Carl Richards is one of my favourite reads. Here he is addressing a central issue relating to money. Money does not mean happiness.
“Greetings, Carl here.
Let me tell you a story. See if this sounds familiar to you.
Not long after my wife and I married, we were walking around a Salt Lake City park and began talking about money. I recall saying, “If I can just make X dollars, I’ll be so much happier.”
A few years later, I was making X dollars. Now here’s the question: Do you think I was happier?
“Cori,” I said to my wife, “if I can just make Y dollars, I’ll be so much happier.”
A few years later, I was making Y dollars and, surprise surprise, I didn’t feel any happier because of it.
Now, how do you think I felt a few years later when I was making Z dollars?
***
We all know that more money, more success, and more stuff won’t lead to more happiness. But over and over again, we pass up meaningful (and often life-changing) experiences with the people who matter most to us in pursuit of… what? A bigger paycheck? A nicer house? A faster car?Unfortunately, this never-ending cycle of fixating on what we don’t have, attaining that thing, not ending up any happier, and then fixating on the new thing, is futile. Turns out, this experience has a name. It’s called the hedonic treadmill. And as the name implies, we keep chasing things and never getting anywhere.
I’ve been on the hedonic treadmill for over 20 years, and frankly, I’m exhausted. I’m sick of putting happiness on some unattainable pedestal just around the corner, forever out of reach.
So I’m trying something different now. It’s called sitting. Here’s how it works.
Each time you start to think about that one thing that will finally make you happy… you do nothing to try to achieve that. Instead, you just sit and wait until the feeling passes. And then, you get on with your life.
I know we all love to exercise, but so far, sitting feels a lot healthier than spending endless hours on the hedonic treadmill.
Give it a shot. I bet you’ll agree.
-Carl”
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