On one level one's personal psychology combined with exercise and diet all contribute to Longevity

Why do people live to Old Age? 

Mostly because they choose to do this rather than to die young.

I remember being through with life when I was 21 because of many bad things that had happened in my life. I realized that I likely couldn't survive my 20s considering what I was facing. So, making it from 21 to 25 in some ways is the hardest thing I ever did in my life. 2nd to this likely was watching my mother die of Senile dementia from around 1999 to 2008. These two things were the single hardest things to survive in my life.

People might want to differ with me by saying: "Hey. You almost died of whooping cough at two and almost died of concussion and night time seizures between ages 10 and 15. But, at the time I didn't see anything to do but to struggle forward. As a really young person I didn't see any choice but to keep struggling forward.

It wasn't until I was 21 years old and I sort of gave myself permission as an adult to end my life. But then, I watched how whole families became chain reactions of suicides to realize that I couldn't do this to my family. So, I soldiered on.

In some ways soldiering on from ages 21 to 25 was one of the most powerful things I ever did for myself in my life. I had to become and entirely different person. I had to re-engineer myself to go on surviving and finding ways to actually enjoy being alive.

I succeeded at this and was happy by my early 30s for awhile until my father died when I was 37. Then I spent the next 13 years in a sort of state of Middle Aged Crazy from my Dad's death which also caused me to get a divorce if I look at this more carefully. (of course there are many many causes for divorces not just one).

The point is the road to longevity is a long one and unless you are adaptable and resilient enough you will never get there.

I think adaptability and resiliency and practicality and being pragmatic are some of the qualities that take one to old age successfully. 

But, it's also true that "Old Age isn't for sissies" which is what my father in law used to say until he died at 90 in 2008.

Finding enough meaning an joy in life is one of the things that can successfully keep a person alive to old age.

What do you love? What do you most Care About?

These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself if you want to live a long life and be happy enough to even want to stay alive for it.

By God's Grace

Longevity, Common sense and Intuition

Genetic longevity, Common sense and intuition likely are your best friends in life if you want to live to a ripe old age.

We have all met really brilliant people who have no common sense and often they are usually dead from something stupid like driving their car over 200 miles per hour or getting with someone out of their league, having their heart broken and then some type of accident or suicide befalls them.

Whereas others lives might not be as spectacular as being a valedictorian or founder of a dot com or something like this and becoming the youngest millionaire or billionaire in their town.

but, in the end longevity, common sense and intuition gets you and your family and genetics and keeps them around for thousands or millions of years on this planet and likely upon many others too on into the future. And it keeps you around a long time too so you can help your children and their children stay alive and prosper too.

By God's Grace

Longevity

At present the main factors in longevity here on earth are genetics, diet, exercise, what you do with your mind and body, and how you cultivate your health and life and recreation.

Also, there are different types of people. Some people thrive on work and burn out and die by 30 to 50. Other people do less strenuous work and thrive on this type of work and work out in ways having fun exercising their bodies and minds.

But, mostly you have to want to be alive and have good reasons for being alive whether that is religious or spiritual or just a love of nature and wild things. So, there are many custom made ways to longevity worldwide. And many of them are very individualistic by nature and others are group ways to longevity.

But, in the end we are all very different and in other ways we are all very much alike in what keeps us alive to 80 or 100 or more.