Brian Gubernick explains hedonic adaptation, the psychological reset that returns you to baseline happiness after good or bad events. Four ways to break the cycle: practice gratitude, invest in relationships (the Harvard longevity study shows this matters most), prioritize novel experiences over stuff, and practice mindfulness to savor moments longer.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off Podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. As entrepreneurs, we are striving to get better each and every single day. If you're listening to the No Days Off Podcast, you are looking to get better every single day. Entrepreneurs are doing it in business. No Days Off Nation, we're doing it not just in business, but we're doing it in life and relationships and wealth and all these areas, right? Well, there's a danger to all of that. And we've got to be careful around how we're approaching certain things. And what is that danger? It's called, it's known as the hedonic treadmill or hedonic adaptation. You may have heard of this before. The hedonic treadmill is this psychological concept that describes the tendency of people, of humans, to return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite some sort of major positive or even negative event or life change. So it's essentially this idea that people adapt, they quickly adapt to new circumstances. And whether those circumstances are improvements or setbacks, they adapt and they eventually revert to a baseline level of happiness. So this hedonic treadmill concept is something we've got to be aware of, because we run the risk in having more success of intentionally or unintentionally maybe becoming a bit more attached to material things. Or looking for ways to boost happiness but failing in doing so. Now, some key points of the hedonic treadmill. Number 1, I mentioned baseline happiness. We have this, and the research would show that everyone has a set point of happiness, this baseline that they tend to return to after life events. Again, again, these could be very positive or negative life events, but we return to this baseline. This set point can actually be influenced by genetics or personality. It could be external circumstances like wealth or status, but they have— wealth and status have less impact on long-term happiness than most people assume. I mean, it could be upbringing. There's lots of things that influence this baseline happiness, but the bottom line is we have a set point. And this set point is what we always revert to. In addition, there's a pursuit of happiness that I would say is a key point of the hedonic treadmill, in that the treadmill is often used to explain why people continue to seek more wealth or more possessions or more achievements, even though these gains may only bring temporary happiness. The pursuit for many— I mean, many listening right now may feel this way— the pursuit could end up feeling rather endless, like you're running, like you're running on a treadmill that doesn't get you really anywhere in terms of long-term happiness. I'd also say that, you know, there's these temporary boosts in happiness. We kind of covered that when something good happens, like a promotion, or maybe you win the lottery, or you buy a new house, you get this temporary boost in happiness. But over time, the excitement fades and you go back to your level of happiness. Well, it also happens with negative events. You can experience a negative event like losing a job or going through a breakup or, you know, feeling unhappy for a period, but you actually end up going back to, you know, you adapt to this new situation and you go back to that happiness level that you once were at. You eventually stabilize. Again, these aren't theories. This is what research and data shows us. Some practical examples of this hedonic treadmill. Material possessions, a person buys like a new car. And I mean, you've bought a new car, right? You buy a new car, you feel happy initially, really excited, you got that new car smell. But over time, the car just becomes another part of your daily life. And that initial excitement fades. You go back to the norm, right? You go back to that set point. Or career success, someone has this major career milestone, gets a promotion, or maybe hits it big, or whatever it may be, and they get this boost of happiness, They adjust to their new role, their new income, and their overall, overall happiness level returns to what it was before. So how do we, knowing these things, I think we've covered it at a pretty good level of detail, knowing these things, how do we counteract this hedonic treadmill? What can we do to counteract this, this, this, you know, boost of happiness or, you know, even in the opposite direction, but there's always this reversion to the norm. How do we counteract it? Well, the research and the experts will tell you, number one, and it's going to be no surprise here, we've got to practice more gratitude. So regularly, regularly reflecting on what you're grateful for can help maintain a higher level of happiness. So there's gratefulness. I also think that, I think that along the lines of gratefulness, it's also recognition of progress you've made. We'd call that, you know, the gap and gain. We've talked about that here quite a bit at No Days Off, where if you go hike out to the horizon, you'll never get to the horizon. You'll just continue to see this massive gap between where you're at and where you want to go. But if I turned you around and you look backwards, you'd see significant gain. Well, by practicing gratitude, we would reflect on that gain. We'd be grateful. And in doing so repeatedly, building a habit around this, it helps us maintain a higher level of happiness. In other words, that set point rises. Other ways to counteract the hedonic treadmill: focus on relationships. I mean, the research will tell us that investing in meaningful relationships brings more lasting happiness than material success. Probably 100 episodes or so ago, we talked around the Harvard study about longevity and, and, and what leads to longer lives and happier lives. And the research shows that it's all about your social circle, about your relationships, right? So if you want to get off the hedonic treadmill, or at least counteract it, we're practicing gratitude, but we're also focusing on relationships. Next thing I'd be thinking around if you want to get off the treadmill, embrace experiences, specifically engage in new experiences. These novel experiences rather than possessions, these things create lasting memories, they create satisfaction, and it increases that set point in happiness over time. So, when something great happens or something negative happens, when you revert back to the set point, that set point is now higher than it previously was because you're practicing gratitude, because you've got better relationships in your life. Because you're having new, new experiences. And then the last thing is to make sure that you practice or you engage in mindfulness and presence, meaning that being mindful and fully engaged in the present moment actually helps people savor positive experiences longer. So again, it kind of comes back to the experience, but it's living in the moment, living in the now. So, this Adonic treadmill concept, what does it really do? It underscores the importance of finding happiness in ways that go well beyond just these fleeting pleasures or temporary achievements. And instead, we should be emphasizing more sustainable sources of well-being. Now, again, here at No Days Off, this is something we've got to be thinking around because, you know, the message is, get better at something each and every day. Get better. And we do focus on building certain things that are more material in nature. Build your wealth, build your business, you know, win. We talk about these things, but we've got to be sensitive to and careful around the fact that we could find ourselves on this Adonic treadmill if we forget to be grateful and focus on relationships and engage in experiences versus possessions and practice a degree of mindfulness and presence and recognizing that we're living in this moment right now. So, I'm going to leave you with that. It's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
