How to Build a Life
A column about pointing yourself toward happiness
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Jan Buchczik Why Success Can Feel So Bitter
Achieving a goal and achieving happiness are two entirely different things.
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Jan Buchczik The Seven Habits That Lead to Happiness in Old Age
Your well-being is like a retirement account: The sooner you invest, the greater your returns will be.
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Jan Buchczik The Common Dating Strategy That’s Totally Wrong
If you’re looking for romance, stop focusing on what you and your date have in common.
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Jan Buchczik The Problem With ‘No Regrets’
If you never pine for a different past, you’ll stay trapped in a cycle of mistakes.
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Jan Buchczik Art Should Be a Habit, Not a Luxury
Just like exercise and sleep, engaging with the arts is a necessity for a full and happy life.
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Jan Buchczik Live Like the Ancient Cynics
Modern cynicism traps you in an unhappy cycle. The original version will set you free.
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Jan Buchczik How to Succeed at Failure
Sometimes you just can’t win. Make the most of it.
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Jan Buchczik Listen to Your Own Advice
Guilt, fear, and low self-esteem can stop you from living by your own wisdom. Here’s how to overcome them.
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Jan Buchczik Give Your Money. Give Your Time. Don’t Tell Anyone.
You can find deep, lasting happiness in a good deed that no one knows you did.
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Jan Buchczik The Cure for Holiday Blues
You’ll enjoy the season more if you lower your expectations.
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Klaus Vedfelt / Getty / The Atlantic When’s the Last Time You Felt Truly Happy?
We asked. Here’s what you told us.
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Jan Buchczik Procrastinate This, Not That
Putting things off can improve your performance—if you do it right.
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Jan Buchczik What You’re Really Worried About When You’re Worried About Money
Once you’ve met your most basic needs, an obsession with your bank account might be hiding deeper anxieties.
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Jan Buchczik When You Can’t Change the World, Change Your Feelings
Adjusting your attitude is easier than you think.
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Jan Buchczik How to Be Thankful When You Don’t Feel Thankful
Even if you think you have little to celebrate this year, you can—and should—practice gratitude.
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Getty / The Atlantic How to Identify What You Enjoy
Arthur C. Brooks and Lori Gottlieb discuss the importance of fun, the cultural distortion of emotions as “good” or “bad,” and how envy points you in the direction of your deepest desires.
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Jan Buchczik Quit Lying to Yourself
Real happiness starts with telling yourself the truth, even when it hurts.
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Jan Buchczik No One Cares!
Our fears about what other people think of us are overblown and rarely worth fretting over.
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Getty / The Atlantic How to Live When You’re in Pain
Arthur C. Brooks and BJ Miller, a palliative-care physician, explore the difference between “necessary” and “unnecessary” suffering, and the paradoxical realities of human joy.
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Jan Buchczik What Winter-Haters Get Wrong
Chasing the sun usually isn’t worth it. Learn to like the climate you’ve got instead.
