I have been preoccupied lately thinking about satisfaction and happiness, and what it means to be satisfied and happy. Satisfaction comes with a sense of accomplishment and contribution towards a worthy cause, mission, or unified interest that ultimately achieves something. Happiness comes with a sense of satisfaction, comfort, and possibly even pride in successful accomplishments or contributions to achieve that happiness. The two are intrinsically linked, but not exactly equal over time.
I plotted my own professional satisfaction and happiness over a seventeen year period and came up with the below where one line represents Satisfaction and the other Happiness. I'm generally satisfied and happy with the results of this exercise (which obviously include biased subjectivity).
