How to live a happier life? Notice what there was all about

As 2024 comes to an end, people look back to evaluate their lives and contemplate what can be done in 2025 to achieve a more fulfilling existence. By doing so, you may notice a conundrum: Why is it that you have some great things in your life – perhaps a fulfilling career, a loving family, a cozy home – but these things seem to have only a limited impact on your everyday happiness. ?

At the same time, there can be not so great things around us – cracks in a relationship, rudeness online, inefficiencies in the workplace – and it seems that we often get used to these ailments, so we are less likely to try to change them . .

In other words, we stopped noticing what was always there. Here’s how you can change that.

Recognize the habit

Habituation is a fundamental characteristic of our brain – a tendency to respond less and less to things that are constant or frequent.

Imagine going to a coffee shop. At the beginning, the aroma of fresh coffee is salient, but after about 20 minutes, you can no longer smell the oil. Your olfactory neurons stop responding – they get used to it. And just as you get used to the smell of coffee, you can also get used to more complex aspects of your life.

The challenge is then to recover the sensitivity, both to the great things of life, because we can feel the joy, and to the terrible things that we have stopped noticing that we can potentially change if we try. So, how do we do it? saydo you get used to it?

Break the good

The answer lies in this wonderful quote from economist Tibor Scitovsky: “Pleasure is the result of the incomplete and intermittent satisfaction of desires.”

Consider a song you like – would you like it better if you listened to it continuously from start to finish, or with short breaks? Ninety-nine percent of people say “no” to breaks. However, research it shows that people like a song more when they listen to it with pauses. For what? If you are listening to a song continuously, the joy it arouses at the beginning diminishes with time. Breaks, however, induce dishabituation, so every time the song comes back on, the joy level rebounds.

To fight the habit and maximize pleasure, we need to consume the good things in life a little at a time. Whether it’s a Netflix show, chocolate cake, or a new romance—savour instead of binge.

Swallow the Bad Whole

On the other hand, if you need to complete an unpleasant task – housework, administrative work – complete it at once. Research shows that people suffer less if they have to hear an unpleasant noise (such as the sound of a vacuum cleaner) continuously than if they take a break. If you have the noise continuously, the “pain” it causes at the beginning decreases with time. Breaks, however, induce dishabituation, so every time the noise returns, the level of suffering rebounds.

Experiments in Living

What are the aspects of your life that you suspect may be causing you stress and anxiety, but you can’t really tell how much they’re affecting you because they’re still there, so why not try to change them? They settle in the background like the constant noise of an AC – you don’t realize how much negative impact the noise has until someone turns it off and suddenly you feel a lot better.

Consider social media: is it impacting you negatively? In one to studyThe researchers paid half of the participants $100 each to leave a social media platform for a month, while the other half continued with life as usual. At the end of the experiment, the “quit” cohort was happier and less stressed. Most importantly, they were surprised. They didn’t realize how much of a negative impact the platform had on them.

In 2025, experience in life. Remove some items from your daily routine for a while, one at a time, and add new ones. Measure and evaluate the impact on your life, so that you can maintain the characteristics that induce happiness and purpose, and eliminate those that do not.