The Hedonic Treadmill – Where running is the same as standing – How to not get stagnated in life and beaten in our own game - How to be happy and how to move on
That's
a huge title.
Wikipedia defines the Hedonic treadmill
as such.
“...as a person makes more money,
expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no
permanent gain in happiness.”
Five years ago, I
had really terrible INTERNET. It was slow, with limited bandwidth. I
had to carefully choose the websites I visited to about exceeding my
bandwidth. I really wanted a high speed INTERNET.
Then I got into a
better plan which gave me an increase in speed. But then Bandwidth
was always a problem.
Then I got into a
plan which not only increased speed but also gave me unlimited
bandwidth within a limited period within a day. But then I had to
queue all the videos I wanted to see until this particular period
when I got unlimited bandwidth and that was kind of irritating.
The I got into an
Unlimited plan. But there was a little compromise on speed. Now I was
unlimited bandwidth with the best speed possible. And the wants go
on.
It is very
important to note that, every time I moved up the ladder, I thought,
this is enough. I wont need to better this anymore. Only to find
myself wanting more and more until there was nothing more to take.
Kind of feels like
the first scene from Fight Club with the IKEA nesting Instinct.
Life starts with balance. Life in this
planet is designed for air with a specific composition. You need the
exact amount of Nitrogen and Oxygen in the Air for efficient living.
Too much oxygen or too little oxygen is harmful for life in the
planet.
A lot of things
need balance. You need two legs of the same size to walk. Blah Blah.
Balance is undeniably essential. Shifting of balance requires force
to maintain the balance in the place. That force which we might have
to give if we shift from our balance point, causes unnecessary
(negative) stress in our life.
Positive stress
always helps us come up in life. Negative does the opposite.
Let's take
something which everyone knows as a common example. Habit.
Malcolm Gladwell
in his book, “The tipping point” uses thresholds to explain “the
tipping point”. The point when something tips thus making a
difference or a change.
When you
continuously do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. 21 days is
the threshold for the tipping point. It can be anything; to stop
smoking, start jogging, maintaining diet, exercising etc. But this
threshold can be different for different individuals. For some the
tipping point may be in a week to get a habit anchored, for some may
be a month. Th idea of living is to identify these tipping points
within yourself and engineer life accordingly, instead of falling
prey to statistics. Like in the iphone ad, rules of physics are only
general guidelines.
The idea of 21
days habit can be a positive and a negative threshold. If you do
something which hurts yourself, it is negative threshold and you
should know the tipping point and stop doing it before you reach that
point.
If you do
something which helps you, it is a positive threshold scenario and
you should thus know the tipping point and keep doing whatever it is
until you reach that tipping point.
Know thyself. That
is not a bad idea, after all.
What's interesting
is, when we face negative threshold and realize it, Gratitude for
life really kicks in. You sit in your home wondering what advanced
smartphone you can buy next and then suddenly, when the news channels
announce that a flood is going to strike your house, you begin to
think of what you already have and how to protect them.
That is why I've
always noticed that people who have faced heart aches, hard ships and
come out of their problems successfully are more mature, content,
strong and stable in their lives. We all gravitate towards such
personalities. The advantage is, after reading this blog post, you
now know that you don't need a hard ship to teach you what you
already know. But undoubtedly life is the best teacher I've ever
seen. It'll be always that way.
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