How Starting A "Happiness 401(k)" Can Help You Live 8 Years Longer

For eons, people have stumbled over questions about purpose, fulfillment, and what will make us truly happy. Arthur Brooks, Ph.D., the author of From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, told us an amazing story about his experience on an airplane (which he also recounts in his book) overhearing a conversation between an elderly husband and wife who were sitting behind him.

The man was clearly distressed, complaining about how irrelevant he felt in his life. He felt that no one cared about him, paid attention to him, or took him seriously anymore. His wife tried to comfort him, but Brooks could hear how unhappy the man was, how inconsolable.

Instead of fat savings accounts of Oscars, Pulitzers, and Nobels, Brooks thinks what we really need is a "happiness 401(k)," a plan for finding and cultivating ongoing, sustainable happiness, the kind that comes from understanding what truly brings enduring meaning to your life, not just the temporary states of being satisfied, full, proud, pleasured, or admired.

There's nothing wrong with setting goals or having ambition as long as you understand that you won't find enduring happiness in reaching those goals. So many of us make the mistake of thinking that when we just do X, then we will be happy. When I finally buy a house, I'll be content. When I finally get tenure, I can relax. When I finally make a million dollars, life will be good.

There's a name for this tendency humans have to run from one pleasure or goal to the next: the hedonic treadmill. The problem with the hedonic treadmill is its fundamental principle: that you always return to your baseline happiness. You could become the top-​paid influencer in the world, and that would feel really good for a while, but then you would go right back to being as happy or unhappy as you were before. Except now, you've gotten a little dopamine hit and you can't wait to jump right back on the treadmill and find another high.

Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and happiness experts have been trying to answer this question for a very long time.

The problem is part biology—we are built to "explore and exploit" our environment to gain bigger and bigger prizes like food, water, and shelter. Getting those things feels good, so we want more and more. But once you have satisfied those basic needs, it gets a lot trickier.

The other problem is society—we are inundated by misleading images of what the good life looks like, whether that is a giant yacht or a splashy book review in the New York Times (I mean, we wouldn't turn that one down). And so, we want, want, want according to what we see all around us. Humans are wanting machines, after all.

If you choose the idols of earthly delights, instead of making those big deposits in your happiness 401(k), you're essentially spending all your money now. From where we stand, spending a little money now is great—life is also about enjoying the ice cream and the job well done, but it's not only about that. We're all for diversifying your happiness portfolio.

No one can tell you what your deeper purpose in life should be, nor should they. That's a personal journey of discovery. Personally, we define purpose as a higher calling (or callings) that pushes you through the hard times, and the belief that what you're doing is good and meaningful and that it nourishes your body and your spirit.

Our friend Dan Buettner told us that one strong association between longevity and people who lived in the Blue Zones was a deep sense of purpose in their lives. The way he described it, "People know why they wake up in the morning." This purpose is something that throughout their lives makes them feel relevant, needed, and connected to the world around them, which in turn has a powerful effect on health.

The big question now is, how do I find my purpose? While purpose is something everyone should be in the market for, it's not exactly something you can go pick up at Target or work through in a few sessions with your therapist. You might need to spend some time searching for your purpose, reflecting on it, and committing to it.

Your purpose might already be there in the background; you just haven't been paying enough attention. Or it might be something that shifts and morphs during the different phases of your life. Your purpose might be something that strikes you like a bolt of lightning.

A major theme running throughout this book applies here: It's all personal. The best anyone can do is help guide you toward your own answers.