23/02/2026
This week, during Week 5 of my programme Wellbeing: Small Habits, Big Difference at the University of Galway, we explored a question that sits at the very heart of wellbeing:
What does it actually mean to live a good life?
We often equate wellbeing with happiness. But psychology makes an important distinction between two very different paths:
1. Hedonia – the pursuit of pleasure, comfort and enjoyment.
2. Eudaimonia – the pursuit of meaning, growth and contribution.
In the session, we explored four possible ‘lives’:
The Sweet Life – high pleasure, little deeper meaning.
The Dry Life – high meaning and purpose, but lacking enjoyment.
The Empty Life – neither pleasure nor purpose.
The Fulfilled Life – a life that integrates both enjoyment and purpose.
The Sweet Life feels good in the moment.
The Dry Life can feel serious and heavy.
The Empty Life feels flat.
But the Fulfilled Life is different.
It’s about being happy in your life (experiencing enjoyment) and happy with your life (experiencing meaning).
Research consistently shows that people who orient their lives around meaning, not just pleasure, report higher wellbeing, more positive emotions, greater work satisfaction, and stronger long-term psychological health
This has huge implications for the workplace. If work only provides hedonic rewards, salary, perks, bonuses, it may feel ‘sweet’ for a while. But when work connects to contribution, belonging, values and impact, it becomes fulfilling.
One of the most powerful reflections from the morning was this:
Are we optimising our lives purely for pleasure…
or are we building lives we can look back on with a sense of fulfilment?
Because when people reconnect to meaning, something shifts.
Engagement deepens. Resilience strengthens. Energy feels different.
And that’s when small habits really do make a big difference.
