From the Peak Prosperity blog:

Two of the most important research initiatives to study well-being over time were the Grant Study and Lewis Terman‘s Genetic Study of Genius. The Grant Study followed 237 male subjects for 68 years. Terman’s work began in 1921 and is still ongoing (in fact, it’s the oldest and longest-running longitudinal study in the world).

Both studies followed their subjects over decades and made note of many attributes of their lives. This is important, as it gave the researches the ability to see what factors had statistically-relevant impact in shaping how quality of life progressed for the participants.

From the data, researchers were able to identify and quantify the influence of the behaviors and life developments most likely to improve or worsen personal well-being.

One key predictive factor is having a happy childhood. For most of us, there’s little we can do about this one. We had the childhood we had….The other big finding was that supportive relationships are critical. In particular, the giving of support to others had the biggest impact on longevity and life happiness.  Beyond social network size, the clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those who helped their friends and neighbors, advising and caring for others, tended to live to old age.

This is what Transition Nelson’s mission is all about:
To address the converging challenges of the 21st Century by enhancing community resilience.

Transition Nelson asks how to strengthen our community:  How do we:

• Expand our capacity for local economic self-sufficiency?
• Build the capacity to support many of the vital services that may be cut back?
• Ensure personal health, security and safety?
• Address environmental restoration and sustainability?

The Grant and Terman studies point to some answers to the question about personal health, security and safety–get involved and serve others. Check out our Transition Streets program.