Terman’s study was guaranteed to outlive him, but that was the point: analyzing large groups of people over many decades allows researchers to uncover connections between cause and effect that short-term studies naturally miss. (It’s really hard to know if what you did in your 20s actually made you happy in your 40s and 70s unless the researchers catch you at all three stages of your life.)

Who tended to live the longest, most fulfilling lives?

People who actively pursued, and were highly engaged in pursuing, their goals. In fact, many of those who worked the hardest turned out to live the longest.

Even if they didn’t actually accomplish their goals. According to The Longevity Project, achieving lifelong dreams doesn’t matter. According to the authors, pursuing your dreams is what counts:

We did not find that precisely living out your dreams matters much for your health. It was not the happiest or the most relaxed older participants who lived the longest. It was those who were most engaged in pursuing their goals.
Those who were the most successful were the ones least likely to die at any given age. In fact, those men who were carefree, undependable, and unambitious in childhood and very unsuccessful in their careers had a whopping increase in their mortality risk.

Of course, success means (and absolutely should mean) different things to different people.

That’s why determining what success means to you, and then actively working to achieve your definition of success, is the key. Living a laid-back, carefree, stress-free life may sound great, but as the study shows, happy-go-lucky people tend not to thrive.

Persistent, conscientious, goal-oriented people thrive—again, even if they don’t always achieve their goals.

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