At your 80's, would you be happier than you are today?

Imagine yourself 10 years from now.

Would you be happier or less happy than you are today?

The vast majority of young people think they will be happier, but when we ask them what their expectations are in 50 years, the answer is hazy and less optimistic, and many of them think their lives in their late 70s won't be great.

The real question for many people is, is happiness possible in our 70s and 80s, and how can we achieve it?

This question is very important, because humanity as a whole is moving towards aging, as the number of people over 60 years old in 2020 reached more than one billion people, and this number is expected to reach 1.4 billion people in 2030, and it will reach about 2.1 billion people in 2050, and people over the age of 80 at that time will reach 426 million people, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization.

Returning to the previous question, scientific research has proven that happiness tends to decline during youth and middle age, reaching its lowest level around the age of 50, and then the indicators of feeling happy return to rise until the mid-sixties after that, then something strange happens, where Older people fall into two groups as they age: those who get happier, and those who become miserable.

Those who planned ahead and saved for their money and their health were better able to provide for themselves comfortably, and therefore more happy (Getty Images)

The importance of planning for the future

At this time in life, many people realize the importance of making good decisions during their young years, and those who planned ahead and saved for their money and their health were more able to provide for themselves comfortably, and therefore more happy, unlike those who did not save and did not plan for their old years .

There are many people who have certain plans for their retirement, and invest in them, such as subscribing to social security institutions or pension funds, or even in insurance companies against disability and old age, and invest in them in their youth years, and there are others who do not do that, and live their lives day by day.

In this context, financial planners advise their clients to engage in specific behaviors, so that saving becomes an automatic behavior;

And stay away from unwise behaviour, for example: Think carefully before you buy that luxury car that will lose half its price in a year or two, we can all teach ourselves to do some very specific things at any age to make the coming decades happier.

Happy seniors when they were young tended to accumulate some resources and develop some healthy habits that contributed to their happiness as they got older (Getty Images)

Harvard treasure trove

In 1938, researchers at Harvard Medical School put forward a distinct idea, which is to study the lives of a group of young people who study at the university, and follow the development of their lives from youth to adulthood to old age, and every year researchers ask participants about their lifestyles, habits, relationships, work and happiness .

The study has since expanded to include other people outside the university, and its results have been updated regularly for more than 80 years. These results are a truly treasure trove for scientists and researchers. They can follow how these people lived, loved and worked in their twenties and thirties. They see how their lives have transformed over the following decades.

And with this crystal happiness ball, you can learn how to invest in your future well-being.

After the Harvard study participants advanced in age and reached old age, the researchers rated them on two factors: their feelings of happiness and health, and here appeared two very different and disparate groups.

The first group: the "happy", who are in good physical and mental health and are satisfied with life, and on the other end of the spectrum are the "unhappy", their physical and mental health was below average, and they were not satisfied with life.

When they were young, happy old people tended to accumulate some resources and develop some healthy habits that contributed to their happiness when they got older, in addition to that, there are other factors that affected their condition, and some of these factors cannot be controlled such as genetic influence and their descent from grandparents They live long, and there are no hereditary diseases in their lineage, as well as having parents who provided them with a happy and trouble-free childhood.

"Happy" are those who are in good physical and mental health and feel satisfied with life (Getty Images)

Seven Pillars of Happiness

However, there are a lot of factors that are under our control, and this can teach us a lot about how to plan for a happy life in late life, and in this context, American professor and writer Arthur C. (The Atlantic) recently - 7 important basic factors that we can control, and have a direct relationship to our health and happiness in the future, and these are: not smoking, not using alcohol, body weight, exercise, emotional resilience, continuing education, and social relationships.

1- Don't smoke, and

 if you already smoke, stop now. You may not succeed on your first attempt, but the sooner you start the quit process, the more smoke-free years you can invest in your happiness account.

2- Drinking alcohol is religiously forbidden and harmful to health, and

 it is closely related to smoking in the Harvard study, as it is one of the most powerful factors that destroy the physical and mental health of humans, and leads to misery in the end. If you are an alcoholic, get medical help immediately, and if there is Someone in your family is dealing with this scourge, so do not imitate him and leave this door closed forever.

3- Maintaining a healthy body weight

is essential for a happy life, and here we advise you to follow a diet that contains a lot of fruits and vegetables, but if you are overweight, follow a light diet with exercise, and avoid severe diets that you cannot maintain in the long term.

Stillness is the enemy of life, so prioritize movement in your life, by setting a time for it every day and sticking to that time, and here it can be said that the best time-tested way to do this is to walk daily.

Walk, walk is life.

4- The ability to adapt to the demands and

vicissitudes of life is very important, and the earlier in your life you can find healthy ways to deal with the inevitable difficulties of life;

You are more prepared if misfortune occurs in your 80s, which means acting consciously and avoiding the excessive rumination of sorrows or failures that each of us may experience in this life.

5- Continuous learning.

 More education leads to a more active mind in old age. This means a longer and happier life. This does not mean that you need to go to university.

You simply need to engage in lifelong learning, and that comes through reading so that reading becomes part of your daily routine.

6- Work on developing stable, long

-term relationships now. For most people, this includes a stable marriage, but other relationships with family, friends, and partners can also fall into this category. The goal is to find people you can count on and grow old with. Knowing that they will stand with you no matter the circumstances.

7. The best way to maximize your chances of happiness in your 70s

is to enthusiastically pursue all of these goals, but if you can pick just one of them, make the last one. Having a partner who shares with you the worries and pleasures of life, with strong family ties and friends who support you, is the most important building block of happiness.

Everyone loves happy endings in stories and novels, so let alone if this story is the story of your life… Start writing that ending today.