2 Habits That Make Your Life Exponentially Happier, By A Psychologist

InnovationScience2 Habits That Make Your Life Exponentially Happier, By A PsychologistByMark Travers,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about relationships, personality, and everyday psychology.Follow AuthorJun 05, 2026, 05:30pm EDTHappiness is much simpler than we often think. These two science-backed habits are empirically linked to greater well-being across cultures worldwide.gettyThe pursuit of happiness is a life journey that transcends borders, cultures and language. For many people, it’s the one, singular thing we hope to achieve with our lives, if nothing else. We spend years searching for the right habit, mindset or milestone that will finally bring us lasting happiness.Yet at the same time, happiness can feel incredibly elusive. It’s portrayed in countless ways and associated with countless things. Money, family, career, love, success — we’re shown so many different paths to finding happiness. But after spending years chasing them down, many people discover they aren’t quite as happy as they imagined they’d be.Part of the reason is that what constitutes happiness in one part of the world won’t necessarily translate to another. Western individualism versus broader collectivism, combined with the countless differences that make each person unique, makes it extraordinarily difficult to prescribe a single, universal path to happiness.However, through decades of research and cross-cultural psychological studies, scientists have made remarkable progress in identifying several predictors of happiness that appear to transcend cultural boundaries. Below are two of them and how, regardless of who you are, incorporating them into your daily life can make you exponentially happier.Habit 1: Be KindKindness is one of the most universally recognized virtues, but it’s also one of the most reliable predictors of happiness. Although many people think of kindness as something that only serves to benefit the recipient, ps...