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Why do we want what we can't have?

How to Understand People delves into human behavior and explores why people act in sometimes-unusual ways.

One of those oddities is the fact that no matter what we obtain and how much of it, we always seem to be striving for something more.

The novelty of consumer goods like watches and television sets wears off rather quickly, and it isn't long before we're in search of the next best thing. Women with straight hair long for curly hair, and vice versa. People in cities where it gets very cold in the winter time wish they lived in sun-drenched, humid Miami. Time-starved parents wish they had the luxury of being able to relax at will.

In other words, we always seem to want what we can't have. Sometimes people spend so much time yearning for what they can't get that they fail to appreciate what's in front of them, hence the phrase "you don't know what you've got until it's gone."

We may get like this when, for example, a friend buys a nicer car or a neighbor installs a new pool -- something many of us can only dream of doing given the cost.

We need to resist the urge to keep up with the Joneses. It's precisely that kind of thinking that led people to spend beyond their means in the years leading to the Great Recession, and why the bottom finally fell out in 2008.

The bottom line: Instead of being so easily swayed by advertising into buying stuff we don't need, let's lead simpler lives filled with less junk. Shun materialistic tendencies once and for all. Our pocketbooks, and ultimately, our sanity, will thank us for it later.

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