making the money-happiness connection in the law
The latest issue of my alma mater’s quarterly magazine, Michigan Alumnus, provides some interesting commentary on a topic I've covered here a few times before: happiness. Giving the graduation 2006 highlights, one piece recounts how commencement speaker Christiane Amanpour - the respected journalist and correspondent – advised graduates to “find something that sets you on fire, that gives you passion and joy, something that you love and believe in so much that it makes you want to work all day and all night, something that will make you willing to sacrifice, something that instills in you a deep sense of commitment and a sense of mission.”
Another of the magazine’s articles briefly discusses a recent study examining people’s ability to remember or predict happiness over their lifespan. The study showed that young and older people alike believe that “young people are happier than older people, when in fact research has shown the opposite.” Fuller coverage of the study can be found in a press release leading with the familiar lyrical line Hope I die Before I Get Old.
Our ability to predict and find what makes us happy is also explored in a new group of CareerJournal.com articles. The one that really grabbed my attention comes from blogger and former lawyer Gretchen Rubin. Considering the money-happiness connection, Rubin proposes that, when spent the right way, money does help buy happiness. And what’s the right kind of spending? According to Rubin, people should spend on things “that promote the components of happiness. The hedonic treadmill means that loading up on stuff, though gratifying for a moment, isn't a lasting source of happiness. Instead, spend money on your relationships, your health, and your experiences.”
If you want to read more on the subject, Fast Company's blog offers a happiness self-assessment tool for those of us who look at our legal careers and larger lives as an "If only _____, then I'd be happy” proposition. According to the piece, this is a misguided way of pursuing happiness because it takes us out of the present moment. With this point in mind, we're advised that, “if we want to be happy, we must come to grips with an important fact. That we've been fooling ourselves. Contentment, it turns out, is not a destination. Rather, it's a manner of traveling. And if we can't feel it today, we won't find it tomorrow.”
Terrific post.
Nice - and I need to track down the magazine on campus.