Newsletter

America and the Pursuit of Life Satisfaction2022-07-04

Life satisfaction (happiness, hope, meaning) is predicated on life success (health, wealth, influence). Sometimes there is a disconnect. Mental health issues can lead to life satisfaction being less than life success. Addictions, including to material things, can lead to life satisfaction being more than life success, at least in the short-term. Life satisfaction can lead to turning on the biology of longevity, what my group has called active longevity, and facilitate more life success, in a virtuous circle. (We have developed dashboards for people to keep track of their life success, life satisfaction, and active longevity, inside our Life x Mind app).

A fast and healthy way to improve life satisfaction is to have gratitude, optimism and significance for the things in your life. Then you can view yourself as a hero in your life’s journey. These are actionable, concrete thoughts, as opposed to trying to think yourself into being happy, hopeful and having meaning in your life, which are less actionable and more broad. (Our Life x Mind app opens with a gratitude prompt and log. Future releases will contain prompts and logs for optimism, significance and how/who for you are a hero).

America is a country of immigrants from all over the world, whether they came here just now or came here on the Mayflower. These are generally people with initiative, novelty seeking, and creativity. Immigrants are grateful for the opportunities here, optimistic about the future for themselves and their progeny, and see themselves as playing a significant role in the world by joining this 246 years old Utopia. They are oftentimes heroes to their family and friends back where they came from, and to their children and grandchildren here. That is why they have high life satisfaction, increasing life success, and in turn make America increasingly successful, the greatest country on Earth, no matter what temporary setbacks occur.

Live. Happier. Longer.