A Healthy Man Wants 1000 Things... A Sick Man Only Wants 1.

Happy cold & flu season! Three guesses on if I’m feeling under the weather 😠

I want to touch on two separate concepts this week that converge when you’re sick.

Hedonic Anchors and Empty Achievements.

A Hedonic Anchor is a set point from which to measure pain or pleasure. This should be easy to observe when you’re sick based on the newsletter title.

The anchor point is your regular healthy self. Anchors differ both between people and within people over time. Another person’s idea of feeling healthy can look very different from yours. And, you at 20 will be different than you at 80.

When you’re healthy you can push yourself forward away the anchor to experience pleasure. When you fall ill you do everything you can to pull yourself out of the pain side of the equation.

This doesn’t just happen in health. Think about how your anchor point changes when you get a raise. Your anchor adjusts. Suddenly, going back to your old salary would feel bad despite it being your reality 2 weeks ago.

Relationships?

Got a new girlfriend? Being single feels awful afterwards doesn’t it? Your anchor adapted to a new reality.

So how do you use these to your advantage?

Frontrun the adaptation.

Hedonic Anchors are mostly useless on the pleasure side of the equation, other than knowing they exist. But, they can be powerful motivators for escaping pain if you’re on the wrong side.

If we artificially decide to place a Hedonic Anchor at $100,000 in salary or being married, the $45,000 job or the one night stands hurt a little more.

Think of these like goals with a little extra fuel.

Empty Achievements are achievements that no one else sees and hold no intrinsic or extrinsic value. Again, a good example of this is “pushing through” when you’re sick.

Of course some basic things need to get done for your life to continue to function, even when you’re sick. But, there is no adjudicator standing in your living room giving you extra points because you kept the place perfectly clean, completed your workout or made dinner instead of Uber Eatsing some broccoli cheddar soup.

Remember, when possible, zoom out and look at things on large time scales to maximize happiness. Is missing 2 workouts or saving $15 on food going to make a dent in your long term life strategy?

No.

However, it might add extra stress and delay your recovery by a few days or even a few weeks resulting in unneeded suffering.

Give yourself permission to purposely fail at keeping up with your regular life. You’ll be back to your routine and happy self in a few days.

Words I Wish I Wrote:

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