The landmarks of his time are to be built. Childhood, youth, old age, death... and beyond!

Ever since I became aware of the actual time of my life, the basic trigger for which was certainly to a large extent the death of my father, I have never ceased to be amazed at the lack of effectiveness of the education I received and, very often, the traits of which I recognise in the behaviour towards life of some or other individuals I come across. It's fashionable for us to argue about the veil, but it wouldn't be pointless to consider more frequently all the less conspicuous items that cut us off from reality and that we like to hold up before our eyes, just as stupidly as any fallacious tradition.

As an example, I would take the incredible relativity of time that many of us have been nurtured in since childhood and whose misty and particularly non-objective maintenance is commonplace. By this I mean that, whatever our social origins, the notion of 'foresight' seems to enter very little into our lives. I would even go so far as to say that its crude, tangible aspects are relatively unappreciated and perceived as unsexy, outside the realms of economics and finance where it is at its strongest.

In fact, objectively, and contrary to clichés and ready-made expressions, a human life is largely foreseeable, at least for the most part.

One might even go so far as to say: for its most important part. And why is that? Quite simply, because we are unlikely to all become centenarians and it would be reasonable - if we include the equally important notion of "feasibility" - to regard our effective time "of influence and action" as being under the 90-year limit.

I'm not unaware that the length of our lives is increasing and that we no doubt frequently come across old people frolicking and laughing in hypothetical Alpine villages, but I prefer, as far as I'm concerned, to bet only on a standard and average length of life. If you subtract from these 90 years of life to come, which may well be fulfilled, the fifteen to twenty years of childhood and adolescence necessary, depending on the case, at the very least, for the formation of the individual, you end up with 70 to 75 years of active potential. Which is not insignificant in itself, as we are fortunate to be able to benefit from the latest technology, a varied food supply - even if we face an atrocious end, swollen with tumours caused by GMOs - a relatively secure border and confidence in our allies in terms of conflict and other social protections. In short, we're leaving with more or less 70 years in our bag, excluding childhood and the 'war years' as is customary in copyright matters. I'll leave aside, although ideally they should be counted, the time lost wandering, searching for oneself, catching up on deviancy, unhappy love affairs and caring for (or maintaining, it's up to you) neuroses, all of which are days, hours, minutes and seconds spent 'correcting' things.

Of course, people will say that it's part of life, but I would consider it as a time-consuming and unproductive activity that deserves to be compacted by providing adequate information and guidance from an early age.

It's not a question of envisaging a factory of little supermen, but of stopping complacently telling ourselves that depression makes wonderful artists.

It's not true, it's not true at all. All we have to do is imagine, not what unavoidable suffering has generated masterpieces, but rather how many hours and years of painful and often sterile delirium have needlessly hampered a creative power that was just waiting to burst forth and would have been just as much, if not better, unleashed in the context of a radiant life. But whether suffering is necessary for artistic production is another debate. For the moment I've said what I think about it in substance, and I'll return to my prosaic passion for time management.

Sparing my little golem-in-the-making from crippling illnesses and devastating accidents, I was therefore generously granting him 70 years of rich activity, as a postulate for his adult life. I can therefore affirm that if we agree to look at this little bundle of breath, pleasure and action that an optimum life represents, well yes, it is a precious asset presumed at the outset; well yes, it can be managed; well yes, to a large extent it can be planned and envisaged. All things that I, for one, was not taught. I've never received any effective advice of this kind, nor have I been given the opportunity to sharpen my awareness of the 'profitable' path to take, as opposed to the pure waste and squandering of my only asset.

I was a Pinocchio sitting in my shed, waiting to become a real little boy; I did have a Gepetto at home making wooden toys; but a good blue fairy ready to enlighten me, nibs.

It is not in a spirit of reproach that I approach the subject - the time is past - but out of a constructive interest in imagining the future which, however short it may be, is nonetheless a conceivable future. Now, to return to my weak but very useful arithmetic reasoning, at 50 years of age, it's all the easier to make the 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years that I can use credible and tangible. Far from seeing this prospect as a dramatic and sombre decline in the future, I prefer to rejoice in the global view that this 'pack' can represent for me, especially as at my age, having experienced it first hand, you know what 10 years of mature life represents, the last few of which, by their intensity, have just passed in barely two minutes.

I'm therefore delighted and even excited at the idea of piloting these few decades properly - a bit like if I'd been promoted to the rank of captain of my own ship - without hiding from myself the inevitable physical damage that will inevitably occur during this final crossing. So let's count on 20 to 25 good effective years, which would already be fantastic, and let's reserve the final step of admiral for possible bonuses.

This brings me to the aim of this little post: to plan your life, or at least to improve your chances by thinking clearly about the stages and time limits.

I realise that this is an entirely Western and particularly non-religious vision of the course of existence, but it is this scheme alone that occupies me and, I have to say, fascinates me by the very fact of its frank harshness. No promise of an afterlife, no deferred ecstasy or subsequent reincarnations; it's all there, on the mat, for the taking. The challenge is to get it right. There's no need to overdramatise; the clock has been ticking for a long time now, and we haven't really realised it. The game is simply made more exciting now that it's tighter.

Personally, though, I'm opting for a simple walk rather than a 'race' against the clock. I've done enough running into the wind and after smiles. Running without a goal wears us out without glory.

What's more, today I'm only competing with myself, and that's undoubtedly one of the most creative aspects of my current approach.

It's not, however, a stroll for a senior citizen or a luxury cruise for a mature bachelor - a face imbued with wisdom, but rested, with an accomplished and relaxed expression, a greying head offering a haughty forehead to the sea air, a laughing gaze, satisfied to contemplate a splendid sunset depicting the evening of his life, all encapsulated in a blue blazer, flanked by white trousers and armed with small, soft moccasins next to the skin - that I'm preparing myself for.

No. Nor do I want to 'profit' as they say - if not from my brain, then from consuming too much, but rather to manage each discovery, to negotiate each movement of the oar, with all my senses alert and prepared to react as best I can in a context made up as much of satisfied appetites as of reasoned frugality. It's true that for the moment I'm imagining myself more in a calm boat gliding through subterranean waters in the faint light of a torch, than scanning the open sea from the railing of the steel deck of a floating monument, several dozen metres above the surface of the ocean.

We focus a lot on the time of youth, but in our countries, we have to realise that it is mostly encompassed in that of childhood and that very few, if I base myself on my generation, were capable of being really enterprising at 17 or even 20. Many entered 'active' life or blindly pursued (unfortunately, that's often the right term) 'studies', without any conscious reflection on the use of the mental, physical and social capital with which they had been endowed. In the end, this part of life known as "youth", although essential in determining choices and options for later development, occupies relatively little space in the overall time devoted to action. And it is 3 to 4 times as much "intermediate", "prime-age" or "mature" time, depending on the case and the sex, that we will ultimately have to live through; a perspective from which we do not project ourselves very much at the outset. And yet, it's often enough to know where you stand. For there is a map of human levels and behaviours. It goes by many names and aspects, from science to philosophy, from literature to theatre. All you have to do is project yourself onto it to see yourself, and often to meet yourself.

Following this objectivist mode of reasoning, we could and can, at any age and at any stage of our lives, make precious estimates on all the subjects that concern us intimately and thus better envisage what's to come, even if our predictions are wrong. The most important thing is to have considered something rather than nothingIt seems to me that there is no more serious mistake to be made in life than never to be aware of one's materiality.

Another common dramatic shortcoming is the belief that we are being pushed to reinventing the wheel whereas world literature, as well as audio and visual documentation, offers us a wealth of data derived from the analysis of reality over decades and, if we include philosophy and history, over centuries. We're not born from nothing, and there's little likelihood that our case is completely unique, even if each individual's destiny remains special. The overall future of each of us can be inspired by the statistics of our environment to draw out useful information, even if it's only a trend. If we manage to add to this the inherited psychological factors, proven tastes, social and intimate behaviours, cultural background, nationality and region of birth... I'm sure we'll come up with a few typical profiles that we can use to take a step back from our fantasies. I'm also convinced that saving on disappointment and pain would in no way prevent us from dreaming about ourselves, quite the contrary. For there is no dream that could take off better by being formed in this way from a healthy and solid source. In my opinion, this should be the main focus of all training and guidance, words I prefer to the word education.

The life of a human being is a journey or an undertaking, it doesn't matter. It can take any form in the world, and we'll always come out of it - feet first, to be sure - but probably better grown up having been most cleverly armed from the start of the journey, rather than eternally naked and condemned to wander.

But perhaps it's never too late?