10 wellbeing tips, with a different flavour, inspired by a wise colleague.
I’m feeling a bit lazy today.
Well, intellectually lazy, not task lazy.
I AM getting my jobs done (just in case my manager is reading this) but I’d say I’m at 50% of my intellectual horsepower (which is limited to start with).
So I’ve decided to piggyback on someone else’s work to bring you 10 wellbeing tips!
Whose work??
Matthew Iasiello is the ‘Head of Data & Research Translation’ at Be Well Co.
Be Well Co built the Be Well Plan which should (fingers crossed) be making a comeback here at Flinders in 2026. Make sure you register your interest at the link if you’d like to do the program.
Matt is smart guy and that is an understatement. He also speaks to lots of smart people in wellbeing science as part of his podcast Researching Happy.
He recently published 10 lessons he’s learned from the 50+ conversations he’s had on that podcast. I thought they were very insightful, but probably skewed towards wellbeing scientists, rather than those interested in working on their own wellbeing.
So I played a game of wellbeing translation and took each of the 10 recommendations and tried to wrangle them into individually actionable wellbeing tactics. This kind of process is a little fraught I’ll admit, because some concepts and ideas don’t translate into personal habits or practices easily.
But I think I did a reasonable job and the resulting 10 are consistent with practices and perspectives I’ve encountered elsewhere and are a little different, given their origin.
Now a very wise rising social media star recently told me that ‘top 10 tips’ posts are dead, but I’m growing more rebellious in my old age, so I’m going with one anyway!! I will just claim that my top 10 tips (which are essentially stolen from someone else) are the bees knees.
1. Be an active mind owner.
Take ownership of your inner life. Write, draw, talk or meditate on your experiences so you can see them more clearly. Expand your vocabulary for emotions and thoughts by reading or listening to others’ accounts.
2. Use measures as guides, not absolutes.
Whether it’s a wellbeing survey score, a step counter, or a mood tracker — treat numbers as signposts, not verdicts. Use them to guide experiments with changes, not to judge or pigeon-hole yourself.
3. Define wellbeing for yourself.
Notice what truly matters to you, even if it differs from friends, family, or colleagues. Your path to wellbeing doesn’t have to look the same as anyone else’s.
4. Learn to read the dance between self and context.
Practice spotting when your inner state can shift through personal action (mindset, skills, habits) versus when the environment or system around you needs to change. Both are valid levers.
5. Accept life’s messiness.
Don’t wait for perfect calm. Wellbeing grows from working with difficulty, integrating pain and setbacks into a larger, meaningful story of your life.
6. Hold mental illness as part of the picture.
See it as woven into (not separate from) the wider tapestry of mental health. A diagnosis doesn’t define all of you; it’s just one piece of your overall mental life.
7. Seek triangulation in expert advice.
Lots of people are telling you how to live. Notice where different voices overlap. Agreement across fields (psychology, sociology, philosophy, lived experience) is often a solid starting point for personal action.
8. Look beneath the surface of modern wellbeing promotion.
Pause before chasing quick fixes, trendy apps, or glossy slogans. Ask: Does this genuinely help me grow, or is it more of a wellbeing “illusion”?
9. Honour diverse perspectives.
Recognise that Western science has dominated wellbeing research. Be curious about how people from other cultures define and live wellbeing. Let their ideas expand your own.
10. Stay critically curious.
Treat wellbeing science as a work in progress. Keep asking questions, stay sceptical of over-hyped claims, and develop your own informed perspective.
If you need me to clarify any of these, let me know in the comments.
Take care everyone.
