The Habits to Adopt after 30 to Become Happier

They are the same habits that will make you happier when you are 10 or 70. Usually, habits always work and your age has nothing to do with it.

The Source of Happiness

We are social animals. The overwhelming majority of people draw their happiness from social bonds.

Shawn Achor spent over a decade researching happiness. He traveled all over the world. He was puzzled to see middle-class Americans being unhappy, while at the same time he could observe genuinely happy people from Zimbabwe- and they were being evicted from their own farms!

Scientists researched plenty of possible correlations between happiness and everything they could think of: financial status, health, education, and so on. They determined only one factor positively correlated with lasting happiness: social connections.

Shawn also discovered that the happiest people have a profound sense of optimism.

Happiness Habits

So, in order to be happier, you need to work on your sense of optimism (internal trait) and your social connections (external interactions). It may be tough, I get it. Not everybody is a Pollyanna. As a formerly shy person and an ultra-introvert, I know how hard it is to build social connections.

Yet, there are some habits which can help you with one or both aspects.

1. Smile.

2. Keep a Gratitude Journal.

Every morning writes three new things you are grateful for. Even if you have the pessimism gene, this activity will help you to rewire your brain into positivity.

“When the brain is positive every possible outcome, we know how to test for rises dramatically.” — Shawn Achor

But from the perspective of happiness getting 15–35% better grades at school, salary, blood pressure, chances at promotion, fitness performance, immune system, or bank account balance are just nice byproducts.
The main benefit is that you are getting more optimistic. And it’s the #1 requirement to become happier.

3. Maintain Social Bonds.

The more interactive and in-person those social connections are, the better. Living in a thriving marriage beats a friendship. A friendship beats an acquaintanceship. An acquaintanceship beats keeping in touch with someone once a year.

There are a zillion ways to grow and maintain your social connections from having regular dates with your spouse, through regular lunches and phone calls, to being involved with some formal or informal group of people who are meeting regularly. Which ways you choose depends only on your whims… and your ability to keep up with social maintenance.

There is no sense in signing up to half a dozen classes to expand your social circle if you miss half of them because work or family obligations get into your way.

If you are a shrinking violet and can’t socialize very well check out my plan for overcoming shyness:
Michał Stawicki’s answer to How do you become confident if you are a very shy person?

A hint: it’s habit-based too.

The Shortcut

Spend more time with happy people. We are mimicking machines. It’s enough to be around happy people to become happier. You don’t need to observe them, study them or mimic them consciously. All you need is to spend more time with them, and all of this will happen in the background (subconscious) mode.

Become more optimistic and cultivate your social connections. Don’t do that in a random fashion. Adopt some of the above-mentioned habits. Or all of them ;)

Originally published on Quora