Susan Charles is a professor of psychological science and nursing science at University of Southern California Irvine. Her research examines emotional processes across the adult life span. In this interview you’ll learn why older people enjoy life more as they age and how you can apply ideas to bring more joy to your life today.

Highlights from the interview:

• How Susan got into studying aging at University of Southern California.
• The importance of sticking with the research to discover insights.
• How to deal with an aging brain.
• The key to how older people handle tough situations.
• What younger people can learn from older adults about letting go of worries and frustrations.
• Building your self awareness to help you deal with the struggles in life.
• The power of keeping a gratitude journal to help your mindset.
• Why younger people are more likely to suffer from stress.
• Dealing with failure.
• How the successes will balance out the failures.
• You can play your heart out and lose, that’s ok.
• Building your resiliency is important at any age.
• Growth mindset and how to use it in your life.
• How our internal wiring affects the decisions that we make.
• People who tackle goals are happier.
• How to see what is holding you back from reaching your goals.
• Anxiety is common. 20% of people are experiencing it in their lives.
• Why researchers are neurotic.
• Surround yourself with people who have different strengths than you to build in powerful support.
• The importance of men sharing their feelings with their friends.
• The biggest difference between unhappy and happy couples.
• Her favorite book, podcast, speaker and tool that she uses to stay focused on her important work.

You can learn more about Susan over at the University of Southern California. You can also learn more about her research about aging here. 

And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I’ll do my best to get them on. If you love the interview please take 30 seconds to rate the Dig to Fly podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks!