Even if you’re physically impaired, it’s best to keep working, either in a job or as a volunteer. Lamont Dozier, the co-writer of such iconic songs as “Heat Wave,” “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” (and with fourteen number-one Billboard hits), is 78 and still writing.

“I get up every morning and write for an hour or two,” he says. “It’s why the good Lord put me here.”

Too much time spent with no purpose is associated with unhappiness. Stay busy!

Daniel Levitin PhD