Do Holidays Make You Happier? 🍹🏝️

Do Holidays Make You Happier? 🍹🏝️

Where have you always wanted to go to? Is there an event you're nervously waiting for to happen?

When we think a reward is going to come, it starts to arrive earlier in the form of dopamine release. This is the feeling that we experience as positive anticipation. If you tell a kid, "Hey, we're going to the amusement park." They're not at the park yet, but they're excited for it.

The anticipation of an event makes you feel good. It gives you motivation and reward. Even if it didn't happen yet. That's great. But there's a caveat...

If the event comes and it's not as good as you anticipated. You lose dopamine. You get less satisfied.

This is called 'reward-prediction error'. It's when you expect an event to be great. But it turns out to be average, so you feel worse.

So, it's not about how nice the event is. The happiness depends on how good the reward is compared to your expectation. If you expect it to be a 10/10 and it's a 9/10, you feel less happy.

That's crazy!

So think about your dream holiday/experience. Is it going to Italy, Japan, or South America? Or maybe it's a road trip around the continent.

Or maybe a festival, wedding, football game, conference, marathon, etc.

Whatever it is. Start to imagine the vibes… the music, the people, the energy, the food...

But this time, lower your expectations.

See that vision in your head? Well, the real thing isn't actually that good. It's just another city. The food isn't that good. Instagram makes it look better than it is. and your imagination is kinda lying.

Sorry for bursting your bubble. But this makes the actual event 10 times better. You'll actually enjoy it. And when you do, know that the real reason you do is because you... read my emails :)

Kidding, Reader, don't try to guess how it's going to feel like. You're probably wrong and you set yourself up to be disappointed.

Instead, lower your expectations and enjoy the thing when it happens.

Good luck! Here's the podcast clip and the supporting study. If you always want the studies, please let me know.