Love Is Really All That Matters

A group of Harvard researchers undertook a 75 year study to find the secrets to a fulfilling life. While the data they have collected has some limitations - it didn't include women, for starters, the Harvard Grant Study provides an unrivaled glimpse into a subset of humanity. The study followed 268 male Harvard undergraduates from the classes of 1938-1940 (now well into their 90s) for 75 years, collecting data on various aspects of their lives at regular intervals. And the conclusions are universal.

George Valliant, the Harvard psychiatrist who directed the study from 1972-2004 wrote a book (Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study) about it. But here are five lessons the Grant Study highlights.

#1 is "Love is Really All That Matters."

It may seem obvious, but that doesn't make it any less true: Love is key to a happy and fulfilling life. As Valliant puts it, there are two pillars to happiness. "One is love," he writes. "The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away."

Valliant said that the study's most important finding is that the only thing that matters in life is relationships. A man could have a successful career, money and good physical health, but without supportive, loving relationships, he wouldn't be happy ("Happiness is only the cart; Love is the horse").

From the article - "The 75-Year Study That Found The Secrets To a Fulfilling Life" by Carolyn Gregoire, The Huffington Post, August 11, 2013.