What makes your life happy and healthy?
Today I watched an impressive video about what makes a good life, which motivated me to write down some of my thoughts.
There was a recent survey of millennials asking them what their most important life goals were, and over 80 percent said that a major life goal for them was to get rich. And another 50 percent of those same young adults said that another major life goal was to become famous.
The reason that I pity their answers is not that they are seeking fame and fortune, but because they don't know what the essence is of happiness.
I think some of them, like me, were told to push harder and achieve more from childhood all the way to the adulthood。
The Harvard Study of Adult Development may be the longest study of adult life that's ever been done. For 75 years, they've tracked the lives of 724 men, year after year, asking about their work, their home lives, their health, and of course asking all along the way without knowing how their life stories were going to turn out. The clearest message that they got from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.
So do good relationships mean we need to suck up our boss every day? Or we need to socialize every day? The answer is NO.
It's not just the number of friends you have, and it's not whether or not you're in a committed relationship, but it's the quality of your close relationships that matters.
I have to admit that being aware of this information is one thing but putting it into practice is another thing. Why is it so hard to keep a good relationship? Well, there may be several points involved. For instance, we are human, in addition to that, the relationship itself maybe complicated and messy, and moreover, some of us are not proficient at maintaining relationships in the first place.
But no matter what, you should still try, at least, to not continue undermining the relationships between you and others!
Take my marriage as an example. Let's say I have done some irreversible damage to it, or what I am doing will further imperil it. It's ok! Because I learned from that video today that It can never be too late to recognize and rectify my problem because keeping a good relationship is life-long and never ends. In Chinese, there is a saying 亡羊补牢 right?
I'd like to close with a quote from Mark Twain. "There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that."
