How to Cultivate a Happy Fortune: 7 Practical Steps for Lasting Well-being

You know, the pursuit of happiness and well-being often feels like a quest for some elusive treasure. We read the guides, follow the steps, and yet that deep, lasting sense of fortune can seem just out of reach. It reminds me of a narrative I recently engaged with, from the expansion Claws of Awaji. The protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke, finally locate Naoe’s mother after a long search, only to find her captive, held by someone clinging to a legacy of vengeance. The Templar antagonist isn’t just holding her prisoner; she’s been torturing her for over a decade, desperate to uncover the location of a hidden artifact. This struck me as a powerful metaphor for how we sometimes approach our own well-being. We can become so fixated on extracting a specific outcome—a certain job, a particular relationship, a magic number in our bank account—that the pursuit itself becomes a form of self-imposed captivity. We torture our present selves for a future prize, inheriting stations of anxiety and stress from our own past. Lasting well-being, a truly happy fortune, isn’t about finding a single hidden MacGuffin. It’s about cultivating the entire landscape of your life. So, let’s talk about seven practical steps that move beyond the chase and help you build something enduring.

The first step, and arguably the most difficult, is to release the captives of your past. Just as Naoe’s mission was to free her mother from a decade of physical torment, we must identify what past grievances, failures, or narratives are holding our present mindset hostage. I’ve personally spent too many hours mentally rehearsing old conversations or regretting paths not taken. It’s exhausting. A 2022 study in the Journal of Positive Psychology suggested that individuals who practiced structured reflection and forgiveness exercises reported a 34% increase in life satisfaction metrics over six months. It’s not about erasing the past, but about refusing to let someone else’s actions, or your own former self, continue to dictate your inner dialogue. The second step flows from this: actively choose your inheritance. The Templar in the story inherited her father’s station and his vendetta. We, too, inherit mindsets—from family, culture, or our earlier experiences. The key is curation. I consciously try to inherit my grandmother’s resilience and curiosity, while actively working to discard a inherited tendency toward catastrophic thinking. This is a daily practice of selection.

Now, this is where many guides stop, at the internal work. But a happy fortune is built in the real world, through action. Step three is about cultivating your island of Awaji—your immediate environment. You don’t need to travel to a physical island, but you do need to create a space, whether physical or social, that supports your well-being. For me, this meant a ruthless audit of my digital space. I deleted apps that fueled comparison and set hard boundaries on news consumption after 7 PM. My real-world island includes a weekly hiking group; the commitment to showing up, rain or shine, has been a cornerstone of my stability for years. Step four is the deliberate practice of partnership, your Yasuke. No meaningful quest is undertaken alone. Identify the people in your life who have your back not just in celebration, but in the quiet, grueling hours. Invest in those relationships with intentional time and vulnerability. I make it a point to have one completely screen-free, agenda-free conversation with a close friend each week. The ROI on that time, measured in emotional resilience, is incalculable.

Let’s get tactical. Step five is about redefining the MacGuffin. In stories, the MacGuffin is the object everyone wants. In our lives, we’re often chasing singular goals: the promotion, the perfect body, the dream house. The problem is, once attained, the happiness often fades. Research from the field of hedonic adaptation shows that the boost from a major positive life event typically dissipates in under a year. So, instead of a single MacGuffin, define a system of value. For lasting well-being, I focus on the system of learning, contributing, and connecting. The specific goals within that system change, but the daily and weekly actions that feed the system remain. My "treasure" is the process itself. Step six is embracing the grind without torture. The antagonist tortured for information. In our productivity-obsessed culture, we often glorify self-torture—the all-nighters, the relentless hustle. Sustainable cultivation is different. It’s showing up consistently, but with compassion. Some days my writing output is 2000 words, other days it’s 200. The system, not the daily output, is what builds the fortune. I use a simple rule: never let a day pass without a tiny, 1% action toward a meaningful area. It keeps the momentum without the burnout.

Finally, step seven is the acceptance of an incomplete map. Naoe and Yasuke didn’t have a perfect plan when they reached Awaji; they discovered the situation and adapted. Our pursuit of well-being is the same. We follow these steps—releasing the past, curating our environment, building systems—but we must leave room for discovery and for things to simply unfold. I’ve found that my most profound moments of contentment often arrived unannounced, in the spaces between striving. They came during a quiet morning coffee, not after hitting a quarterly target. A happy fortune isn’t a final, secured vault. It’s the ongoing, dynamic practice of tending to your inner and outer world with wisdom and kindness, understanding that the treasure isn’t just at the end of the journey, but woven into the fabric of the journey itself. It’s about freeing yourself from the torture of a single-minded chase so you can appreciate the rich, complex, and beautiful expansion that is your own life, being lived right now.