MEAx Australia | Are you a Long Life Learner? | 15th December 2021

This quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi endorses the philosophy of long life learning, a term coined by MEA founder Chip Conley and management and design professor Ingo Rauth in their White Paper, “The Emergence of Long Life Learning.”

Our lifespan no longer runs a linear course and the traditional three-phase life model of ‘learn, earn and retire’ that served us well for the last century is now obsolete. So why stop investing in our education in our teens or 20’s? What if, instead, we kept learning throughout all the years of our lives? Staying curious and dedicated to learning is the key to living well.

Travel quenches curiosity and can also act as a rite of passage. An opportunity to step into the unknown, full of curiosity and wonder, and reimagine what life could look like. A promise to enact longings for adventure and stretch ourselves beyond previous ways of being. A pause to reflect, reboot and re-enter with renewed passion and sense of purpose.

According to Chip and Ingo; “Long life learning” is a new educational segment focused on helping those in midlife and beyond cultivate more of a sense of purpose and legacy, adaptability and resilience while maximizing well-being. These new educational programs foster communities of open-minded peers who cultivate, harvest, and share wisdom with one another. As such, graduates of these programs – who are often fifty years old and up – are better prepared to live lives that are as deep and meaningful as they are long.

MEA is dedicated to supporting people in midlife and beyond to revisit their truths and ideals and reflect on what it means to live a long life. As billionaire investor Warren Buffet famously said, “There’s one investment that supersedes all others: Invest in yourself. Nobody can take away what you’ve got in yourself, and everybody has potential they haven’t used yet.”

If you imagine living until you’re 90, what percentage of your adult life is still ahead of you? You may still have a very long way to go if you start counting at age 18. How do you want to use this time?

Keep learning,
The MEAx Team