Hedonic Adaptation

Larry lived in an apartment downtown with his wife and his two kids, because he couldn't stand living in the suburb due to the traffic jam.
If he would live in the suburb, he would have to spend around 2-3 hours each day to drive to and from his downtown office.
His current trip time to and from the office is less than 1 hour on average, which means he got to spend more time with his family.

But he have always dreamt to have a big house for his family once he has kids because he believes a big house with a big yard is the best place for his kids to grow up. He could imagine the laugh and happy time that he could enjoy with his kids playing in the yard.

So he decided to buy a big house with a big yard like he always dreamed of, in exchange of 1-2 hours more suffering beating the traffic. He was very happy of his decision to buy the house, so was his wife.

Living in a big house with his family, playing with his kids were all as good as he always dreamed of. It surely was full of laughters and happy times, just like he thought they would if he bought the house in the suburb.
Life was good.

But..

Soon, Larry finds that the additional 1-2 hours trip time is starting to feel unbearable. He starts to get irritated more easily because he couldn't get home as soon as he used to. He begins to wonder if the additional 1-2 hours trip is worth it, because it seems he rarely gets to enjoy his big house and the happy time, he imagined he would have with his family.
He starts to wonder if buying the house in the suburb is the right decision after all.


And this is what experts called "Hedonic Adaptation".
It happens when a person sacrifice something to have more.
When you do it, you always think the sacrifice will bring something more valuable.

It surely is in the short term, but once you settle back into your normal-self without the hype from the expectation.
You might find that the sacrifice is not so worth it anymore.

Are you happy?

Happy? Good!
Unhappy? Find out why and how to fix it!



thanks to @flowingdata

The Secret about Happiness

There's no one that doesn't want to be happy.
It's everyone's ultimate goal.

'To be happy' will always be THE motive for us to do anything, even if it doesn't show.

The thing is, 'to be happy' is not easy.
It never was, it never will.

Why?

Here's why:
When you do something, you expect that you WOULD be happier when u completed it.
Take an example of you deciding to eat an ice cream:
When you bought the ice cream, you expect that your FUTURE SELF will be happy and appreciate that your CURRENT SELF is making the decision to buy and eat the ice cream.
But, you only predict that you would be happy.
There's no way for you to guarantee that you definitely will be happy.

And that's the reason why it's so hard to find happiness, because you can never be sure.
How could you know what will make you happy?

Then how?

Remember all those sayings that advises you to live in the present and not worry so much about the future?
That's the answer.

Enjoy the moment, live in the present.
Do things that makes you happy now.
And don't regret it later on, because you cannot blame your OLD SELF for failing to understand what you want now.
After all, your CURRENT SELF will have the exact same challenge to satisfy your FUTURE SELF.
And you might not be successful in doing it too.
Or, you might.
But who knows.

13thirtyone
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