Key points

Happiness blends fleeting moments of flow with a lasting baseline shaped by meaning and purpose.

Meaning comes from the stories we tell about our past—heroic stories lift us; victim stories limit us.

Purpose is found in present actions that light us up, helping us enter flow and feel momentary joy.

Repeating meaning + purpose boosts flow, raising our long-term happiness set point over time.

There has long been a debate about whether happiness is a fleeting, almost chemical spark that comes and goes without warning, or whether a more enduring version of happiness can settle into something like a steady state. Philosophers, psychologists, and everyone in between have tried to moderate this debate with different terminology—contentment, joy, life satisfaction, hedonia, euda

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