Understanding Happiness

 

 

We humans are constantly chasing happiness. We are relentless in our pursuit of pleasurable experiences, and of acquiring things.

 

But notice how getting these things does not increase our happiness proportionately. We tend to stay in more or less the same place no matter how many positive experiences we stack up or how much we acquire.

 

Now one might blame this situation on our modern consumerist society. But while, yes, there is a lot of marketing pushing us to buy buy buy, all they’re doing it taking advantage of an inherent human characteristic. A characteristic known as hedonic adaptation, or a more modern version of that is the hedonic treadmill.

 

And the term hedonic treadmill is quite self-explanatory – basically, we’re always trying to move towards happiness, but regardless of our efforts, we keep staying in the same place.

 

Here’s a beautifully written piece by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18^th century Genevan author and philosopher, that explains it pretty well:

 

 

“Since these conveniences by becoming habitual had almost entirely ceased to be enjoyable, and at the same time degenerated into true needs, it became much more cruel to be deprived of them than to possess them was sweet, and men were unhappy to lose them without being happy to possess them.”

 

 

Interesting, isn’t it?

 

…so anyway, why does hedonic adaptation happen?

 

To put it simply, its purpose is to act like a thermostat, keeping us at a baseline levels of happiness which ultimately gives us the best chance of survival.

 

So when we feel pain for a prolonged period of time, hedonic adaptation will gradually move us back to a pleasant state of mind so that we can continue to fend for ourselves. And when we experience pleasure for a prolonged period of time, that heightened feeling doesn’t last in order to avoid complacency.

 

Makes sense right. We need to keep moving.

 

And so, what does this all mean then? Does it mean that right now is the happiest we can be? — that the future us can’t be happier?

 

Well, no. You see, hedonic adaptation is not 100% responsible for our happiness – rather is it responsible for approximately 50% of our happiness. And there are two other factors that are responsible for the remainder…

 

 

1.   Life circumstances

 

A study was done on 22 major lottery winners and 29 wheelchair bound accident victims, where they monitored the subjects to see who would be happier after a year.

 

And guess what the results were? The level of happiness of both the major lottery winners and the wheelchair bound accident victims was roughly equal. That’s right. And that’s because our life circumstances only account for about 10% of our happiness, so there’s not too much happiness going on here.

 

I.e. if you are lying in the gutters, or you are living on the hills; or if you have legs, or don’t have legs – your happiness will stay more or less the same over the course of your life.

 

…unless!…you consider your daily choices. And that’s where the remaining 40% lies…

 

 

2.   Intentional activities

 

Regardless of your – for the most part – unchangeable happiness baseline, as well as your perhaps not so fortunate life circumstances, you can still affect your overall happiness in a very significant way. And you do that by making good decisions daily.

 

So maybe now is the time to look at your intentional activities – what are you filling your days with? Where is all the valuable time going?

 

Because if your typical day consists of you working at a job that you don’t like, and then coming home to chill on the couch with series and a not so healthy dinner, then no wonder you’re not happy. It’s kind of obvious to say, I know, and I feel like I’m repeating myself here, but sometime we have to hear things consistently in order to change.

 

In fact – besides a major life event – that is the only way we change.

 

 

So anyway, the point is…if you want to be happier then it’s important to be mindful of your intentional activities. And an easy way to do that is to spend at least 30 minutes a day – preferably first thing in the morning – researching personal development. And take it from there.

 

Want to know how to start? …google “personal development”!