that Hedonic treadmill
Page 19 that Hedonic treadmill. In reality there’s a little point in expecting shopping and material goods to raise your well-being permanently they may give you a little boost of positive emotion in the short term, but the bad news is that it won’t last, and you’ll soon feel exactly as you did before. We’re still, you may be driven to buy something else in order to make yourself feel better again. And so on echoes.
— from Enjoy the Flight (Living/Balance/Happiness/Passion)
In the book
So it's worth asking of any belief or craving you're carrying the plain question: does this actually serve my happiness? The treadmill. There's little point expecting the next purchase to lift your well-being for long; you get a small jolt of pleasure, you adapt, and you slide right back to where you started, already eyeing the next thing — the hedonic treadmill. We are built to adapt to new circumstances, which is a marvelous survival trick and a terrible happiness strategy, because the new car becomes ordinary astonishingly fast. — Enjoy the Flight (Living/Balance/Happiness/Passion)