Long-Term Harvard Study Concludes that Connection Means Contentment
The most stressful part of retirement? Is it concerns about your health? Are you worried about having the financial resources to live your chosen lifestyle? Are you nervous about getting the care you need in your golden years? While those are all common concerns among people who have left the working world, they’re not the keys to being happy in retirement. According to a study conducted by Harvard University, which looked at retirees over the last 85 years, the single biggest factor that contributed to their happiness and fulfillment was other people.
In the study, researchers looked at health records from more than 700 people, asking them specific questions about their lives and happiness every two years. Consistently, the participants said that what they missed most about working was the relationships, friendships and connections they had every day. Furthermore, most people who participated in the study said it was less about finding ways to fill their time than it was about finding ways to be with other people. The common perception that retirees need hobbies and activities only held true if those hobbies and activities put them in touch with other people.
In another study, which corroborated the findings at Harvard, researchers found that:
- More than three out of four retirees (76%) said that their greatest sense of meaning, purpose and fulfillment came from being with friends and family—unfortunately, less than half of the respondents (46%) felt that they did a good job of maintaining those important relationships.
- Only one of five participants said that what they missed most about working was the money they earned. Nearly half (41%) said that what was missing most in their retirement was the people and the environment in which they worked.
Researchers also said that the evidence was clear that too many people spent too little time during their work years cultivating relationships that could last after retirement. They concluded that more people could have happier retirements if they started thinking about what their relationships will look like when they are no longer working. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if you’re setting yourself up for a happy retirement:
- Do you have a network of friends and associates outside of the workplace, or is work the place you go to be with people? If it is, you may struggle to find contentment after retirement, unless you build the types of friendships at work that go beyond the workplace.
- Who are the people with whom you most like to work? Why do you like working with them? Have you established any type of relationship with them outside of work?
- Is there someone you would like to develop a stronger friendship with? How can you do that?
Take the time now to invest in the friendships that will serve you in your retirement.
