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The Purpose Of Life Is Not Happiness: It’s Usefulness
For the longest time, I believed that there’s only one purpose of life: And that is to be happy.
Right? Why else go through all the pain and hardship? It’s to achieve happiness in some way.
And I’m not the only person who believed that. In fact, if you look around you, most people are pursuing happiness in their lives.
That’s why we collectively buy shit we don’t need, go to bed with people we don’t love and try to work hard to get the approval of people we don’t like.
A Lesson on Purpose from LeBron James
I was watching LeBron James after he scored his 50,000th career point against the New Orleans Pelicans on March 4th.
Hitting 50,000 points is almost impossible. To put that in context, Michael Jordan—widely considered the greatest by many—finished his career with 32,292 points.
In the post-game interview, Lebron was asked, “How are you doing this at such a high level, at this stage of your career?”
Lebron is 40. And he still plays the game with the enthusiasm of an 18-year-old.
Wise & Wealthy: The meaning of life and the best investing books
Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.
#146 – October 14, 2024
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5 best investing books
I’m usually skeptical about books or articles with titles like, “How I Made X Dollars…” But Nicolas Darvas’ book, How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market, is a bit of an exception.
Darvas was not a professional investor; he was a dancer. He was a self-taught investor who actually made a lot of money by trading stocks.
One of the best lessons from this book is simple: Develop a system that works for you, and stick to it.
Investing is truly a personal thing. You must have a strategy that fits your personality.
Darvas’ book details his “Box System” for identifying stocks poised for growth. Whether or not his system will also work for you doesn’t matter as much as the strategy he teaches about developing your own investing system.
Even when others doubted him, Darvas was confident with his strategy and executed consistently. This allowed him to make money in the stock market. He said:
“There are no good or bad stocks, there are only rising and falling stocks.”
Darvas’ story proves that you don’t need to be a Wall Street insider to succeed in the stock market. What you need is a clear, well-defined system and the discipline to keep executing.
In my latest article, I talk about 4 other investing books that I found to provide timeless advice.
↳ 5 Enduring Investment Advice From the Best Investing Books
One interesting thing
In a recent podcast, Harvard professor and author, Arthur C. Brooks and Tim Ferris talked about how most people suspect that finding meaning in life can be challenging if you don’t know where to start.
So it’s easier to break it down into three parts:
- Coherence: The key is to create (or follow) a belief system that corresponds to your personal values. In my case, I rely on philosophy as my anchor, specifically Stoicism.
- Purpose: This is about finding a goal or direction for your life. This dictates what you want to achieve in life. To me, this means usefulness.
- Significance: This is about feeling like your life matters and that you’re making a positive difference in the world.
When you combine coherence, purpose, and significance, you get a good picture of what a meaningful life can mean to you.
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
Wise & Wealthy: Creating a better life and using money as a tool
Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.
#141 – September 9, 2024
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A better life today
People often think you always have to make a major change to have a better life. But that’s not true. Small actions create a bigger impact over time.
One small action is to begin with the end in mind every time you set out to do something.
This is a classic piece of advice from the late Stephen Covey. Starting with the end in mind forces you to be more deliberate with your actions.
It challenges you to think backwardly first before you start making your plans. You can execute this mindset in the following ways:
- Want to improve your fitness? What’s the end goal? Want to run a 10K? Compete at a bodybuilding competition? Do a triathlon? Or simply want to stay fit and avoid injuries? All these different outcomes require a totally different exercise regimen.
- Saving for a vacation? How much money do you need? Calculate everything you want from transportation to accommodation to eating out to activities. When are you going on vacation? Now, start saving the amount you need every month.
Having a clear end goal in mind helps give direction and purpose to your actions.
In my latest article, I provide 9 more small actions that can improve your life today.
↳ Ten Small Actions to Have a Better Life Today
One interesting thing
The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said:
“Wealth is like seawater: the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”
If you pursue money without a genuine purpose, it’s like seawater – it won’t satisfy your thirst for more.
But if you have a specific goal and see money as a tool to achieve it, you shift your focus from just being “rich” to using the money for what it really is: A way to gain the freedom to do things that are truly important to you.
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