I grant you this definition of happiness will chafe many people. On the surface it sounds like a cop-out or workaround, a way to bypass a materialistic "happiness" in favour of a cheap, artificial replacement. "It's not true happiness if you have to trick yourself into experiencing it," a critic might say, and to that I would respond by asking how we ought to define happiness? Is it a brief spike of joy, triggered by some worldly achievement, that soon fades away only to be replaced by your usual gripes, complaints, and insatiable desires; or is it a permanent sense of tranquility devoid of negative emotions?
If you believe that the key to happiness lies in the acquisition of material goods or worldly success, I invite you to think about a time in your life when you desired something, committed time, energy, and resources to its pursuit, and succeeded in obtaining it.
Did it bring you joy?
Undoubtedly! For the first month after you purchase your Lamborghini (or whatever object you so desperately sought) you get school-girl giddy every time you think about it. You beam with pride when people gawk as you drive by. You get aroused by the primal roar of the engine.
But your excitement soon fades. The novelty wears off. What you worked so long and hard to obtain becomes just another acquisition, a burden that must be constantly cleaned, waxed, tuned-up, and maintained. The warm glow of happiness cools. You start looking for something bigger, faster, and more expensive to fill the void.
You're nothing more than a junkie chasing the rush of that first high, always upping the ante but to no effect.
In psychology, this phenomenon is called hedonic adaptation or, as I prefer, the Hedonic Treadmill.
You adapt to your conditions. When you obtain your latest prize, you experience temporary joy and satisfaction, but over time this prize becomes a part of your surroundings. The mere thought of it no longer excites you. Quite the opposite, you start to find flaws and inadequacies in it.
If a better version of your prize exists--a newer model, for example--you start plotting its acquisition all over again. If no better thing exists in its class, you may toss it aside and forget about it altogether, choosing to pursue something else entirely.
We're all guilty of it. I know I am. Once you hop on the hedonic treadmill, it's tough to get off. You run and run and run, chasing what you think is happiness via an endless list of things and goals.
You're just running in place.
Such pursuits are inherently hollow. Material goods can sometimes facilitate the achievement of internal happiness but they can also easily be lost, stolen, or confiscated. If your happiness depends on material goods, and material goods can easily slip from your grasp, then you are setting yourself up for misery.
And as we have seen, even if they do not get snatched away, these material goods quickly lose their luster.
As the philosopher Epictetus advises: "It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united."
Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman--the researchers who coined the term "hedonic treadmill"--conducted an interesting study which they published in a paper entitled "Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?" In the study they followed two groups: one composed of paraplegics, the other of lottery winners. They followed them from the time their fortunes turned--for the better or for the worse, depending on the group--and touched bases with them at regular intervals afterward.
They found that each participant, regardless of which group they belonged to, quickly returned to their hedonic "baseline" shortly after their accident or winning ticket. Sure, the people who became paralyzed suffered a great deal initially; likewise, the lottery winners experienced massive spikes of joy after winning. But in the end, they all returned to the same baseline.
If your external circumstances have no long-term effect on your happiness, then what does? The answer seems clear: your internal circumstances.
Instead of pursuing your desires, you should learn to desire what you already have.
Easier said than done? Absolutely. Most things worth doing are difficult and require practice. This is no different.
One way to gain an appreciation for what you have is to periodically imagine losing. Imagine various calamities and misfortunes befalling you such as the loss of your car, home, possessions, and loved ones. You don't have to spend every waking moment thinking about bad shit happening to you; just do it once or twice a day or whenever you have an idle moment.
Contemplating the loss of the things in your life will help you appreciate them all the more. You'll grow content with the way things are rather than wishing you had more of this or a different that or less of those.
This technique also prepares you for the misfortunes that will, at one point or another, most certainly befall you. By having seriously considered their occurrence, you inoculate yourself against their effects.
As Marcus Aurelius, my favourite Roman emperor, said: "He robs ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand."
I can't take credit for this neat little trick. It's called negative visualization and it was first devised by the Stoics of ancient Rome, whose philosophy of life applies today just as it did 2,000 years ago. Whereas modern philosophers concern themselves primarily with esoteric matters that have no bearing on the average person, the Stoics were concerned mainly with achieving a state of tranquility—that is, a state devoid of negative emotions—and living in harmony with the universe.
But more on the Stoics later.
The hedonic treadmill is one of several obstacles blocking your path to true happiness. The sooner you get off it, the better. Negative visualization is by no means the only way to curb the adaptation process but it is remarkably effective. By pondering the loss of those things we take for granted, we learn to see them in a new light, to appreciate them while also noting that they could be snatched from us at any moment.
Desire what you have and quit chasing the carrot. Be happy.
/rant over
