Have you noticed we're always sabotaging ourselves?

Have you ever noticed how we always seem to be doing things for the good of our future selves? And then when that future comes we hate it?

Like we say, "I'll stick in this job and build up my resume so in a few years I'll be super qualified." Then a few years comes and you're like, "I hate this job."

Basically we're always sacrificing for our future, and our future selves never appreciate it. I read about this in a book about happiness. (Sorry, I forget the title.) The gist was that most people aren't happy even though they spend most of their lives doing things that they think will make them happy in the future.

I'll take this job. I'll buy this house. I'll buy new clothes. I'll start a budget.

Either we do these things and then we say, "Okay I still feel like crap. What's going on?" Or we quit half way because it's too hard and then we say, "I feel like crap. I shouldn't have quit."

Interestingly, people who don't plan or sacrifice for the future (I'm thinking people with poor impulse control, drinkers, drug habits etc.) aren't happy either.*

So what do we do about this? I don't know.

*Except for Buddhist monks or Zen masters who "live in the moment.