How to Build a Life
A column about pointing yourself toward happiness
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JAN BUCHCZIK The Best Friends Can Do Nothing for You
If your social life is leaving you unfulfilled, you might have too many deal friends, and not enough real friends.
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JAN BUCHCZIK The Hidden Toll of Remote Work
Switching to Zoom forever might be convenient, but it’s a recipe for loneliness.
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Jan Buchczik Are You Dreaming Too Big?
Lifelong, hard-to-achieve goals might not make you happier. Small steps will.
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Jan Buchczik Here’s 10,000 Hours. Don’t Spend It All in One Place.
Evidence shows that hyper-specialization is not the best strategy for happiness.
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JAN BUCHCZIK Changing Your Mind Can Make You Less Anxious
Humans are programmed to think we’re right at all costs. Fighting that instinct will set you free.
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JAN BUCHCZIK A Counterintuitive Way to Cheer Up When You’re Down
When you most need to get happier, try giving happiness away.
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JAN BUCHCZIK Go Ahead and Fail
Perfectionism can make you miserable. Here’s how you can muster the courage to mess up.
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JAN BUCHCZIK What You Gain When You Give Things Up
Voluntarily sacrificing pleasurable things resets your senses and makes you master of yourself.
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JAN BUCHCZIK The Type of Love That Makes People Happiest
When it comes to lasting romance, passion has nothing on friendship.
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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.
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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.
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Jan Buchczik Stop Keeping Score
She who dies with the most checked boxes wins, right? Wrong.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Jan Buchczik Measuring Your Happiness Can Help Improve It
Are you a Mad Scientist, a Cheerleader, a Sober Judge, or a Poet?
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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.
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Jan Buchczik Reading Too Much Political News Is Bad for Your Well-Being
Obsessing over politics could hurt your happiness and your relationships.
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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.
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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.
