Sometimes I am asked, "Why do you like to travel so much?"
This article from the Journal of Consumer Psychology answers that.
We think because our brand new TV will last longer than a cruise to
Bermuda, that the happiness we felt at purchasing the TV lasts longer,
too. Unfortunately, that isn't the case.
"One of our enemies of
happiness is adaption," says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor
at Cornell University who's been researching the correlation between
money and happiness for decades. "We buy things to make us happy, and we
succeed, but only for a little while. New things are exciting to us at
first, but then we adapt to them."
Because our new TV is right
there, it makes it easier for us to adapt to it. But slowly, it starts
to fade into the background as an electronic wallflower of our lives.
Trips we took, and experiences we've had, start to become part of our
identities.
Think about it: Which had a greater impact on you --
that video game you got as a kid, or the family vacation you took to
Greece? You know, the trip with stories that can still make you and your
siblings laugh when reminiscing.
"Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,"
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