The Harvard Happiness Study & What it Takes to Be Socially Fit | Dr. Robert Waldinger

In today’s episode, we cover happiness with Dr. Robert Waldinger. Bob is the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a 75-year-long Harvard study of adult life, and the co-author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness. Our social fitness was shaken over the last few years thanks to the lockdown, so what can we use from the longest study on happiness to improve our social fitness and rebuild lost relationships? What to Listen For Introduction – 0:00 How did the “Harvard Happiness Study” come about? What is the Harvard Study of Adult Development and how did it start? Social Fitness – 13:01 What is social fitness and how did the pandemic affect your social fitness? The Biggest Motivation for Self Development – 24:18 What gives you the greatest motivation to improve your life? What is the secret to happiness and how do you implement it at any age? How do you make new friends? – 37:11 What should you say when you want to reconnect with someone? How to stop feeling lonely? How do you start a conversation with a coworker? What are unhappy marriages missing? – 46:00 How do happy couples stay happy forever and how can you implement in your relationship? The Harvard Study of Adult Development turned out to be the longest running study about what makes people happy. Considering the increase in mental health issues and loneliness that we experienced over the last few years, the wisdom learned from the study has the potential to help us recover our pre-pandemic social fitness and get back enjoying life again. A Word From Our Sponsors Are you ready to take your career to the next level in 2023? Looking to grow your high-value social circle? You are one relationship away from changing your entire life. Listen: your social circle, professional network, and lack of confidence are thwarting your attempts at accelerating your career. But there’s something you can do about it. After coaching over 10,000 clients including military special operators and Fortune 500 executives we’ve learned a thing or two about what it actually takes to grow your network. In fact, over 90% of the amazing guests on this show are from referrals in our personal networks. We’ve packaged our best insights inside a course called, Social Capital. And, as a thank you for being a podcast listener, we want to give you this training for FREE to start 2023. To get your hands on this training and immediately start improving your relationships, go to theartofcharm.com/sc Do you LOVE the toolbox episodes? Did you know that every week we give a LIVE mini-toolbox lesson inside our Private Facebook Group? Best of all it is FREE to join. Join today and get access to all of our live training and level up your communication, leadership, influence and persuasion skills. With 14,000 members it’s a great place to network, learn and overcome any obstacle that’s in your way. Running out of things to say in conversation… and still struggling to get people interested in you? That’s an uncomfortable position to be in. Don’t want to risk getting tongue-tied and screwing things up the next time you meet someone? Check out Conversation Magic now to make sure you don't crash and burn. With our bulletproof formula, you'll be flirting up a storm, sparking fun and engaging conversations, and making high-value friends anywhere! Additional Sponsors: Babbel - https://www.babbel.com/charm Hello Fresh - https://hellofresh.com/charm65 Athletic Greens - https://athleticgreens.com/charm NextEvo - https://nextevo.com/charm Resources from this Episode Harvard Study of Adult Development website The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study on Happiness Dr. Robert Waldinger’s website Check in with AJ and Johnny! AJ on Instagram Johnny on Instagram The Art of Charm on Instagram The Art of Charm on YouTube The Art of Charm on TikTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices