As 2024 draws to a close, people reflect on their lives and ponder what they can do in 2025 to achieve a more fulfilling life. In doing so, you may find yourself in trouble. Why do you have great things in your life, such as a fulfilling job, a loving family, and a comfortable home, but they only seem to have a limited impact on your day-to-day happiness? . ?
At the same time, there may be less-than-pleasant things around us, such as rifts in relationships, rudeness online, and inefficiency at work. And we often seem to have become accustomed to these pathologies and are less likely to try to change them. .
In other words, you no longer notice what was always there. Here’s how to change this:
recognize familiarity
Habituation is a fundamental property of our brains, the tendency to react less and less to things that are constant or occur frequently.
Imagine walking into a coffee shop. Freshly brewed coffee has a distinct aroma at first, but after about 20 minutes, the aroma disappears. The olfactory neurons stop responding and become habituated. And just like you get used to the smell of coffee, you might also get used to more complex aspects of life.
The challenge then is to regain a sense of joy for the good things in life, and to regain sensitivity to the terrible things that we no longer realize can be changed with effort. is. So what should I do? DisWill it become a habit?
destroy something good
The answer lies in the wonderful words of economist Tibor Scitovsky. “Pleasure comes from the incomplete and intermittent satisfaction of desire.”
Think about your favorite song. Do you enjoy it more if you listen to it from start to finish, or if you listen to it with short breaks in between? 99% of people say no to breaks. but, the study You will find that you can enjoy the songs more if you listen to them with breaks in between. why? If you keep listening to a song, the initial joy you feel will fade over time. However, breaks induce dishabituation, so every time the song comes on again, the level of pleasure returns.
To combat habituation and maximize pleasure, you need to take in the good things in life in small doses. Whether it’s a Netflix show, chocolate cake, or a new romance, savor it instead of bingeing it.
swallow the bad thing whole
On the other hand, if you need to complete tedious tasks, such as housework or administrative tasks, complete them at once. the study It has been shown that people experience less distress when they have to continuously listen to unpleasant noises (such as the sound of a hoover) than when they take breaks. When exposed to continuous noise, the initial “pain” it causes diminishes over time. However, the break induces dishabituation, so the level of distress returns each time the noise is heard again.
experiment of living
What about the aspects of your life that seem to be causing you stress and anxiety? But because they’re always there, you can’t really know how much they’re affecting you and don’t try to change them? They’re like the constant noise of your air conditioner. looms in the background. You don’t realize how bad the noise is until someone turns it off and you suddenly feel better.
Think about social media. Is it affecting you negatively? In one studyThe researchers paid half of the participants $100 each to quit social media platforms for a month, while the other half continued with their lives as normal. At the end of the experiment, the “quit” group was happier and less stressed. Most importantly, they were surprised. They didn’t realize how negatively the platform was affecting them.
2025, a lifestyle experiment. For a while, remove some elements from your daily life one at a time and add other new ones. Measure and evaluate its impact on your life so you can maintain the features that bring you happiness and purpose and eliminate those that don’t.
