Takes away from life.

According to Collins dictionary 'take away from' means- 'If something takes away from an achievement, success, or quality, or takes something away from it, it makes it seem lower in value or worth than it should be.'

I was asked to talk about the one best gift that I've ever gotten from someone. I said the following:
"Gifts don't really make me happy. Gifts are just materialistic things that make you happy only for a certain amount of time. Happiness for is achieving my long-term goals one at a time. But I guess it's not healthy to think this way. It takes away from life."

Does the bolded part make sense? Is it even correct?

How about It detracts from life?

PS Happiness for

Ashraful Haque said:

Does the bolded part make sense? Is it even correct?

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It makes sense to me. Or "It takes away from your enjoyment of life".

Ashraful Haque said:

Happiness for is achieving my long-term goals one at a time. But I guess it's not healthy to think this way.

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But this isn't clear. Do you mean it isn't healthy to think of achieving your long-term goals one at a time? Or that it isn't healthy to give as little importance to gifts as you do?

Try:

What makes me happy is achieving my goals.

Barque said:

But this isn't clear. Do you mean it isn't healthy to think of achieving your long-term goals one at a time? Or that it isn't healthy to give as little importance to gifts as you do?

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I meant that it's not a good thing to think so seriously all the time. Because gifts are supposed to make you happy and we should all appreciate the little things people do to make us happy.

Barque said:

It makes sense to me. Or "It takes away from your enjoyment of life".

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Does only 'takes away from life' without any thing else mean the same thing to you?

Ashraful Haque said:

Does only 'takes away from life' without any thing else mean the same thing to you?

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It means nothing at all to me.

emsr2d2 said:

It means nothing at all to me.

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'It takes away from the beauty of life.'

Does adding 'beauty of life' make it a correct sentence?

I suggested "your enjoyment of life". You've changed it to "beauty". If you're still referring to the fact that you don't appreciate gifts, that's a personal characteristic and refers to the way you lead your life.

That's why I used "your enjoyment". It's more to do with the way you lead your life than life by itself.