I grew up in a culture where people recited an unwritten mantra that sounded something like this, “I will be happy when I can… if I can…”  This mentality, as you can already tell, comes with undercurrents of scarcity. You can see that, right? The future.Oh, the anticipation of that day!  Oh, the happiness you’ll experience then!  This is what emotion researchers call the hedonic treadmill. It’s something they say we do; working very hard to reach a goal that will result in happiness. Later.