This is a screenshot to the Harvard Study of Adult Development.

This is the longest running, and perhaps most revealing study on happiness to ever exist. This project has followed 724 men since they were teenagers in 1938. Researchers have collected all kinds of health information regarding mental and emotional wellness in an effort to link traits and behaviours with levels of happiness.

Despite what most people think, it is not career achievement or money that leads to increased levels of happiness. While there is a ton of debate around this, some research has pegged that peak happiness index around $75,000 in household income (Kahneman, 2010).

The reason I want to say this is because I work with people every day who genuinely crave to feel better and have high levels of energy and vitality, but they have a hard time getting there. From the outside looking in, it would appear their work is the largest impediment to their success (aka, working long hours, irregular shifts, burnt out, having bosses they don’t like). While a lot of this can be self-imposed, it is also our responsibility to create lives for ourselves that we enjoy.

So, people please:

• Be hyper selective with where you work. If you notice patterns of burnt out in your workplace, start crafting another solution.
• Strategize to create the work-life situation that works for you and not for someone else
• Be relentless with setting personal boundaries. If people don’t respect you or your personal well-being then maybe it is not a good fit in the first place.
• Mostly importantly: never make decisions out of fear of “what might happen.” Sometimes we need to have the courage to take one step back to take two steps forward.

And yes, I did have 16 hours of hiking on the weekend to think about this 😉