"According to a report by The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, all these mentioned life goodies were topped by the biggest life goodie of them all: “autonomy”— defined as “the feeling that your life—its activities and habits—are self-chosen and self-endorsed.”
“Researcher Angus Campbell emphatically endorses the perks of autonomy. “Having a strong sense of controlling one’s life is a more dependable predictor of positive feelings of well-being than any of the objective conditions of life we have considered,” says Campbell.”