Treat your well-being like a meal and prioritize 3 ‘macronutrients of happiness,' says Harvard expert

Happiness is something that we all strive for, but there isn't a clear prescriptionfor the desired feeling. Social scientist Arthur C. Brooks, who teaches a happiness course at Harvard University, has been searching for the answers about what it means to be happy for decades, and he's arrived at some conclusions.

In Brooks' recent book with Oprah Winfrey, the pair explain that your goal in life should not be to attain happiness, but to constantly strive for "happierness." [Is that the word they use? lol Yes] Brooks often emphasizes that happiness is not a destination, but a direction — something that you should aim to increase without an end goal in mind.

"It's not just 'Go get happier.' That's too general," Brooks said on a new episode of the "Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris" podcast. "I talk about the sub-parts, the macronutrients of happiness."

"When I meet somebody, I can figure out pretty quickly where their 'diet' is not up to snuff, where they're lacking in their macronutrients of happiness and we can work on the subdimensions," he added.

Here are the three macronutrients of happiness, according to Brooks, and how you can optimize them in your life.

The happiest people "enjoy their lives. They get a lot of satisfaction in their activities and they have a sense of meaning about why they're alive," Brooks said on the podcast. "These are the protein, carbohydrates and fat of happiness."

People often assume that enjoyment is simply pleasure, Brooks said, which isn't an accurate way to think of it. If you live a life where you're constantly chasing purely pleasurable experiences, "that is a terrible way to live a fulfilling life," he said.

"What we need to do, by the way is not to get rid of the sources of pleasure, but