Dr. Laurie Santos

This is what psychologists call hedonic adaptation, which is just a fancy way of saying, if you have something for a while, you stop noticing how good it is over time.

This is what psychologists call hedonic adaptation, which is just a fancy way of saying, if you have something for a while, you stop noticing how good it is over time.

You know that if you get a new phone, a new tech gadget, when you hit a certain salary level at work, at first that feels amazing, but six months in, it's just your phone, it's just what you make, right?

You know that if you get a new phone, a new tech gadget, when you hit a certain salary level at work, at first that feels amazing, but six months in, it's just your phone, it's just what you make, right?

You're kind of ready for the next change.

You're kind of ready for the next change.

That's all well and good when it comes to the bad things in life, that it's good that we get used to the yucky stuff.

That's all well and good when it comes to the bad things in life, that it's good that we get used to the yucky stuff.

But it's really bad when we get used to all the great things in life.

But it's really bad when we get used to all the great things in life.

That means you could have an amazing salary, an amazing job, amazing colleagues at work, and you stop getting the pleasure from those things because you've gotten used to it over time.

That means you could have an amazing salary, an amazing job, amazing colleagues at work, and you stop getting the pleasure from those things because you've gotten used to it over time.

Another big thing that we do is that we socially compare, right?

Another big thing that we do is that we socially compare, right?

We don't tend to think in terms of how we're doing objectively well, like if we have just over

We don't tend to think in terms of how we're doing objectively well, like if we have just over

We're all a good salary or overall good accolades or we're performing well.

We're all a good salary or overall good accolades or we're performing well.

We tend to compare ourselves with the people around us across every metric, whether it's money or material possessions or our looks or whatever.

We tend to compare ourselves with the people around us across every metric, whether it's money or material possessions or our looks or whatever.