I had a professor who suggested plotting our individual level of happiness and income once per year. The result, for most people illustrated that as income rose over time, happiness didn’t. Much more recently, research has been published showing a U curve to happiness. Very high as a kid and young adult, then slowly dropping over time, hitting a low in your 50’s, then rising rapidly the older you get. The graph represents a smiley face of happiness.
If you are young, it is a depressing harbinger of potentially rough times ahead. If you are around 50, it is a ray of hope… your happiness should soon rebound. Independent of income. Across cultures, across countries, and surprisingly it even extends to non-humans, as shown by the happiness curves of simians below.
But my personal happiness plummet, I can tie to specifics over the last few years. And it is instructive to offering an actionable plan to create happiness… next post.