I've been a long-term fan of Richard Leider's, the well-known coach extraordinaire and "Purpose Guru," who has long postulated that meaning is one of our fundamental human needs. (See my book recommendations on the left.)
In Richard's view, living the Good Life is about "living in the place you belong, with the people you love, while doing the right work on purpose."
Now the MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) has conducted a study, based on Richard's work, which concluded that meaning does, after all, trump money when it comes to living the Good Life.
The study, titled Discovering What Matters: Balancing Money, Medicine, and Meaning, was released last month, and you can download it from MMI's website with a companion workbook, which is based on Richard's bestselling book Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life.
Key conclusions of the study:
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Respondents tended to describe the Good Life in terms of being healthy, having financial freedom, and having the time to do what is important to them
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Regardless of age, gender, financial status, or life stage, the majority of people assign the most importance to Meaning-related activities and, above all else, spending time with friends and family.
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People with a sense of purpose in their lives were more likely to report being happy and describe themselves as living the Good Life
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Having a sense of purpose relates to possessing both "focus" on essential things and "vision" of the future they want to enjoy.
According to Richard, "purpose is the glue that holds the Good Life together": "It is the reason we get up in the morning. Knowing one's purpose helps to create and maintain a sense of balance in life."
The study was groundbreaking in that, for the first time, it proposed a model of purpose and an analytical approach for testing and measuring that model.
What made this even more significant was that MMI partnered with Chadwick Martin Bailey, a global custom market research and consulting firm, lending the results significant credibility.
So go ahead and read the study (it's only 28 pages) and then do the workbook to figure out whether you're living the Good Life - and, if not, what you could do to change that. And please come back and share your thoughts here.
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