"Why do I do what I do every day?" It is a question that can be surprisingly difficult to answer, and the answer turns out to matter for more than your mood.
People who feel their lives have direction live longer. That much is well known, and three other articles here have the figures. Redefining Aging: What We Can Learn from the World's Longest-Lived People has the Japanese idea of ikigai, and the two linked below have the rest.
Purpose is more than just a feel-good notion. The more interesting question is what it does along the way, to the brain, the legs, the night's sleep, the heart and the way you look after yourself. Each of those has been measured.
The brain
In Chicago, 951 older people without dementia were asked how much purpose they felt in their lives, and then followed for up to seven years. Over that time, 155 of them developed Alzheimer's disease. Those with a strong sense of purpose were about 2.4 times as likely to stay free of it as those with a weak one.
The same team then did something unusual. When 246 of the people they had followed died, their brains were examined, and the damage of Alzheimer's was measured: the plaques and the tangles. At the same level of damage, the people who had reported more purpose in life had kept their thinking better while they were alive.
So purpose does not seem to stop the disease from forming. It seems to help the brain carry on working around it. The damage is the same. The owner is different. Dementia Risk: What It's Linked To, and What You Can Change has the nuns whose brains showed the same thing, and the name for the spare capacity that makes it possible.
The legs
You can see purpose in how people move. When 104 people wore activity trackers for three days, those with more purpose moved more overall and did more brisk activity, and the link held after other factors were allowed for. Over the years, it shows in the walk itself.
Americans over 50 had their grip and walking speed measured, and then again four years later. Each step up in their sense of purpose went with a 13% lower risk of their grip turning weak and a 14% lower risk of their walking turning slow. The walking link held after everything else about their health and habits was taken into account. The grip link did not. Purpose, it seems, puts a spring in the step, if not in the hand.
Walking speed matters because it is one of the plainest measures of how the body is ageing. The Harsh Truth About Aging, linked below, has why.
The night
Sleep follows the same pattern. Among 4,144 Americans over 50 who were sleeping well at the start, each step up in their sense of purpose went with 16% lower odds of developing sleep problems over the next four years. The link held after their health and habits were allowed for.
When you have a goal or something to look forward to, your worries feel smaller. Smaller worries are easier to sleep on.
The heart
Purpose shows up even in people whose hearts are already in trouble. Among 1,546 Americans over 50 who had heart disease, each step up on a six-point scale of purpose went with 27% lower odds of a heart attack over the next two years. The link held after allowing for how severe their heart disease was, how healthy they rated themselves, and a long list of other factors. Even a tired heart does better with a job to do.
The check-ups
Purpose motivates people to take better care of themselves, and that has been counted too.
When 7,168 Americans over 50 were followed for six years, the ones with more purpose were more likely to have their cholesterol tested. Women were more likely to have mammograms and smear tests, and men to have their prostate checked. And each step up in purpose went with 17% fewer nights spent in hospital. Purpose is cheaper than a hospital bed.
A person who expects to be needed tomorrow has a reason to look after the body that will be doing the work.
What these links can and cannot show
These findings come from watching people, not from handing out purpose and seeing what happens. Most of them come from Americans over 50, though the longevity finding is not limited to them: in the 14-year study in Powerful Signs You're on the Right Life Path, linked below, the link held at every age, retired or still working. And the arrow may point both ways: good health makes it easier to feel useful, as well as the other way round. The researchers allowed for health and habits as far as they could, and the links held more often than not, but a link is still not proof.
There is one experiment, and it points the same way. In Baltimore, 111 older people were randomly assigned either to carry on as usual or to join Experience Corps. In that programme, retired people volunteer in teams in local primary schools, helping young children with their schoolwork. Over two years, the men who volunteered gained between 0.7% and 1.6% in brain volume, in areas that dementia attacks, while the men left out lost volume, as people that age usually do. The women volunteers gained a little, about 0.3% to 0.5%, while the women left out lost about 1%. Purpose had been handed to them, and their brains answered. The children were not the only ones learning.
Everyday volunteering points the same way. When studies of volunteers aged 55 and over were pooled, volunteering went with a 47% lower risk of dying over the years they were followed. Once health and other differences were allowed for, the gap shrank to 24%, still a large one. Part of the first figure is likely that healthier people are the ones who volunteer.
Taken together, the findings show that purpose travels with a body that is ageing well. And looking for more of it costs nothing.
Building it
Purpose is rarely found in one flash. It is built, from what you already do and why you do it. Viktor Frankl, who survived the Nazi camps, named three roads to it in : a task to finish, a person to care for, and suffering met with dignity.
Connect your purpose to your health goals. If your purpose involves helping others, for instance, you might feel more motivated to stay active, so that you can keep doing it.
Break down your big-picture purpose into smaller, actionable goals. A week with one thing you are doing for someone else, one thing you are getting better at, and one thing you are looking forward to is a week with direction in it.
For a gentler guide, by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles builds a whole book around the Japanese idea of a reason for being.
If everything has felt pointless for weeks, the problem may be low mood rather than a missing purpose. Breaking Free from Low Moods: Powerful Strategies to Reset Your Mind and Energy has when it is more than a low mood, and when to reach out for help.
Powerful Signs You're on the Right Life Path, linked below, has the rest. It covers the signs that you are on the right path, why passion is grown rather than found, and what to do when you feel stuck.
Your why
Purpose travels with a brain that copes, legs that keep their pace, quieter nights, a steadier heart and a body that gets looked after. Take a moment to think about what drives you. What is your "why"?
Tonight, write down one thing you will do tomorrow that someone else is counting on.
Wondering whether you are on the right path at all? Powerful Signs You're on the Right Life Path — the signs worth trusting, why you stay when it gets hard, the regrets that last, and what to do when you feel stuck.
Want the rest of what keeps the body young? The Harsh Truth About Aging: Decline or Longevity? — keeping your grip, minding your walking pace, getting up off the floor, and keeping a reason to get up.
Know someone who has stopped feeling needed since they retired? Send them this, and ask them for help with something.
Disclaimer: This article is general information. For advice about your own health, talk to a qualified health professional.
Affiliate Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, All For Life earns from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. We only link to products we would recommend without the commission.
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