New Goal: Happiness
Yes, it is the 16th of January and I am still talking about goals, but I am going to keep it simple.
Happiness. There I said it. Isn’t this the baseline of what we all strive for, but we never really define what it is that makes us happy and we rarely set “maximizing happiness” as “the goal”.
In a book called “Aging Well,” published in 2003, George Vaillant wrote that six factors predicted healthy aging for the groups he tracked: physical activity, absence of alcohol abuse and smoking, having mature mechanisms to cope with life’s ups and downs, and enjoying both a healthy weight and a stable marriage.
More recent learnings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life. And, a new book released last week, “The Good Life” by Dr. Robert Waldinger shows us it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you have, and never too late to build new ones.
Reach out to old friends. Take a class and make new friends. Book time in your calendar to schedule social experiences. This is the heart of what it takes to live longer and to be happier.
