“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” Epictetus
Good morning
I trust everyone is having a wonderful summer, finding time to relax, recharge and reflect.
The writers Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five) and Joseph Heller (Catch-22) were at a glamorous party outside New York City. Standing in the palatial second home of the billionaire host, Vonnegut began to needle his friend. “Joe,” he said, “how does it feel that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel has earned in its entire history?”
“I’ve got something he can never have,” Heller replied. “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Knowledge that we have enough, the path to understanding true wealth and realizing happiness.
My commute to the beach on the weekends is a perfect time to catch up on podcasts, typically searching for topics and themes that can serve to enhance understanding and inspire all aspects of life. Yesterday, I tuned in to an amazing conversation between Sam Harris and one of my favorite contributors to The Atlantic, Arthur C. Brooks. One of the themes that they touched on through the spirited conversation was happiness, Brooks helping us understand that for one to be happy, it is the sum of the little details of our life that culminate to the life we aspire to live. This is not to say that happiness is only about getting all the little details of life right. Brooks mentions that each of us should also keep in mind some large truths from the science of happiness that can transcend circumstance and time, guiding us across all of our life’s events, from the trivial to the momentous. Given we are all in pursuit of happiness, I thought I’d share with you the three maxims of happiness from Arthur C Brooks……
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” Aristotle
Maxim 1 - Mother Nature doesn’t care if you are happy.
Perhaps the greatest error people make about happiness is assuming it will come naturally if we follow our instincts—that is, If it feels good, do it. There’s a simplistic sort of logic here: Humans desire lots of worldly rewards, like money, power, pleasure, and admiration. We also want to be happy. Thus, if we get that worldly stuff, we will be happy. But Brooks suggests that this is nature’s cruelest hoax, perpetrated to make sure that we pass on our genes with no consideration of whether we enjoy doing so.
Our brain’s reward system keeps you chasing earthly delights that will enhance your reproductive fitness in comparison with others. These fall broadly into the categories of money, power, pleasure, and honor, which the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas called “substitutes for God”. Whether you buy Aquinas’s assessment or not, you can’t really argue with him that these rewards overpromise and under deliver happiness.
It’s important to remember….Happiness is your responsibility, not Mother Nature’s. That means you need to curtail your worldly appetites, and instead pursue what truly brings enduring happiness: a life philosophy, family relationships, real friendship, and meaningful work.
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” Dalai Lama
Maxim 2 - Lasting happiness comes from habits, not hacks.
We live in a culture of “hacking,” or finding shortcuts to achieve otherwise time-consuming goals or invade well-protected systems. The internet is full of “happiness hacks” that will supposedly boost your well-being in surprising ways, with little effort. And indeed, you can use small, easy actions to change your emotional state quickly, such as turning off the notifications on your phone. But for enduring happiness changes, you need habits, not hacks. And by habits, it’s not referring to mindless routines; I mean mindful, daily practices to strengthen your relationships, deepen your wisdom, and uncover meaning in your life.
Happiness hacking tends to trivialize happiness as little more than a feeling, but this is an error. Happy feelings are evidence of happiness, which is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose. Improvement in these areas requires commitment and effort, like anything else that is worthwhile. But if you do the work, you will most definitely see substantial results.
“Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well lived.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Maxim 3 - Happiness is love.
In the early fifth century, Saint Augustine summarized all of human ethics in the dictum “Love and do what you will.” The happiest people have lives focused on love: of family, of friends, of others through work that is meaningful. Research on people who wind up happy (and healthy) as they grow old shows that the most important part of life to cultivate is a series of stable, long-term relationships.
Not everyone enjoys a love-filled life; it’s true. But here’s the best news: You have a great deal of control over this, because love is a decision and a commitment. Aquinas defines love as “to will the good of the other.” You can’t choose how much love you will get, but happiness depends more on how much you give. And what you give your love to matters just as much. Augustine taught that to be happy, a person “neither loves what he ought not love, nor fails to love what he ought to love.” Here’s a handy formula that Brooks shares for us to go by: Happy people love people and use things; unhappy people use people and love things.
I tried to keep this concise and summarize these three maxims, three isn’t so many to remember…..the hard part is to live them.
And now, to the markets….
S&P futures up 0.2% this morning after US equities finished mostly higher last week with the S&P up for a third straight week, underpinned by further growth outperformance vs value. It has been an eventful few weeks for investors. Global markets have continued to demonstrate some resiliency in the face of high inflation readings, weaker economic signals, meaningful interest rate hikes, and an earnings season that has unleashed plenty of headlines.
Meanwhile, the second quarter earnings season is wrapping up this week and, in absolute terms, the results have not been too shabby. As we know, sentiment had been very weak in recent months and expectations heading into the reporting season were understandably low. Overall, it’s fair to say that the results and guidance have not necessarily been as dire as expected and we are starting to see some real opportunity across markets and asset classes. Encouragingly, we are most comforted by the decline in longer-term inflation expectations which we’ve been anticipating, a development that leaves us reassured about the longer-term prospects of asset classes and our ability to deliver strong results into the back half of the year and beyond.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Mahatma Gandhi
As we head into the week, be sure to reflect on what happiness means to you. Remember, a good life isn’t just about getting the details right, it’s about understanding that true wealth and happiness is a sense of having enough, living in a place of fullness and constant learning.
Be well & enjoy the moments
Derek