Hacking hedonic adaptation to improve happiness

Become happier with this simple trick

Ever heard of hedonic adaptation?

It’s why people who win the lottery aren’t happier than everyone else.

They win and are incredibly happy, but then a few weeks later they are back at where they started. Having lots of money is suddenly the new normal.

Interestingly enough, the opposite is also true. People who are paralyzed after an accident return to their normal level of happiness after a few weeks.

You can apply this to many things – but for most people, big purchases and lifestyle inflation are when they experience hedonic adaptation the most.

So equipped with this knowledge, we can genuinely ask ourselves whether things like making more money and acquiring things will really make us happier.

But I have found a way to use hedonic adaptation to my advantage.

I recently moved to a new apartment because I had to leave the old one. There are countless things to fix, and a myriad of things to take care of.

But instead of doing everything at once and creating the “perfect” home in a few days, I do it one at a time. [*]

So when The Delight I feel when using my new faucet will fade away, I’ll finally get around cleaning the windows. I’m already looking forward to the experience of just looking out of a clean window.

In this way, I hope to play with hedonic adaptation instead of against it. And stay in this slightly-above-average state of happiness.

---

With that in mind, let’s get on with this month’s Retro and Planning 🙌

✏️ Retro

(Like always, you can download the Notion template to take structured notes.)

What goals did you set for yourself last month, and how well did you achieve them?

Make a list of your goals (even if they were only implicit) and score them from 1 (low) to 10 (high). You are not allowed to pick a 7. Take notes as you go.

Is there something that is blocking you?

What held you back last month? What can you do to avoid this next month?

What did you learn?

Did you learn something about yourself, your environment, or about the work you do?

🔭 Planning

What are your top 3 priorities next month?

Why are they important to you?

What goals do you set for yourself in light of these priorities?

To beat procrastination, make sure to split every higher-level goal into small subgoals.

What are potential obstacles or challenges you may face?

How can you prepare for them?

🌈 Bonus

How can you use hedonic adaptation to your advantage?

Instead of buying something new, how can you cherish what you already have more? What small changes can you make in your environment this month that would absolutely delight you?

🙏 Thanks!

Thank you for being a part of Mental Garden. I sincerely hope you found this email useful.

The Stoics had a really clever way of dealing with hedonic adaptation, by the way. Instead of going with the natural desire to want something new and shiny, they invented a technique to desire the things you already have.

The idea is simple – you imagine that what you already have will be lost or broken. You can apply this technique to objects, but it also works well for realizing how important the people close to you are.

I can recommend The Stoic Path inside the Waking Up app if you want to learn more.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

With gratitude,
Marc

[*] Although it doesn't fit the narrative here, this was more out of necessity than careful "hedonic planning" 😅