In 1938 Harvard created a study to determine if it was possible to identify primary indicators of happiness, health, personal satisfaction, success, and long life. What an immense undertaking! The leadership expected this study to be nearly a century in length.
No single study has shed more light on the most important measure of success and well-being in life.
To accomplish this, Harvard selected 360 of enrolled freshmen and 360 young men from the tenements of inner-city Boston. All were volunteers and came from a racially, culturally, financially, ethnically, religiously, and socially diverse background. All volunteers completed extensive intake interviews administered by Harvard researchers and were given physical exams. This was repeated every two years for all participants throughout their lives. As of 2016 the study was ongoing with 60 living participants.
The results of the study produced profound insights. Throughout all the years of the study, only one factor emerged. Those participants who were the happiest, healthiest, and were most successful in all phases of their lives, who had the best brain function, and who lived the longest were those who created and enjoyed strong, high-quality, close relationships, whether with spouses, family, co-workers or friends. Money or fame played no part in the quality, depth or strength of the relationships, contrary to what most would have predicted. These strong relationships protected the participants from mental and physical deterioration, even as they moved into advanced age.
What is so clearly affirmed by this study is that people who successfully create, maintain and expand their relationships are likable, are caring and trusting, have high self-esteem, and make deep and lasting connections with others.
And, as we have mentioned in other articles, close relationships offer additional benefit of receiving critically needed feedback, helping us to grow our self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
In contrast, growing numbers of our population, young and old, are lonely, and loneliness leads to anxiety and depression. In fact growing numbers of teens, (soon-to-be our workforce) are caught in a mental health crisis, showing increasing rates of depression, self-harm, anxiety, and suicide.
Whether we are seeking more fulfillment and success in business, or simply more happiness and contentment in our personal lives, the key question to ask ourselves would be, “How do I create excellent relationships, those built on trust, mutual appreciation, one’s proving to be mutually beneficial and meaningful?” That will be determinant in the direction our lives take.
Look at all the famous or notable people throughout history, the memorable figures who we think of positively (Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Lincoln), or the people we think of negatively (Hitler, Stalin, Nixon, Saddam Hussein). We are who we associate with, and relationships are the key.
The effort we must make to become that happy, fulfilled, empowered, successful person, is to learn the values, thinking, attitudes and behaviors that make it so. Nothing could be more valuable or helpful to you.
If we aren’t making every effort to be that friendly, trusting, grateful and supportive person, we are missing perhaps the single greatest gifts of life. That of being a genuinely happy person.
Tom Searcy
Recent Comments