Living Your Values Linked to Positive Life Outlook

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans overwhelmingly point to adequate housing, time with loved ones and getting enough sleep as very important ingredients of a good life, according to a new national survey examining what people value and how these values relate to their day-to-day experiences and overall life evaluations.

About nine in 10 U.S. adults, 92%, say having adequate shelter or housing is “very important” to their vision of a good life for themselves. Roughly three in four say the same about spending time or connecting with a romantic partner, friends or family (78%) and getting enough sleep (76%). Majorities also place high importance on avoiding physical pain (67%), having enough money for planned purchases and activities (65%), and regular exercise or physical activity (58%).

Meanwhile, less than half of Americans rate 13 other activities as very important, but majorities rate each as at least “somewhat important.” These include cooking, spending time in nature, learning new skills, applying those skills to solve problems, practicing spirituality or religious reflection, reading books, engaging in activities to promote mental health (e.g., meditation), creating or listening to music, spending time alone, reading or watching the news, creating or enjoying art, engaging in civic or community activities, and buying things beyond the basic necessities.

Just two activities in the survey fall short of earning at least “somewhat important” ratings from majorities of Americans: using AI tools and using social media.

###Embeddable###

Gallup and the Aspen Ideas Festival partnered on the Gallup-Aspen Ideas American Values Study to survey Americans on the elements of a good life. Interviews were conducted on the web, from Oct. 1-15, 2025, with 2,167 adult members of the Gallup Panel.

Top “Good Life” Elements Are Common Experiences in Everyday Life

After rating the importance of each experience to having a good life, respondents reported how often they engaged in these activities over the prior week.

Adequate housing was the most common experience: 93% said they had it on four or more days. More than half also reported frequent engagement (four or more days) with social connections, consuming news, using social media, preparing meals, creating or listening to music, getting enough sleep, having enough money for planned purchases, exercising, and avoiding physical pain.

By contrast, no more than 15% regularly engaged in civic or community activities, created or enjoyed art, purchased items beyond basic necessities, or used AI tools for ideas or recommendations.

###Embeddable###

The combined findings tell us how the experiences and activities Americans report engaging in relate to those they consider part of a good life. Many experiences that Americans value highly are also those they report having at least once during the week — such as adequate housing, time with loved ones, getting enough sleep, financial sufficiency for planned needs, exercising and avoiding physical pain.

Yet several activities that Americans engage in frequently are not viewed as central to a good life, but are a part of daily chores for many (e.g., cooking, which 93% said they did at least once, but less than half consider it very important). Other commonly experienced, but not important, activities may be done out of necessity. For example, most people report having spent time alone at least once (81%), but fewer than four in 10 rate it as highly important.

A notable mismatch appears in social media use. Only 6% of Americans say using social media for entertainment is very important to a good life, yet 85% used it at least once and 63% on most days during the prior week. Similar gaps arise for reading or watching the news (about one in four rate it as very important, while 92% report having read or watched at least once) and purchasing nonessential items (two in 10 rate it as very important; about three in four purchased nonessential items at least once).

###Embeddable###

How Much of a Good Thing Is Enough? A Look at Optimizing Time

Time spent on several experiences and activities in the survey is statistically associated with how Americans rate the quality of their current lives using the 0-10 Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale.

Two experiences that Americans judge to be very important for living a good life show positive linear relationships with how people rate the quality of their lives. For these activities, more frequent engagement is consistently linked with higher life evaluations:

• Spending time with loved ones
• Having enough money for planned purchases or activities

For three other activities, there is a link between engagement and higher ratings of the quality of people’s current lives, but there seems to be an optimal range, beyond which additional engagement does not translate into higher life evaluations. These are:

• Buying things beyond the basic necessities: Doing this 3-4 days a week seems to be linked to high current life ratings, although, when asked directly, about four in 10 don’t believe it is important to their image of a good life.
• Reading books: Reading about 4 days per week seems to be linked to higher current life ratings — again, even though about three in 10 judge it as not important to a good life.
• Creating or enjoying art: Doing this 3-4 times a week (e.g., going to a museum, painting, crafting something) is also linked to higher quality-of-life ratings, despite about four in 10 judging it as unimportant.

###Embeddable###

These findings suggest that some activities contribute steadily to how people feel about their lives, while others provide meaningful benefits in moderation.

Doing What You Value Is Strongly Related to Thriving

Regardless of what constitutes a good life for any individual, spending more time doing what one values may have wellbeing benefits. To test this, four categories were created, based on the alignment between respondents’ values (i.e., experiences and activities that they judged as “very” or “somewhat” important) and their pattern of engagement in these experiences and activities (i.e., how many days they said they engaged in the activities or experiences during a week). Each respondent was placed into one of these categories based on their dominant pattern of engagement in activities and experiences during a one-week period.

• Often doing what one values: The people in this group spend more time engaging in the activities they highly value than in other activities. They spend 4-7 days a week engaging in valued activities and experiences.
• Infrequently doing what one values: The dominant pattern for this group is to engage in valued experiences and activities between 1 and 3 days a week.
• Not doing what one values: The dominant pattern of activities for this group is not to engage in activities that they deem important; they report engaging in valued activities on 0 days a week.
• Doing what one doesn’t value: Extremely few (less than 1%) fall into this category, where the dominant pattern is to often engage in activities and experiences that are judged as only slightly important or not important at all; they spent most of their time (4-7 days a week) engaging in “unimportant” experiences and activities.

Most Americans (67%) spend much of their week engaging in activities they consider important. About one-quarter do so only occasionally, while 7% rarely or never do.

This alignment is strongly connected to wellbeing. Individuals who frequently engage in activities they value are far more likely to be thriving — defined here as rating their current life at 8 or above and their anticipated life in five years at 9 or 10: More than four in 10 Americans who often do what they value meet the thriving threshold. That figure drops to 26% among those who only occasionally do what they value, and to 20% among those who rarely or never do.

###Embeddable###

Bottom Line

Americans share a clear vision of what constitutes a good life, anchored in housing stability, meaningful social relationships, physical health and financial security. While many regularly experience what they value most, large portions of daily life are devoted to activities that Americans do not regard as essential to living well — particularly social media use and news consumption.

Experiences most strongly linked with higher life evaluations involve connection, security and self-expression. Even for some activities that few Americans deem essential — such as reading or creating art — moderate engagement appears to offer meaningful wellbeing benefits.

Perhaps the most important finding is that alignment matters. People who spend their time in ways that reflect their personal values report substantially higher levels of thriving. Creating environments, opportunities and routines that help Americans engage more often in the activities they value may support greater overall wellbeing and optimism about the future.

Stay up to date with the latest insights by following @Gallup on X and on Instagram.

Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works.

###Embeddable###