Although even the egoist may occasionally encounter unforeseeable or unpreventable calamities, actions that are rationally targeted toward promoting one's life and physical and psychological health are also most likely to lead to long-term happiness. Consequently, the promise of such eventual happiness may provide psychological support for the egoist, helping him or her to postpone immediate gratification where necessary. The egoist's primary standard for evaluating alternative courses of action, however, is not happiness as such, but the expected effects of those actions on his or her life. Indeed, the effects of an action on one's long-term happiness can be assessed only indirectly, based its expected impact on one's life and health. In practice, any attempt to focus on happiness as the chief standard or criterion is likely to degenerate into a form of hedonism, ultimately destructive both to the self and to happiness.