This is an interesting article from Esquire - It's short, so below it is a longer piece from the Association for Psychological Science. Below that is the abstract - the full article is hidden from public view behind a greedy pay wall.

The data for this study comes from an open access data collection project, available here and here.

Full Citation:
Hill, PL & Turiano, NA. (2014, May 8). Purpose in Life as a Predictor of Mortality Across Adulthood. Psychological Science. doi: 10.1177.0956797614531799

Have a Purpose, Live Much Longer

It doesn't matter what it is. If you care for something other than yourself, you'll live much longer.

By Ned Hepburn on May 12, 2014

Is your passion riding a bike with a bunch of boxes on it? Good. You'll live longer. 
Unless you die in a horrible bike/box accident.

Life got you down? Can't get a handle on things? Staring into the abyss of your soul, turning frantically to whiskey, weird drugs and the dredges of society in the hopes that you'll feel something, anything? Well, first, perhaps switch to beer. Second, maybe find yourself a purpose. Because if Navin R. Johnson has a special purpose, you should, too.

Seriously. Scientists are saying that "having a purpose" in life will add years onto said life.

Six thousand people from all walks of life were part of a 14-year study. Some admitted to wandering aimlessly while others were focused and driven. Unsurprisingly, the most focused people -- the ones that had a "purpose" -- lived longer. Interestingly, 9% of the subjects died in the 14 year period and those that died had reported of having a lower purpose in life.

"Purpose" is defined here by living for something other than yourself. Be it religion, your job, a kid, your folks, family, your career, whatever -- life is better, and now longer, if you have a reason to get up in the morning.

Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada, who conducted the study explains:

"There are a lot of reasons to believe that being purposeful might help protect older adults more so than younger ones. For instance, adults might need a sense of direction more, after they have left the workplace and lost that source for organizing their daily events. In addition, older adults are more likely to face mortality risks than younger adults. To show that purpose predicts longer lives for younger and older adults alike is pretty interesting, and underscores the power of the construct."

Now that these scientists spent 14 years studying a concept as vague as "purpose," maybe they could be spend a year or so on a deoderant that works past lunch. Just a suggestion that might make your life even longer, scientists.

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Having a Sense of Purpose May Add Years to Your Life

May 12, 2014  

Feeling that you have a sense of purpose in life may help you live longer, no matter what your age, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research has clear implications for promoting positive aging and adult development, says lead researcher Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada:

“Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose,” says Hill. “So the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur.”

Previous studies have suggested that finding a purpose in life lowers risk of mortality above and beyond other factors that are known to predict longevity.

But, Hill points out, almost no research examined whether the benefits of purpose vary over time, such as across different developmental periods or after important life transitions.

Hill and colleague Nicholas Turiano of the University of Rochester Medical Center decided to explore this question, taking advantage of the nationally representative data available from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study.

The researchers looked at data from over 6000 participants, focusing on their self-reported purpose in life (e.g., “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them”) and other psychosocial variables that gauged their positive relations with others and their experience of positive and negative emotions.

Over the 14-year follow-up period represented in the MIDUS data, 569 of the participants had died (about 9% of the sample). Those who had died had reported lower purpose in life and fewer positive relations than did survivors.

Greater purpose in life consistently predicted lower mortality risk across the lifespan, showing the same benefit for younger, middle-aged, and older participants across the follow-up period.

This consistency came as a surprise to the researchers:

“There are a lot of reasons to believe that being purposeful might help protect older adults more so than younger ones,” says Hill. “For instance, adults might need a sense of direction more, after they have left the workplace and lost that source for organizing their daily events. In addition, older adults are more likely to face mortality risks than younger adults.”

“To show that purpose predicts longer lives for younger and older adults alike is pretty interesting, and underscores the power of the construct,” he explains.

Purpose had similar benefits for adults regardless of retirement status, a known mortality risk factor. And the longevity benefits of purpose in life held even after other indicators of psychological well-being, such as positive relations and positive emotions, were taken into account.

“These findings suggest that there’s something unique about finding a purpose that seems to be leading to greater longevity,” says Hill.

The researchers are currently investigating whether having a purpose might lead people to adopt healthier lifestyles, thereby boosting longevity.

Hill and Turiano are also interested in examining whether their findings hold for outcomes other than mortality.

“In so doing, we can better understand the value of finding a purpose throughout the lifespan, and whether it provides different benefits for different people,” Hill concludes.

Preparation of the manuscript was supported through funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant T32-MH018911-23), and the data collection was supported by Grant P01-AG020166 from the National Institute on Aging.

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Purpose in Life as a Predictor of Mortality Across Adulthood

Patrick L. Hill [1], Nicholas A. Turiano [2]

1. Department of Psychology, Carleton University
2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York

Abstract

Having a purpose in life has been cited consistently as an indicator of healthy aging for several reasons, including its potential for reducing mortality risk. In the current study, we sought to extend previous findings by examining whether purpose in life promotes longevity across the adult years, using data from the longitudinal Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) sample. Proportional-hazards models demonstrated that purposeful individuals lived longer than their counterparts did during the 14 years after the baseline assessment, even when controlling for other markers of psychological and affective well-being. Moreover, these longevity benefits did not appear to be conditional on the participants’ age, how long they lived during the follow-up period, or whether they had retired from the workforce. In other words, having a purpose in life appears to widely buffer against mortality risk across the adult years.