Often we come across posts about how it's hard to pull the plug, retire. OMY syndrome. I've just come across this today and it nicely blends the idea of retirement and the hedonic treadmill:
The Hedonic Treadmill And Financial Freedom – Mr. Free At 33
The author relates the set point of happiness much like the set point on a thermostat:
"What was happening back when I was spending most of my waking hours getting ready for work, going to work, working, coming home from work, unwinding after work, and preparing for the next day’s work was that I was operating in that lower range fairly often.
Work acted as this negative force, constantly pressuring my happiness down into that colder range, even as my body psychologically acted as a countervailing force to keep me closer to my set point. In essence, I was kind of bouncing around from my set point down into that colder range and back again, obviously with moments here and there where I was up in that warmer range, too.
However, financial freedom has acted as addition through subtraction, removing that negative force from my life, allowing my happiness to far more often bounce around in that warmer range, back to the set point, and then in the warmer range again."
The Hedonic Treadmill And Financial Freedom – Mr. Free At 33
The author relates the set point of happiness much like the set point on a thermostat:
"What was happening back when I was spending most of my waking hours getting ready for work, going to work, working, coming home from work, unwinding after work, and preparing for the next day’s work was that I was operating in that lower range fairly often.
Work acted as this negative force, constantly pressuring my happiness down into that colder range, even as my body psychologically acted as a countervailing force to keep me closer to my set point. In essence, I was kind of bouncing around from my set point down into that colder range and back again, obviously with moments here and there where I was up in that warmer range, too.
However, financial freedom has acted as addition through subtraction, removing that negative force from my life, allowing my happiness to far more often bounce around in that warmer range, back to the set point, and then in the warmer range again."