AS A SOCIETY, we are living longer. Medical and scientific advances that sounded like science fiction are becoming a reality. A child born today can live 20 years longer than one born in 1925.

Yet, most midlifers have reached a tipping point much more than tipping the scales because they have a 40% chance of long-standing limiting illnesses as they age.

Categorising everyone over 60 in old age is old-fashioned. And people who buy into the old age trap believing that decline is inevitable, live up to the stereotype of an older person and start walking more slowly toward diminished mobility, stiffness, and restricted movements, often accompanied by poor mental health.

While millions will struggle daily with health challenges that severely impact their quality of life, by contrast, there will be those of us who live META-AGE, an alternative post-midlife category for good health, independence, and productivity as we age.

We place greater importance on the connection and function of our bodies than on how we look. Also, we are better at dealing with things, becoming more imaginative and optimistic, and have a stronger sense of purpose.

You're only as old as you feel, and we don't let age define us, believing the older we get, the healthier we've lived. Our philosophy focuses on an extension of midlife with a short old age to write a new narrative of ageing as it could – and should - be.