36-year-old happiness researcher shares what it means—and what it takes—to be happy: ‘Don’t just worry about yourself’

CNBC

At just 16, Michael Plant became interested in what people could do to maximize happiness, so he started studying philosophy.

Two decades later, Plant, 36, is a global happiness researcher at the Happier Lives Institute. As the founder and research director of HLI and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, which publishes the annual World Happiness Report, Plant knows a lot about what makes people happier.

Happiness, Plant says, is “the experience of feeling good overall. I think it’s that simple.”

Here’s what he does every day to maximize his own happiness and overall wellbeing. Plus, his biggest takeaways from the research he’s conducted about what it means to be happy — and what it takes.