Everyone wants to feel less stressed, especially entrepreneurs; a landmark study shows 45 percent of entrepreneurs report feeling stressed and anxious, percentage points higher than other workers. 

In a broader sense, feeling stressed and anxious is widely prevalent. A recent study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic shows that 1 out of 3 respondents ranked their mental health as “low.” And it gets worse: 45 percent of respondents said they had dealt with anxiety in the previous week. Thirty-six percent said they had experienced sadness or depression.  

The last part of that sentence is telling, yet not in the way you might think. Research shows only 40 percent of the people who experience depression seek some form of support. 

And that one in four say they have “no idea” how to improve their level of happiness and overall emotional wellbeing.

The good news? There are simple ways to better deal with stress and anxiety, improve your overall outlook, and increase your feelings of happiness.

But first, let’s talk about the nature of happiness.

Your Happiness Set-Point

Research shows that approximately 50 percent of your level of happiness – what psychologists call your happiness set-point — is determined by hereditary personality traits. Think nature, not nurture. 

Bummer. But then again, that means approximately half of your subjective well-being — a term psychologists like better than “happiness” — is within your control. 

How you’re made affects your happiness. So do current circumstances. 

Unfortunately, you can’t do anything about your genes. You often can’t control your circumstances (although you can control how you respond).

But you can always control what you do on a regular basis — and as a result, increase your subjective level of happiness and well-being.

So let’s see whether you’re doing any of the following on a regular basis.

Focus on Staying Positive, Not Being Happy

A study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology in 2020 determined most people fall into one of two basic categories:

  • People who focus on being happy. Happiness is their goal: they think about happiness – even in moments when they feel happy. When they aren’t happy, they think they’re failing.  As a result, when faced with negative emotions they tend to struggle — and rate themselves as relatively unhappy.
  • People who focus on staying positive.  Positivity is their goal: They look for ways to feel and stay positive. They structure their day around maximizing positives and minimizing or avoiding negatives. As a result, when stuff happens, they tend to see negative emotions as part of life. 

Why does focusing on staying positive rather than being happy matter? Research shows experiencing negative and positive emotions — what psychologists call “emodiversity” — is an essential component of overall health and subjective well-being

If you want to be happier, sometimes you need to feel a little sad.

And when you do feel sad, the key is to work the problem and determine how to make things better. To turn feelings of stress or anxiety into action. To turn, “Woe is me,” into, “How can I get back to emotional-neutral?” and eventually into, “How can I turn this into a positive?” (Or at least work to ensure that whatever happened doesn’t happen again.)

As the Stoics would say: You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond.

Get Regular “Nature” Time

A 2019 study published in Scientific Reports found that spending two hours per week outdoors can significantly improve overall wellbeing. 

According to the researchers, “Compared to no nature contact last week, the likelihood of reporting good health or high well-being became significantly greater. It did not matter how 120 minutes was achieved (one long versus several shorter outings per week).”

Why? Possibly because being outdoors is a proxy for activity. But then again, other research shows psychological benefits can be gained from sitting passively in natural (as opposed to urban) settings. 

There’s also the matter of correlation and causation. Maybe happier people simply tend to spend more time outdoors. Then again, one study found that women recently diagnosed with breast cancer who spend two hours a week in nature experienced “restored cognitive resources depleted by the stress of their diagnoses and early treatment,” and experienced lower levels of stress

Bottom line? Spending a couple hours a week outside helps improve your overall sense of wellbeing and happiness.

Buy a Little Time

In a 2017 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers surveyed thousands of people who occasionally paid other people to perform tasks they didn’t enjoy – or didn’t want to do. Like house cleaning. Yard work. Errands. Things people need to do, but don’t always want to do.  

The result? People who were willing to spend a little money to buy a little time were happier and felt greater overall life satisfaction than people who did not.

And here’s the thing: While relatively wealthy people who spent money to buy a little time were happier than relatively wealthy people who did not, people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who spent money to buy a little time were happier than those at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who did not.

In short, having money didn’t make people happier. What they did with the money they had is what mattered.

The researchers then added a twist to the study, giving participants money and a choice: Buy things, or buy time. Turns out buying time left people feeling happier, less stressed, and more satisfied than buying things.

The key to buying time is to consciously decide how you will use the time your money freed up. Buying time will make you happier only it feels intentional and purposeful: not because you don’t have the time, but because you want to use your time differently. Instead of cleaning your house, you might decide to spend that time with family or friends. Or working on a project you’ve been putting off. Or working out. Doing something you want to do with the time you bought.

That’s when money can buy you a little happiness — no matter how much money you make.

Make the Only Comparison That Matters

Comparisons can be happiness killers. Psychologists call the result relative deprivation: Deciding that things other people have are things we also should have, even if we don’t need them — or, before we noticed, had never even thought we wanted them.

For many people, relative deprivation significantly impacts their level of happiness. A 2017 study published in IZA World of Labor determined that relative deprivation helps explain why average happiness has not increased despite a dramatic rise in average income around the world. 

The key to avoiding relative deprivation isn’t to avoid seeing things you might want; that’s impossible. (Hi, Canyon Ultimate CFR Disc Aero.) The key to avoiding relative deprivation isn’t to avoid meeting people whose success you might envy; that’s also impossible. (Hi, Sir Richard!)

The key is to know what you want. Your goals. Your dreams. Your ambitions. To know what provides you with the greatest sense of fulfillment and happiness. 

And then work to achieve, possess, or become those things.

Because where happiness habits are concerned, only two comparisons matter. The first is who you are today and who you were in the past. Making that comparison will remind you just how far you’ve come.

The second is who you are today and who you hope to someday become. Making that comparison will keep you focused on doing the things that make you feel more fulfilled, grateful, and happy. 

Focus a Little More on Your Friends

It’s easy to focus on building a professional network of partners, customers, employees, connections, etc., because there will (hopefully) be a payoff. 

But there’s a bigger payoff to making real (not just professional or social media) friends. Increasing your number of friends correlates to higher subjective well-being. Research shows doubling your number of (real) friends is like increasing your income by 50 percent in terms of how happy you feel.

Friendships will make you happier. Being nice to people you don’t know will make you happier. Even doing partial favors for people can make you happy.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Jeff Haden

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