Who hasn’t walked into a big discount store to buy milk, only to walk out with a cart full of things you didn’t know you wanted, but now you absolutely need? How about that fancy European cheese that smells bad, but tasted so good when sampled, a bargain five-gallon bottle of ketchup, or that cool, orange kayak like the neighbors? So many good choices, so many bargains, how can one possibly say no?

Without a clear, written life purpose, it’s very easy to live a life of distraction where you spend your resources (energy, money, and time) on activity and stuff, but nothing connected to what you value most. It’s like shopping without a list and ending up with kayaks as lawn ornaments.

Your life purpose is what’s most important to you. It’s your why. It guides you as you make big goals, little goals, and daily decisions. And when you know your why, it instills courage to do hard things.

A recent study in JAMA Current Open, a reliable medical journal, discovered that not only does having a life purpose increase your quality of life, it can actually increase the length of your life. In the study, people without a strong life purpose were more than twice as likely to die compared to those who had one, regardless of wealth, gender, race, or education level. Having a life purpose appears to be more important for decreasing risk of death than drinking, smoking, or exercising regularly. That is a powerful reason to discover your why.

Terri