2. Spend Money On Many Small Pleasures, Instead Of A Few Big Ones

2. Spend Money On Many Small Pleasures, Instead Of A Few Big Ones

This is explained perfectly by the phenomenon of hedonic adaptation. When you buy one big thing, you get a fairly large increase in happiness, but after a few days or weeks that increase has evaporated because you’ve adapted. and you are taking your big purchase for granted. And now you have to wait for a long time until your next big purchase comes. If you spend your money on small pleasures, each increase in happiness will be smaller than the one from the big purchase. However, the overall increase will be bigger.

Many small pleasures have a longer effect on happiness than one big pleasure.

So, start surprising yourself with small pleasures on a regular basis.

What else we can do to increase our level of happiness is

3. Spend Money To Benefit Others, Not Yourself

Should you spend your money on others or yourself?

I believe spending money on others works better because it’s an act of kindness. And kindness has been shown to be one of THE most reliable ways to boost happiness. The good news is that you don’t need to spend huge sums of your income on family, friends, or charity. It’s really the little things, the thoughtful gifts that lead to the best results. Bring your tired co-worker a cup of coffee, pay your friends a round of beers, get your wife some flowers, or bring your grandchildren a gift from your travels. Richard Wiseman gives the surprising answer in his book 59 Seconds:

“Ask people whether they will themselves be happier after spending money on or others, and the vast majority will tick the ‘me’ box. The science shows that exactly the opposite is true – people become much happier about providing for other rather than themselves. ”

⇐ Предыдущая 1 234 Следующая ⇒