As part of my education in fitness I was taught there are three reasons people exercise:
Aesthetics/looks
Athletic performance
Health
I was also taught that part of my job as a personal trainer was to coach people into at least one goal in these three categories, then find a measurable outcome we could track. I was taught that’s a big part of motivation and the way to measure the “success” of my programs.
The problem?
That’s a pretty limited view of movement, progress, motivation, and success.
Fast-forward a decade and I’m eyeball deep in Positive Psychology studies. Imagine my joy when I learn that we’ll be studying the bodies’ effect on happiness… and my disappointment at the limited evidence that was out there. Sure, we took a look at the way exercise increased productivity, focus, and flow ~ but little mind to the enhancement of joy, relationships, and meaning.
Fortunately, there’s growing evidence to support the role embodiment plays in all aspects of wellbeing!
(Which you can read all about here if you’d like:)
One exciting horizon in that work is the relationship between movement and purpose!
Primer on Purpose
There’s evidence that suggests a sense of purpose contributes to greater overall wellbeing, life satisfaction, and physical health. Adults after middle age with greater sense of purpose have reduced physical disease, better mental health, and greater lifespan. So they live longer, have less illness, and greater mental health outcomes.
Sounds pretty good to me.
The problem?
Until recently there were no evidence based interventions shown to actually grow the sense of purpose… until now!
Enter: MOVEMENT
Published in 2021, The bidirectional relationship between sense of purpose in life and physical activity: a longitudinal study looked at this relationship between movement and purpose.
You probably already know that movement is good for you - mentally, physically, and hopefully emotionally because you read this substack. Before this study research had also show that there was some relationship between movement and purpose - that people who moved more later in life tended to connect to purpose; and people with purpose tended to get more movement.
This study followed a very large dataset of people (18k) over a long period of time (7 years) over 3 data points. What did they find?
The average person who wasn’t moving and had little purpose at the start had less of both over time.
People who had a sense of purpose at the start moved more after a few years AND people who were getting some movement in at the start had more purpose after a few years.
(Very cool so far…)The people who had more of both at the 2nd time check continued to grow in both!
What does that mean!?
It means that purpose and movement create a feedback loop… dare I say an Upward Cycle!? (Because upward spirals are smaller, day to day positive feedback loops. You can read more about upward spirals at this post:)
So for the first time we have a documented way to grow purpose.
How do I use this already with my clients?
A big part of motivation is meaning making. I help them connect the positive habits in their lives to the most important things they value. That way the actions are purposeful and connect to meaningful anchors - thereby growing a sense of purpose and fulfillment over time.