Living With Purpose
“Finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer,” says psychology researcher, Patrick Hill of Carleton University.
Hill and his colleague Nicholas Turiano recently published “Purpose in Life as a Predictor of Mortality Across Adulthood,” in the journal, Psychological Science, adding to a list of studies that show the importance of living life with purpose.
Many studies have shown the physical benefits of psychological wellbeing. And several have even studied attitudes about life purpose.
But Hill and Turiano (of the University of Rochester Medical Center) decided to see if the benefits of purpose vary over time and help people deal with life transitions.
They looked at data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, funded by the National Institute on Aging.
They examined responses about purpose from over 6,000 participants over a 14-year period. They found those who had reported a greater sense of purpose outlived their peers. In fact, they had a 15% lower risk of death compared to their more aimless counterparts
Purpose turned out to be a greater predictor of long life than other factors including gender and emotional wellbeing.
We know there are many influences on our health and aging. It is not simply the fate of our DNA that determines our happiness, success and longevity.
Living a life of purpose is a uniquely human endeavor. There seems to be a drive deep inside everyone to live for something greater than themselves. Some live for their children. Some live to change the world. It doesn’t seem to matter how lofty the purpose. But having a purpose is essential for living life as you were designed.
It is no coincidence that Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life: What on earth am I here for? is one of the best selling books in history with more than 30 million copies in 85 languages.
Are you wandering through life letting circumstances and people decide your path? Or are you living with intentional purpose?
You bring things to the world that no one else could ever bring. So it’s essential you know what those are and live them with lavish and passionate purpose!
Sources consulted:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/06/0956797614531799.abstract
