The right way: long-term hedonism

When we talk about hedonism we are talking about pleasure. This concept contains the idea that pleasure or enjoyment is the end and foundation of life itself.. When referring to pleasure we do not stay at the superficial part of this term, but we go further: pleasure is also the absence of physical and mental pain.

There is currently a search for instant pleasure. Some call it “Carpe Diem” which literally means “take the day.”. When the Roman poet Horace pronounced “Carpe Diem,” he was referring to not wasting the present day at hand.

It is good to live in the present, enjoy what we can with what we have in front of us at the moment and not mentally deviate to either yesterday or tomorrow.

Another very different thing is how we have used the term today. “Carpe Diem” has served as an excuse to justify a multitude of behaviors that are actually harmful to ourselves.

It is one thing to live and enjoy our present without wasting it and quite another to obtain immediate gratification. with the belief that It is not known what will happen tomorrow or what Something must dieto give some examples.

Short-term consequences of hedonism

When we take short-term hedonism as an alternative in our lives, we are victims of immediate gratifications. and that a priori It can give us great pleasure. The problem is that this pleasure, although intense, is also very ephemeral.

Settle for any job for the reward of making quick money, sabotage your diet with the excuse that life is two days, take drugs – both legal and illegal – because you have to enjoy worldly pleasures even if they are harmful or start a relationship with the first person that crosses our path, are some of the numerous examples that exist of short-term hedonism.

Maybe at first all these alternatives help us, either as positive reinforcement – it is pleasant, pleasant and makes me feel full – or as negative reinforcement – it reduces my anxiety, my sadness, my bitter feelings.

But this break doesn’t last too long. In the long run, what happens is that this sudden pleasure gives way to the decline of our own vital goals.as well as our healthy emotions.

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In simpler words: the more I settle for obtaining a fleeting delight, the more I lose in the long term since, after this time, what made me happy stops doing so. In reality, what we held on to never gave us happiness, it was just an illusion.

The ephemeral temptations

We realize that that loses the value that we initially gave it and that more difficult or longer objectives to achieve, that could have interested us more or have been more beneficial for us, we have left behind.

Short-term hedonism is also closely related to our self-esteem, especially with the element of self-efficacy.

If we think that we are not capable of resisting those pleasures or that we will not be able to tolerate the negative emotions that such resistance would entail, then it will be easier for this to happen.

For example, when a person has to prepare for an exam, they have to leave many pleasures aside: partying every weekend, a job that gives them a monthly salary, seeing friends regularly and even some hobbies.

If this person has a healthy self-esteem and a good tolerance for frustration, they will have to make less effort to put aside those pleasures, in order to get a much bigger one.

Choosing the right path: long-term hedonism

If we want to obtain a more authentic and full happiness and achieve our life goals, the best option is to guide your life according to long-term hedonism or at least combined hedonism. With this we do not mean that you have to stop enjoying some of life’s pleasures.

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That would make life too boring and demotivating, but it is good that we make an effort to increase our tolerance to momentary discomfort or pain.

The appropriate thing is to have goals that mark the course of our life, while along the way we occasionally enjoy pleasures that give variety, but that do not divert us from the goal we want to achieve. Making an intelligent combination of these two hedonic dimensions facilitates the feeling of fulfillment.

These excuses often serve as negative reinforcement of the effort – and even the fear – behind all achievement of objectives.

Think about prioritizing flexibly Hedonism will make you furnish your life in a way that makes you feel happy with it. It will be a place where the sacrifices will not be so hard, where you will enjoy the ephemeral pleasures much more and where you will be able to achieve those goals that you have set for yourself, for which you need time and patience.