Having Goals and Pursuing Them is the Key to a Longer Life

Hitting the Target

​In 1921, Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University began a long-term study of 1,528 twelve-year-old American children. The goal of this project was to study their lives and habits until they died. Ninety years later, Howard Friedman, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California Riverside and Leslie Martin, Professor of Psychology at La Sierra University in Riverside, California analyzed the data from this study and published their conclusions in a book titled The Longevity Project. One of the more fascinating things they found was that the people who lived the longest were not the ones who were the happiest or the most laid back, but the ones who were the most engaged in pursuing their goals. The authors concluded the idea that working too hard can shorten your life is a myth. What they found instead was that “The people who worked the hardest lived the longest.” Janice Lloyd who reviewed the book for USA Today presented this prescription for longevity: “Work hard (at something you enjoy). Don’t retire early.”

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