HEDONIC ADAPTATION MEANING HOW TO

To prevent this, remain mindful of where you are in life and how far you’ve come. If a person is not mindful of how far they’ve climbed, they will only see the progress they have yet to make and feel unsatisfied with their life. The higher we climb on the ladder, the easier it is to see the rungs we still have yet to climb. We gradually become “used” to the material possessions we own or the status we achieve. Happiness doesn’t just disappear overnight.

If you find yourself at an unsatisfactory level of happiness, even though you’ve gone through positive changes, reflect on the “hedonic treadmill” that you’re running and make changes to ensure sustainable happiness. But happiness isn’t just about our status or what is in our bank account. We often believe that when we reach these goals, we will have “everything,” including happiness.

HEDONIC ADAPTATION MEANING HOW TO

Responsibilities, fulfillment of purpose, and time all play into your job satisfaction and overall satisfaction! How to Get Off the Hedonic Treadmillįrom the time we are young, we receive high expectations on what we need to achieve and who we need to be in life. Taking on a second or third job just to make an extra $20,000 a year may add more stress to your life than relief, as you’re spending more time at work and less time with your family. But money isn’t the only factor when it comes to freedom and how you spend your day. With more money, you can have more freedom to do the things that you like best. That study has proved to be inaccurate, but it doesn’t mean there is a magic number where a person feels their happiness “pleateauing.” A bump in your salary can certainly bring about celebration. People who make more than that amount of money may have access to higher-quality things, but aren’t necessarily happier. In 2010, a research study suggested that happiness “tops out” at a $75,000 a year salary. Within a year, you feel the stress of your new responsibilities and feel exactly how you did a year prior. When you finally get the promotion, you celebrate and feel relief for a little while. You tell yourself that if you just get this promotion, everything will change for the better. Let’s say you are working toward a promotion at work that comes with more stability, a pay bump, and a better title. The changes that affect hedonism don’t have to be as dramatic as winning the lottery. Think a billion dollars will change your life? It might, but it won’t change how happy you are. Lottery winners often return to a baseline level of happiness within a year of receiving their money. Research shows that’s not what actually happens. We dream of winning the lottery, taking a vacation, and living out the rest of our days in bliss. Examples of the Hedonic Treadmill Lottery Winners Focusing on fulfilling your purpose, rather than seeking pleasure, can create happier feelings over a long period of time. This is a harder type of happiness to obtain: one, because determining our purpose is a journey in and of itself and two, fulfilling that purpose can require a lot of hard work! But research shows that this type of happiness is more sustainable than hedonism. In other words, once we’ve digested our great meal, we become hungry for the next one.Īnother type of happiness, eudaimonia, is the joy we experience by knowing that we are fulfilling our purpose.

This certainly alters our mood, but is more likely to drop as quickly as it spikes. We experience hedonism when we eat a great meal or buy the shoes we’ve always wanted. Hedonism, or the enjoyment of pleasure, is just one type of happiness. Yes! Researchers have looked at two different types of happiness and how they affect our overall mood. This phenomenon is also called “hedonic adaptation.” Is The Hedonic Treadmill True? Whether they experience great success or great failure, they will reach the same level of happiness that they achieved before the change. The hedonic treadmill is the tendency for people to always return to a baseline level of happiness, no matter what happens to them. How to Get Off the Hedonic Treadmill What Is the Hedonic Treadmill?

Hedonic adaptation meaning