Many of us are motivated to live a long and healthy life. When it comes to strategies for slowing down the aging process, exercise and nutrition are very important, but personality traits also factor into the equation. According to a November 2021 article in Time Magazine, “Recent research shows that several personality traits predict who will enjoy health into their 80s and beyond. According to some studies, the link between personality and longevity is as strong as intelligence or how much money you have, both of which are correlated with longer lifespans . . . The following five traits can be cultivated for a long, healthy life: conscientiousness, purpose, optimism, extraversion, and a lack of neuroticism.”
We encourage you to read the Time Magazine article (click here for a link to the article) to learn more about these five personality traits. For this blog, we will focus on purpose. The article states, “Another good quality for longevity is being purposeful, or having a direction in life with clear goals that energize you. Those who say that they have a life purpose recover faster from aggravations such as viewing pictures of pollution and other disturbing scenes. They also tend to have more brain volume in an area of the brain that’s linked to self-awareness and decision-making.”
Develop Your Personal Mission Statement
Defining your purpose is one aspect of a Life and Career Planning Model©, featured in our book Time To Get Real! that helps individuals to be more intentional about their life and career while employing a strategic life plan. At Life and Career Planning, we ask individuals we are teaching or coaching to write a statement that describes their life’s purpose or mission. For most people, this is not an easy exercise. It requires thinking about all the dimensions of your life, your relationships, your work, your personal motivations, and in some sense your spiritual or humanistic beliefs. A personal mission statement offers clarity and gives you a sense of purpose. It helps define who you are and how you will live. Frankly, it’s much easier to write a description of a job you want than to answer the question – why am I here?
For most people, this is not an easy exercise. It requires thinking about all the dimensions of your life, your relationships, your work, your personal motivations, and in some sense your spiritual or humanistic beliefs.
A number of years ago Alex Plinio, author of Time To Get Real! had the opportunity to work with Frances Hesselbein, the CEO of the Girl Scouts of America, who had been named as the best executive leader in the United States in business, nonprofit, or government fields. She talked about the need that people have for a hope beyond the change experienced in their daily lives. She said that the need was for an anchor, a purpose, which provided meaning for their life and their work. We believe everyone needs this, but few people take the time to think about it and to provide that meaning for themselves.
Purpose statements can be quite powerful in motivating a person toward their specific life’s vision. An individual’s vision is that future place to which they hope to arrive. The statement can help with decision-making in all aspects of one’s life. For example, when offered that new job, your purpose can make that decision a lot easier As Francis Hasselbein has observed, a well-thought-out statement provides an anchor in life’s sea of change.
Align Your Life and Career Plan with Your Purpose
We strongly encourage you to take the time to reflect and develop your own purpose statement. Aligning all the parts of your life and career plan with your purpose is like fitting the pieces of a puzzle together. It provides the opportunity to make your life better and helps you feel good about your place in the world. Let your purpose strengthen your resolve, help you to make decisions, and bring you a level of comfort. We have helped many individuals through this process and we can help you. To contact us, click here.
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We recommend that in addition to reading our book Time To Get Real! and working through the Life and Career Planning Model© that it provides, consider some amount of personal coaching that can help you to discern and activate your life’s mission and move you toward the best life and career that you deserve. Our coaching fees and services are flexible and meet a broad array of client financial and coaching needs. All Life and Career Planning LLC coaches are experienced and certified in the Life and Career Planning Model© and serve as your accountability partner as you read each chapter of the book and capture your thoughts in the interactive exercises. To inquire about working with a coach, click here.
