2-3-4 Friday
‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’
1 thought
If you haven’t
watched Fight Club yet, you should.
This piece of dialogue, stood out.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.
We’re the middle children of history, man: No purpose or place. We have no
Great War.
No Great Depression.
Our Great War’s a spiritual war; our Great Depression is our lives.
We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we
won’t.
And as I look down on the 8-year-old (yes, 8) MacBook that I’m banging this newsletter on, or the tattered (and patched) backpack that I carry, I think there’s so much goodness in that.
In a few hours, the greatest shopping extravanganza mankind has ever known will be unleashed. Black
Friday, Cyber Monday, you want it, you will get it.
The common advice is to swing from end to end.
- You buy, and don’t think too much. After all, we are all going to die someday. What’s the point of saving so much?
- You don’t buy and learn to live contented
with what you have.
As with most things, it’s about balance. We know that.
But I do think there’s a certain degree of wisdom sun learning to live more uncomfortably than we can afford.
Yes, you can afford that nice apartment just outside of
town.
Or maybe you can afford a fancy meal ever week. Or maybe another nice piece of furniture from Ikea. Or that classy dress.
The advice given is to live within your means, but I think there’s some wisdom in living massively, under your means. Not so that you can save and invest the difference. But because
living uncomfortably does bring a certain degree of drive to what you do. It humbles you.
Because when you’re living in that fancy building, filled with chic Ikea furniture that makes your home look like a Scandi showroom, it’s tempting to think,
I’ve made it.
To take your foot off the gas.
How do you continue having the fight within you if you’re externally bombarded with the idea that you’ve made it?
1 talk
The things you own end up owning you.
Fight Club
1 tip
A trader I know who makes millions a year, lives in a HDB, or Singapore’s equivalent of public housing.
Here’s a simple rule of thumb. If it’s related to
quality of living, you probably can give it a miss. Again you might ask me why. Because sometimes we’ve grown up with this mistaken belief that we need to buy something, own something, to make us happier, whereas the answer often isn’t found externally.
It’s found internally.
Another solution is to just hold off your
purchase for the next 24 hours.
And you will find that you didn’t find that urge as strong as before.
I challenge you.
Don’t buy anything for yourself this festive season.
You might find a big revelation from that experience.
John
Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love
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