I recently finished the book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind“, and I’ll likely share a few things from it in the coming weeks. It was an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.
Near the end, the author talked a lot about happiness, and how most things generally only make us more (or less) happier for a short period of time. That new phone might excite you today, but it’s just “your phone” after a few weeks. Likewise, if something bad happens in your life it will hurt your mood for a while but then often become part of your new normal.
He summed it up like this:
One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally they reach a point where they can’t live without it.
Reading that in the full context of the book, looking back at thousands of years of human history, really made for some interesting thoughts. Check it out for yourself when you have time.
