The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50
Written by Jonathan Rauch
Narrated by Robert Fass
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
"Robert Fass proves the perfect guide to exploring these concepts of age and happiness. Presenting the author’s personal journey, and his research and interviews, Robert keeps listeners engaged and tuned in to this fascinating study." — AudioFile Magazine
This audiobook will change your life by showing you how life changes.
Why does happiness tend to get harder in your 40s? Why do you feel in a slump when you’re successful? Where does this malaise come from? And, most importantly, will it ever end?
Drawing on cutting-edge research, award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch answers all these questions. He shows that from our 20s into our 40s, happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, a “happiness curve,” declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low slump in middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s.
This isn’t a midlife crisis, though. Rauch reveals that this slump is instead a natural stage of life—and an essential one. By shifting priorities away from competition and toward compassion, it equips you with new tools for wisdom and gratitude to win the third period of life.
And Rauch can testify to this personally because it was his own slump, despite acclaim as a journalist and commentator that compelled him to investigate the happiness curve. His own story and the stories of many others from all walks of life—from a steelworker and a limo driver to a telecoms executive and a philanthropist—show how the ordeal of midlife malaise reboots our values and even our brains for a rebirth of gratitude.
Full of insights and data and featuring many ways to endure the slump and avoid its perils and traps, The Happiness Curve doesn’t just show listeners the dark forest of midlife, it helps them find a path through the trees. It also shows how we can—and why we must—do more to help each other through the woods.
Praise for The Happiness Curve:
"The Happiness Curve delivers on the promise of its title, with wise insights and practices to help you become the best you can be. Leave the midlife slump. Enter into an encore adulthood of powerful purpose." — Richard Leider, international bestselling author of The Power of Purpose, Repacking your Bags, and Life Reimagined
"Do you wish to understand the arc of your life? And why you are likely to end up happier than you are right now? If so, The Happiness Curve is the best place to start. And I write this as someone who can vouch that the upper part of the happiness life curve is very glorious indeed." — Tyler Cowan, New York Times bestselling author of The Complacent Class and The Great Stagnation
Jonathan Rauch
Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He has also written for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among many other publications. He lives with his husband in Washington, DC.
Related to The Happiness Curve
Related audiobooks
Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life that Matters to You Now Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mindfulness 25th anniversary edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Cuts to Happiness: Life-Changing Lessons from My Barber Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Happy Mind, Happy Life: The New Science of Mental Wellbeing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roar: into the second half of your life (before it's too late) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Long Bright Future: An Action Plan for a Lifetime of Happiness, Health, and Financial Security Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be Sad: Everything I’ve Learned About Getting Happier by Being Sad Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Thriving with Anxiety: 9 Tools to Make Your Anxiety Work for You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Should I Do With My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How We Change: (And Ten Reasons Why We Don't) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Prescription for Happiness: How to Eat, Move, and Supplement for Peak Mental Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midlife: A Philosophical Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Younger Next Year, 2nd Edition: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart-Until You're 80 and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Self-Improvement For You
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mountain is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You’re Not the Only One F*cking Up: Breaking the Endless Cycle of Dating Mistakes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How To Win Friends And Influence People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Highly Sensitive Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How to Say No Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Happiness Curve
21 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As someone who has had a rough time in my midlife transition this book was quite informative. It reinforces that the “bottom of the U” of the happiness curve is experienced by most in some form or another. This book will assure you that you’re not going crazy, and give you an idea of what to expect on your midlife journey.