So guys, I have something to share with
you. When I saw this picture, it blew my
mind. I did not believe it was real but
when I realized how real it was, this
particular picture of this man, this
grandpa Jon Butcher, a guy in his
fifties with four kids, two and a third
grandkid on the way, this particular
picture, let's put up the picture right
here. This picture blew my mind because
it shows Jon in peak physical
state at 29 and how at 49, 20 years later,
he barely seems to have aged. Jon, like
most men, like most women, as I turned 40,
I started worrying about my body, I
started thinking about my life at 50 and
60 and looking at my parents' generation
and thinking about how my body was gonna
break down. When I saw that picture, it was a
paradigm shift. It made me realize that I
was buying into a societal brule, a
societal bullshit rule that may not
necessarily be true. And I think that
picture is going to shake up a lot of
your belief systems as well, especially
when you realize that this man Jon
Butcher is a grandpa. You are
one of the fittest granddads I've
ever seen. What's the secret?
Well, I'll tell you but you won't like
it. Diet and exercise. That
is the truth, but there's
something deeper.
Here's what I talked about in that blog
post that I released to the Lifebook
community.
I never set a goal to be in great shape
at 54 years old. I never set that as a
goal. I've always worked on my health and
fitness but I never was like, when I get
to be 55... Never never did that.
What I did was, I installed good habits
in my life in my twenties and I ran those
habits through my fifties. It's as simple as
that.
You have to figure out what a healthy
plate of food looks like, generally. What a
decent exercise program is for you,
generally, and then literally I
worked out, you know, five or six days a
week for 30 years.
That's how you do it. Not everyone
wants to hear that but that is, that is
the truth. Now, everybody knows how to get
in shape, Vishen. Eat right and exercise more.
That's how to get in shape, that's not
world-changing news, and of course you
can spend your entire life studying
those two things, but that's the bottom
line and pretty much everybody knows it.
This is something we talk about pretty
deeply in Lifebook's 30-day challenge
that we made for Mindvalley. The key to
the health and fitness category is your
purpose. It's not the how, everybody knows
the 'how', it's the 'why'. So for me,
connecting deeply with my purpose was
what made it so that I was disciplined
for 30 years and just did my workout. It
was, it wasn't, it's never been for me,
should I workout today or shouldn't I?
It's a given. I don't have to ask that
question. It is a part of my lifestyle
because my purpose is so strong.
My purpose is
the relationship that I want to have
with my wife. Our sex life. We want to be
turned on by each other. I want to set a
good example for my kids. I want to be
able to climb Machu Picchu and have
amazing experiences. I am so dialed in to
the reasons that I want to be in good
shape that it's easy for me to do the
things that are required to be in good
shape and it's also relatively easy for
me to avoid the things that are going to
take me in the wrong direction.
Missy and I don't live like monks, we
don't live on fruits and berries. We
party, we have a good time in our lives.
We don't deny ourselves anything that we
really enjoy: sugar, alcohol, caffeine. We
don't deny ourselves anything, but we're
sensible. We're moderate. We enjoy
everything in moderation and that's
pretty much it.
The key is the habits that you put in
place and then being true to those
habits, and the way that you're going to
make sure to get that done is to have a
strong purpose. That's what always comes
down to. Purpose is the key,
you're absolutely right.
One thing that shifted my treatment
of my body. When I was in my twenties and
my thirties I was not in the best
physical shape. Today at 40 I am fitter
and I have a better body than I did almost 15
years ago. It's true. So my purpose shifted
when I heard about an article published
by Singularity University that said that
medical science is adding three months to our
lifespans for every year we live
between now and 2030. So between now and
2030, you've probably added an extra three
to four years of your life. So the
average American lifespan wouldn't
be 75. If you live to 2030, you'd be like
79. But it gets weirder. Medical science
is progressing at an exponential rate.
Between 20-30 onwards, Singularity
University says that we'll be adding one
year to our lives for every year
live you live. Now when I did the math, I
realized that I wasn't going to live to
the average-developed world lifespan for a male
which is about 77. I'm actually
going to live to be a hundred. If you're
40 today, more than likely you are going
to live to be a hundred. So 40 isn't even
the midpoint of your life.
Retirement?
Why do we even think about retirement?
Because if like most successful people
you're living in a job that is fueled by
mission and purpose, you don't want to
retire. That's exactly right. Another study by
Gallup shows that people who are living
their mission work well into their
nineties. So that became my purpose. I
wanted to have this body fully
fueled, ready to to do what I needed it
to do so I could play with my grandkids
or great-grandkid. I could live my
purpose when I'm a hundred and that
fundamentally changed the way I approach
my health.
That's great. So it is vitally important
that you start asking yourself these
questions and thank you for sharing that,
Jon. Purpose is the key. Any final tips?
One final tip is this, over the last
twenty five or six years that Missy and
I've been married, we've done these
little episodic sprints or challenges.
So we're going to go to Hawaii, we want to
get great in shape. That's a month of
hardcore, you know, we're going to do some
video shoot or pretty much anything you
can think of where you have
something that you've got to get in
shape for. We probably do one of these a
year, where we stay in pretty good shape
throughout the year but then at least
one time we're going to be pushing for
something specific. Got to have a photo
session or whatever it is. That has
been awesome in our lives.
For instance, the picture that
you just put up there. That was
a two-week training that I did and I've
done a number of things like that over
the years. That just kind of pushes
you forward a little bit extra and
so that's a good tip.
Right, I love that tip. I'm on a challenge
right now: Wildfit by Mindvalley. So
there are multiple challenges you can put
into your life to constantly keep you at
your peak physical state, but thank you. I
hope you've enjoyed this content training
and I hope it's shifted the idea in your
mind that purpose is really the secret
to help and defy aging.
Thank you. Thank you, Vishen.