Happy New Year, everyone!  May your 2025 be filled with love, joy, abundance and all the seeds of a long and healthy life.

To achieve true longevity, we can take a cue from the life of former President Jimmy Carter, who recently died.

I’m not talking about his one-term presidency, which wasn’t particularly successful. He presided over a series of crises:  stagnating economy with inflation, the Iran hostage crisis, rising oil crises, and many culture wars at home.

Carter came into his own after he’d left office.  Although he could have done anything, he chose to focus his work and his foundation on two things:  diplomatic peace initiatives and building houses for the poor.

Carter ‘s talent as a mediator – seeing both sides and helping others do the same – had been revealed during his presidency.  His one notable achievement in office had been to broker a Middle East peace deal in 1979 after essentially pressing Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s president, and Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister, to remain at the bargaining table for 13 days.

Post-presidency, Carter became an international peacemaker well into his 80s, helping to ward off an US invasion in Haiti, negotiate ceasefires in Bosnia and Sudan, and even calm nuclear threats between North and South Korea – achievements that won him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

But his main talent was altruism.  In 1984, Carter was out jogging one day in New York when he passed by a house being built by Habitat for Humanity, the non-profit organization that builds houses for low-income communities around the world by relying on volunteers.  That sparked an idea: ‘Rosalynn and I should come up and give them a hand.’

They volunteered and their first job was to work on a six-story apartment in New York.  They helped to build 19 units, and the next year, they returned to help finish the rest of the building.

Carter had the Carter Foundation partner with Habitat, hugely lifting its profile (and coffers). Besides helping over the next 35 years, well into their 90s, he and his wife put on hard hats and together worked alongside 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to assemble, renovate or repair some 4,300 homes houses in 14 countries around the world.  His work there, he said, ‘has been a life-changing experience for us.’

The Carters were there in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild the devastated communities, and they were there in Haiti in 2011 to rebuild after the massive earthquakes, even helping to move families to safety.

Why did they do it?  Carter once remarked: ‘My faith demands – this is not optional – my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference.’

What was their payback for all this altruism?  A long and fruitful life.  Roselynn died aged 96, and Jimmy made it to 100.

The science is clear: when you help others, you’re half as likely to be depressed, and you’re more likely to recover your health. In fact, people involved in volunteer work, like Carter, have mortality rates two-thirds lower than others, which the Stanford University researchers concluded could not be solely attributed to health habits, exercise,  religious practices and community, or even social support.

Altruism was the main bulletproof vest that had kept them well.

Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to do unto others and observe as you’re rewarded with a longer and happier life.