Not quite bad enough

We sometimes tolerate things we're not happy with in life for a long time and never do anything about them.

These can be big like a job we're not satisfied with or our fitness level. Or it can be something small, like a Roomba that doesn't work quite right anymore. But we don't decide to make a change. So we spend time tolerating things we're not happy with. Why is that?

One way to think about it, is the Region beta paradox.

Sometimes people are better off if things are worse for them. Hence the paradox.

If stressors are smaller than the perceived effort required to change them, then we won't make a change. We're in region alpha. Or we can call it bad-but-not-bad-enough region.

The standard example is that people choose to walk distances up to a mile instead of riding a bike. The bike is faster, but the hassle of getting it feels too big so it seems better just to walk. In the end it takes longer to get to the destination.

We won't look for a new job, because the current one isn't bad enough. So we stay in a bad job for ages. This applies to many aspects of life. From major decisions like career choices, to smaller ones like fixing a squeaky door.

If the pain was greater, we would move to region beta. The bad-enough region. If the job suddenly has extra obligations and the boss starts screaming at people, the decision to change becomes easy. If the Roomba dies completely instead of just picking up the trash poorly, it's time for a new Roomba.

The extra pain becomes a feature. It starts a change that leads to a better result, a better life.

But what if the pain never comes? What if we're stuck in region alpha forever?