Alex's Thought of the Day: Normal

Do you ever notice that the people who engage the most in pleasure-seeking behavior seem to be the least happy? Take the guy who eats pizza 3 times/week and has a legitimate high score in a video game. Compare him to the personal trainer at the gym who has a kale salad every afternoon and who volunteers on the weekend.

For the first guy, pizza and video games are normal. He's used to the richness of pizza and fried chicken, so a grilled chicken salad would taste bland- it would be a 3/10. For the second guy, a grilled chicken salad would be a treat, it would be a 7/10. The same thing is true for activity, intellectual pursuits, etc.

My point with this is fairly simple. You can get used to hard or easy, healthy or tasty. At some point, what you're used to is going to be your normal.