Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: Incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is enough.
— Morgan Housel
Well, I try my best to be just like I am, But everybody wants you to be just like them
— Bob Dylan from “Maggie’s Farm”
What are we all searching for?
”When it comes to our dreams, each of us seems to be searching for something rather different. Some are chasing a long-held ambition – to become a famous author, or pianist, or bottle-cap collector. Others are searching for the perfect partner with whom they can raise a family. There are those who aspire to great wealth and luxury, while others who yearn for modest simplicity. Still more may be pursuing particular emotional states: to become calmer, less timid, or more present in the world.
Yet, though our dreams look different on the surface, at heart, all of us are searching for pretty much the same thing. The Greeks called this quality eudaimonia: variously translated as ‘fulfillment’ or ‘flourishing. It is the sense that we have achieved our purpose in life; that our particular combination of talents and drives have attained their most ideal end. It’s feeling like we have found our fitting place in the cosmos.
Achieving eudaimonia is no simple task: most of us will spend our lives embarked upon the search. Yet our search is more likely to bear fruit if we begin by investing in two key areas: self-knowledge and resilience. Namely, by gaining a deeper awareness of our personal sources of meaning, and building up the emotional strength required to achieve it.”
— School of Life (link)
Nothing will change your future trajectory like your habits. While goals rely on extrinsic motivation, habits, once formed, are automatic. They literally rewire our brains.
— Farnam Street
We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about
~ Joseph Campbell
People prefer their sources of information to be highly correlated. Then all the messages you get are consistent with each other and you’re comfortable
— Daniel Kahneman