Does every day feel the same?

Maybe this makes you feel a little depressed or restless, so you might go for a walk or something. Then you come back home, and a thought enters your mind like, “that was nice, but not enough.” Then maybe you begin thinking to yourself that you need to do something more dramatic—move somewhere different, go back to school, dump your partner. Something that will really break the pattern. But wait, you’ve done that before, and you’re still feeling stuck.

This is what it’s like to be on the hamster wheel. Life has devolved into this strange, paradoxical experience where no matter what you do, it all feels the same.

There are times when a small pattern disruptor or going for a big life change is exactly what you need. Not knocking either of these options. But the hamster wheel effect implies something deeper, which is why it might be time to take a look at your life philosophy.

Philosophy can be hard because it requires cognitive effort. If we turn away from it though, we will gravitate back to the familiar, which is the hamster wheel. Hamster wheels are for hamsters, not for humans.

Interestingly, regardless of your routine or behavioral patterns, stepping off the hamster wheel might have more to do with changing how you think than changing what you do.

According to MIT philosopher Kieran Setiya, we must borrow a key insight from Aristotle, who identified a fundamental distinction between two types of human pursuits that, for the sake of simplicity, I will refer to as type 1 and type 2 pursuits.

Type 1 pursuits are those that we aim to complete and are outcome focused.

Type 2 pursuits are continuous and are process focused.

Stepping off the hamster wheel involves developing a Type 2 orientation. This is not to say that completable goals and outcomes aren’t important. It’s just that we have a tendency to lean into them too far, which leads to hamster wheel experiences, such as feeling like you’re working to get to the weekend, only to start another work week again on Monday. Or worse, hamster wheel attitudes, such as “oh same ole, same ole, just getting through the day.”

A type 2 orientation means we challenge ourselves to think in terms of values. We don’t complete values; we continuously pursue them. For example, you may value health. The pursuit is ongoing. The definition changes across the lifespan. You take two steps forward and one step back, but on and on you go. You’re not chasing finish lines. You’re focused on the continual process.

A type 2 orientation also means taking a perspective that transcends failure or success. To summarize Setiya, we must challenge ourselves to acknowledge the intrinsic value of experiences. An easy example to ponder is cooking. Why do we cook? To complete the task? To make something edible? What if it comes out wrong? Is all value lost? What if it comes out right? Do we just devour it mindlessly? And off we go to the next thing?

It’s possible to cook because we value the experience of cooking. If it turns out to be trash, we still learned something. We don’t have to finish cooking. We can do it again and again and again. A type 2 orientation encourages us to connect with life as an infinite game of sorts—the point being, to keep it going for its own sake.

I’d like to return to the introduction. Remember that walk you were taking to break up the monotony of everyday life? Instead of the thought, “that was nice, but not enough,” perhaps a new way of thinking can take root as we learn to step off the hamster wheel. Maybe we begin to look at the walking as a practice, as a continuous process, and as not just nice, but also, enough.