![]() Here are examples from daily life where you go through the hedonic treadmill without your knowledge. You enter the starting point of the cycle with the target to buy a better car. The power seems ordinary, and the seats don’t seem as satisfying as they once were. The new state becomes the norm: In a couple of years, you and your family are used to the vehicle. You relish the new features, the acceleration, and the comfort. You feel thrilled to hold the steering for the first time and turn the ignition on. Whether your logic is genuine or just an excuse is beside the point.Īchieving the target: You buy the new car after taking many test drives and reading hundreds of articles from automobile websites. The reasons: You will have identified different reasons to justify buying a new car, such as a bigger family, better fuel efficiency, higher power, or a better status symbol. The want: You already have a car that does the job of taking you from point A to point B. ![]() Let’s see how the hedonic treadmill works when you’re buying a new car. The massive TV seems ordinary, and you consider buying an 8K Ultra HD screen. You now look for a promotion in your new career to increase your income and comfort. You soon adapt to the latest state of life and start aiming for something higher. Unfortunately, the feeling of joy dilutes with time. You feel overjoyed for a while and praise yourself for the decision, effort, and price. You learn new skills and make a career change or swipe your credit card to buy a gigantic curved TV. The confusion between your wants and needs prompts you to come up with justifications like those. That’s a genuine reason.īut, when you want to buy an expensive television, you tell yourself that the bigger screen will make a tremendous difference. Sometimes they’re genuine, and sometimes you fabricate them to convince yourself.įor example, you want to make a career change because you intend to provide a more comfortable life for your family. You have one or more reasons behind the want. It could be a long term plan, a new materialistic thing you want to buy or any other goal. In your current situation, you’re aiming for a target. The tendency is also called hedonic adaptation as per psychology and is one of the cognitive biases of the human mind. What was excellent or repulsive for some time, turns into the norm. Over time, no matter what the change, you will adapt to the circumstances and your state of happiness will return to its original level. After a while, you no longer feel the same contentment or pain about the episode because you get habituated. The hedonic treadmill is the tendency to return to the same state of happiness irrespective of the positive and negative incidents that occur in life.Įvery major event leads to happiness or displeasure, but that’s only short-lived. Make time for your happiness goals in the present Your circumstances don’t define your happiness
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