Bad Is Stronger Than Good
Losing $100,000 feels much worse than winning the same amount feels good. This asymmetry was summed up by Roy Baumeister and his colleagues in his paper titled “Bad Is Stronger Than Good”.
This explains why we are adapt quickly to positive events, rather than negative ones. Lottery winners are often happy for a day or a week, before returning to their normal levels of happiness.
One implication of this is we should aim to rigorously minimize the risk of downfall in life, much more so than the pursuit of happiness and all things positive. Winning is all about not losing.