The Arrival Fallacy
'Arrival Fallacy is the idea that someone is motivated by an idea that they think will be finite, however in reality it is proceeded by something else. This might be described as: "I will be only happy after I accomplish X, is only proceeded by l will be happy after I only accomplish Y...
The term, coined by Harvard psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar explains it as like Sisyphus (Figure 1) pushing a boulder up a hill for eternity, we tend to believe once we reach our goal we will be happy. The truth is, this is a cognitive bias, as the moment of achievement, although glorious, is only fleeting. We're then left feeling let down and lost, unsure where to direct the energy we're so used to calling up to allow us to keep chasing our goals.
This is mostly due to our own ego. We believe that in order to feel validated and deserving of ourselves, we must be able to point to a job, a trophy, or a certain amount of money as evidence. This way, we can say, "See, I knew I could do it all along."
The Mystery Box
One example of the Arrival fallacy being used in the real world is in serial TV shows via a principle called the Mystery Box. The mystery box is an approach to storytelling which understands that the mind is perpetuated by mystery, always looking to discover. The worst tv serial would present a mystery and then solve it, the best tv serial keeps users hooked by presenting a Mystery Box and then inside the box is another box into infinity. Its difficult to do the concept justice, below is a fantastic TED Talk presentation by J.J. Abrams on the subject.