The Pursuit of Happiness

As you sit there—hunched before your computer, reading this blog post in an irrational, desperate attempt to avoid studying for your final—you may be feeling kind of down. You don’t recognize any of the terms on your study guide because you haven’t gone to lecture since the midterm. A semester’s worth of books, in pristine condition, tower around you in tall, menacing stacks. There are less than 24 hours until your exam begins and you realize—as the nonchalance of reading period crashes and burns around you—that you have learned absolutely nothing all term. You are an utter failure.

Now might be a good time to ponder that great philosophical question: does any of it really matter? In the grand scheme of things, will your sense of well-being be affected by the fact that you failed this exam (meaning, got a B minus) many years ago?

Most of us would probably say no. But that doesn’t make it any less depressing now.

If you’ve been having a rough exams period and are in need of a good catharsis, read this. No, it isn’t one of those irritating stop-worrying-about-grades-because-they-don’t-actually-matter treatises. It’s an article about a pretty amazing 70-year study that has followed about 200 Harvard students from the late 1930s (including JFK) to find out what truly makes us happy.

So what does really matter? What are the secrets to a well-adjusted life? Check out what we learned from the study, after the jump.

1) Great achievements now don’t necessarily guarantee a future of emotional well-being. Almost a third of the Harvard men in the study ended up meeting the criteria for mental illness at some point in their lives—and those who were fine at the beginning of the study were not necessarily the ones who were doing well at the end of their lives. So those high-achievers who do all their reading, snap up all the departmental prizes and fellowships, and ruin your curve? They’re not set for life after all. Ha!

2) Everyone has issues, and there are good ways (i.e., having a sense of humor) and there are bad ways (i.e., having hallucinations) to deal with them. Some other good ways to deal with your problems: helping others, learning to anticipate and plan for future challenges, suppressing your attention to conflicts until it is a more appropriate time to deal with them, and/or channeling your negative energy into outlets like sports, arts, etc.

3) Exercising now, while you’re young, is good. Seems obvious, right? But the fun fact is that your current exercise habits are actually a better indicator of your future emotional rather than physical health.

4) Childhood involvement in activities is surprisingly the best indicator for your future mental health. Since you probably arrived at Harvard with a very healthy list of extracurricular activities, you’re off to a great start. You knew that resume was good for something.

5) Your inability to navigate social situations now will have no real effect on your happiness in old age. Shy, anxious people don’t have very positive experiences in adolescence, but that doesn’t prevent them from enjoying their golden years. So, wallflowers, rejoice! You will grow out of your awkwardness. Maybe.

6) That said, relationships do matter. Although good sibling relationships seem to be the most beneficial kind, it really doesn’t matter whom you’re connecting with, as long as you’re connecting with someone. This was, in fact, the most unequivocal statement made by George Vaillant, the leader of the study: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

So, dear FlyBy reader, good luck on your exams. But if you do poorly, go make some friends! You’ll feel better, we promise.

—Photo courtesy Gerardus/Wikimedia Commons