IT'S WORTH WAITING FOR

To enjoy life more, embrace anticipation

- Holly Burns

ALLE PIERCE KNOWS how to plan a vacation. A few months ahead of time, she "goes on a crazy Google spree," constructing a spreadsheet of all the things she wants to do and see. She scrutinizes the menus of restaurants she is planning to visit. She uses a picture of the destination as her phone's locked screen image and downloads a countdown app.

"What's so exciting about a trip is the anticipation before it," says Pierce, founder of a luxury travel company called Gals Abroad Getaways, which plans group trips for women. Experts say she is probably right. Numerous studies suggest that having something to look forward to boosts your mood and lowers your stress.

"Imagining good things ahead of us makes us feel better in the current moment," says Simon A. Rego, chief psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. "It can increase motivation, optimism and patience and decrease irritability."

Of course we can't just book a flight every time we need a little cheering up. But there are ways to harness and incorporate the power of anticipation into your everyday life.

GET EXCITED ABOUT A LOT OF LITTLE THINGS

Anticipating a smattering of small, delighful experiences can be as enjoyable as looking forward to one big event, says Carrie L. Wyland, a social psychologist at Tulane University in New Orleans.

"At the end of every day, write down one thing you're excited for tomorrow," she says. "Maybe it's a new book, or getting pastries, or a package you're expecting."

The accumulation of these mini thrills means you will still reap the benefits of looking forward to something, even if it's not a big-ticket reward, says Christian E. Waugh, a psychology professor who studies anticipation at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.