I found that one statement about happiness in Penelope Trunk's new book, Brazen Careerist (which I reviewed here) to have stood out more than any other, for me, in her book. And I know it's true (but I'd argue, in NYC, make it 55,000 or 60,000 instead of 40,000) and she talks about it today in her blog post on How a Job can Save You:
"...When we think about a job saving someone, we usually think about people in poverty. For example, Richard Easterlin, an economics professor at the University of Southern California found that earning enough to pay for food and rent can drastically change the lives of people in poverty–and give them the ability to achieve happiness. But he found that anything beyond around $40,000 a year does not have much impact on your level of happiness."
Shortly after 9/11, living in NYC, I was out of work for a while and while 40K was a fraction on what I used to make, it looked like Gold at one point.
"...The reason for this is that our happiness comes, for the most part, from the amount of optimism we have. Daniel Gilbert, in his book Stumbling on Happiness, spends 300 pages talking about all the research that shows how misguided we are about our ideas of happiness. The biggest mistake is thinking we can influence it much. Mostly, we can’t. Mostly we have no idea what will make us happy in the future–although we think we do. "
One thing that's nice about Penelope's post is the measurement of the potential for a job to provide happiness being tied to 4 qualities (which we all should look at):
"..attributes that The Economist reports that your job must have in order to make you feel productive and happy about your work:
1. Stretches a person without defeating him
2. Provides clear goals
3. Provides unambiguous feedback
4. Provides a sense of control
She also goes on to say:
"...The range of jobs that meet these requirements is wide. And they include jobs you might not expect. For example, hairdressers report they fire clients who treat them poorly, and janitors say that they get feedback from the people who are happy the floors are clean. Conversely, lawyers report having little control over their goals, since the clients frequently change them, and that they have little control over outcome because they are beholden to a judge, jury or ambiguous law.
So a job cannot make you happy, even if you wish it could. But it can save your life. People report that in times of extreme negativism and sadness — depression, poverty, or complete lack of connection to the world — a job has saved them. I have found in my own life, and experts agree, that work can rescue a dangerously unhappy life by providing routine, a connection to other people, and the feeling of contributing to the world."
It's nice reading Brazen Careerist (the blog) and having reviewed the book, to be reminded of what the metrics of happiness are - it's often not what we think.
Often, life gives us what we need, but not necessary, what we want in the way we wanted it. And, as far as optimism, I can use more.
In a recent meeting with Mike Moran, one of my former bosses at IBM and good friend, that he mentioned he used to be overweight and made a fundamental change to his diet (I think he talks about that in his new book as well - coming out in a couple months - I have read the manuscript and it's GREAT). It had to do with an attitudinal change - and he's been able to maintain his weight for several years now.
Message being (and I hope I learn this too) that while changing your happiness set point is hard, it's not impossible, just as changing your weight set point is hard, yet - not impossible. Difficult to maintain - initially, yes, but impossible? No. You just have to want to enough - for long enough, and you can be the weight you need to be and at the happiness level you need to be at.
Thanks to Panelope Trunk, for the insight about happiness.
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