More Evidence That Longevity Depends on Your State of Mind
We all know that having goals is important, but a joint US-Canadian study reveals that having a sense of purpose can affect our longevity. Remarkably, it doesn't matter how old we are or what we aspire to — as long as we have goals, we live longer.
Psychologists have known for some time that a sense of purpose is a key indicator of healthy aging, including its potential for reducing mortality risk. But this new study, which now appears in Psychological Science, extends previous findings in two important ways. First, it shows that a sense of purpose is beneficial across a person's entire adult lifespan, and second, that mortality rates — and by inference health — can indeed be correlated with having a purpose in life.
Defining a Sense of Purpose
For the study, Carleton University's Patrick Hill, along with Nicholas Turiano from the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York, Hill analyzed the lives of more than 7,000 U.S. adults aged 20 to 75 years over a period of 14 years. They found that the people who died during the course of the study were less likely to have a feeling of purpose, suggesting that people who feel a sense of direction tend to be healthier and live longer.
Defining a sense of purpose, however, is not easy. According to Hill, having a purpose in life is a reflection of having broader, lifelong goals that serve to direct and organize a person's day-to-day activities and the things they value. These goals can be slotted into four broad areas: creative, occupational or financial, pro-social, and family oriented.
http://io9.com/why-lacking-a-sense-of-direction-is-hazardous-to-your-h-1580644691
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On their father's side especially, they've got great genes for living a long time. Those folks all make it well into their 90's.
I've already told them that if they are still around on July 4, 2076 -- and they should be, as one will be 94 and the other 89, a piece of cake given their genetics -- they need to go to Washington DC and spend that day on the Mall, and tell every person they meet, "Our parents were here one hundred years ago!"
We were, their father and I, both on the Mall on July 4, 1976, although we wouldn't meet for another couple of years. But how cool would that be? Imagine being somewhere like that and having a couple of old guys tell you their parents were there one hundred years earlier.
As I said, I believe in long term planning. 
