If you want to get healthier, happier and fitter in the new year, the first thing you need to focus on is finding a real purpose in life. People with a higher sense of purpose tend to make healthier lifestyle choices and are more likely to feel better about their own health status, according to new research. The analysis is based on data from a long-term study, including new surveys of a diverse group of 749 people with an average age of 60.
One goal of the study was to show that having purpose in life has positive health effects independent of the Big Five personality traits — openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, acceptance, and neuroticism. Participants completed measures of meaning, health behavior and self-reported health, which were combined with their self-reports on the Big Five personality traits from a study conducted two years earlier.
Participants responded to a range of health behavior questions, such as how often they ate healthy vegetables, how well they slept, and whether they flossed routinely. They also rated how often, in a typical week, they engaged in strenuous or moderate exercise, such as:running/jogging versus walking; surfing/kayaking/windsurfing vs. to sail; basketball vs volleyball; vigorous swimming versus easy swimming, and so on.
Researchers examined each behavior independently and in combination with other behaviors and demographic variables, such as personality type. In all scenarios, having a sense of purpose had a significant direct effect on self-assessment and a more modest, indirect effect on individual health behavior.
