After overhearing a successful, prominent man discussing how disappointed he was in life, social scientist Arthur Brooks decided to study how to find purpose, relevance and happiness as we age. The result is his book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose In The Second Half of Life (From Strength to Strength – arthurbrooks.com)

Arthur Brooks is a prolific author and professor of leadership at Harvard University. In his studies, Brooks considers the second half of adult life to start at 55.

Brooks found that half the population tends to get happier after 65 and 70, and the other half goes down on the happiness scale. He attributes the decline to people who accumulate disappointments over their waning abilities or relevance. The greater our achievements, the more painful the decline, he asserts.

“The group that goes back down often includes the strivers, the people who have worked so hard,” says Brooks. “If you’ve worked really hard to build things, to meet your goals, to get rewarded – when it’s finishes, it can be incredibly disconcerting, disappointing, even devastating to people,” Brooks told Mary Louise Kelly in an interview with NPR.

So Brooks went in search of the solutions to that problem, “to look at the people who had cracked the code of happiness,” he says. “And I think I might’ve found it.”

Brooks goes on to say that there is a different formula for succeeding in the second half of your life than what was needed for the first half. The second half requires what he calls crystalized intelligence. He defines crystalized intelligence as your ability to compile the information that’s in the vast library of your experiences…in other words, the wisdom you’ve gained from your life.

Brooks remains optimistic about our later years and believes anyone can learn the priorities and habits that lead to happiness in later life. These priorities include focusing on self-knowledge, detachment from empty rewards, and an effort to strive for service to others.