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Make This 1 Tiny Change to Radically Improve Your Relationships This Year
The Harvard Study of Adult Development has tracked the lives of 724 men (and now their descendants) for more than 80 years. It’s the longest-running study ever on what makes for a happy, fulfilling life, and it’s gathered reams of data and generated endless articles and insights.
But when its original director, George Valliant, was asked to sum up its findings his response was simple: “Happiness is love. Full stop.”
Healthy relationships are the beating heart of a happy life. They’re also the engine of business. Every successful professional knows that pretty much every industry runs on relationships, and science shows those in happy, supportive partnerships are more likely to be successful professionally. Even friends have a profound impact on our lives, busting stress, boosting resilience, and generally making life more delightful.
Whatever your goals for 2022, strengthening your relationships — of all kinds — will help you get there. Luckily, many of the most impactful relationship advice out there applies to basically every kind of relationship and much is it is relatively simple to implement. I’ve written about some of these tips before, but I recently stumbled on a goldmine of fresh ideas on the TED Ideas blog.