What differentiates masochism from healthy effort is whether something meaningful is on the other side. If you manage to figure that out, and you are in touch with what you really want, learning how to recognize and push through the wince can help you create better patterns.

Ursula Le Guin: “If you evade suffering you also evade chances of joy….The thing about working with time, instead of against it ...is that it is not wasted. Even the pain counts”.

People find meaning and happiness through their connections with other people, through their engagement in interesting work and activities, and through their participation in communities, much more than through lavish consumption. Consumerism as a cultural model for living a good life, therefore, hinders human flourishing.