According to a number of research studies — your dominant personality traits have as much of an impact on your lifespan as your intelligence and your financial wealth. This means that your lifespan can either be longer or shorter depending on how you manage those attributes.
The amazing thing about being a human being is that we have the power to influence our lifespans by some relatively small decisions — such as eating healthier, being more active, and getting more sleep. While those decisions have proven to be correlated with extending the human lifespan — the less obvious personal characteristics that reflect our attitudes and behaviors (i.e., personality) have only recently been recognized as influencers to longer living.
Recent research shows that several specific traits can lead to good health into our 80s and beyond, reports Yahoo News, and they are —
1. Conscientiousness
People who are conscientious, organized, and responsible tend to live longer. “caring for yourself and others is essential to a good life,” said Nicholas Turiano, a psychology professor at West Virginia University. Being conscientious makes you more resilient and diligent about such personal care activities such as exercise and eating right. Conscientious people also seem to have better coping strategies for stressful situations, said Turiano, leading to less inflammation, which in turn slows negative aging.
2. Purpose
Purpose is one of the most powerful characteristics of the human experience. Purpose can fuel your will to live. There are many examples of people that have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses that have lived longer than their original diagnosis (sometimes by years) because of pursuing a purpose. Conversely, there are also many examples of people that died early shortly after retiring from a long stint at a job mainly because they had little in their lives than gave them meaning outside of their jobs. Purpose gives our lives meaning and direction.
True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose — Helen Keller
3. Optimism
Being optimistic (i.e., happy and positive) is the act of viewing your life as good rather than bad. In other words, whatever negativity is happening in your life you tend to view things in a way that is hopeful rather than hopeless. It’s not that people who are optimistic are delusional (as people who are not optimistic tend to view them) because they don’t let their problems impact their happiness and positivity. According to research by Lewina Lee, a psychologist at Boston University. Optimistic people tend to view getting older as desirable. They embrace the realities of growing older and see themselves as experienced, wise, and energetic. “This leads them to feel more confident about their ability to accomplish goals as they age,” said Lee.
In fact, people who see the positives in aging, like wisdom and emotional maturity, live an average of 7.6 years longer. Yale University psychologist Becca Levy said they enjoy this longevity advantage due to exercising more, eating healthier and lower biomarkers of stress-related inflammation — similar to the benefits of conscientiousness.
The primary ingredient for progress is optimism. The unwavering belief that something can be better drives the human race forward — Simon Sinek
4. Extraversion
This is one personality trait that I struggle with — as I’m an introvert and I abhor most professional and social gatherings. However, studies do indicate that maintaining relationships and being sociable and outgoing is another trait that contributes to extending your lifespan. University of California psychology professor Susan Charles says “the link between social relationships and longevity is as strong as what high cholesterol levels or smoking, do to diminsh your lifespan. However, you don’t have to be an extrovert to benefit from social relationships. If you are an introvert you need to be more selective with who you spend your time with and spend time nurturing those relationships.
5. Confidence
Strong self-esteem is related to feelings of optimism. Studies indicate that our personal level of discontent is on a downward trend throughout our mid to late 40s and when we reach our 50s the trend reverses and we begin to feel happier and more confident about ourselves. I believe that this happens because our perspective shifts from studying what we didn’t achieve earlier in our lives towards recognizing and appreciating what we have accomplished. This in turn raises your level of confidence and changes your outlook of the future — and contributes to extending your lifespan.
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” — Norman Vincent Peale
6. Passion
Professor and expert in passion and motivation Robert Vallerand defines passion as a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity that people like (or even love), find important, and in which they invest time and energy on a regular basis. Passion is a deeply personal but elusive trait of our personalities. Some people display passion for a multitude of endeavors while others have trouble coming up with just one thing that they are passionate about. However, most people fall somewhere in-between where they have one or two things that they are passionate about. Passion is important to longevity because it creates energy that is translated to motivation to go after what it is that you want. Similar to purpose — it creates meaning in life that propels you towards a meaningful objective that could add years to your lifespan.
Final Thoughts
Personality impacts more than just our interactions and relationships with others — it plays a role in our health and longevity. So when you think about your health don’t consider how much physical exercise you need but factor in maintenance for your mental health as well.
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Previously Published on medium
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