My husband and I have attended lectures as part of a speaker series for probably ten years now. Many years ago, one of our daughters affectionately called these our "nerd dates".

She was right - we signed up for these lectures to keep learning, and over the years we have seen many wonderful speakers and learned about topics spanning many subjects.

The latest speaker was National Geographic Explorer and journalist Dan Buettner who spoke on his research related to Blue Zones. You may have heard of these: communities where people not only live longer but enjoy a high quality of life well into old age.

Research led to the identification of five geographically defined region where people reach age 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California. Across all five regions, researchers distilled nine shared lifestyle habits, known as the Power 9®, common to those populations.

Validation from the Power 9

I found the list incredibly interesting overall. I won't go into all of habits on the list here, but put the documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on your "to watch" list to learn more about all nine (I have)!

I do want to mention two of the nine habits that stuck out:

• Purpose. The research found that people with a clear sense of purpose live about eight years longer than those without direction.
• Right Tribe. The research found that the world's longest-lived people build or are born into social circles that naturally reinforce healthy behaviors.
  I'm not going to lie that I felt validated by these two habits! Why? Because they are both key to my job as a helping professional and to the premise of SEAR.

Purpose

I essentially came to coaching as a client because I was searching for purpose. A purpose. My purpose. That question came out as "what do I want to do with my career" at the time, but I pretty quickly discovered with my coach that I was searching for a more deeper meaning. The process I went through in coaching led me to discover multi-layers of purpose for myself. This process was a lot like the one that Suzee discusses in the newsletter on the 5 Whys. We just kept digging in to the why why why why why and that led to some powerful whats for me: lawyering in the nonprofit space and continuing to help people problem solve as their coach and cheerleader. I love helping people and companies find and express their own purpose through the coaching work I do.

I also discovered purpose beyond career in my personal work. I discovered purpose related to the kind of partner, mother, and daughter I wanted to be. I discovered purpose related to hobbies, environmental and social causes, and spirituality. And I like to connect any goal I have for myself (and clients) ultimately to purpose in some way.

I remember how relieved I felt when I began to identify and live aligned with my purpose(s). The Blue Zones have it right, that purpose gives meaning to your days.

Community

I'm a community junkie of sorts. I really like community and camaraderie, growing with people, sharing success and failure, and learning with others.

My favorite jobs had great communities and I stayed long past my interest in the work I was doing or overlooked things that weren't working for me because the community was. I started a tennis team with a good friend (The Racq Pacq) and have a wonderful community of women organized around that sport. If you know me you know about my love of tennis...But honestly, my team made the sport stick because the community aspect is just fun. Growth, wins, and losses (ugh) are more fun when shared. And then I have a community of women engaged in learning, development and creative helping pursuits that provides support for everything from new coaching tools to what books to read next for fun. I have more pockets of community, but the above are a few examples. If you don't have a community that you love, then let the Blue Zones inspire you to get out there and find one. Finding or starting community can be so scary and vulnerable! But the payoff is huge.

Purpose + Community = SEAR
These two Blue Zone habits are basically why we formed SEAR. Suzee and I wanted a place for professionals who share our purpose of helping to find the support they need to keep living their purpose while experiencing that they aren't doing it alone.

We would love to have you join us if you aren't already a member!
And now that you know that SEAR will contribute to your longevity and health, it's a no brainer!