There are decisions that shake a life. How can one explain this feeling of emptiness even after achieving a goal that was supposed to make us happy? Here is the scientific explanation. "I always dreamed of it and yet leaving it was my best decision." These words are those of Sophie, aged 39, who decided to put down a burden: that of her profession, for which she had undertaken long studies, worked hard, climbed the ranks in her dream company, before ending it for her mental health. Just like Sophie, you may have sometimes felt that you did not feel the anticipated happiness after achieving a project or an eagerly awaited goal. We reassure you: this phenomenon is much more common than you might think. Spoiler: achieving your goals does not necessarily guarantee happiness. And even if some philosophers or happiness experts can confirm it in their self-development books, science has also confirmed it. According to a study published in 2005, researchers looked into the link between the progress of a goal and the level of well-being. For this study, which took place over nearly three years, 82 young people were followed. And the results are interesting: the progress declared in the pursuit of personal goals was associated with emotional well-being, job satisfaction and subjective professional development success. However, these progresses did not allow predicting an increase in emotional well-being or job satisfaction: "Only adults who perceived their goals as difficult to achieve also reported an evolution of their positive and negative affect, their job satisfaction and their subjective success of professional development over a three-year period." In other words, the more challenging and difficult the goal was to achieve, the more important the satisfaction was. However, the finding is clear: our personal fulfillment cannot depend solely on our ability to achieve or not achieve a goal. This feeling of emptiness may hide a lack of meaning. Like Sophie, you may feel empty even after achieving a project you had been waiting for a long time. This can be explained by the phenomenon of the empty life syndrome. Concretely, this translates into a lack of meaning in one's daily life, an element nevertheless essential to personal fulfillment. Boris Charpentier, a psychologist, explained this concept: "It can be summarized by a feeling of deep discomfort that a person can experience despite the external conditions in which they find themselves, and which, from an external point of view, may seem perfect." he said. For the expert, it is not so much linked to a lack of goal or challenge, but rather to a misalignment between personal values and daily life: "Excessive demands compared to life, in general, can cause this feeling of emptiness, regardless of what one does or the life one has. The greater the gap between our demands/ideals and the reality of life, the more suffering is important." To put it simply, achieving a goal that one thought was essential to one's happiness is not necessarily synonymous with fulfillment. And this reality can sometimes be disorienting. If happiness is no longer present, it may be time to ask whether the life one is leading truly corresponds to one's deep expectations.