We have all felt it. You spend weeks researching the perfect smartphone. You compare the lenses, the screen refresh rates, and the titanium finishes. Finally, you click "Buy Now." For exactly forty-eight hours, you feel a surge of triumph. You show it to your friends; you admire the sleek glass. But by day three, the magic has evaporated. The phone is just a tool, and your eyes are already drifting toward an ad for the "Ultra" version coming out next year.
Why does our happiness have such a short shelf life?
In his landmark books, Sapiens and Homo Deus, the historian Yuval Noah Harari points out a staggering irony: we have largely conquered famine, defeated ancient plagues, and curated lives of unprecedented comfort. Yet, we are more stressed, anxious, and spiritually hollow than ever. We are drowning in a world of instant supply, but we are suffering from a permanent case of "the wants."
The root of our restlessness is biological. For ninety-nine percent of human history, Homo sapiens lived in a world of extreme scarcity. Our ancestors’ survival depended on a relentless "reward system" in the brain. When a forager found a rare beehive dripping with honey, his brain released a chemical called dopamine. It felt magnificent. It was Nature’s way of saying: "Keep doing this. Don’t stop." In the Pleistocene, that urge kept us alive. In 2026, that same system is being hijacked. Every time you get a "Like" on Instagram or see a "Flash Sale" banner, your brain gets a tiny hit of that same caveman honey. But because the supply is now infinite and the effort required is zero, we never stop to digest. We have become what ancient Eastern philosophy calls "Hungry Ghosts"—creatures with massive stomachs but throats as thin as needles. No matter how much we consume, we can never feel full.
The Big Lie of "More"
Harari argues that history’s greatest deception was the Agricultural Revolution. We stopped being free-roaming hunters and became tillers of the soil. We were sold a promise: if you work harder today, you will be more secure tomorrow. We are still falling for that lie, only now it’s digital. Modern life is built on what psychologists call the Hedonic Treadmill. It is a simple, brutal truth: humans adapt. Whether you win a lottery or get a corner office, your brain eventually resets to a "neutral" state. To get that original high back, you have to run faster, earn more, and buy bigger. We are running a race with a finish line that moves every time we get close to it.
The Buddha’s Audit
Twenty-five centuries before neuroscience, the Buddha performed a clinical audit of the human heart. He concluded that our misery doesn’t stem from what we lack, but from the attachment to the wanting itself. He described desire as a fire: the more fuel you throw on it, the hotter it burns. An "Audit of Desire" doesn’t mean you should renounce your life and move to a monastery. It means you should look at your impulses like a wise auditor looking at a failing company’s books. You must ask: "Is this desire actually paying dividends in lasting peace, or is it just a high-interest debt I’m paying to my ego?"
"Happiness is not a dividend paid at the end of a career; it is the quiet byproduct of the courage to stop running."
How to Reclaim the "Now"
To stop working against your own humanity and start working with it, you need a new toolkit for the digital age:
The 48-Hour Buffer: In a world of one-click shopping, the distance between "I want" and "I have" has disappeared. By forcing a two-day delay on any non-essential purchase, you allow your "wanting" system to cool down. You’ll find that most desires evaporate when they aren’t fed immediately.
Focus on "Liking," Not "Wanting": Neuroscience shows that "wanting" (the itch to get) is handled by a different part of the brain than "liking" (the actual enjoyment). We spend 90% of our energy on the wanting. Reversing this—focusing on the actual sensory pleasure of what you already have—is the secret to contentment.
Define Your "Enough": The modern world is designed to tell you that you are inadequate. To fight back, you must decide what "enough" looks like for your unique life. If you do not set a ceiling on your desires, the world will keep raising the roof until you collapse under the weight.
Happiness is not a dividend paid out at the end of a long career or the final unboxing of a flagship upgrade. It is the quiet, subversive byproduct of a life lived with presence and the radical courage to declare "enough." As Harari suggests, the most important revolution of our century will not be mapped in a silicon lab or coded into a new algorithm. It will happen in the silent, untelevised space of your own mind—the precise moment you choose to stop running and finally inhabit the ground beneath your feet.
(The above content is written by O.P. Singh, Former DGP, Haryana)
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