Happy Feels Nice. Purpose GEts Us OUt of Bed.

​I woke up yesterday morning and looked out at a brilliant sun rising over the ocean waves.

It made me quite happy.

It turns out, though, that when it comes to predicting how long I might live, what I do with that sunrise means more than what I feel looking at it.

A recent study (Which Predicts Longevity Better: Satisfaction With Life or Purpose in Life?) found that having a sense of purpose plays a more crucial role in promoting longer life compared to merely being satisfied with life.​

I have had a long week. Three days in a row I led 3-hour trainings in the morning and in the afternoon. That's exhausting, especially when you pour your heart and your passion into the trainings, which I do.

Driving two hours home yesterday, I don't know that I felt happy about my week, but I sure felt full.

Full of purpose.

The older I get, and the more studies I read, I come to believe that the greatest source of our collective unhappiness is our pursuit of happiness. The older I get, the more I wonder if happiness isn't a great distraction pulling us away from our purpose.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the feeling I experienced looking out at that sun. But if I had to make a choice, the sun or the trainings, I'd pick the trainings.

Maybe because I spent so much of my life without purpose, or at best, dabbling with purpose in the middle of an all out pursuit of all the ways life could satisfy me.

Which leads to a very destructive cycle.

Seek satisfaction. Wake up unsatisfied. Double down on search for satisfaction. Wake up more unsatisfied than ever.

All the while, purpose is following behind, waving frantically, I'm right here.

Satisfaction with life, well that's a hard calling to get out of bed for. Because life satisfaction is fickle. Some days the sun doesn't look quite so brilliant over those ocean waves.

But purpose, once you know that, you can be sure it's waiting for you every single morning you wake up. When you find your purpose, it quits following behind you waving and starts walking right beside you - a forever friend.

Purpose might leave you exhausted.

Purpose might even leave you feeling a bit unhappy at times.

But purpose will never stop being a reason to get out of bed in the morning. And really, is there a greater gift than having a reason to get out of bed in the morning?

And as a bonus, as the research shows, purpose actually increases our chances of having more mornings to get out of bed.

That's pretty satisfying to know 😊