Investing in the Happiness Advantage

In a study appropriately titled “Very Happy People,” researchers sought out the characteristics of the happiest 10% among us. Do they all live in warm climates? Are they all wealthy? Are they all physically fit? Turns out, there was one, and only one, characteristic that distinguished the happiest 10% from everybody else: the strength of their social relationships. My empirical study of well-being among 1,600 Harvard undergads found a similar result-social support was a far greater predictor of happiness than any other factor, more than GPA, family income, SAT scores, age, gender, or race. In fact, the correlation between social support and happiness was 0.7. This may not sound like a big number, but for researchers it’s huge-most psychology findings are considered significant when they hit 0.3. The point is, the more social support you have, the happier you are. And as we know, the happier you are, the more advantages you accrue in nearly every domain of life.

Stewart Life Coaching can help.

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