These Are the Good Days

A sentence in the present tense

“These are the good days.”

I keep coming back to those five words. These includes the days we are living now, rather than an imagined future in which everything has finally fallen into place. Are keeps us here. Good makes no claim that these are the best days we will ever know. There is still room to make tomorrow better.

The sentence has travelled widely through Hannah Fry's short reflection. What stays with me is its modesty. It does not ask us to be delighted by every meeting or grateful for every hardship. It suggests that some of what we will one day miss is happening in the middle of an ordinary day.

That is a belief I want at the beginning of Sariio's thinking. We do our best work when we play to our preferences. But first, we have to be here, among the people and circumstances in which that work actually happens.

Why the extraordinary becomes ordinary

Psychologists use the term hedonic adaptation for a familiar experience: the excitement of a gain, or the shock of a loss, can change over time as life settles into new routines. We notice the dramatic change; then we begin to live with what followed.

A 1978 study by Philip Brickman, Dan Coates and Ronnie Janoff-Bulman is often told as a neat story about lottery winners and people paralysed by accidents. The researchers interviewed 22 major lottery winners, 22 comparison participants and 29 people with paralysis from accidents who had been interviewed previously. Lottery winners were no happier than the comparison group and reported less pleasure in ordinary events. The participants with paralysis did not simply report the same experience as the winners. The study explored different patterns of contrast and adaptation.

That distinction matters. A life-changing injury cannot be made equivalent to a windfall, and a small, cross-sectional study cannot tell us how every person's well-being will unfold over years. The popular version, in which everyone inevitably returns to precisely the same level of happiness, is tidier than the evidence.

Later work by Ed Diener, Richard Lucas and Christie Napa Scollon revised that picture. People differ in their starting levels and in how they adapt. Different parts of well-being can move differently. Sometimes a person's level of well-being changes in a lasting way. There is no single rule that makes all good fortune fleeting or all suffering disappear.

Still, the everyday observation holds: familiarity can make a good thing harder to notice. A colleague who makes a difficult day easier, a measure of freedom in how we work, a conversation that ends with understanding: each can become part of the scenery.

Can gratitude change the picture?

There is research behind deliberately noticing what is good, although it calls for a quieter claim than “reset your mindset.”

In three experiments reported by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, groups who recorded things for which they were grateful showed higher well-being on several measures than comparison groups. The clearest finding was for positive feelings; the effects did not appear on every measure.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 145 papers across 28 countries found a small average improvement in well-being from gratitude interventions. Results varied between countries and between studies. That supports the possibility that a deliberate practice of noticing or expressing thanks can help some people. It does not establish that repeating “These are the good days” permanently moves anyone's happiness baseline.

The phrase is useful to me for a more personal reason. It interrupts the habit of postponing appreciation until after the next milestone. It asks me to look around. Sometimes I find a reason to be grateful. Sometimes I find that something needs to change. Both answers deserve attention.

Gratitude can help us notice what is here. It should never require us to pretend that what hurts does not hurt.

What this means at work

Work has a way of making the present conditional. When we finish the project, settle the team, earn the promotion, meet the target, then perhaps we will feel good about what we are doing. There will always be another project or target. Meanwhile, the working days in which our lives are happening pass by.

“These are the good days” is not a request to enjoy an unsafe workplace, accept poor treatment or smile through exhaustion. If work is causing harm, gratitude is no substitute for changing the conditions. A culture cannot ask people to practise appreciation while ignoring what people are telling it.

The sentence can, however, change what we pay attention to. Who helped me understand something today? When did I feel able to contribute in my own way? Which part of a difficult task was made easier because somebody knew how I worked? What do we want to keep, alongside everything we want to improve?

These questions lead towards the next belief: we do our best work when we play to our preferences. Understanding a preference gives us language for one part of a day that can go well. Sharing it with someone else gives us a way to make more room for both of us. Across a team, such conversations can help us see the habits that shape everyday work.

Culture is experienced in those ordinary days. The way a question is received. The person who gets space to think before speaking. The decision made with the people it affects. None of this requires us to call every day wonderful. It does ask us to notice what is already good, what is difficult, and what we could make better together.

A belief, not a verdict

Some days are painful. Some are simply hard work. Saying “These are the good days” on such a day may feel wrong. Nobody owes the phrase to anyone else.

For me, the five words are an invitation to remain present while life is happening. Good can sit beside grief, uncertainty and unfinished work. We can be grateful for a person or a moment without being grateful for the circumstances that made either necessary.

We do not need to wait until everything is perfect to see what matters now. And seeing what matters now may help us decide what to change tomorrow.

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If you are curious about the way you approach work, take the free survey. Then invite someone to compare and start a conversation about what helps each of you have more good days at work.

Sources

• Brickman, P., Coates, D. and Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978), “Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 917–927.
• Diener, E., Lucas, R. E. and Scollon, C. N. (2006), “Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being”, American Psychologist, 61(4), 305–314.
• Emmons, R. A. and McCullough, M. E. (2003), “Counting blessings versus burdens”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389.
• Choi, H. and colleagues (2025), “A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(28).
• Fry, H., “These are the good days”, personal reflection shared on social media.

Frequently asked questions

What does “These are the good days” mean?

It is an invitation to notice the present, including ordinary moments and relationships we value. It does not mean every day feels good, or that gratitude should make us accept hardship or poor working conditions. The phrase leaves room to acknowledge what hurts and to work for change, while recognising what matters in the day we are living now.

Does hedonic adaptation mean everyone returns to the same happiness level?

No. The 1978 study of lottery winners and people with paralysis after accidents found patterns of adaptation in small groups, but it did not show that the groups became equally happy. Later research shows that people differ in how they adapt to events, different aspects of well-being can change in different ways, and some changes can last.

Does gratitude permanently raise our happiness baseline?

Studies of gratitude exercises find small average improvements in well-being, although the results vary between studies and countries. That evidence does not show that repeating a phrase permanently resets an individual's happiness baseline. For some people, the words may be a useful personal reminder to notice what they value today. They are not a treatment or a promise.

How does this belief relate to work preferences?

Noticing what makes an ordinary working day better can lead to a conversation about how we prefer to work. A person might value time to think before speaking, while a colleague finds clarity through discussion. Sharing those preferences can help both people understand each other and decide what to keep or change in the way they work together.