I think it's fair to say that we all want to live a good life.

But what does that actually mean?

This is a question that has preoccupied people for centuries.

So much of philosophy and religion has been trying to figure this out. And more recently,

science has also chimed in. So it's basically, you know, this big question that we all

contemplate from time to time is the life I'm living right now, one that I want to live,

one that's worthwhile for me to live. This is my colleague Richard Seema.

He is a neuroscientist, and he writes the Brain Matters column for the post.

And it's also a question that psychologists have sort of taken from a bottom-up approach,

asking regular people, not, you know, these bearded philosophers, about, yeah, what do you

find as a good life? And basically, there's

three main dimensions or paths, I think, of to a good life that people bring up.

This is what I love about science is it's like, what does it mean to live a good life? Well,

there are three ways. Like, there is an answer. It's quite concrete. I'm Maggie Penman. It's Saturday, January 17. I'm a reporter

for The Optimist, a section here at the Post devoted to bringing you good news, hopeful, inspiring

stories about things that are going right in the world. There are actually things that are going

right, believe it or not.

And today, at a time of year when a lot of us are taking stock and reflecting, thinking about our

goals, I wanted to explore the research into what makes a good life. I talked to my colleague,

Richard Seema, as well as a couple of researchers who study this. And we're going to break down the three paths psychologists have identified to a good life.

And what we can all do to move closer to whichever one sounds like the kind of life we want.

First, here's a bit more of my chat with Richard.

...