The Hedonic Treadmill: Why Overdo When It Just Stays in Place
One day you accidentally saw an advertisement for the release of a new model smartphone with far more sophisticated specifications than the previous ones. At that time, you really wanted to buy it. It was also supported by the condition of your smartphone which had begun to decline in quality. You thought that you would be very happy if you could get it, so you decided to save more money. Until you finally bought the smartphone, you were very happy and excited, of course. Unfortunately, that happy feeling did not last long. As time goes by, you will feel just like usual and treat your smartphone the same way you treated your previous one. Why does this happen? Why does what we think as happiness will end up being ordinary for our lives? This is actually a common thing, which can be called a hedonic treadmill.
The hedonic treadmill (also known as hedonic adaptation) is a theory positing that people repeatedly return to their baseline level of happiness, regardless of what happens to them. Each person has a happiness set point. The theory of the hedonic treadmill states that regardless of what happens to people, their levels of happiness will eventually return to their baselines.
Let’s say when you want to get into your dream university. You will be very happy right after you receive the announcement of new student admissions, then after that, your happiness will return to its original point especially when you have started living your university life. That happy feeling reappears when you successfully graduate from campus because, at that time, graduation is something you really want to achieve. That feeling of happiness fades again while you think about getting a job right away, especially in the big company you want. It is predictable after you manage to get a job, you will return to your normal feelings.
This happiness set point is not only given an idea of how your happiness will fade with time. Moreover, it also shows that your unhappy feelings will also return to their original point. We realise that life has ups and downs. It is not only happiness that we get after we achieve what we want. In fact, sometimes we also fail and do not succeed in achieving all of those desires. Sadness is unavoidable. But with us being aware of the happiness set point, we can be motivated that the failure is not the end and the sadness that we feel will not last long because, in the end, we will definitely return to the way it was. So, we do not need to drag on failure and sadness.
At last, the hedonic treadmill is part of us (and it keeps us grounded) but we can still increase our happiness set point by working pleasures, gratifications, and meaningful activities into our lives by engaging in the right activities at the right time.
-Northern Ingo-
