You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh. We are continuing to share a handful of talks, conversations, and episodes from the TED Archive that we hope will spark some inspiration.

As we think about the end of the year and then resolutions and practices, we hope to bring into this new year,

it's a small and big question at the same time.

What makes for a meaningful life?

In this beautiful archive talk, social psychologist Brian S. Lowry explores three ideas have, the possibilities of personal

achievement. You could summit Everest. You could create a huge successful business. You

give a TED talk. And when you're successful, it feels incredible.

Success, the flush of excitement, the celebration, and you should celebrate, the congratulations,

the posting on Instagram, wherever you put your stuff up, it all feels great. But when that fades, when that starts to fade,

sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once, a question comes up. Is this it? Is this all there is?

And so I'm going to tell you a little story about myself to give you a sense of this. So for those of you don't know, I'm a professor at Stanford.

When I got my job, I was elated, elated, and a little bit terrified.

And I was terrified because when you get a job like that, you know you're going to be reviewed in about seven years.

And either you're going to be given tenure, more or less a job for life, or you're going to get fired.

It's a little bit like that movie, Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, the scene where Alec Baldwin's character goes in to give the motivational

speech, and he says, it's going to be a competition. First prize, Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize,

set of steak knives. Third prize, you're fired. It's a little bit like that, except there's no second

prize.

And it turns out, as you might imagine, that has a way of focusing your mind.

So I was really, really focused on doing good research, getting my papers published,

doing it on the classroom, and all the other little things you need to do to get tenure.

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