


Hence, your feelings of happiness quickly fade and you return to your previous level. The hedonic treadmill theory (hedonic adaptation) claims that you usually adapt extremely quickly to your achievements. However, those feelings of success and fulfillment vanish in a short time and you feel empty.

You feel adamant that when you reach certain goals you’ll feel completely fulfilled. However, often, when you achieve them, your pleasure is only fleeting and soon comes to an end. You spend your life fantasizing about things you want to achieve. In fact, the only thing you achieve are feelings of tiredness and frustration. You go around and around on a wheel that doesn’t allow you to move forward or achieve what you want. Sometimes, you experience the strange sensation of being on a treadmill that goes nowhere. This is what the concept of the hedonic treadmill (hedonic adaptation), also called the hamster wheel theory, suggests. It seems that it’s getting harder and harder for us to feel good and have satisfying lives. “Everything will be better when I have my new house/ promotion/ better car/ partner who really loves me…”.
