You’ve most likely encountered Prudential’s Day One stories campaign, telling us we need to prepare for a seemingly endless retirement. On billboards and bus posters, in radio and television ads, Prudential says we’ll be retired for 6,000 days or many more after working for 12,000. The financial services company’s campaign amounts to scenario planning through the rear view mirror bolting the new longevity (longer, healthier lives) to the old retirement lifestyle. This retrograde vision is neither sustainable, nor attainable and it isn’t desirable.

In my new essay for Harvard Business Review‘s website, I argue that we need to swap the Day One outlook Prudential is peddling, for something resembling a One Day vision.

One Day is the rallying cry of Teach For America, the iconic program that helps young people invest in the well-being of future generations. As it turns out, TFA has seen a growing number of individuals in their 50s joining its ranks, a development the organization welcomes and encourages.

More broadly, we need to help all those in the second half of life who want to make meaningful, lasting contributions to society move from aspiration to action through vehicles like Teach For America, Encore Fellowships, Experience Corps and many other routes to encore careers.

I hope you enjoy this new piece and the perspective it offers. Please contribute to the conversation by commenting on the article (directly on HBR.org), sharing it with others and letting us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.