Our ability to predict how we will feel in the future is weak.
One result is that we often overestimate how good something will make us feel in the future. We think the new car we have been thinking about for weeks will make us much happier. Once we buy it, the newness quickly wears off and the car becomes plain. It isn’t much different from the old one it replaced.
This effect isn’t limited to purchases. We work hard to land good jobs thinking that we will be happy once we have attained our goal. While a good job is nice, most people quickly begin looking for ways to take the next step up the career ladder.
If good things we strive for often turn out not to be as great as we think they will be, how are we supposed to make good decisions? What are we giving up in the pursuit of these goals? I don’t think there is a simple answer to this problem. Somehow we need to discount our optimism about our goals.
The quote by T.S. Eliot “The journey, not the arrival matters.” perhaps captures the lesson we need to learn.
