Professor reveals 3 things that truly happy people prioritise
Not everyone wakes up every day feeling super happy. But the good news is that joy can be learnt. So says Harvard professor and self-proclaimed ‘happiness expert’ Professor Arthur C. Brooks, anyway. He’s spent years studying the science of wellbeing, even teaming up with Oprah Winfrey at one point to write the very successful book Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. During a recent talk at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, Brooks laid out what he says separates genuinely happy people from the rest of the society… (Picture: Getty Images)
Brooks didn’t start out as an academic voice on personal joy. He was once a professional musician, touring and performing, but found the lifestyle left him unfulfilled. That realisation pushed him into policy and teaching, later leading the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. In 2019 he returned to Harvard, where he now runs the Leadership and Happiness Laboratory, bringing together experts who explore what it really means to live well (Picture: Getty Images)
So what has he found? Well, this is what Brooks says: ‘Happy people have three things: enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning.’ Each plays a role, but he’s quick to stress that enjoyment is often misunderstood. ‘The pursuit of pleasure is a great way to ruin your life,’ he said. Enjoyment, he explained, requires more than pleasure alone – it needs people and memory – elements that help experiences stick in our minds long after the moment has passed (Picture: Getty Images)
To make the point, he uses the example of beer adverts on TV. Rarely – if ever – do they show someone sitting and drinking alone. Instead, you tend to see friends together, raising bottles, laughing and smiling as they create memories together over a few drinks. That, Brooks argued, is what turns fleeting pleasure into true enjoyment. It’s the combination of social connection and lasting recollection that makes life richer (Picture: Getty Images)
Yet enjoyment and satisfaction are not enough just on their own. ‘You need meaning more than anything else,’ Brooks said. His definition comes in three parts: coherence, purpose and significance. ‘Coherence – why do things happen the way they do? Purpose. What is my direction and goals? And significance. Why does it matter that I am alive?’ Answering those questions, he believes, is central to lasting human happiness (Picture: Getty Images)
Faith and religion shapes Brooks’s own personal perspective to some extent. A Catholic, he said his sense of meaning is tied to his religious beliefs. Yet Brooks was clear that meaning need not be religious. What worries him, though, is that many people no longer ask themselves such questions at all, drifting without a framework for why life actually matters (Picture: Getty Images)
In his view, happiness has been slipping away for decades. Brooks blames the decline of four habits he calls essential: faith, family, friends and meaningful work. By ‘faith’ he doesn’t mean only religion. ‘That’s a handy way for me to talk about transcendence,’ he said. ‘Transcendence is thinking about something bigger than our everyday lives.’ Without it, he argues, we can find ourselves losing things like perspective and connection with others (Picture: Getty Images)
The other habits are under threat too. Political division, online hostility and the isolating impact of social media have weakened family ties and friendships. The pandemic, Brooks added, made things worse. ‘It was pretty grim, a lot of people haven’t gotten their social chops back.’ For him, reclaiming happiness begins not with chasing pleasure for pleasure’s sake. But by searching out and achieving meaningful and human connection (Picture: Getty Images)
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