Keith Richards is 82 years old.
Willie Nelson is 93.
And somehow they’re both still doing the thing they’ve been doing most of their lives.
Keith is still making music.
Willie is still singing.
I find that much more interesting than trying to figure out their “longevity secrets.”
Because let’s be serious.
If Keith Richards is your health guru, we’ve probably wandered into some pretty strange territory. 😂
This is a man whose younger years are not exactly a blueprint I’d hand out in class.
Willie’s life hasn’t followed anybody’s perfect wellness plan either.
Yet here they are.
Older.
Changed.
Slower in some ways.
Still doing what they love.
And maybe there’s something worth paying attention to in that.
Keith’s Hands Have Changed
Keith has arthritis in his hands now.
He’s talked openly about not being as fast on the guitar as he once was.
That would be a pretty significant problem if your job happens to be Keith Richards.
But I love his response to it.
He adapts.
He finds another way to play.
The guitar keeps teaching him.
Think about that for a minute.
He doesn’t need his 30-year-old hands back to keep being a guitar player.
He needs the hands he has today and enough curiosity to figure out what they can still do.
At 72, that makes a lot more sense to me than it probably would have at 32.
Bodies change.
Mine certainly has.
The question isn’t whether you can freeze yourself at some perfect age.
You can’t.
The more interesting question is:
What can I still do with the body I have today?
And maybe even:
What can I learn to do differently?
Willie Keeps Singing
Willie Nelson is still performing at 93.
Ninety-three.
I’m going to give that its own paragraph because good grief.
He has dealt with health problems. Age has changed what he can do and how he does it.
But the music is still there.
That’s what catches my attention about both of these guys.
Not what they eat.
Not whether they ever owned a fitness tracker.
Not some supplement hiding in Willie Nelson’s kitchen cabinet.
They still have something they want to do.
Something that gets them up.
Something that asks something of them.
Something that connects them to other people.
Something that is still part of who they are.
I think that matters.
Maybe That’s What We’re Really Training For
I spend a lot of my life helping people move better.
We stretch.
We work on strength.
We practice balance.
We get down on the floor and, rather importantly, practice getting back up again. 😂
But none of those things is really the point.
The point is what they let you keep doing.
Maybe you want to garden.
Travel.
Walk the beach.
Play with your grandkids.
Get on a horse.
Keep teaching classes.
Play guitar.
Sing.
Or just carry your own groceries and live in your own house.
Health serves life.
That’s the part I think we sometimes get backward.
It’s easy to make health itself the hobby.
Track this.
Measure that.
Optimize something else.
And if you enjoy doing that, wonderful.
But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life preparing to live.
I want to live.
You Don’t Need Keith’s Guitar
That’s the other thing.
You don’t have to be Keith Richards or Willie Nelson.
Nobody needs 50,000 people screaming their name to have a reason to get out of bed.
Your thing might look completely ordinary to everybody else.
Good.
It’s yours.
Peggy and I love walking together.
We teach.
We watch birds.
We spend time with people we enjoy.
I still get curious about things and wander down rabbit holes that occasionally make Peggy wonder whether I need adult supervision.
That’s life.
And staying capable gives me more of it.
So I’m not particularly interested in copying Keith Richards’ diet or Willie Nelson’s morning routine.
I’m interested in something much simpler.
At 82, Keith still has his guitar.
At 93, Willie still has his songs.
What’s your guitar?
What’s something you hope you’re still able to do ten or twenty years from now?
Whatever it is, take care of the person who’s going to need to be there to do it.
Move.
Stay strong.
Eat food that helps you thrive.
Sleep.
Stay curious.
Keep people you love nearby.
And then go do the thing.
Because living longer sounds pretty good.
But having something worth living longer for sounds even better.