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The first lesson in happiness research is to distinguish between being happy right now and being happy overall. We call these two states, respectively, the affective dimension and the cognitive dimension.
Like most things, the more we have of something, the less happiness we derive from it. The first slice of cake: awesome. The fifth slice: not so good. Economists call this the law of diminishing marginal utility. That is one of the reasons why some countries and people get richer – but not happier. Another reason is that we adapt to new levels of wealth. In happiness research, we call this the hedonic treadmill.
For the ambitious among us, once we reach our goal we soon formulate another to pursue. This is the hedonic treadmill. We continuously raise the bar for what we want or feel we need in order to be happy – and the hedonic treadmill spins faster with ambition. In other words, the downside to being ambitious is a constant sense of dissatisfaction with our achievements.
Take time to enjoy the journey towards your goal while also being mindful that achieving your goal will not fulfil you completely.
we are spending money we don’t have to buy stuff we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.
reading is free therapy.
‘A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transport. It is where the rich walk and where they use bikes. We should create cities where rich and poor meet as equals: in parks, on the pavements, on public transport.’
‘If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.’
I think, the world needs more Amélies. What if we all became secret superheroes of kindness?
