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This post is by Anthony Savage of Sparta Health

The secret of living a fulfilling, happy life may be simpler than we think. Let’s have a look at some of the most important ingredients of a good life: from close relationships to job satisfaction and pursuing your personal goals and dreams. Which elements are the most important and how can we improve our own lives?

Supportive Relationships

The longest-running study on happiness, the Harvard Study of Adult Development started in 1938 [1], has followed 724 men from various social and economic backgrounds. Researchers have found out over the years:

“Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.” [2]

Our relationships with other people (both family and friends) and how happy we are in those relationships have a significant impact on our life. They are in fact believed to be the key components of a meaningful lifestyle and have a powerful influence on our health as well. They make us mentally stronger and allow us to experience more joy daily.

What’s worth noticing is the fact that having a good and secure relationship doesn’t require an unattainable level of harmony. Even if the relationship is not perfect or conflict-free, we can still feel content and rely on the other person when we really need them. That sense of security is what makes relationships strong and valuable.

Progress

According to Tony Robbins, one of the most successful life and business strategists in America, progress equals happiness.

“While achievements and material things may excite you for the moment, the only thing that’s going to make you happy long-term is knowing that you’re making progress.” [3]

Self-Acceptance

Feeling good in your own skin, knowing yourself inside out, and fully accepting who you are (with all your limitations and imperfections) seems to be one of the necessary components of a good life as well.

Positive Mindset

Seeing a glass half-full and always looking at the bright side of life, appreciating what you already have in your life, and living in the present—all those things matter if you are searching for the key to a happier and more fulfilling life.

Self-Care

Taking care of your physical and mental health, understanding the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, keeping stress levels under control, finding time to unwind and relax, avoiding toxic people, having a balanced diet, and getting enough sleep—these are just some of the crucial elements of self-care.

Living a balanced and happy life cannot be done without building a strong foundation first. Having a healthy body and being mentally fit seems to be one of the most important aspects if you want to achieve a high level of wellbeing.

Job Satisfaction

We spend a significant part of our lives at work. Having a job that you like and find fulfilling is one of the key elements of a happy life.

“With the possible exception of sleeping, work is the primary activity that most people engage in. Using the 40 hour work week, we spend approximately 25% of our lives (168 hours per week total) working. If you base it on waking hours alone, work easily consumes more than one-third of our lives, and that doesn’t even reflect commuting time or the extra hours that many people spend on the job.

Given that we spend so much of our time working, and that is usually the primary activity in our lives, it’s perfectly logical that if you are not happy on the job you will not be happy in life either. Whatever misery that you endure in your work will almost certainly carry over to everything else that you do.” [4]

Passion Project

There is nothing better than having the possibility to follow your dreams, setting goals, and achieving things that sometimes seem impossible. Spending time the way we want, doing what we love, exploring the world, and living life to the fullest—who would deny that those ways of searching for happiness make life more interesting and worth living.

Chris Guillebeau, the New York Times bestselling author who visited every country in the world before his thirty-fifth birthday, encourages everyone to find a quest that gives our lives meaning. In his book The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life he shows the importance of having a passion project and taking life-focusing action that will deliver deep meaning. It’s one of the easiest ways to find more joy and fulfilment in our everyday lives.

A New Blueprint for Happiness

It is worth remembering that most happiness self-help books containing endless tips on how to experience more joy in our lives should be treated with a good dose of scepticism. The same goes for all kinds of societal expectations that tie good life to a strict set of rules and requirements often very hard to achieve.

“The expectations we set for ourselves, and our loved ones, have become unrealistic. These types of expectations are dangerous – they prevent you from being who you really are and finding a way to create your own happiness. And while goals and dreams are important for every individual to have and aspire to, it’s not beneficial to tie our happiness to the blueprint we have created for our lives. The fact of the matter is you have to create your own happiness. You can’t fit your joy into a cookie-cutter mould. There’s no magic button or map to follow that will lead you to a joyful life – you have to design it for yourself.” [5]

Maybe the true secret of a good life lies in allowing yourself to be who you want to be and creating your own, unique path to a happy and fulfilling life.

As Tony Robbins says, “Knowing that you can create your happiness by letting go of what you believe you need to be happy is the ultimate freedom and the only path to true joy.” [6]

Final Thoughts

The key to a good life lies in leading a healthy lifestyle and creating harmony and balance in our lives (balance between work and leisure time, safety and adventure, etc.) It is all about pursuing things that make us happy while paying attention to our daily obligations and nurturing relationships with our loved ones.

Once we make an effort to create a strong foundation, we can then explore various ways of achieving long-lasting satisfaction and happiness that’s far more valuable than superficial things like material goods or fame.

Recommended videos:

  1. Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | TED, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkKuTCFvzI&t=36s
  2. Blueprint for Happiness | Tony Robbins, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXbrJWNviBM&t=3s

About Anthony Savage 

Anthony Savage is the Medical Services Manager at Sparta Health, having joined the team in 2017 and is responsible for the overall operational delivery of our high-quality services to our clients. He has a solid background in workplace physiology, health, safety, wellbeing, and coaching, as well as over 12 years of delivering, and holding senior management positions, for leading rehabilitation and return to work support providers.

He is known for his innovative approach in his design and execution of services and his ability to forging strong relationships.

References

  1. Massachusetts General Hospital, Laboratory of Adult Development, https://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/research/laboratory-of-adult-development
  2. Harvard University, Good genes are nice, but joy is better, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/
  3. Tony Robbins, Feel Good Now / Progress Equals Happiness, https://www.tonyrobbins.com/leadership-impact/feel-good-now/
  4. Out Of Your Rut, Job Satisfaction and Happiness – There IS a Connection, https://outofyourrut.com/job-satisfaction-and-happiness-there-is-a-connection/
  5. CNBC, Tony Robbins: This is the secret to happiness in one word, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/06/tony-robbins-this-is-the-secret-to-happiness-in-one-word.html
  6. Tony Robbins, A new blueprint for happiness, https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mind-meaning/a-new-blueprint-for-happiness/

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