TED Talk Tuesday #146: What makes a good life?

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh, or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking, and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. This week’s talk was posted by Lethabo-Thabo Royds. Here’s why she chose it…

This TED Talk fascinated me because as part of the title it indicates that we will hear about lessons from the longest study on happiness. If you’re like me, you may be wondering “well, how long is long”.

Well, 75 years! Apparently, studies like this often fall apart after about a decade but not this one. This is generations of researchers. One person in the study even became a US president! I tuned in to hear about this study that has run for almost a century and I ended up hearing something more valuable – lessons on life. The researches also learnt what factors affecting people at age 50 resulted in them being the healthiest people at age 80.

Tune in below to learn what the researchers at Harvard discovered in a 75-year study. Some of these lessons I think many of us know already but perhaps haven’t fully understood their value…

It’s a great talk to watch as we close out 2019 and set out our hopes and dreams for 2020 and the years to come.