The cited age was 47.2 years. I can verify this to be true, at least for me, and nearly to the day of being 47.2 years old. That was quite a while ago now, multiple years. I am no longer ‘miserable’ in the form I was then, but I’m not sure ‘content’ would be accurate for now either.
It’s a long road back when you get to that place where you are ‘miserable.’ It’s not a pleasant journey, even when things are steadily improving. If you’ve never been to that dark place, don’t just flippantly tell a miserable person to ‘be happy’. It doesn’t work that way. Even when there are many things to be happy about. There are demons to fight; and they can overwhelm you.
It’s an individual journey to purposely make the choice to find the good in situations, people, and most of all, yourself, to live a more satisfying life.
Well said!
Someone - it may have been Abraham Lincoln - said that ‘Most people are about as happy as they decide to be.”
I really began to live in my 40s. The older you get, the more you understand what really matters. You know yourself better; know what you really want instead of what culture has told you that you OUGHT to want; you’ve dropped a lot of foolishness, and have the detachment and concentration to ‘go for it’.
You just have to stop accepting other peoples’ ideas about aging and what’s possible to you at any particular point in life. Middle-aged people today are a lot younger than they used to be, and it’s not just because of medical advancement. It’s because we’ve learned to think differently, too.