It may explain, in part, why we brag: not necessarily because of how great we think we are, but because it allows us to relive and share an experience. And if someday I get to pull one of those dusty anthologies off the shelf and talk with friends and family about how I managed to get my name in its table of contents, then that moment is what creates a shared memory. In other words, every time we take a step forward, a treadmill moves right along with us, keeping us in place.

The motivation to write it and the value I experienced in honing my craft at that moment in time are merely part of some greater purpose propelling me forward. The theory of hedonic adaptation suggests that short term gains or losses in our happiness or well-being do not necessarily lead to lasting gains or losses in well-being, because we adapt to our circumstances. The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the supposed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations, and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. If someone happens to come across one of my poems and finds value in it, that's great, but that poem is already in the past. And I’m reliving all those rejection letters by reframing them in a way that generates a positive, a lesson, a story. In a sense, that’s what I’m doing now-sharing with my readers my experience of becoming a writer.

She makes a distinction between having material possessions and having experiences explaining that the benefit of experiences comes afterwards, once we can reminisce about the story and recall its nostalgia.

Hedonic treadmill false