I turned 63 last November. And if I'm being completely honest, it was only in the past few years that I sat down — properly sat down — and wrote out a plan for the rest of my life. Not a rough idea. Not a list of things I'd like to do one day. A real, structured, written Life Plan.
The experience was uncomfortable. It exposed gaps I'd been ignoring. It forced me to be specific about things I'd kept deliberately vague. And when I was finished, I felt something I hadn't expected: clarity. Not certainty — I'm not naive enough to think I can predict the next 35 years. But a clear direction. A framework. A set of commitments I could actually hold myself to.
If you're a man over 60 and you don't have a written Life Plan, this post is for you.
The Difference Between a Plan and a Wish
Most men in their 60s are operating on wishes, not plans. The wish sounds like this: "I'd like to travel more. I'd like to spend more time with the grandchildren. I'd like to get in better shape. I'd like to have enough money to not worry."
There is nothing wrong with those wishes. They're good things to want. But a wish is passive. It waits for the right conditions to appear. A plan, on the other hand, is active. It specifies what you will do, by when, and how you'll know when you've done it.
A wish says: "I'd like to leave something meaningful for my children." A plan says: "I will bequeath R1 million to each of my children when I turn 80, which means I need to invest X per month starting now."
That specificity is what separates the men who build the lives they imagined from the men who arrive at 75 wondering where the time went.
The Seven Dimensions of a Complete Life Plan
A Life Plan isn't just a financial plan or a health plan or a bucket list. It's a comprehensive map of every dimension of your life that matters. In my own planning, I work across seven dimensions:
| Dimension | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Spiritual | Your sense of purpose, values, and the principles that guide your decisions |
| Mental | What you're learning, reading, and developing — your growth as a thinker |
| Physical | Your health habits, energy levels, sleep, exercise, and nutrition |
| Financial | Where your money goes, what it's building, and what it needs to achieve |
| Familial | How you show up for your spouse, children, parents, and grandchildren |
| Social | The community you're building and the influence you're growing |
| Vocational | The work you do, the value it creates, and how it evolves over time |
Most men have thought about two or three of these in any depth. Writing a Life Plan means confronting all seven — honestly, and at the same time.
When I did this exercise, I discovered I had clear thinking around my financial and vocational dimensions. But my social dimension — the community I wanted to build, the influence I wanted to develop — was almost completely unplanned. I was leaving one of the most meaningful areas of my life entirely to chance.
Key Insight
You will always make time for what you plan for. The dimensions you leave unplanned will be the ones that disappoint you most at the end. A complete Life Plan ensures nothing important gets left to chance.
Your Life Roles: The Engine of the Plan
Before you set goals, you need to understand your roles — the distinct relationships and responsibilities that define who you are and who you are committed to being.
My roles, in the order I've chosen to prioritise them, are: Breadwinner, Husband, Father, Caretaker, Grandfather, and Student. Each role has specific demands on my time and money. Each role has commitments attached to it. And when I look at how I'm spending my week, I can ask an honest question: am I allocating my resources in proportion to the importance of each role?
The roles exercise is revealing precisely because it forces a priority order. You can't give equal attention to everything. When a decision arises — to work late or come home early, to save or to spend, to take a call or go for a walk — your role priorities are what should be making that decision, not just the pressure of the moment.
SMART Goals: Where the Plan Becomes Action
Vision without execution is daydreaming. The Life Plan becomes real when you attach SMART goals to each dimension — goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Here's what that looks like in practice. In my financial dimension, I don't just say "I want to build wealth." I have goals like: ensure R100,000 credit available on my FNB Credit Card by 31 August 2026. Invest €300 per month starting January 2026. Generate income from the100yearman.com by June 2027.
These aren't aspirations. They're commitments with deadlines. And the combination of a clear role, a clear dimension, and a specific SMART goal is what turns a Life Plan from a document into a discipline.
How to Start — Today, Not Someday
You don't need to write your full Life Plan in a single afternoon. I certainly didn't. But you do need to start. Here is a simple three-step process to get the plan begun:
Step 1: Write your Vision statement
In one sentence, describe what you want your life to stand for. Not what you want to have — what you want your life to mean. This is harder than it sounds. Sit with it. Revisit it over a few days until it feels genuinely true. Mine is: to live fully, love deeply, learn continuously and leave a legacy.
Step 2: Name your Core Values
List six to eight values that are non-negotiable for you — the principles you will not compromise on. Mine include Purpose, Connection, Health, Simplicity, Generosity, Curiosity, and Freedom from Fear and Regret. Your values are the filter through which every major decision should pass.
Step 3: Write one SMART Goal per dimension
Don't try to solve every dimension at once. Write one concrete, time-bound goal for each of the seven dimensions. Just one. Review them in 30 days. Adjust where needed. Add more goals as your thinking matures.
I started this process late. Later than I'd like to admit. But I've learned that the second-best time to write your Life Plan is today. The plan you write at 63 still has the power to shape the next 30 years — if you take it seriously enough to write it down, review it regularly, and hold yourself to it.
That's what The 100 Year Man is about. Not perfection. Not having it all figured out. Just the discipline to keep designing the life you want, one deliberate decision at a time.