Something to look forward to...

Have you heard about the U-bend of life? I read a great article on happiness from The Economist (read it the whole article here) that talked about how happiness is like a “U” throughout the lifecycle.

There are many things that contribute to happiness, the main four being gender, personality, external circumstances and age. Between the two genders, women are happier than men on the whole, but also have a higher tendency to be depressed. As far as personality is concerned, there are two main traits that contribute to happiness. The first is neuroticism, which leads to unhappiness, and the second is extroversion, which translates to more happiness. Children, education, and income are just a few examples of external circumstances that are factors of happiness.

Most of the examples mentioned so far make sense, but when we look at age, the results are a little more interesting. We start out and are happy as babies, children, and teenagers, but as we age and reach middle age, we are the least happy. After middle age, however, not only will we be happier again, but we will be much more happy than at early adulthood. Not surprisingly, it has been found that the unhappiest age is 46 (mid-life crisis anyone?).

At first it was thought that external circumstances caused this U-bend, but since most older people are no longer making money, are employed, or have children in the house, this doesn’t make sense. Laura Carstensen, a professor a Stanford University as another explanation; she says, “Because the old know they are closer to death…they grow better at living for the present. They come to focus on things that matter now—such as feelings—and less on long-term goals.” We may not know exactly why this U-bend occurs, but at least we know our “golden years” really are ahead of us, and this happiness may also give us better health, less stress, and better productivity.