Stop! You're Doing it Again.

you already reached a goal you said would make you happy

If you want to be happy, is there any topic to be studied more important than philosophy?

“The geometrician teaches me how I may avoid losing any fraction of my estates, but what I really want to learn is how to lose the lot and still keep smiling.” (LXXXVIII)

In school, I studied tens of subjects from languages to sciences and history. I never had a class on philosophy (reading a book on the meaning of life for English class does not count… at all).

Every class subject has a purpose (some more than others). I took chemistry in case I wanted to become a scientist or a doctor. I took statistics in case I became a researcher or statistician. I took French so I could speak with everybody around Quebec. I haven’t used any of those skills in a reasonably complex matter since taking the classes.

I studied each subject just in case it might be useful later.

Philosophy seems to be the only subject anyone can study and learn instantly applicable lessons from - especially Stoicism. No ancient stoic was a philosopher by occupation. The famous Stoics worked jobs from king to gardener. Each used stoicism to lead a better life despite their different day-to-day lives.

Besides, would you rather learn how to get everything you ever wanted or learn how to be happy while losing everything?

Only one of those options guarantees happiness.

There are plenty of miserable people with everything they said they wanted. Just think about it… you’ve reached goals that you used to say would make you happy.

• “I’ll be happy when I get into a good school” - You did it! Did that really make you happy?

• “I’ll be happy when I get the job I want” - You did it! Are you happy now?

You’ll probably keep finding new things you want. At some point in your life you thought you reached a goal that would make you happy and it didn’t so why would that change?

You don’t need to learn how to get more crap. You need to learn to be happy with the crap you already have. Where can you learn this? You can find the answers in philosophy! You can study older books (older questions = older books), try different practices and search for a teacher who resonates with you.

You could even journal and meditate while learning from life and never pick up a book. Philosophy is written in truths, not words.

Life is hard. There’s always more crap to buy. It’s marketers’s jobs to convince you it’ll make you happy. But you’ll never be able to have everything you want unless... you learn to want less.

Question of the Day

When was the last time you achieved a goal you thought would make you happy? Did it?

Your Friend,

Noah “BigNerd” Sochaczevski