There’s a curious thing that happens with improvement: we quickly adapt and form new baseline expectations.
Salary increases. Hitting a sales target. Receiving positive feedback from customers. Upgrading from hostels to hotels. Paying for a quieter gym.
We get used to the improvement, and it becomes our new normal. We then expect everything going forward to be at least as good, and often continue to aspire to better.
I’m all for striving for more, but this topic reminds me of the philosophy of an old friend of mine called Alex. When we got our first jobs out of university, he was adamant to not increase his rate of spending. He had goals to go to graduate school, and didn’t want to pick up spending habits that he’d have to scale back at a later date. Impressively, he kept to that rule, and funded himself through two masters degrees.
Alex was a great example of two things: (1) being aware of baseline expectations in the first place, and the way they can easily change over time, and (2) deliberately crafting a lifestyle that fit supported goals and fit within his means.