Max Marmer

Here is a provocative passage from Authentic Happiness, a book I recently finished and hope to blog more about.

Another barrier to raise a new level of happiness is the “hedonic treadmill” which causes you to rapidly and inevitably adapt to good things by taking them for granted. As you accumulate more material possessions and accomplishments, your expectations rise. The deeds and things you worked so hard for no longer make you happy; you need to get something even better to boost your level of happiness into the upper reaches of its set range. But once you get the next possession or achievement, you adapt to it as well, and so on. There is, unfortunately, a good deal of evidence for such a treadmill.

For me this passage provokes more questions than answers.One of my biggest takeaways is that expectations shouldn’t rise faster than accomplishments, but I wonder if too much happiness leads to complacency? If we were in bliss after taking out the trash wouldn’t that be a societal liability? While the existence of this treadmill is unfortunate from an emotional perspective, from a societal-value perspective it might not be. Doesn’t the fact that we are never satisfied, always looking for the next achievement to make us happy, drive economic value to society? Perhaps this is further evidence that happiness and innovation are at odds. If you’re seeking to maximize contribution where is the optimal level of happiness? Clearly morbidly depressed people don’t get much done, but what about borderline depressed people who are determined to find fulfillment through achievement but to no avail? How can we be happy and continue to elevate our ability to contribute and achieve?

I’ll let these thoughts linger…but I assure you Seligman does have some good solutions.