Do you adjust your thoughts about happiness as you age? If not, maybe you should…

Type a simple search into Google and you will bombarded by tips on how to be happy. You could spend weeks if not years reading all that advice on boosting well being.

Many of these articles are valuable, but most miss one essential truth, according to a fascinating video from Stanford social psychologist Jennifer Aaker: if you’re chasing happiness, you’re chasing a moving target.

By combing through more than 12 million personal blog posts and analyzing the language writers use to talk about their life and emotions, Aaker and her colleagues have shown that the definition of happiness shifts profoundly and predictably over time. Happiness at 15, in other words, feels wildly different than happiness at 55, and how to achieve happiness likewise diverges hugely.

In the five-minute video Aaker explains the five stages of happiness her research team has uncovered:

1. Discovery

The story opens with us in our teens when, as you no doubt recall, we tend to feel isolated, uncertain, and often unappreciated as we struggle to define our goals. At this stage, “when happiness is felt, it’s experienced as excitement,” the research reveals…

…keep reading the full & original article HERE