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Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | TED

So what is it that defines Good Life? Good job that meets our ambitions, secured finances in bank accounts, good health, a fascinating hobby, helping and devoting to others, strong moral values, religion and contact with Higher Being, a big family perhaps?

The TED talk by Professor Robert Waldinger, based on the longest study on living subjects via Harvard, attempts to elicit that.

Professor Waldinger is the fourth Director of nearly an 80 year study following the lives of 724 men along with their wives and children. The study of adult development has looked at the subjects’ work, home lives including all conversations with their families and health (including medical records available from GPs and clinics). The investigated men included Harvard graduates and a group from one of Boston's poorest areas.

The researchers analysed all aspects of the subjects’ lifestyle – their diets, habits, alcohol drinking, drug-taking, personal and psychiatric aspects, relationships, hobbies, ambitions, goals that were met and ends the subjects never succeeded in. The subjects were ‘x-rayed’ from heads to toes. No aspect of their life remained secret. The group included two presidents, some important CEOs and also the prison inmates, those who committed suicide, and those with some profound mental issues.

And to cut it short... Do you want to hear the secret?

"Well, the lessons aren't about wealth or fame or working harder and harder. The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: good relations make people happy. Period."

Credits: YouTube, Google