We inhabit a culture that places tremendous emphasis on the need to find ourselves, on the importance of self-actualization, self-expression, competition, achievement, and recognition. But highly successful young professionals who have worked very hard to put in place all of the pieces of the lives that they now lead can experience a sense of emptiness. They have landed at the tops of many ladders, only to experience first-hand the difference between busy lives and full lives. In this Flourishing Society lecture, Professor Candace Vogler (University of Chicago) drew on work by Aquinas and a number of contemporary scholars to explore the importance of a practical orientation directed to a good larger than the good of 'me and mine' in providing a context in which a busy life can be meaningful and open to the possibility of deep happiness.