How to Build a Life
A column about pointing yourself toward happiness
-
![]()
JAN BUCHCZIK A Counterintuitive Way to Cheer Up When You’re Down
When you most need to get happier, try giving happiness away.
-
![]()
JAN BUCHCZIK Go Ahead and Fail
Perfectionism can make you miserable. Here’s how you can muster the courage to mess up.
-
-
![]()
JAN BUCHCZIK What You Gain When You Give Things Up
Voluntarily sacrificing pleasurable things resets your senses and makes you master of yourself.
-
![]()
JAN BUCHCZIK The Type of Love That Makes People Happiest
When it comes to lasting romance, passion has nothing on friendship.
-
![]()
JAN BUCHCZIK The Subtle Mindset Shift That Could Radically Change the Way You See the World
The Dalai Lama teaches that we are all interconnected and inseparable from one another. Acknowledging that can make us less lonely, more compassionate, and better investigators of the truth.
-
![]()
JAN BUCHCZIK There Are Two Kinds of Happy People
Some of us strive for a virtuous life. Others strive for a pleasant one. We could all use a better balance.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Stop Keeping Score
She who dies with the most checked boxes wins, right? Wrong.
-
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Find the Place You Love. Then Move There.
If where you live isn’t truly your home, and you have the resources to make a change, it could do wonders for your happiness.
-
![]()
Illustration by Jan Buchczik New Year’s Resolutions That Will Actually Lead to Happiness
Set goals to improve your well-being—not your wallet or your waistline.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Don’t Isolate Yourself This Holiday Season
The pandemic makes it dangerous to gather in person, but for the sake of your well-being, find connection however you can.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Measuring Your Happiness Can Help Improve It
Are you a Mad Scientist, a Cheerleader, a Sober Judge, or a Poet?
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Sedentary Pandemic Life Is Bad for Our Happiness
The times when we most want comfort and rest may paradoxically be the times we most need to move, for the sake of our well-being.
-
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Reading Too Much Political News Is Bad for Your Well-Being
Obsessing over politics could hurt your happiness and your relationships.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik What to Do When the Future Feels Hopeless
Humans like to feel optimistic about and in control of where their life is headed. The pandemic has made it very hard to feel that way.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik The Clocklike Regularity of Major Life Changes
Transitions feel like an abnormal disruption to life, but in fact they are a predictable and integral part of it.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Why It’s So Lonely at the Top
Work friendships are crucial to happiness. What happens when you can’t make them?
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik How to Navigate a Midlife Change of Faith
When we think of our identities as fixed and unchanging—I am this kind of person; I am not that kind of person—we’re shutting ourselves off from many of life’s possibilities.
-
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik ‘Success Addicts’ Choose Being Special Over Being Happy
The pursuit of achievement distracts from the deeply ordinary activities and relationships that make life meaningful.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik Love Is Medicine for Fear
Life, especially pandemic life, is full of threats and uncertainty. When we feel afraid, bringing more love into our lives can help.
-
![]()
Jan Buchczik A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
Higher education is often described as an investment. But it’s still unclear if it pays off in happiness.
