Thursday, May 14, 2009

Fame, Wealth, and Beauty

Interesting study about how extrinsic pursuits (fame, wealth, beauty) do not lead to happiness and emotional stability. Often times, even when achieved, these goals yield negative physical and emotional effects. Intrinsic pursuits (enduring relationships, helping others) seem to have significantly more impact on personal satisfaction.

2 comments:

Grammy-C said...

This is an important study, and probably one that should be "required reading" for all youth before they "graduate" into the world of hard knocks. Anyone over the age of, say, 30, 35?, who doesn't already know this is never going to know real happiness (unless they have a sudden "awakening", which I've actually seen.) But it's a sad thing to truly hurt someone you love, or lose a family member before you realize what's really important in life.

Nicole said...

Reminds me of a 72-year Harvard study that was the cover story in this month's Atlantic magazine. The article was called "What Makes Us Happy" and I'll try to post the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness