Hedonic Adaptation In Achievement

So my friend finally got the new iPhone 15 he is a huge apple and iPhone guy. He has been using the iPhone X for 4 years now but decided to upgrade to an iPhone 15. It cost him over $1,000, which I thought was too expensive but if he is upgrading from iPhone X to iPhone 15 that is quite reasonable. But something happened and this brought my awareness towards how we humans are alike mentally when it comes to money and spending. After few days, my friend wasn’t feel all excited about his new iPhone 15 because he realized that it’s not that special. It’s no longer a flex to him anymore, his feelings are back to normal, less excitement about his new acquisition. His happiness and feelings are stable now, he has clarity and judging his choice of spending, if spending over $1,000 for an iPhone 15 was worth it.

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Turns out it’s a feeling we all feel and it has a name called hedonic adaptation. It is felt on various occasions, in spending, in earning, in winning and losing. Let me use Hive as an example in my life, I discovered Hive in 2021, felt like the best thing in the world, the feelings I felt then was the best feeling in the world, couldn’t imagine any feeling topping that. This is because I was depressed before I found Hive, so writing on Hive helped solve my depression. But after few months, the happiness and excitement feeling became stable, writing on Hive and creating content on Hive didnt feel so exciting like it used to be, my excitement became stable.

This can be seen when we win or lose money, when you lose money, no matter how much, if large or small, at the initial stage you will feel this huge great loss feeling, but over time the feeling will normalize. Same thing with winning a huge amount of money, over time, you get used to the feeling of owning such amount of money. Your level of excitement will stabilise, there and then, you start chasing other goals. Same with achievements, when you working on a new achievement, you are filled with so much excitement, when you achieve it, takes a little while for your excitement and feeling to become stable and you start chasing a new one.

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