An 80-Year Harvard Study Reveals the Secret to Long-Term Happiness
It isn’t money, success, fame, or following your passion
For over 80 years, Harvard’s Grant and Glueck study has tracked the well-being of two demographics: 268 graduates from the batches of 1939–1944 and 456 poor men growing up in Boston since 1939.
Since pre-World War II, they’ve painstakingly scrutinized blood samples, performed brain scans, collated surveys, and actually interacted with these men.
In fact, the sheer length of the study demanded the dedication of multiple generations of researchers.
And the windy and diverse +75-year life-paths of those 700 odd men led to a shockingly common and solid conclusion.
To quote psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development:
“The clearest message that we get from this 80-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”
So, it isn’t that sprawling villa, a maxed-out Roth-IRA, a 10k Instagram following, the latest Lambo, making it to Maxim’s cover, or reaching the top of the corporate ladder.
