Hi All!
As always, here is your weekly On-Track advice, a list of tips and tricks to help you progress towards your goals in areas like relationships, finances, health, and more.
1. Buying new stuff leads to initial happiness, but satisfaction decreases as time goes on. We need to continue buying things if we want to keep up the excitement.
The hedonic treadmill is the tendency that people return to their baseline level of happiness, regardless of how much stuff they buy. A new purchase leads to an initial spike in happiness, but as time goes on, the feeling dissipates, and habituation kicks in.
Purchase a new TV that is larger than your old one, and over time, you get used to the new size and it becomes just another TV. Buy a fancy car and eventually, you get used to the heated seats, backup camera, and the other features, and it becomes just another car. As you buy more stuff, it becomes just that: more stuff.
2. Knowledge is powerful and forms the basis of personal development.
Knowledge is one of the most valuable things you can have. It helps you understand yourself, the people that surround you, and the world that you live in. Most importantly, it allows you to expand and grow as a person, and advance toward the goals that matter to you.
There are many ways you can find new information. Reading, for example, helps you gain insight into different topics, ideas, and perspectives. You can also take courses and take part in education programs to enhance your skill sets. No matter your source of education, know that knowledge is the foundation of personal development.
Your Weekly Digest: Psychological Pricing
Why do some prices always end in 99? And how come some stores always have reduces prices, and show the price tag with its old value scratched out? This week’s article, “Pricing Psychology Explained: Definition, Examples, and Strategies” shows how certain dollar values affect the human mind differently.
The goal of psychological pricing is to make the price of a product look less than what it is. Pricing strategies have been shown to be effective because our brain processes the appearance of a price before it can interpret the meaning. Put differently, we can understand the visual and auditory aspects of a number before we get its value.
Until next week,
Mike van der Poel
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