[Steve9]

There are some interesting insights in this article :

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arch..._page=true

Quote:

Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.

Quote:

What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? By the time the Grant Study men had entered retirement, Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically.

Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight. Of the 106 Harvard men who had five or six of these factors in their favor at age 50, half ended up at 80 as what Vaillant called “happy-well” and only 7.5 percent as “sad-sick.” Meanwhile, of the men who had three or fewer of the health factors at age 50, none ended up “happy-well” at 80. Even if they had been in adequate physical shape at 50, the men who had three or fewer protective factors were three times as likely to be dead at 80 as those with four or more factors.

Quote:

Vaillant’s other main interest is the power of relationships. “It is social aptitude,” he writes, “not intellectual brilliance or parental social class, that leads to successful aging.” Warm connections are necessary—and if not found in a mother or father, they can come from siblings, uncles, friends, mentors. The men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable, except defenses. Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger. In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

[Sawyer]

[nek]

Quote:

“That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

Truth, which is what makes the current situation of relationships just sad. Everything from dating to friendships is half-assed. People are so quick to burn bridges. They'd rather talk to their iPhone screens than to actual people. In the same way women are asking "Where have all the good men gone?", people will be asking the same thing about friends when they get older. It baffles me that people don't see this coming. They just keep acting in the same anti-social ways and think that things are gonna be fine in the future. Sucks.

[pitt]

To me life is all about making paper and fucking big booty bitches, I seriously don't give a fuck about the rest.

[RexImperator]

This really depends how you define the word. I think "happiness" is more of a transient state that comes and goes but you can find inner peace and contentment in life.