As 2024 draws to a close, people will look back to assess their lives and reflect on what 2025 can do to achieve a more fulfilling life. In doing so, you may notice a question: Why do you have some great things in your life—perhaps a satisfying career, a loving family, a comfortable home—but these things seems to have a limited effect on your daily enjoyment. ?

At the same time, there may be less pleasant things around us—cracks in a relationship, violence on the internet, dysfunction at work—and it seems that we are always used to these ailments, so we don’t even try them. and change. .

In other words, we no longer notice what is always there. Here’s how you can change that.

Identify the Habituation

Habituation is a basic behavior of our brain—a tendency to do less and less of things that are frequent or frequent.

Imagine walking into a coffee shop. At first the aroma of freshly brewed coffee is amazing, but after about 20 minutes, you can’t smell it anymore. 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 then is to regain sensitivity, to the great things in life, so that we can feel joy, and to the terrible things that we no longer notice that could potentially change if we tried. So, how can we Dechabit?

Break the Good

The answer lies in this beautiful quote by economist Tibor Scitovsky: “Happiness results from the incomplete and fragmentary satisfaction of desires.”

Consider a song you like—would you enjoy it more if you listened to it continuously from beginning to end, or in short breaks? Ninety-nine percent of people say “no” to breaks. However, RESEARCH REVEALS shows that people like a song more when they listen to it with breaks. Why? If you listen to a song over and over again, the pleasure you get from it in the beginning fades away over time. The breaks, however, induce frustration, so every time the song returns, the happiness level rises.

To combat habituation and maximize happiness we must consume the good things in life little by little. Whether it’s a Netflix movie, a chocolate cake, or a new romance—taste, instead of overindulging.

Swallow Evil Whole

On the other hand, if you need to finish a pesky task — housework, admin work — complete it in one go. Research showed that people suffer less if they have to listen to an unpleasant noise (such as the sound of a hoover) frequently than if they stop. If you experience the noise regularly, the “pain” it causes at first will lessen over time. Breaks, however, induce frustration, so every time the noise returns, the level of suffering rises.

Living Experiments

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

Think about social media: Is it affecting you negatively? In one studythe researchers paid half of the participants $100 each to quit the social media platform for a month, while the other half continued life as usual. At the end of the experiment, the “quit” group was happier and less stressed. Above all, they were surprised. They don’t realize how negatively the platform affects them.

In 2025, experiment with living. Remove some elements from your daily routine for a while, one at a time, and add some new ones. Measure and assess the impact of your life, so you can keep those parts that spark joy and purpose, and eliminate those that don’t.