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Will you have a purpose-filled year?

Hello, 2018! It’s a new year. Whether you embrace or eschew New Year’s resolutions, you may want to take note of the research on purpose.

Dr. Victor Strecher spreads the word about how purpose has a positive impact on health and wellness.Dr. Victor Strecher spreads the word about how purpose has a positive impact on health and wellness.Last year, I learned a lot from Victor Strecher, a behavioral scientist in the University of Michigan School of Public Health, about purpose.

When his daughter Julia died at age 19, Strecher reframed his life purpose and tackled it with abandon. He began to research and spread the word about how purpose has a positive impact on health and wellness.

What is purpose? Well, it’s living in a way that aligns with what we deeply value. It’s bigger than a goal; in fact, it may be unattainable.

It turns out, feeling that your life has meaning can give you longevity. Strecher writes in his book, Life on Purpose, that “affirming core values has been shown to reduce resistance to improving physical activity and diet, quitting smoking, and reducing alcohol consumption and excessive sun exposure, among other self-improving behaviors.”

His conversation with Analytically Speaking’s Anne Milley is a fascinating one. They talk about:

  • The impact of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness on gene expression.
  • Designing an experiment to study how the affirmation of core values can help change behavior.
  • The benefits of approaching learning with a greater purpose in mind.
  • What happens to your health, absenteeism and presenteeism when you lack purpose at work.
  • How his mobile app builds a within-person predictive model to help people align with their purposes.
  • Why transcenders are better innovators and discoverers.
  • Thinking of creativity as a subversive activity.

Watch the video to hear the full conversation. By the end, you may just feel inspired to seek your own purpose.

Last Modified: Jan 8, 2018 10:07 AM
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