If the sunset only happened once every 1,000 years, you and the rest of humanity would be watching the sunset. But because it happens every night, we take it for granted. Positive psychologists call this mental psychological phenomenon, hedonic adaptation. Because the sunset happens a lot our brains get used to it so we take it for granted. Here’s another game-changing insight. Our brains are hardwired for ingratitude. It served us well thousands of years ago because we really had to be on our game and so we had to notice what was not good about our environment. Otherwise, the tiger would eat us. Now here we are, living in the modern age, and we still have an implicit bias within our brains for negativity. And so what I’m suggesting to you is, watch the sunset because, if you don’t, you’ll miss it. And, personally I would rather have a gorgeous sunset than all these nice things. I would rather have a conversation with my children over a three-hour meal than all the money in the world. I would rather sit with my team and build a product that serves millions of people than have all the fame and fortune. I would rather mountain bike and connect with nature and have a ride that opens my heart than all the worldly wins in the world.
