Benefits of Life Purpose and How To Find Yours

Benefits of Life Purpose

The benefits of life purpose not only extend your lifespan but also bring vitality and joy to your life.

In fact, according to a 2019 JAMA Network Open study of nearly 7,000 adults over age 50:

“those who scored highest on a scale that measured ‘life purpose’ were less likely to die during the four-year study period. They were also less likely to die during the same period from heart, circulatory, or blood conditions, compared with those who scored lower.”

In other words, this study established that not only does a life purpose extend your life, but it also helps prevent death from specific diseases.

Seems like a pretty good reason to figure out what your life purpose is and GO FOR IT!

As I often do in this blog, I’ll use myself as an example of how I am living a purposeful life:

The Diva, Lilly and Fred

• Helping others – this blog takes advantage of my love of research and writing to share what I’ve learned about longevity, investing and changing lives;
• I choose to live in service to my spouse – imagine what the world would be like if everyone chose to live in service to their spouse, children, extended family and friends…(by “in service” I mean Lisa’s wants are my wants, her needs are my needs, and I try to make her smile or laugh at least once a day); and,
• I have a goal to bring about world peace within 50 years. (That also requires me to live another 50 years!)

How to find your life purpose ain’t rocket science…

There are tons of books out there on living a purposeful life.  How to figure out what your life purpose is, how to make it work in your life, how to put your purpose into practice…

I’ve got several of them on my bookshelf and found them all tiresome or complicated or heck, just plain boring.  Does figuring out your life’s purpose really have to be that complicated?

NO!

The three simple questions that answer “What’s my life purpose?”

You don’t need a bunch of complicated books telling you what to do and how to do it or what your life’s purpose “should” be (unless you like that sort of thing and, yes, I know people who really do).  All you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What do I love most in the world?
  • Laying in bed reading books?  Washing your feet?  Fishing?  Building potato cannons?  Because your life’s purpose doesn’t have to be profound.  It doesn’t have to impress anyone.  It just has to make you feel fulfilled.  Don’t let anyone “guilt” you into believing otherwise.
• Who do I love most in the world?
  • Your hamster?  Your spouse?  Your ant farm’s residents?  Your kids?  Yourself?  Your favorite tree?
• What change do I most want to see in this world?

When you’ve answered those three questions, you know what your purpose in life is.  It can be one, two, or all three things.  And they don’t have to be incorporated into each other.

You can compartmentalize them if you wish.  Synergies will show up whether you want them to or not.  It’s up to you if you want them to twist together like the strands of a rope or stand alone like three houses on a cul de sac.

How I answered the questions

Let’s take a quick look at my three purposes and how they stack up against the three questions:

• What do I love most in the world?

Answer: Writing and research.  How do I make sure it’s a part of my life?  I write several blogs and publish my stories, memoirs and poetry.  Pretty simple.

• Who do I love most in the world?

Answer: My wife.  Again, not tough to figure out.  How do I make sure she stays a part of my life?  I listen and learn what’s important to her and work each day to help her achieve those things.  Plus, I make sure she knows I love her and am thinking about her through little things I do each day.  Not hard.  Just staying conscious of what’s important to me.

• What change do I most want to see in this world?

Answer: World peace.  Why?  Because everything and everyone that is important to me will benefit most from world peace:

• My family will feel safer;
• I will feel safer;
• The world’s children won’t be lost to the whims of warlords, tyrants and psychopaths; and,
• Trillions of dollars of the world’s economy can be redirected to positive investments which will benefit everyone on the planet (not to mention, the planet itself).

And I have done enough reading and research on psychology, philosophy, politics, marketing, persuasion, artificial intelligence, economics, and the human heart, to absolutely believe it can be done.  We have more tools now than ever before in history to bring about the benefits of my life purpose.  My next step is to establish my “foundation” and create bylaws, etc.  One step at a time.

Books that keep me focused and inspired:

• Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels Of Our Nature – his central idea is that our era is less violent, less cruel and more peaceful than any previous period of human existence. And I’m going to ride that wave (adding my own personal boost) to world peace.
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
• Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
• Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series – the story of Hari Seldon and his Psychohistory Foundations.
• The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön (a Buddhist nun)

Feedback is the breakfast of champions…

Brainstorm in the comments below.  How would you answer the three questions?