandchildren (and get up off the floor under your own power) does the same thing, we’re just not used to setting such goals. With goals like these, you can figure out what you’ll need to be able to do at the end so you can reverse engineer a plan around what you need to be doing today.
This way, planning for the end becomes our roadmap for making everything between then and now excellent. We’ve designed this activity to help get you started answering this question: What are your Marginal Decade goals?
RESOURCES
To begin, download and print the Marginal Decade worksheet below.
Instructions
STEP 1
Although I’ve spent years updating my personal list, I find that many of my patients are so unfamiliar with the idea of thinking about what they want to do in their Marginal Decade that they need a bit of a nudge.
On the first page of the worksheet, you will find many of the most common things my patients want to do in their Marginal Decades. Using this list as a starting point, I want you to cross off the things you don’t care about doing in your Marginal Decade. I find it more impactful for patients to say, “Peter, I don’t really need to get up off the floor unassisted using no hands,” instead of opting in only to what seems interesting right now. For some activities, you may think that these are too easy; however, think of people you know who may be in their Marginal Decade currently—could you see them doing these things? For others, it may be eye-opening to realize that you cannot do all these things right now.
STEP 2
Now that you’ve reviewed and crossed off the activities that are not important to you, it’s time to expand upon this list. In the blanks provided, add any activity that has not been included that you find important in your life.
Once you have completed your list, fill in details to the right of the activities to make them as personal as possible. What hobbies do you have that make your life feel meaningful? Who is important in your life that you want to celebrate important events with? Start to build context about what matters most in your life.
STEP 3
Take a step back and consider your list. Do the items on your list make you excited for your future? This list acts as a reminder of all that makes your life rich and what it will look like to live your later years to the fullest. In the box provided on the second page of the Marginal Decade worksheet, write your thoughts on what excites you about the coming years and reflect on your motivations prompted by this exercise.
It is time to reflect on how these goals are going to be your reality. Look back at your list and consider the following: Are there any activities now that you can’t do with ease? What can you do now in order to make these goals possible in the future? Think about how you are going to focus your life around what matters the most and what you see possibly getting in the way.
How will this frame your future?
Now that you’ve considered what you want your marginal decade to look like, you should understand your why behind wanting to live a long and healthy life. Not only do your Marginal Decade goals provide motivation for you, but they will be an anchor for the rest of this program. Hold onto this list to reference it often.