As you get older, you get a running list of things you can’t do anymore, like pulling an all-nighter or eating a gas station burrito without regretting it for two days. How much that list ruins your mood might come down to one thing.
That thing is control, or at least the feeling of having some.
Researchers Maria Wirth, Anna Elena Kornadt, and Klaus Rothermund studied 268 adults between 50 and 91 to see how getting older affects happiness. They focused on perceived control, or the belief that your decisions can still influence what happens in your life.
This One Belief Could Shape How Happy You Feel as You Age
The people who noticed themselves losing abilities were less happy when they also felt powerless to do anything about it. Those who believed they still had some control were far less bothered by the same age-related losses.
Think about developing a bad knee. You could decide your hiking days are over and retire your boots permanently. Or you could find another way to stay active, even if that means trading the mountains for a swimming pool. The researchers warned that avoiding activities out of fear of injury can lead to further physical decline. And being stuck at home because you’ve stopped doing things you enjoy won’t improve your mood.
There’s also a strange upside to aging that researchers have been discussing for years. Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen has studied why older adults often report greater happiness than younger people, despite more physical limitations.
“Older people are happy. They’re happier than middle-aged people, and younger people certainly,” she said during a TED talk. Her research suggests that as people become more aware of how much time they have left, they get better at deciding what’s worthy of their attention.
Your attitude toward aging could even be connected to how long you live. Yale researcher Becca Levy found that older adults with positive beliefs about aging lived, on average, 7.5 years longer than those with negative ones. That’s an association, of course, but a fascinating one.
So what can you do with all this? The research suggests that maintaining some independence and finding ways to adapt when your body stops cooperating could help. You can learn something new at 65. You can change your routine at 80. And you can certainly stop assuming that every new birthday means another thing you have to give up.
The burrito is probably still a bad idea. Nearly everything else is negotiable.
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