Ever feel like life hasn’t really started yet? Like you’re always preparing for some hypothetical future version of yourself who is wildly successful and fulfilled? The never-ending chase for that dream version of ourselves is not only exhausting, but it leaves us feeling empty inside.

From the moment we can walk and talk, we are trained to view life like a string of tests we need to pass. We praise productivity, get concerned when someone slows down, and view contentment as laziness.

Yet what if the entire game is rigged?

As leaders, we constantly feel like happiness is just around the corner once the goal is reached. Yet the moment we reach that goal, we usually don’t even realize it as we are already worried about the next steps. And this mindset is unfortunately normal. Psychologists call it the arrival fallacy, which is the belief that happiness lies just beyond the next goal. The research shows once we hit the target, it immediately loses its thrill. And so........

© Psychology Today