The Happiness of Looking Forward
Want to lift your spirits? Plan a fun weekend with friends or a trip!
Sherold Barr, Tuscany, Italy
The Happiness of Looking Forward
Hello my friend — it’s amazing that we’re halfway through the year! You have now till the end of the year to create experiences that will bring you happiness.
According to a survey by the Institute for Applied Positive Research, 97% of people report that vacation anticipation—just having a trip on the calendar—makes them feel happier.
John and I are on a trip as I write this. We are camping in our 19’ Airstream, Bambi, and we’re at a mountain lake in the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon for three days. It’s been heavenly to spend time in the forest and sit by the lake. It heals my soul.
While it’s easy to assume that happiness peaks during a vacation or after returning home, the truth is even better:
It’s the Anticipation of the Vacation that Makes Us Happier.
This can be applied to any experience you want to have, not just a vacation. It’s the planning of something fun or exciting (a stretch goal) that rewards you with happiness before and during the experience.
Anticipation is one of the three doorways into joy—the one that lets you start enjoying something before it has even happened.
Anticipation is often the happiest phase. The most-cited study is Jeroen Nawijn’s research in Applied Research in Quality of Life, which examined 1,530 Dutch adults and found the 974 who took a vacation gained the most happiness in the period leading up to the trip. The results were similar with earlier research by Leigh Thompson and Terence Mitchell, whose study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that regardless of the type of trip, people were happier before the vacation than during it.
The benefit is strongest for experiences, not purchases.
A 2014 Cornell University study (Gilovich and colleagues) found that the anticipation of an experience brings more happiness than the anticipation of buying a material thing—partly because, as one analysis put it, we wrap an upcoming experience in an idealized version in our minds, while a physical object just sits there in the ordinary present. To get the most enjoyment from your money, research says to focus your discretionary spending on experiential purchases or travel — the researchers found that people thinking about impending experiential purchases, such as ski passes or concert tickets, have higher levels of happiness than those who anticipate spending money on material goods.
Why Planning Brings Anticipatory Happiness
The Power of Anticipation: Looking forward to a future event triggers positive mental well-being and excitement.
Dopamine Release: Savoring a planned reward releases dopamine—the “anticipation molecule”—which fuels your sense of motivation and pleasure beforehand.
Stress Buffer: Thinking about a relaxing escape lowers your current stress, breaks up routine boredom, and gives you a sense of control—especially during uncertain times.
Improved Energy and Sleep: Studies show that people with a trip on the horizon feel more energetic and even sleep better. The journey to happiness really does begin the moment you start dreaming.
The Science Behind the Joy
Why does anticipation make us so happy? Neuroscience offers some answers. When we look forward to a positive event, the brain’s reward centers—especially the medial prefrontal cortex—light up. This is the same area activated by pleasurable experiences. In effect, our brains let us “pre-experience” the joy of travel, weeks or even months before we depart.
Psychologists also point to the goal theory of well-being: having something to look forward to gives us purpose, motivation, and a sense of progress. Even during busy or stressful times, planning a trip can offer a welcome escape and a reminder that good things are coming.
Active Planning Amplifies It
The more involved a person is in planning, the more they anticipate it and the happier they feel; when the planning is handed off for a fully packaged tour, the anticipation drops. The joy lives in planning the trip yourself, not going on a tour.
The Afterglow Is Short
That’s the real argument for front-loading anticipation. Post-trip happiness tends to fade within a couple of weeks back into routine, and the length of the trip barely affects it. The practical consequence is genuinely counterintuitive: several short breaks across the year tend to produce more happiness than one long vacation, precisely because each one gives you another runway of anticipation. More things to look forward to beats one big thing.
How I’m Practicing This
I like having things to look forward to during the year. John and I are planning a trip to Spain this fall. He’s going on a nine-day cycling trip with friends. I’ll fly over afterwards to spend ten days in parts of the Spain I’ve never visited before. In the winter, we’re planning to live in Baja, Mexico for a month.
This summer we’ve taken three camping trips in our 19’ Airstream, Bambi.
I look forward to playing with my 3½-year-old grandson on the weekends I visit — lately we’ve met at a park, and it’s so much fun for me and makes me so happy.
I’m looking forward to a second grandchild arriving this fall.
And every month, I look forward to our High Road to Healing Gatherings, where I enjoy the community of paid subscribers. Each month I share a concept that we work through and discuss. This year we’ve had a small workshop on How to be Resilient, Fear as Rocket Fuel and the 100-Day Visualization Project. Upcoming workshops include How to Clear Money Blocks and the Spiritual Practice of Aging.
The community of women who’ve met with me twice as part of High Road to Healing’s 100-Day Visualization Project have started to do something new they can look forward to that will bring them a sense of happiness and accomplishment. We have a woman who wants to take the bar exam to become an attorney; a former nurse and clinical trial director who wants to be a writer to help people understand parts of the medical system; an investor who wants to sell a property; and a participant who wants to organize her life to help her feel better and do what she loves. I wrote four chapters of my book in 100 days. I have a lot of revising to do on two of those chapters. But I moved the book forward. That’s what counts.
How to Maximize Your Own Anticipation
Want to make the most of this happiness boost? A few tips:
Plan your experience or trip ahead: The longer the anticipation period, the greater the happiness benefits. Even if your trip is months away, start planning now!
Savor the details: Read about your destination, browse photos, and imagine the experiences you’ll have. The more vivid your daydreams, the more joy you’ll feel.
Share the excitement: Talk about your plans with friends and family. Not only does this strengthen bonds, but it also multiplies the happiness.
Keep something on the horizon: Consider always having a future journey or experience in the works, even if it’s just a weekend getaway. The anticipation will keep your spirits high year-round.
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Sources: University of Surrey, “Holiday Anticipation and Happiness”; Cornell University, “Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases”; Jeroen Nawijn (2010), Applied Research in Quality of Life; Thompson & Mitchell, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology; Institute for Applied Positive Research, “The Power of Travel Anticipation.”