There is a funny thing about getting older. We spend an awful lot of time talking about how not to look like we’re doing it.
We want fewer wrinkles, firmer skin, more energy, less belly fat, thicker hair and perhaps knees that haven’t received the memo about our birthday. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I like looking good. Most people I know like feeling good in their clothes and recognizing the person looking back at them in the mirror.
You can be grateful to be getting older and still wish your skin would cooperate.
But when we talk about aging well, I want to take us somewhere bigger than that.
Imagine yourself ten, twenty, maybe thirty years from now. Don’t picture your face for a minute. Picture your life.
Where are you living? Who is around you? Are you traveling? Working because you still want to? Dancing? Gardening? Walking through an airport pulling your own suitcase? Getting together with friends? Learning something completely new? Getting on the floor with a grandchild and getting back up without turning it into a family event?
What do you want to still be able to do?
That’s where I think the conversation about aging gets much more interesting.
More Years Are Wonderful. What Do You Want to Do With Them?
We hear the word longevity everywhere now. Usually, it means living longer.
I’m interested in that. I think most of us are. Given the choice, we’d probably like more years with the people we love and more time to see what life still has waiting for us.
But there is another concept worth knowing: healthspan.
Healthspan generally refers to the period of life spent in good health, without the limitations associated with chronic disease and disability becoming dominant. Researchers studying healthy longevity increasingly distinguish between simply extending lifespan and extending the portion of life spent in better health and function (Crimmins, 2015; Garmany et al., 2021).
It doesn’t mean living without ever becoming ill, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee that our bodies will work exactly the way they do today. It asks a slightly different question from lifespan.
Not simply How long can I live? but How well can I continue to live while I’m here?
Now we’re talking about strength, mobility, cognition and independence. We’re talking about being able to participate in our relationships, work, communities and the things we enjoy. We’re talking about having enough physical and mental capacity to continue making choices about our own lives.
Suddenly longevity isn’t just a number.
It’s personal.
The Future of Longevity Is Fascinating. So Is What We Already Know.
There is some genuinely exciting work happening in healthy-aging science. Researchers are studying the biology of aging, biomarkers, medications and emerging therapies. We’re going to talk about many of those things in The Well House because I think we should understand what’s changing rather than dismiss something simply because it’s new.
But I don’t want the shiny new things to make us overlook what we can do now.
Movement still matters. Strength matters. Sleep matters. Nutrition matters. Preventive healthcare matters. Managing things like blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar matters. Staying connected to other people matters too. The World Health Organization’s approach to healthy ageing similarly emphasizes maintaining the functional ability that allows people to continue doing the things they value as they grow older (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020).
I know. None of that sounds particularly futuristic.
That’s probably part of why it’s so easy to skip over.
The interesting part is what those ordinary things can help preserve. Strength training isn’t simply a workout; resistance exercise can help preserve or improve strength and physical function as we age (Fragala et al., 2019). Balance isn’t particularly glamorous until it helps you recover from a misstep instead of hitting the ground. Sleep isn’t only about feeling rested tomorrow morning; adequate sleep is associated with multiple aspects of physical and cognitive health (National Institute on Aging [NIA], 2024).
Then we can layer curiosity on top of that foundation. Maybe that’s a wearable. Maybe it’s a conversation about hormones, metabolic health or an emerging therapy. The question isn’t whether something is new or old. It’s whether it might meaningfully help with what you’re trying to preserve or improve.
Pay Attention to What Your Body Can Do
One of the easiest ways to make healthy aging less abstract is to stop thinking about age for a minute and notice function.
Can you get out of a chair without using your hands? Walk comfortably for a while? Carry your groceries? Reach overhead? Climb stairs? Maintain your balance? Get down on the floor and back up? Recover reasonably well after activity?
I’m not asking because every answer needs to be perfect. I’m asking because changes tell us things.
If something that used to be easy has gradually become difficult, it’s worth noticing. Sometimes we need more strength or conditioning. Sometimes pain has changed the way we move. Sometimes there is a health issue underneath the change that deserves attention.
Physical function matters enough that measures involving walking speed, strength and the ability to rise from a chair are commonly used in research and clinical assessment of physical performance in older adults (Guralnik et al., 1994).
This is also where I don’t want us to fall into the habit of saying, “Well, I’m getting older.”
Yes, you are. So am I.
But age doesn’t explain everything.
Persistent fatigue, significant loss of strength, ongoing pain, sleep problems or cognitive changes can have many causes. Hormonal changes, medications, nutritional issues, sleep disorders, injuries and medical conditions can all enter the picture.
Sometimes adaptation is exactly what we need.
Sometimes we need someone to take a closer look.
Your Body Isn’t the Only Thing You’re Taking Into the Future
There’s another part of aging well that doesn’t fit neatly onto a lab report.
What do you want your life to feel like?
By the time we’ve lived a few decades, we’ve usually learned some things the hard way. We know ourselves differently. Some relationships have deepened and others have ended. Careers change. Families change. Priorities change. Things that once felt enormously important may no longer deserve nearly as much of our attention.
There can be loss in getting older. I don’t want to romanticize that. Bodies change. Health can change. People we love may not be with us for the entire journey.
But aging can bring something else too: perspective.
There is still room for new friendships, new work, intimacy, travel, creativity, service, love, learning and the possibility of becoming more—not less—engaged with your own life.
That’s why I think purpose and connection belong in the longevity conversation right alongside strength and preventive care. Social connection has been associated with health and longevity, while social isolation and loneliness are increasingly recognized as meaningful public-health concerns (Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, 2023).
Living longer is one thing.
Having reasons to be excited about those years is another.
So, What Are You Growing Toward?
Maybe that’s a better question than asking how we can stay young.
You may move differently at 70 than you did at 30. You may eat differently, recover differently and need different medical care. Your body may look different. Your priorities almost certainly will.
Different doesn’t automatically mean worse.
And aging well doesn’t require pretending that we love every change that comes with getting older. You can care about your wrinkles and your blood pressure. You can want stronger legs and better skin. You can be curious about emerging longevity therapies and still understand that no therapy replaces the basic work of caring for yourself.
The point isn’t to prove that age doesn’t affect us. It’s to keep deciding what we want the years ahead to contain and caring for ourselves in ways that make more of that possible.
So when you picture yourself ten or twenty years from now, don’t only ask what you hope you still look like. Think about where you want to go, what you want to learn, who you want beside you, what you want your body to still let you do, what you want to contribute and what you haven’t done yet.
Then some of the choices we’re making today begin to make more sense.
Because perhaps aging well isn’t really about staying young.
It’s about making sure we don’t become so focused on the years behind us that we forget to prepare for—and get excited about—the life that’s still ahead.
References
Crimmins, E. M. (2015). Lifespan and healthspan: Past, present, and promise. The Gerontologist, 55(6), 901–911.
Fragala, M. S., Cadore, E. L., Dorgo, S., Izquierdo, M., Kraemer, W. J., Peterson, M. D., & Ryan, E. D. (2019). Resistance training for older adults: Position statement from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 33(8), 2019–2052.
Garmany, A., Yamada, S., & Terzic, A. (2021). Longevity leap: Mind the healthspan gap. npj Regenerative Medicine, 6, 57.
Guralnik, J. M., Simonsick, E. M., Ferrucci, L., Glynn, R. J., Berkman, L. F., Blazer, D. G., Scherr, P. A., & Wallace, R. B. (1994). A short physical performance battery assessing lower extremity function: Association with self-reported disability and prediction of mortality and nursing home admission. Journal of Gerontology, 49(2), M85–M94.
National Institute on Aging. (2024). A good night’s sleep. National Institutes of Health.
Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. (2023). Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
World Health Organization. (2020). Decade of healthy ageing: Baseline report.
Sources reviewed: August 17, 2026.