The Reverse Bucket List, The Hedonic Treadmill & more
When enough is never enough
5 thought-provoking pieces about happiness:
Scientific Finding: Are lottery winners happier than people with spinal-cord injuries?
Insightful Article: Increasing your happiness baseline
Visual Inspiration: The Hedonic Treadmill
Conceptual Framework: The reverse bucket list
Powerful Quote: When enough is never enough
Reader Spotlight: Share your story with our readers
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Are lottery winners happier than people with spinal-cord injuries?
In 1978, a team of psychologists from Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts asked lottery winners and recent casualties of spinal cord injuries to rank their enjoyment of everyday experiences like chatting to a friend, watching TV and laughing at a joke.
They found that the accident victims derived more pleasure and happiness from the everyday experiences in life than lottery winners did.
Overall, lottery winners did report slightly higher levels of general happiness than paraplegic people (so they damn well should, right?) but recent accident victims “did not appear nearly as unhappy as might have been expected.”
It seems that after life-changing events, our happiness levels are affected in either direction but at some point we return to our hedonic set point (happiness baseline) as we adapt to our new normal.
Published in the National Library of Medicine
Increasing your happiness baseline
If we seem to always return to our happiness baseline or hedonic set point even after seemingly life-changing events, surely we should focus on increasing our baseline since this is where we spend most of our time.
Martin Seligman, a positive psychologist, suggests using the PERMA model, which focuses on cultivating positive emotions:
Positive Emotions
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishments
Seligman suggests by following the PERMA model we can increase our happiness baseline and jump off the Hedonic Treadmill.
The Hedonic Treadmill
My wife just said “that’s you in a picture”. Harsh, but true.
The Hedonic Treadmill is wanting more no matter what you already have.
It’s constantly moving the goalposts and desiring more.
At some point, we should probably get off the treadmill.
The Reverse Bucket List
A bucket list is an unchecked list of things we haven’t done. It’s a reminder of the things we haven’t achieved. It’s a list of wanting more.
A reverse bucket list is a checked list of things we have done. It’s a reminder of all of the incredible things we have already achieved. It’s a list of gratitude.
The reverse bucket list switches our mental frame from ‘I want to do this’ to "‘I have achieved this’.
Sure, keep a list of things you want to do in your lifetime. But remember to celebrate and be grateful for what you have and what you’ve done.
Powerful Quote of the Week
As long as you think more is better, you’ll never be satisfied.
Richard Carlson, Author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
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