If you're not already reading Aretae...

Start. The guy is way more thoughtful than I am:

The top 8 predictive factors (that I know) impacting a person's quality of life (across many dimensions) are (in order, as I understand it):

Location (country/state/etc. -- see here for instance)
Patience
Self-Efficacy
Social/Emotional Intelligence
IQ
(roughly tied with 5) Conscientiousness
Resilience
Optimism

RTWT: http://aretae.blogspot.com/2012/11/social-science-news-oty.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Aretae+(Aretae)&m=1