Calling all volunteers

Happiness, loneliness, volunteering, the Harvard Grant Study, and a surprising fact about 'Love Actually.' Also: 7 other things worth a click.

As the year winds down, I’d like to revisit a few of my favorite/best/most popular topics.

Today’s email is about the study of happiness, and the key thing that stops most of us from getting more of it — plus a recent study that suggests the one simple habit that creates more of it.

I’ll give you the takeaway upfront:

Happiness derives from good relationships. And if you’re short on good relationships, the key way to break the cycle of loneliness and begin to develop good relationships is to volunteer.

We begin with the Study of Adult Development at Harvard Medical School.

Starting in the late 1930s, a team of researchers tracked 268 Harvard graduates from the classes of 1939 to 1944, along with 456 young men who happened to have been growing up in inner city Boston around the same time.

Over time, it's turned into one of the most extensive longitudinal studies ever.

Perhaps the most famous and useful conclusive summary is this oft-repeated quote by Robert J. Waldinger, who is the current…