This is a remakably succinct summary of the findings of Martin Seligman, the iconic psychology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Seligman is a champion of the Positive Psychology movement whose research reveals three different paths to happiness.

The first is what he calls "The Pleasant Life," which consists of having as many pleasures as possible. Smiling and being cheerful are signs of The Pleasant Life. Seligman and his colleagues found this has little correlation to overall life satisfaction.

The second, and more profound, route to happiness is called "The Good Life." This means you know your signature strengths, and have re-crafted your work, love, friendships, and leisure to use those strengths. The goal is to increase the amount of time you spend in what's called a flow state, when you are so absorbed in an activity that the rest of the world ceases to exist and you get lost in the moment. People who spend a great deal of time in flow report very high levels of life satisfaction.

But the people who report the highest levels of life satisfaction are living and working primarily in the third path to happiness, which Seligman calls "The Meaningful Life." That's when you're using your signature strengths to get into a flow state, but it's done in the service of something larger than yourself.

To answer the initial question, "What else is there?" (besides the material symbols of success). That's easy: there is the profound sense of joy that comes from doing what you love, in a way that makes the world a better place. The purpose of education, then, might be to help students achieve this profound sense of joy.