{"id":20,"date":"2026-09-29T23:15:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/?p=20"},"modified":"2026-09-30T21:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:00:12","slug":"do-it-on-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/do-it-on-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Do It On Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In my book, Total Life Pursuit, I propose different types of people. Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people are floaters.  They float through life.  They go where life takes them.  Really, they are victims in most areas of life.  Picture a raft filled with a family on a river.  The family has lunch and enjoys nature’s beauty.  They laugh and have all kinds of fun.  Then it happens \u2014rapids.  (Rapids have a 1<\/em>-5 rating, with 5 being the kind of rapids where you fear for your life and had better have the skills to navigate.)  Ahead of the family is a Level 2 rapid.  So there are some bumps and their drinks get spilled, but they come through it well enough.  They don\u2019t really enjoy it because they were having lunch and it interrupted their intentions, but they get back to lunch.  Ahead of them, there is a fork in the river.  To the right are Level 5 rapids and to the left are more Level 2 rapids, but mostly calm water.  What would you do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In life, we can be floaters or navigators. We can go where the river goes and make choices without much thought or knowledge, or we can study, gain experience, be purposeful, and know what we are doing before we get on the river. People who thrive in life are navigators. They not only navigate life as well as possible through all the curveballs thrown at us, but they also won\u2019t go on the river without purpose. Their life is filled with purpose. It is their north star. Their beacon. It is where they set their sail, and it gives them life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a study, researchers followed 6,985 adults over age 50 and found that life purpose was significant in their lives. It is associated with reduced all-cause mortality. In other words, it means you live longer. When you have purpose, it is like having physical strength, mental cognition, and relational equity; life is better, so you live longer. It is not just a longer life, which is observational; it is better! The study doesn\u2019t say that; I do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People with the lowest sense of purpose were roughly twice as likely to die during the study period as those with the highest. The authors argue that purposefulness has health benefits and is a modifiable risk factor for premature death. I support taking care of your physical health. It is vital for a good life. Health really is wealth in many ways. Living with purpose is another way to care for your physical health, but it goes deeper than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were all put on this earth, not as a cosmic accident and billions of chemical reactions, but for a purpose. Meaning. We have an assignment. In fact, we have quite a few assignments. It doesn\u2019t stop at the top of the corporate ladder or with successfully raising children; your mission continues to your last breath. It is the only way to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alimujiang A, et al. “Association Between Life Purpose and Mortality Among US Adults Older Than 50 Years.” JAMA Network Open<\/em>, 2019; 2(5): e194270. Open access. Click here for the article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my book, Total Life Pursuit, I propose different types of people. Here is an excerpt: Some people are floaters.  They float through life.  They go where life takes them.  Really, they are victims in most areas of life.  Picture a raft filled with a family on a river.  The family has lunch and enjoys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/builttothrive.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}