A quick warning, if you're under 50, this video doesn't particularly include any good
news for you.
And this is meant to be a good news video.
So you may wish to scroll on.
Okay, now the young ones have gone.
Let's get into the good news.
And it's all about my favorite chart in the whole world.
And that's the average life satisfaction by age chart.
Or as it's sometimes called, the happiness curve.
So what this shows is that from the age of 50, the average happiness across the world
increases.
And we see these similar smile curves in high income, middle income and low income countries.
And the UK is no exception.
So if you're an average 50 year old, things are looking up.
At least on happiness fronts anyway.
And what's even better is the same truth, you're 60, 70 or even 80.
Happiness often improves after the age of 50 due to seven different factors.
And number seven for me is particularly important.
The number one, that's life experience and wisdom.
So by the age of 50, many people have accumulated a wealth of life experiences and wisdom.
And this helps them face challenges better and also to appreciate some of the positives
in life.
Now the second one is financial stability.
So many individuals are more financially stable by the time hit the 50s.
And this reduces money related stress and allows you more time to enjoy life.
The third one is personal relationships.
Now relationships do become more meaningful as you get old and friendships and family
bonds just become much more important in life.
And there's often more time to work on these relationships and these connections.
The next one is self acceptance.
People tend to have a better understanding and acceptance of themselves.
And this leads to increased confidence and contentment really.
Next one for me is the focus on health and well being.
So quite often when we get to this age, there's often much more time spent thinking about
our health and our own well being.
And this can contribute to an overall level of happiness.
And then we've got freedom and leisure.
So our children have grown up, careers have been established and there's often more time
for hobby use and travel and some of the leisure activities.
And the last one, most important one for me is that we step off the hedonic treadmill.
So this is the tendency for us humans to return to a relatively stable level of happiness
despite significant positives or negative events in our life.
So if we wide the hedonic treadmill, this often refers to the cycle of continually seeking
new pleasures or new material gains in the hope of achieving some less than happiness
only to find that the happiness is really temporary and you quickly return back to your
base level of happiness.
And this cycle can lead to constant pursuit without ever feeling truly happy.
I read one Sir Tungun Cheek comment in one of my videos which said that I will never
truly be happy until I get the iPhone 12.
That really did make me chuckle in there.
It stuck with me for some time actually.
So here are some key aspects of riding that hedonic treadmill.
So temporary happiness, achievements or acquisitions buying things like a new car or a promotion
or a holiday.
These provide very short term boosts in happiness.
And then we have something called the dictation which over time you get used to these new
circumstances.
This initial happiness fades and then phase three is increased desires and as you adapt
your expectations and your desires increase.
This leads to you to seek out more and more intense sources of happiness.
Then you have the cyclical pursuit and this creates a cycle where you're always chasing
the next new thing but never really achieving that lasting contentment you're always looking
for.
So understanding this concept can help you to recognise the importance of focusing on
the sustainable sources of happiness as we mentioned and these are personal growth, meaningful
relationships and activities that actually align with your personal values.
Okay, so in our fifties we do tend to step off the hedonic treadmill and this definitely
brings some benefits.
And the first of these is increased life satisfaction.
So by focusing on these meaningful and fulfilling activities rather than constantly seeking
them new pleasures you can actually experience a deeper sense of contentment and satisfaction
with your overall life.
And also reduce stress.
So this constant pursuit of material gains and these fleeting pleasures can be really
stressful.
So shifting your focus to more sustainable sources of happiness and then there's also
enhanced relationships.
So this is prioritising the meaningful connections over the material possessions and this can
lead to much more fulfilling relationships and can provide a greater sense of belonging
and support.
And these all lead to improved mental health.
So things like being grateful, being mindful really do help you to step off that hedonic
treadmill and these have really been linked in lots of different studies to better mental
health and reduce symptoms of both anxiety and depression.
Okay, so we're all 50 plus.
We're getting happier every day and I'll check in with you regularly to see how we're all
doing.
See you on the next one.
Thank you.