How to Build a Life
A column about pointing yourself toward happiness
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Jan Buchczik Live Like the Ancient Cynics
Modern cynicism traps you in an unhappy cycle. The original version will set you free.
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Jan Buchczik How to Succeed at Failure
Sometimes you just can’t win. Make the most of it.
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Jan Buchczik Listen to Your Own Advice
Guilt, fear, and low self-esteem can stop you from living by your own wisdom. Here’s how to overcome them.
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Jan Buchczik Give Your Money. Give Your Time. Don’t Tell Anyone.
You can find deep, lasting happiness in a good deed that no one knows you did.
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Jan Buchczik The Cure for Holiday Blues
You’ll enjoy the season more if you lower your expectations.
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Klaus Vedfelt / Getty / The Atlantic When’s the Last Time You Felt Truly Happy?
We asked. Here’s what you told us.
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Jan Buchczik Procrastinate This, Not That
Putting things off can improve your performance—if you do it right.
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Jan Buchczik What You’re Really Worried About When You’re Worried About Money
Once you’ve met your most basic needs, an obsession with your bank account might be hiding deeper anxieties.
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Jan Buchczik When You Can’t Change the World, Change Your Feelings
Adjusting your attitude is easier than you think.
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Jan Buchczik How to Be Thankful When You Don’t Feel Thankful
Even if you think you have little to celebrate this year, you can—and should—practice gratitude.
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Getty / The Atlantic How to Identify What You Enjoy
Arthur C. Brooks and Lori Gottlieb discuss the importance of fun, the cultural distortion of emotions as “good” or “bad,” and how envy points you in the direction of your deepest desires.
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Jan Buchczik Quit Lying to Yourself
Real happiness starts with telling yourself the truth, even when it hurts.
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Jan Buchczik No One Cares!
Our fears about what other people think of us are overblown and rarely worth fretting over.
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Getty / The Atlantic How to Live When You’re in Pain
Arthur C. Brooks and BJ Miller, a palliative-care physician, explore the difference between “necessary” and “unnecessary” suffering, and the paradoxical realities of human joy.
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Jan Buchczik What Winter-Haters Get Wrong
Chasing the sun usually isn’t worth it. Learn to like the climate you’ve got instead.
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Eugenio Marongiu / Getty / The Atlantic How to Find the Secret to Meaningful Work
Arthur Brooks and Jenn Lim, the CEO of Delivering Happiness, analyze the barriers to feeling that your work serves a higher purpose.
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Jan Buchczik The Disguises We Wear Every Day
Hiding your feelings can be freeing. But eventually you have to take off the mask.
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Mark Peterson / Corbis / Getty / The … How to Know That You Know Nothing
Arthur Brooks and the Harvard psychology professor Dr. Ellen Langer discuss the importance of curiosity and living in the moment—and how an illusion of stability may be holding you back from exactly that.
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Jan Buchczik The Meaning of Life Is Surprisingly Simple
You can make your quest for meaning manageable by breaking it down into three bite-size dimensions.
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Getty / Delmaine Donson / The Atlantic How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy
Arthur Brooks and Dr. Shefali, a clinical psychologist and mindfulness expert, discuss the definition and dangers of self-objectification—and what it really means to be yourself.
