GRANTED: The wrong ways to pursue success and happiness

November 2019

Success is not a cure for anxiety or depression. Sometimes it’s an amplifier.
When people appear to be excelling externally, they may still be suffering internally.
By sharing your own struggles, you make it easier for others to open up about theirs.

Here's what piqued my interest recently on well-being and success:

1. Why It’s So Hard to Follow Your Passion (HBR)
A rewarding career is more about doing what's important to you than doing what you love. New evidence reveals that people who look for purpose are more successful in pursuing their passions—and less likely to quit their jobs—than those who look for joy. Enjoyment can fade. Meaning lasts.
 
2. Social Media Has Not Destroyed a Generation (Scientific American)
On average, social media use has no more impact on teenagers' well-being than eating potatoes.
A rigorous, comprehensive meta-analysis (a quantitative study of studies, synthesizing 226 articles with 275,000+ participants) reveals that sleep and breakfast matter more, and smoking pot and being bullied matter 2.7x and 4.3x more.
The effects of new technologies depend on how we use them. Engaging actively with social media—and feeling in control of it—predicts higher well-being.

3. In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure (NYT)
Social science and humanities majors earn less in their first job, but catch up over time. Technical skills can become obsolete quickly, while critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills become more valuable.

From My Desk:

4. Stop Trying to Raise Successful Kids—and Start Raising Kind Ones (Atlantic)
Too many cultures celebrate kids for the grades they get and the goals they score, not for the generosity they show. My wife Allison and I highlight that this is a mistake: kids raised to be kind become more successful in school and at work—and happier too.
At family dinner, don't just ask kids how the test went and whether their team won. Ask them who they helped—and who helped them.

Cheers,
Adam

Adam Grant, Ph.D.
Organizational psychologist at Wharton, author of ORIGINALS, GIVE AND TAKE, and OPTION B, and host of WorkLife, a TED original podcast