Harvard’s 80-Year Study Offers 3 Secrets to Happiness

Embracing sound values and pursuing truth is a big part of achieving the good life. And yet ...

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A new book based on what is being called the longest-running study of human happiness suggests that healthy relationships are more important than success or wealth when it comes to achieving happiness.

The book— The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness—is based on the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which over 80 years tracked the lives of 724 Boston men (and then continued to study their Baby Boomer kids).

Below are three key takeaways from the research.

1. Having Friends Makes You Live Longer

Interestingly, the authors found that people with rich relationships didn’t just have more happiness; they also tended to be physically healthier people.

“The biggest surprising takeaway is that good relationships don't just make us happy as we go through life, but they keep our bodies and brains healthier and we live longer,” Robert J Waldinger, the psychiatrist who oversaw the study, told DailyMail.

2. Happiness Isn’t a Destination

A good life is a process that unfolds through time. This obviously does not mean it is the opposite of pain or suffering, which are unavoidable.

‘[A good life] includes turmoil, calm, lightness, burdens, struggles, achievements, setbacks, leaps forward, and terrible falls,” the authors say. “And of course, the good life always ends in death.”

This might seem obvious, but it’s worth noting because it underscores that the path to happiness is not in avoiding pain or setbacks, but learning how to cope with and overcome them.

3. Happiness Can Be Found Anywhere at Any Time

Like the ancient Stoics, the authors suggest that happiness to some extent is a choice. People may feel trapped in situations, but they found that people were able to overcome challenges of all sorts—poverty, alcoholic families, marital dysfunctions, etc. —if they were able to find their own agency and choose to make changes.

“Your ways of being in the world are not set in stone. It’s more like they are set in sand,” they write. “Your childhood is not your fate. Your natural disposition is not your fate. The neighborhood you grew up in is not your fate. The research shows this clearly.”

The Takeaway

I shared these findings because I think they have value and I think many people could benefit from reading the book.

A lot of what is said rings true to me.

Healthy relationships are a key to a fulfilling life (few things are more important). The proper mindset is also incredibly important. Not enough people understand how important these things are, in my opinion.

That said, I don’t think there is a formula to happiness, or at least it’s not as simple as findings gleaned from studying 724 men and their offspring.

Embracing sound values and pursuing truth is a big part of achieving the good life, but I also think there’s a spiritual component that defies scientific data and even reason.

The soul is complex, and the things in it (and heaven and Earth) are beyond anything dreamt of in the sciences of Harvard studies—to paraphrase Shakespeare.