The downside of The Good Life : Idiotion


Oct

3

The downside of The Good Life

Posted by Eddie O'Shan at 15:58 | Filed In Happiness

My friend Kelly  sends a link to an article making the claim that the better your life is, the more upset you get when something goes wrong.

Put another way, a hidden price of being happier on average is that you put your short-term contentment at risk, because being happy raises your expectations about being happy. When good things happen, they don’t count for much because they are what you expect. When bad things happen, you temporarily feel terrible, because you’ve gotten used to being happy.

We’re all familiar with the idea of the spoiled little rich kid. We’re more resistant to the idea that there is a ungrateful brat inside all of us. Maybe we should schedule a good spanking when things go our way, just to keep things in perspective. Of course, for some of you, that would make you even happier!

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