October 24, 2013
“For generations, people have tried to understand what is the secret to the well-lived life,” says Caroline Adams Miller, a Bethesda-based executive coach and author of Creating Your Best Life (Sterling 2009). “But our happiness levels have not kept up with the income or pedigree. There’s this myth that if you get a particular home or a certain pair of expensive shoes or something else you want, you’ll be happy. But we adapt to possessions and salary levels. I call it the hedonic treadmill: We get caught up in needing the next fix.”
