The Key to Life

Want to live longer? If you’re reading this blog, maybe not. But on the off chance that you’re not depressed, see what a new study has to say about being organized and other crap I hate. From The Guardian UK:

People who are industrious, disciplined and ambitious live up to four years longer than those with more impulsive personalities, a new study has found.

Conscientious types, often seen as boring, actually have the right personality to ensure that they live to a ripe old age. Researchers found that their characteristics mean they are happier, more likely to lead stable lives and less tempted by drink, drugs or risk-taking - all of which helps guarantee their health.

The results are important because they suggest that psychological traits play at least as great a role in determining mortality as medical risk factors, socio-economic status and level of intelligence.

So if you’re worried you’re not a rigorous person, you might want to get religious, according to UPI International:

Religious people have more self-control than their less religious counterparts do, a University of Miami professor has concluded.

Michael McCullough said the findings imply that religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals that are important to them and their religious groups. This, in turn, might help explain why religious people tend to have lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, less delinquency, better health behaviors, less depression and longer lives, McCullough said.

McCullough evaluated eight decades worth of research on religion, which has been conducted in diverse samples of people from around the world. He said he found persuasive evidence from a variety of domains within the social sciences — including neuroscience, economics, psychology and sociology — that religious beliefs and religious behaviors are capable of encouraging people to exercise self-control and more effectively regulate their emotions and behaviors so they can pursue valued goals.

Personally, I’d rather be the messy, creative, disorganized, non-religious agnostic I am and live a shorter life. I think I listened to the LP Free to Be You and Me too much as a child.

Ambition and discipline are key to longer and happier life

Study: Religious have more self-control

Liz | 2:17 PM | Uncategorized