On the heels of my last post about the importance of believing that your job matters, both in terms of mental fatigue and creativity, here comes a study from the University College of London (UCL) with yet another reason to look for work that you find meaningful:
Researchers from UCL, Princeton University and Stony Brook University studied 9,500 English people with an average of of 65, over the course of eight and a half years, to see what impact their level of “eudemonic wellbeing” had on their longevity. Eudemonic wellbeing, as defined by the researchers, is “your sense of control, feeling that what you do is worthwhile, and your sense of purpose in life.”
The subjects were surveyed to determine where on the scale of “eudemonic wellbeing” they fell, and the results were then adjusted for age, sex, socio-economic status, physical health, depression, smoking, physical activity and alcohol intake, to try to rule out other factors that could affect both wellbeing and longevity. With all those factors adjusted for, the study subjects who rated in the highest 25% of eudemonic wellbeing had a mortality risk 30% lower than those with the lowest wellbeing. Which is to say, the people who felt a strong sense of purpose, and who felt as if what they did mattered and that they had control over their lives lived, on average, two years longer than those with low scores in those areas.
The study is available online for free (although you have to register with The Lancet to get access to it. And its authors were careful to point out that they didn’t necessarily prove causation between well-being and longevity, just correlation – although they noted that “established research has linked depression and life stress with premature mortality, coronary heart disease, diabetes, disability, and other chronic disorders. What is new is the possibility that positive subjective wellbeing is a protective factor for health.”
For the most part, I advocate pursuing career, activity, and life choices that give you a sense of purpose and meaning because I believe those elements are so essential for personal happiness, resiliency, and emotional strength. They also have the best chance of allowing you to have an impact on the world. However, it’s always interesting to find studies that explore whether those things that make us feel a sense of satisfaction from how we’re spending our precious life energy and time can have other positive benefits, as well.
Another good reminder, as we all run around shopping in the holiday season crush, that meaning is, as it always has been, more important than top-shelf glitter. Not a new idea, but always worth remembering.
