You Got Everything You Wanted

So Why Doesn't It Feel Like It?

Author

Pablo Ottenwalder
June 12, 2026

Words I like: "Enough is a feast." — Buddhist Proverb

Pablo's Perspective:

I'm closing a deal today.

And I'm not even happy about it.

I should be. Months of work, the late nights, the back-and-forth with attorneys, the moments it almost fell apart and today it actually comes together. This is the part I was chasing. And I'm sitting here feeling… kind of nothing.

For a long time I thought something was wrong with me. Turns out nothing is. My brain is just doing exactly what it's built to do and it has a name.

The Hedonic Treadmill.

Here's the simple version: no matter what you achieve, your brain adapts, resets, and goes right back to baseline. The raise feels amazing for a month. The new car is just "your car" in a couple months. You thought closing your first deal would feel like finally making it. Instead you're already thinking about the next one before the ink dries.

And here's where the science gets interesting.

Researchers at Harvard studied this for years. What they found was wild your brain releases dopamine not when you actually get the thing you want, but in the anticipation of getting it. The chase. The pursuit. The grind. That's where the real reward lives neurologically. The moment you close the deal, dopamine drops. Which is exactly why the destination never feels as good as you thought it would.

This is also why lottery winners - people who literally got everything overnight - reported the same happiness levels just one year later as they had before winning. The brain doesn't care about the destination. It was built for the journey.

So if you're always betting your happiness on the next milestone, you're going to be waiting forever.

I'm not saying stop chasing. I'm saying enjoy the run while you're in it. The late nights, the cold calls, the deals that fall apart, the ones that don't that is the thing. Not the commission check at the end.

The people I've seen build real, lasting wealth aren't the ones who finally "made it." They're the ones who genuinely loved the process enough to stick around long enough to win.

Stop waiting to arrive. You're already in it.

We currently have 6500 Subscribers!

Book i’m currently reading The Republic - Plato

Did you know? 💡 

The term "hedonic treadmill" was coined by psychologists Brickman and Campbell in 1971. Studies on lottery winners found that within a year of winning, their happiness levels returned almost exactly to where they started. Meanwhile, neuroscience research shows dopamine — your brain's reward chemical — peaks during the pursuit of a goal, not the achievement of it. Your brain was literally designed to enjoy the journey more than the destination.

—Pablo