Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.
#47 – December 12, 2022
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Wise: Strategic willpower
It requires willpower to do anything, whether that’s eating healthy, working out, being a supportive partner, or starting a business.
I look at the concept of willpower as mental energy. Whenever you want to do something, you need to dedicate energy to it.
Whether you can follow through on your intention or not depends on willpower.
In my experience, you can set your life up in a way so you can maximize willpower/mental energy.
Become aware of what is draining your energy. Then avoid that as much as you can.
And always keep things simple, no matter what you’re doing. In my latest article, I show the science behind willpower and share more insights for optimizing it.
↳ Strategic Willpower: How to Keep Going When Life Gets Hard
Wealthy: Protect the downside
I limit my potential financial losses by diversifying. But it’s not the type of diversification you might expect.
For example, I put all the money that I’ve set aside for stock investing in a single S&P index fund.
But that index represents nearly all aspects of the real economy (some more than others, but I’m fine with that).
I’ve also invested in real estate. Plus, I keep enough cash in savings to live off for a year.
These investments are so broad that the odds of losing all my money are very low. Lastly, I avoid individual stocks or schemes that have no underlying value. Remember: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
This way of thinking is not only essential as an investor, but also as a professional. No matter what you do in life, always protect the downside.
Set things up in a way you likely will not deal with severe financial losses.
One interesting thing
Do you ever feel lonely or bored? Do you often look at other people’s lives and feel jealous?
It might be because you’re focused on the wrong things. When you focus on what truly matters in life (your health, mindset, relationships, work) — you never feel lonely, bored, or jealous.
This quote comes from my collection of Stoic essays, Focus on What Matters:
“While many of us desire to become the rulers of our destiny, we can’t embark on that endeavor unless we master our inner world first.”
Master your mind and you become the master of your destiny.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.
All the best,
Darius
Join the 7-day Stay Centered challenge
I’ve created a one-week email course that you can do together with a group. It’s called Stay Centered, and it will help you to reclaim focus and live a meaningful life.
When you’re centered, nothing can hurt you. You will have inner peace no matter what happens.
How to unlock Stay Centered
You can join the challenge for free. Every day, you’ll receive a short email with a small challenge that inspires you to live better.
I highly recommend sharing it with your friends so you can go through the program together. I did it with my team, which was a lot of fun.
Join here: dariusforoux.com/stay-centered