How to achieve true happiness: Advice from the 75-year long 'Harvard-Grant Study'.

callumogilvy (43)in #life • 7 years ago (edited)

This is just intended to be a quick post to share with you all a wonderful study which I stumbled across by happen-chance, I think the lessons learned from it can be of use to us all in living the best lives we possibly can.

TLDR - The findings are summarised a little ways down, if you'd rather skip to that.

-'The Harvard-Grant Study'-

In one of the most long-running, comprehensive psychological studies ever conducted, 268 Male Harvard graduates were followed through life. Intending to find out what predictors were most strongly associated with leading a long & happy life, the researchers gathered various sources of information at regular intervals throughout.

The information gathered was used to statistically assess - for the first time using such a large, comprehensive data-set - what exactly held the key to health and happiness. The results as summarised can be found below:

-The Findings-

'Warmth of relationships' found to hold the greatest impact upon happiness - Turns out love really is all we need.
Achieving financial success is dependent greatly upon both 'Warmth of Relationships' and 'Intelligence', up to a point. Beyond this point any changes only correlate with 'Warmth of Relationships'.
The 'Warmth of Relationship' the participants had with their parents as a child left a lasting impact upon the rest of their lives.
A loving relationship with their Mother led to improved Financial earnings, lower rates of dementia and higher levels of productivity in later life.
A loving relationship with their Father correlated with reduced rates of adult-anxiety as-well as increased levels of satisfaction in later life.
Alcoholism showed to be the greatest predictor of negative life outcomes, leading to consistently shorter lifespans, higher divorce rates and higher chances of developing neurosis and depression.

Overall, the lasting message conveyed by the researchers relates to 'Love'. Throughout the study this was the greatest predictor of not only happiness & satisfaction ratings, but also financial success. It seemed to be intrinsically woven into almost all aspects of the participants' lives, raising their quality of life significantly.

The director of the study told the 'Huffington Post' the story of one participant in particular, in order to convey this message. The man had began the study with one of the lowest scores, in regards to projected future stability. He had previously suffered from depression, even attempting suicide at one point prior to the inception of the study. At the end of his life however, he scored among the highest of the surviving participants in regards to his happiness & overall life satisfaction. When asked why, George Valliant - The director of this study - stated that: "He had spent his life searching for love".

Anyway, I found reading up on this study incredibly uplifting and wanted to share it with you all, in-case it left somebody else out there feeling similarly affected. Apologies for such a short post, I hope to write up a more comprehensive look into the Harvard-Grant study when I find a little more time.

Have a wonderful day all.

'all you need is love..'

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#psychology #science #philosophy #blog