Table of Contents
As 2024 draws to a close, people look back to evaluate their lives and contemplate what can be done in 2025 to achieve a more fulfilling existence. As you do so, you may notice a puzzle: Why do you have some wonderful things in your life (perhaps a fulfilling career, a loving family, a nurturing home) but these things seem to have only a limited impact on your daily happiness? ?
At the same time, there may be not-so-good things around us (cracks in a relationship, rudeness online, inefficiencies in the workplace) and we often seem to get used to these maladies, so we’re less likely to try. change them. .
In other words, we stop noticing what was always there. Here’s how you can change that.
Recognize habituation
Habituation is a fundamental characteristic of our brain: a tendency to respond less and less to things that are constant or frequent.
Imagine walking into a coffee shop. At first you can smell the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, but after about 20 minutes you can no longer smell it. Your olfactory neurons stop responding: they get used to it. And just as you get used to the aroma of coffee, you can also get used to more complex aspects of your life.
The challenge then is to regain sensitivity, both to the great things in life, so that we can feel joy, and to the terrible things that we stop noticing and that we could potentially change if we try. So how do we do it? dishabituate?
break the good
The answer is in this wonderful quote from economist Tibor Scitovsky: “Pleasure results from the incomplete and intermittent satisfaction of desires.”
Consider a song you like: would you enjoy it more if you listened to it continuously from start to finish or with short breaks? Ninety-nine percent of people say “no” to breaks. However, investigation shows that people enjoy a song more when they listen to it with pauses. Because? If you listen to a song continuously, the joy it provokes at first diminishes over time. The pauses, however, induce dishabituation, so every time the song plays again, the level of joy rises again.
To combat habituation and maximize pleasure we need to consume the good things in life little by little. Whether it’s a Netflix show, chocolate cake, or a new romance, savor it instead of bingeing.
swallow the bad whole
On the other hand, if you need to complete an unpleasant task (housework, administrative work), complete it in one go. Investigation shows that people suffer less if they have to continually listen to an unpleasant noise (such as that of a vacuum cleaner) than if they take breaks. If you experience the noise continuously, the “pain” it causes at first decreases over time. Pauses, however, induce dishabituation, so every time the noise returns, the level of suffering rises again.
Experiments in life
What about the aspects of your life that you suspect may be inducing stress and anxiety, but you can’t really tell how much they are affecting you because they are always there, so you don’t try to change them? They appear in the background like the constant noise of an air conditioner; You don’t realize the negative impact noise has until someone turns it off and suddenly you feel much better.
Consider social media: is it negatively impacting you? in one studyThe researchers paid half of the participants $100 each to leave a social media platform for a month, while the other half continued with their normal lives. At the end of the experiment, the cohort who “quit smoking” was happier and less stressed. The most important thing is that they were surprised. They didn’t realize the negative impact the platform had on them.
In 2025, experiment in life. Eliminate some items from your daily routine for a while, one at a time, and add new ones. Measure and evaluate the impact on your life, so you can retain those characteristics that induce happiness and purpose, and eliminate those that do not.