Chase Fulfillment, Not Happiness

Happiness comes and goes. Usually we think that if we get that new phone or new car, or new home, we think, “Then I’ll be happy.” But have you seen anyone happy with their phone a week after they got it? Maybe if they were upgrading from an Iphone 6 to an Iphone 12, but not when the switch is being made every single year.

We all have a baseline for our feelings and when we’re happy it goes up high, and when we’re sad it goes down low. But it always, always comes back to that baseline. And there’s a term for that, it’s called the hedonic treadmill. When we get something new, it goes up up up, then as the days pass it goes back down to it’s original baseline.

Chase constant fulfillment instead of the fleeting happiness. Set goals, and continuously achieve them. Those goals can be habits as well. Exercising everyday. Reading at least 30 minutes everyday. Learning something new and applying it everyday.

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” — Victor E Frankl.