A Slight Change of Plans How To Be Happier This Year
53 snips
Jan 20, 2026 
Laurie Santos, a Yale psychology professor renowned for her research on happiness, joins in an insightful conversation about well-being. They discuss the misconception that future achievements will bring joy and the importance of social connections in enhancing happiness. Laurie explains how happiness can be influenced more by prosocial acts than by selfish pursuits. With tips on mindful phone use and prioritizing time affluence, they explore actionable strategies to boost contentment. Overall, it’s an engaging look at how to cultivate joy in everyday life.
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Two-Part Definition Of Happiness
- Happiness combines your emotional balance and your reflective life satisfaction.
- Laurie Santos frames this as being happy in your life and happy with your life, the affective and cognitive parts of well-being.
We Mispredict Emotional Impact
- People overpredict how long and how strongly both positive and negative events will affect them.
- Dan Gilbert's impact bias shows mispredictions are larger for negative events than positive ones.
Hedonic Adaptation And Resilience
- Hedonic adaptation means we tend to return toward a baseline happiness after changes.
- That stability applies to good and bad events, making people more resilient than they expect.
