2026-01-08
The term “servespan” assumes a Christian faith-based context.
In such a context, the word describes the part of your lifespan on earth during which you’re in sufficiently good health to be able to intentionally live in fellowship with God and to “serve”, i.e. to take actions which benefit others while drawing wisdom and strength and joy from your relationship with God.
This concept is similar to the “healthspan” concept, which has been defined as “the number of years someone is healthy without chronic and debilitating disease” and “the years in which they enjoy good health”.
From a Christian’s perspective, it is possible to be a bit uncomfortable with the “healthspan” concept, because it is very self-centred, without looking at what I can do for others; it is not very aligned with the Biblical principle to “love your neighbour like yourself”.
Quantifying “servespan” or “healthspan” in any precise way will require defining weight factors which appropriximate, for various kinds of chronic diseases and other personal health challenges, how much the corresponding hindrances reduce one’s ability to “serve” as described above (servespan) or “enjoy good health” (healthspan).
By contrast, “lifespan” is easy to measure.
There is a huge temptation to pay more attention to less important target quantities which are easy to measure than to more important goals which are however more difficult to measure.
I suspect that that may be a reason why modern medicine appears to be more successful in regard to extending the average person’s lifespan than in regard to increasing healthspan or servespan.
Another root cause of this phenomenon may be that there are strong business interests of big industries that make a lot of money from selling all kinds of products and services for extending lifespans: those who suffer from chronic and debilitating diseases contribute very significantly to the profits of the pharma, medtech and care industries.
By contrast, extending the more healthy part of one’s life depends significantly on healthy living; corresponding medical research and advice is important so that we can have good and reliable information on how to live healthily, but a big part of living more healthily is about avoiding, to a significant extent, lifestyle aspects which are detrimental or even dangerous for one’s health. That’s much less interesting to many of the companies in the industries that I mentioned.
Now, servespan-oriented or healthspan-oriented self-care seems to require a significant learning journey. I want to learn what I need to know and understand, but I certainly don’t want to turn that into a part-time or even full-time job of unpaid work!
Walking on such a journey alone is needlessly difficult. I’m interested in connecting with others who are in a similar kind of situation and embarking on a similar kind of journey.
If you share a similar interest, please connect on LinkedIn and let’s talk! Perhaps there is a good way for us to support each other.