![]() Jonathan Haidt, an author interviewed in the book, uses elephants to help us understand. The book, The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better AFTER 50 sums it up nicely for me. To them BEFORE hitting the jackpot, a cold brew after a long, hot day working at the mill was once a great treat but AFTER the win he quits the job and takes up drinking expensive cognac from water that drips off the Swiss Alps, poured by a personal butler.īoth serve the same purpose, and the pleasure is about the same. Take a look at some of the lottery winners that are interviewed on TV. Whenever someone moves up to a new level of material convenience, that person loses the ability to enjoy the things he previously thought were cool. Here’s the kicker…within ONLY two months, both groups had returned back to their average level of happiness.ĭo what? That can’t be! How can something like that even remotely happen? I don’t know about you, but I’d be quite the happy lad holding a check for an extra million or so.īut on the flip side, the paralyzed accident victims were extremely ticked off. Their findings showed, as you might expect, the lottery winners were fired up immediately after their win. They set out to determine how people adapted to happiness. One of the the most cited papers about this subject was a study titled “Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?” published in 1978 by Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman. Now that we know that 60% (50% + 10%) is from genetics and circumstances, this leaves 40% that is subject to our influence, which is a significant portion. She examined this set-point and came up with a specific percentage: 40%ĥ0% of our happiness set-point is due to genetics (ie personality traits)ġ0% is affected primarily by circumstances such as: To help answer that question, let’s look at the research by Sonja Lyubomirsky. If that’s the case, then how much of our happiness is really under our control? The happiness or hedonic set point is the general baseline level of happiness a person experiences over their lifetime. How much of our happiness is under our control? Why do we go through this phase of negative emotions and positive emotions happiness cycle? This has been on my mind for sometime now and decided to do some research to find out more. The new wears off quickly and we move on to wanting something else which we think is going to make us happier and bring about more life satisfaction. How about the new house you just know is going to make you happy? You move into the brand spanking new 4,000 sq foot beauty to find out that your best friend just one upped you with a 5,500 sq ft lake front home. What happens when you finally get what you want? How long does that happiness last before you eventually return to normal? Not too long right? We buy the new truck and then realize our neighbor bought a nicer one even though you THOUGHT yours couldn’t be topped. It seems like dreaming of the day that you get this “stuff” is going to make us so happy, right? Have you ever gotten excited over the thought of acquiring something such as a new car, boat, pair of shoes or a bigger house? In general, on average, increasing wealth (especially past the point where all your basic needs are met) doesn’t make people nearly as happy as they thought it would. Who wouldn’t be excited about winning the lottery, right? No, this doesn’t mean that being poor is a barrel full of monkeys or that making more money doesn’t make anyone happier in the long-term. As a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. ![]() The hedonic treadmill is the tendency of a person to remain at a relatively stable level of happiness despite changes in fortune or the achievement of major goals. ![]() What exactly is the Hedonic Treadmill Theory? Not sure? Let’s explain what it is and then get into specifics. Heck, you may be going through it as we speak. You may not be too familiar with the hedonic treadmill as well but….I guarantee that you’ve experienced it (good and bad) at some point in your life events. I noticed that all of them have referenced this idea in past articles. I occasionally get ideas for topics to write on through other personal finance blogs for healthcare professionals such as the BIG 3: This wasn’t a phrase that I’d heard of before but have experienced numerous times in my life. Recently I came across the idea of the Hedonic Treadmill in the fantastic book, The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better AFTER 50 by Jonathan Rauch. ![]()
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