How to crack the code to happiness in the second half of life

[cheryl]

How to crack the code to happiness in the second half of life - NPR​

You've got to do the work. You can't just wish for it, and you can't hope you get lucky.

The point of the work that I'm doing as a social scientist is to not leave your happiness up to chance but to remarkably increase the odds by doing the work at 25 and 45 and 65 so that by the time you're 75 and 85 and beyond, you're happier than you've ever been.

And I found that there are people who have cracked the code but, more importantly, that we don't have to leave happiness in the second half of life up to chance. We can find a new kind of success if we're willing to make some jumps and some changes and show some humility and have an adventure that's better than the first half.

On the intelligence needed for happiness​

There's a very interesting set of findings that said success early on is based on one of two types of intelligence. The first is called fluid intelligence, which gives you the ability to solve problems, to crack the case, to innovate faster and to focus harder than pretty much all the competition early on in your career. This is your Elon Musk brain, and this increases through your 20s and into your 30s.