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Relationships are More Important than Ambition

Five takeaways:

1. Ambition, the author argues, is viewed as a force that drives people forward. Conversely, relationships are often seen to hold people back from developing in life.
2. The author cites a Journal of Applied Psychology a multidecade study that tracked the lives of ambitious children into adulthood. The study found, unsurprisingly, that children who exhibited more ambition early on went on to more illustrious and lucrative lives. But it also showed that early ambition was not as strongly correlated with wellbeing later in life. In fact, it showed that ambition is only weakly connected with well-being and negatively associated with longevity.
3. The author cites psychologist Tim Kasser, who has shown that the pursuit of materialistic values like money, possessions, and social status– the fruits of career successes– is correlated with lower well-being and more distress. It can also come at the cost of meaningful personal relationships.
4. Many studies have shown that community is strongly connected to well-being– more so than financial success. A 2009 Science study of 1.2million people showed that Louisiana was the happiest state… while the richest states like California, New York, and Connecticut, were listed among the least happy.
5. Barry Schwartz, a psychological researcher based at Swarthmore College, notes that while relationships can have a limiting effect on one’s life, but that too much freedom in life can be detrimental: “Relationships are meant to constrain,” he says. “but if you’re always on the lookout for better, such constraints are experienced with bitterness and resentment.”

From Emily Esfahani Smith at The Atlantic:
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