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Our Live Better, Longer series (a thought-provoking interview series that takes a deep dive into longevity) is back with our fourth interview! Our host Kelly Stranburg, interviewed Anna Hall, the Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of The Purpose Equation. Anna’s perspective on purpose is motivating, thought-provoking and will certainly give you pause to reflect on your own life. Below are some selections from Anna’s inspiring interview (be sure to watch the video for the full interview!):
Anna: Hi, audience. I'm so glad for this opportunity to talk with you about Purpose. I grew up in the senior living world. I started at my first job at Rodgerson Communities here in Massachusetts, right out of college. And I fell in love with the residents to the point where I got in trouble for punching out and then going back to hang out. And they're like, oh, you can't do that. We have insurance. But I thought, wow, if I can be around older people who have so much wisdom, who are so comfortable being themselves, who know so much about life and have so many experiences to share, then I want to try to figure out how to make this my job because it doesn't feel like a job.
So, I even knew then that there was this thing called “purpose” but I didn't have the word for it. And from there, I moved on to so many exciting roles where I got to learn all the ins and outs of senior living, from life in Richmond and all levels of care to sales and marketing and community relations. I've overseen divisional engagement for Brookdale Life Plan Communities and I learned about skilled health care there. And then I had this realization that if I wanted to help the industry to really elevate life enrichment and the amazing people who work in this field we needed to figure out what is the ROI on engagement. And to me, it had to start with purpose because there's a lot of evidence that purpose is an antidote to a lot of things that happen to us in life and in the aging experience.
I wanted to figure out, “is there a way to reliably discover and measure purpose”? And if so, then maybe we could elevate the role of purpose in senior living. So, being lucky enough to have a lot of purpose teachers throughout my career (and I love learning) plus lots of research and experimentation, led me to the purpose equation and that's who I am. One day, I will be known as Senior Living's Purpose Guide.
Kelly: Can you define purpose for the audience? Because I do think we probably all interpret it a little bit different. When you speak about purpose, what does that mean?
Anna: You're absolutely right. There is a lot of room for interpretation around purpose, especially when you look up the definition in research papers or in the dictionary. Generally, they all say something like “meaning and forward direction in life that's associated with goal orientation”. I don't think that's sufficient. I'm left confused and I still don't know what it is. So, I've made my own definition up. I define purpose as “giving and getting meaning and joy every day”. And what that means is that purpose is an exchange among and between and within people. The exchange is not always even but it is something that always happens. And, meaning and joy are not something that one day we will have when “X” happens, but it's really about the little purpose in everyday life that has all the benefits we're going to talk about later. So, it's an exchange in daily life of your most natural self, in your unique innate way of giving and getting meaning and joy.
Kelly: I love that. So, tell me, when you think about aging why does knowing and understanding, or even embracing our purpose, help us to live better, longer?
Anna: I'm going to start by answering that question with what happens when there's a disconnection from purpose. It's impactful. And I choose words very carefully because I made an equation with no numbers in it. It's all words. So, when I say a disconnection, what I mean is you can't lose your purpose, right? But it also means that senior living can't give older adults or residents purpose. It’s innate. It’s unique. It’s within all of us. And what we need to do is feel this sense become a strong connection. So, when there is a disconnection from purpose, it can start in a career where a lot of various people (like successful executives) come and meet with me and they say, "Anna, I've reached all the pinnacles of success. I've done all the “shoulds. I made more money than I ever dreamed of, yet there's something missing. I feel stuck or I don't feel fulfilled." So that is like a career wakeup call that often happens between ages 45 and 55 where there's still some work left, or a lot of work left depending on the person, but we want it to matter, right? We want to matter and we all want to matter at work. And the definition of engagement is knowing your purpose and being able to connect your purpose to what you're doing at work every day and in life.
So that's the first thing that hits when identity and defining ourselves is based on what we're doing versus who we are as a being. And then when there's a disconnect between who we are as a being and the what we're doing isn't meaningful, it can cause more stress, less resilience. You know, it can impact the immune system. So, it starts there.
Then I meet people who have recently retired and they have hit the retirement cliff and tumbled down it. And again, it's because sense of purpose was connected with a role and goals, instead of this inside who am I as a being and what lights me up and how do I share my light out into the world? And so, there needs to be some adaptation in transition in life that's in alignment with purpose. So, hitting the retirement cliff is another indication that there's some disconnection from purpose.
From there, it gets a little scarier with the disconnection. Older adults who are disconnected from their sense of purpose are at a 50 % higher risk of stroke, more likely to experience the impact of cognitive decline, have less hope, less grit, a decrease in grip strength (which is an indicator of overall physical health) and lack of frailty. Older adults who are disconnected from purpose experience more depression and mental health complications. They can also live seven years less.
So, purpose, even though we have this vague definition of this sense of a thing, when you're connected with it, it is literally a matter of health. I think that the reason purpose has such positive health impact is because it is about alignment. It's about spiritual, mental, cognitive, physical alignment. And when people are connected with their sense of purpose, they even make healthier decisions. They proactively take better care of themselves because they have a strong sense of why they're here and they want to be engaged in life. I mean, ultimately, that's what purpose is about. When you are connected with your purpose, you feel motivated and excited to stay engaged with life. And that's why when we talk about older adults and the health implications of lack of socialization or social isolation, the first thing I say to an organization is, help them get connected with their purpose. Because if you just put opportunities for socialization in front of someone who is not eager and knowing how to engage, then you're not really going to either get the engagement or the full possibilities that can come from socialization.
Everything starts with purpose. It's a foundation.
Kelly: When you think about the current state of longevity in our society, and you can think about it related to purpose or you can give your own personal overview, what would you love to see change or improve?
Anna: I'm really excited to see this ageism movement happening. I don't like to say anti-ageism because, for me personally, there's an element of love and purpose. I think it's an energy that connects us and motivates us to be connected. And so, I think that ageism is really about helping our society reframe aging and start to fall in love with aging. There are so many incredible things that happen over a lifetime that blossom in our later years - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond that our society just has this negative spin on aging when in fact, it can be the most spiritual, most fulfilling, most happy times of our life. And yeah, aging is also hard. Changes happen that aren't necessarily in our control. But when we're connected with purpose, we have this inside tool, an inner scaffolding that helps us adjust to those changes and stay upright and keep moving forward. So, I think that the opportunity in our society is that we're going to have more and more people who are older and older, and what an incredible resource of wisdom and experience and knowledge and the ability to give back and truly live in purpose. I think that it's a great opportunity and I think organizations and senior living communities who create environments and opportunities for purpose to flourish are really going be the movers and shakers in our society over the next 50 years.
Kelly: What is a simple tip for our audience that they can easily embrace or adopt to either help themselves with purpose or individuals that they work with?
Anna: I'm going to share a tip that I share all the time because I don't really help people, I guide them to discover their purpose. It has to start with fueling that purpose. You have to energize your being and your sense of what matters and knowing why you're here. And the way to do that is to figure out what brings you joy. Joy is very potent. Think of a ray of sunlight that travels eight minutes from the sun to get to the earth. If you could bottle that ray of light, think about the energy and power in it. That's like a ray of joy. And that's kind of like a pill, filled with energy that when you take that joy pill, it boosts your immune system. It helps your heart. It improves your circulation. It reduces stress. It increases resilience. So, start with joy because for some weird reason in our society, joy is like an afterthought or something you do when all the work is done. And all that's doing is depleting us and making it harder to connect with our innate purpose.
Think about things that you do for fun. Think about things that feel exciting, something you would do even if you weren't paid for it. That makes you lose track of time, not be self -conscious, right? Kind of lose self -awareness and feel delighted. And then the key is afterwards you feel energized, ready to take on the world. I bet for you, Kelly, one of those is movement, right? Moving your body. The other ways that people generally experience joy is through curiosity, learning and adventure. It doesn't have to be risky, but for some people it might be jumping out of an airplane, but for others it's learning something new. And then there's getting rest. That's my way. I have to get enough rest to fuel my purpose. That could be taking a walk in nature or listening to the sounds of the birds. Dancing around on my house to music actually helps me rest because it just slows down the mind and the body and spirit can all calibrate.
And then the last way is energetic connection with other people, great for extroverts, but also like a spiritual transcendent connection of spirituality or meditation or time in nature, time with animals. And for some people, synergy is about being around mountains and large bodies of water. So, get joy, don't put it off. Get enough joy. It is not selfish. It is not lazy. It is what you need to live your best life.
Kelly: I love this topic, Anna. I just want to thank you so much for being willing to share your passion with us and give us some further insights around purpose. Just hearing from you and the clarifications and the level setting on what is purpose, is going to help a lot of our listeners. Listeners, go make sure you know what your joy is so it can feed your purpose! You can learn more at Anna Hall's LinkedIn.
For more insights and tips from experts and thought leaders in the health and wellness industry, be sure to check out our interviews with Mike Studer, Eric Levitan of Vivo and Tony Galvan of Vi Living.