If you’re in your 20s or 30s, it’s pretty natural to feel a dip in happiness. That’s because there is something called “The Happiness Curve.”
I remember reading about this study in 2010 from The Economist and I couldn’t get it out of my head.
It’s a worldwide study that says at 47.2 years of age that (on average) we’re our least happy.
Why is that?
Well… we have very little free time and a lot of responsibility at this age.
What Can I Cut Out?
So after hearing about the happiness curve in my late 20s I could already feel the slide.
But it didn’t really hit me hard until I was in my early 30s starting a family.
My first son was a very tough baby. Lots of tears were shed and I’m sure the baby cried too 🙂
I remember thinking how much pressure and discomfort I was feeling because I was juggling a lot:
- Taking care of the baby
- Taking care of my wife anyway I could help
- My job
- Side-hustle gig
- Rental Property
As I looked at my list I realized there were things I could cut and things I couldn’t really change. There wasn’t a lot I could do to calm down a colicky baby. But I did control my 3,4, and 5.
For my situation I realized that work consumed about 50 hours a week and had a cap ceiling on pay. My side hustle was only producing 1/4 of my work pay and the rental property was cashing flowing a little less than that.
I knew I wanted out of my job and to work for myself. But I need more of a cash buffer (sometimes referred to as runway) than what I had.
So what I did was I sold the rental property for a good profit and kept a healthy cash cushion so I could work on my own business more.
This freed up some time each month too.
Next, I doubled down on my side-hustle on my YouTube channels. Once my income came up past my day job I had options.
Why Do I Share This?
I share this because too many people cut out the wrong stuff.
When things get difficult, they cut out the side hustle or working out (guilty of this). But they keep the safe things like working at your job.
I’m not going to lie, I had a pretty rough 18 months trying to get my YouTube revenue up, while renovating a rental property for sale, and maintaining my job on top of my family responsibilities.
But because of that struggle, I now am more time-rich than I’ve ever been. It’s because I cut out the things that couldn’t scale financially.
Think about the Happiness Curve and how it applies to your life. If you’re working full-time how much is your job limiting your happiness?
Figure out how you can transition over time into something more rewarding.
You can skip the dip if you free up your time and you’re not living in a constant state of overwhelm.
Onward and Upward!
Next Journal:
JOB: Just Over Broke
