Book * The Happiness Curve

As we slowly approach the summer holidays, we start collecting books. Anything from great novels carrying us away to another world to memoirs or insightful works on politics and society.

My husband Jo likes to order a pile and starts reading a few days after we settle down in the mountains. When the brain has slowed down a bit. I am more impatient in nature, often starting a book even before we leave.

One of the books I could not put down recently in diving into this special phase of midlife, is The Happiness Curve - Why life gets better after midlife, by Jonathan Rauch.

It's about 250 pages filled with knowledge and wisdom based on academic research.

As a journalist, the author has the gift of combining great stories about real people in midlfe with the science of what happens when you age in terms of goals, expectations and happiness.

If you have a period of feeling a bit grim, worried or unhappy around your mid forties to mid fifties, you are not alone. It seems that our feeling of happiness follows a U-curve, hitting its lowest point around that age. The funny thing is that seems to be the case, according to research, across the globe, and the curve is more pronounced in wealthy areas.

Now why is that?

To understand completely, you have to read the book, but it comes down to this. Once we start to work, around the age of 20-25, we have high expectations of life and are very goal driven in achieving all kinds of succes. Reality often seems a bit less shiny, so our feeling of happiness decreasees. Around 25 years into our working life, we start shifting expectations. We realize that by now, this is what real life looks like.

You may recognise this feeling of 'Is this it?' along your own personal life journey. It means you are at a tipping point, at the start of the upward happiness curve. Because your expectations are lower, reality feels better. You experience all the great things in your life, that were already there, much more as a source of happiness, a gift. Also, your focus tends to shift from your close inner world, yourself and your family or work circle to a broader range, having more interest in matters of society.....

So, the happiness curve is a matter of changing expectations and shifting focus.

If you are in your third quarter, you are right in the middle of this. If you are at the start of the upward happiness curve, asking yourself the right questions can help. That's what we do at our Midlife Growth Track, 3 online sessions to find your answers. The next series start this fall. Book one of the 10 seats here.

Stay tuned for more midlife hacks to navigate your third quarter in a positive way.

Elke & Jo

• P.S. 1: Any other great books or podcasts about midlife I should know about? Just drop me a message so I can share it with all the other Third Quarters in this community.

• P.S. 2: To find out where you are today and get regular midlife hacks for professional growth, scan the QR-code below or take our free Third Quarter Scan with the QR-code below.