Science increasingly shows that there is a right amount of money for happiness, but that countless variables make the amount change for little reason. The problem must be approached another way.Philosophers have asked the same question. Every thinker who has tried to answer the question of how to live has had to wonder how much money was right to have. Here, we have the ideas on how money affects happiness from ten philosophers that might help you decide how much money is enough.

The Right Amount Of Riches

In Aristotelian philosophy, virtue is the key requirement for a life well lived. But while his stoic contemporaries thought virtue alone would assure a good life, Aristotle knew that a few other things would be needed. Among them are <a href="https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/do-you-have-true-friendships-why-aristotle-thinks-you-dont">friendship</a>, good luck, and money.While he saw money as merely a tool to promote other goals, he is open about the fact that the good life requires that you have a fair amount of it. One of the items on his list of virtues needed to live a full life is magnificence, which involves the donation of large sums to charity.

Aristotle

The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

Henry David Thoreau is famous for retreating to a cabin near Walden pound and writing a book about his experiment of living a simple, self-sufficient life in the wilderness. While his experiment is often presented as more than it was, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum">his cabin wasn’t that far from a town and his mother usually cooked and cleaned for him</a>, his ideas on the simple life are still worth considering.His time in the woods showed him the benefits of living simply; such as how much humanity can gain by spending more time in nature and how getting away from material pleasures can help us live a fuller life.

Thoreau

To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle or worse

Epicurus was a philosopher with some bold ideas on how to make people happy. He lived in the countryside in a large house with a dozen other people where they all lived communally. He argued that the path to happiness was moderation, strong friendships, and philosophy.Rather than accumulating wealth, one should try and live a simple life and find joy in things like friends, the pleasures of work, and philosophy. The moderate life, however, didn’t require much money at all.

Epicurus

If you wish to make Pythocles wealthy, don’t give him more money; rather, reduce his desires.

Nietzsche argued that the morality of the gospels was a slave morality which was based on a sort of sour grapes approach to things. Since the authors of the gospels didn’t have money or power they declared those things to be evil and the poverty and weakness they had to be good. Nietzsche sees this reactionary morality to be unbecoming of great people.This doesn’t mean that he thought hoarding cash was good, but he does warn us to be wary of the poor man who derides money as evil and useless to our happiness.

Nietzsche

Kierkegaard strikes out against how people are increasingly dispassionate, conforming, and detached. He blames, among other things, money for causing some of this. As the abstraction of real value, it tends to make us desire of it rather than the things it can buy or represents.Kierkegaard implores us to dive headfirst into life and live it fully and desiring too much money is a symptom of not doing so.

Kierkegaard

Schopenhauer was a pessimistic thinker who felt that most people were doomed to rather unpleasant lives. He was so convinced of this that he was one of the first prominent anti-natalists and wrote that most people were better off not being born. His advice on how to be happy is fittingly strange.Schopenhauer’s great solution to the endless miseries of life is to withdraw from them and live ascetically. Money then, that cause of infinite desire, labor, and strife, is to be avoided. The worst part of his solution is his understanding of how few people could hope to carry it out.

Schopenhauer

Wealth is like sea-water: The more we drink the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

Franklin was independently wealthy. After a lifetime of wise investments, hard work, and a fair share of luck, Franklin was able to turn his attention to his social projects and not have to worry about money again.His ideas on wealth were similar to Aristotle’s in many ways. He wrote a book on <a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/52-fra.html">how to earn and save money</a> and associated having wealth with having a least a few virtues. He also agrees that, while good to have, money is at best a tool for getting other things. Unlike Aristotle, however, <a href="https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/ben-franklins-13-guidelines-for-living-a-good-life">his list of virtues</a> does not require wealth to live life to the fullest.

Ben Franklin

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money

Marx reminds us that money, for all the bad things philosophers often say about it, is extremely useful. It drives history, grants the ability to accomplish great things, and often consumes too much of our time. His philosophy of communism isn’t so much against wealth as it is an attempt to tame it and make it the servant of humanity rather than the problem it frequently can be. The results have been mixed at best.

Karl Marx

His life story and later dedication to intellectual pleasures speak against a life of chasing money as the path to Nirvana. However, extreme poverty is no solution either. While many Buddhist monks are supposed to avoid even touching money, the rest of us are encouraged to have the “right livelihood” and earn it virtuously. This also includes not having more than we need.We are warned that there is too much of a good thing and that we should not suppose that more money is the solution to suffering. Having nothing isn’t too much fun either though.

The Buddha

Faith is the best wealth for a man in this world. Righteousness when well practiced brings happiness.

Needleman has spent decades <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/28699/money-and-meaning-life">helping people navigate life</a>. He is often sought out as a consultant on how to handle money at the conceptual level and has a lifetime of advice on how money affects us to give out.One of his realizations is that money doesn’t solve problems or provide answers. While it might assure that we have access to necessities, it won’t cure us of worrying about having them. He reminds us that there are things that money can’t buy, like happiness, that we must never lose sight of; even if it is nice to be able to buy that trip to Hawaii without saving for it.

Jacob Needleman

Those who criticize the wealthy don’t realize that money is needed to do good things.

philosophy

Philosophy

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

10 philosophers on whether money can make you happy

Mantas are ideas that are true in any situation, that guide you, nourish you, and reassure you, that you can lean on when things are difficult. A motto to live by every day is that good character works for the common good. When you work on yourself, you are a positive difference-maker in the world. Ask yourself:<ul><li>How are you making things better?</li><li>How are you contributing?</li><li>How are you of service?</li></ul>

Good character: Good deeds

You have limited time. Don’t take a minute for granted. Every time you do something, you have to remind yourself that it’s time you will never get back. Time is our most precious resource. It is always ticking away. Every second that passes belongs to death. You can never get it back. For example,  you may see a beautiful sunrise today but will never see the same specific sunrise again.  That is why you should live and embrace life and not waste it.

Memento mori: Remember you will die

Nietzsche said you “don’t just bear what is necessary, you love it.” When something bad happens, it can either break your heart and spirit, or you can embrace it and turn it into the greatest thing that ever happened to you. It’s good that it is difficult. If there were never any obstacles, everyone would do it. There would be a whole lot more competition. So you don’t just accept what is happening to you, you love it and lean into it. When you lose the manuscript you’ve been working on you say Amor fati. When you’re stuck in traffic, you say Amur fati. Use it as fuel to become better.

Amor Fati - love of one's fate

These are mantras. These are reminders. A kind of living oral and written tradition for how to live and what kind of person to be. In this video Ryan Holiday gives you 3 of the most essential Stoic mantras that you can use to build your life on. 🪙 Good Character, Good Deeds - To the Stoics, the criteria for success were simple: displaying good character and doing good works. The fruit of this life, the fruit of the study of philosophy, he said, was just that: “good character and acts for the common good.” This is a wonderful mantra worth repeating to ourselves always. It’s so easy to get distracted by other things, by other definitions of success. We see other people getting recognition and we want it. We see them making money and suddenly what we have is not enough. We see them getting away with things and think, maybe we should try that too. 🪙 Memento Mori - Get a Memento Mori medallion to carry this mantra with you everywhere you go: https://store.dailystoic.com/products/memento-mori Meditating on your mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning. It’s a tool that generations have used to create real perspective and urgency. To treat our time as a gift and not waste it on the trivial and vain. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. And fortunately, we don’t have to nearly die to tap into this. A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want. It doesn’t matter who you are or how many things you have left to be done, a car can hit you in an intersection and drive your teeth back into your skull. That’s it. It could all be over. Today, tomorrow, someday soon. 🪙 Amor Fati - Get an Amor Fati medallion to carry this mantra with you everywhere you go: https://prints.dailystoic.com/products/amor-fati-medallion-1 Two thousand years ago, writing in his own personal journal which would become known as Meditations, Emperor Marcus Aurelius would say: “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” Another Stoic, Epictetus, who as a crippled slave has faced adversity after adversity, echoed the same: “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.” It is why amor fati is the Stoic mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens: Treating each and every moment—no matter how challenging—as something to be embraced, not avoided. To not only be okay with it, but love it and be better for it. So that like oxygen to a fire, obstacles and adversity become fuel for your potential. ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 🎓 FREE GUIDE to Stoic philosophy: https://dailystoic.com/freeguide 🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/ 00:00 Intro 01:21 1. Good character, good deeds 02:39 2. Memento Mori 05:17 3. Amor Fati Instagram: ​https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dailystoic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailystoic TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic #Stoicism​ #DailyStoic​ #RyanHoliday​

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

videos

Videos

These are mantras. These are reminders. A kind of living oral and written tradition for how to live and what kind of person to be. 

In this video Ryan Holiday gives you 3 of the most essential Stoic mantras that you can use to build your life on.

🪙 Good Character, Good Deeds - To the Stoics, the criteria for success were simple: displaying good character and doing good works. The fruit of this life, the fruit of the study of philosophy, he said, was just that: “good character and acts for the common good.” This is a wonderful mantra worth repeating to ourselves always. It’s so easy to get distracted by other things, by other definitions of success. We see other people getting recognition and we want it. We see them making money and suddenly what we have is not enough. We see them getting away with things and think, maybe we should try that too. 

🪙 Memento Mori - Get a Memento Mori medallion to carry this mantra with you everywhere you go: https://store.dailystoic.com/products/memento-mori

Meditating on your mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning. It’s a tool that generations have used to create real perspective and urgency. To treat our time as a gift and not waste it on the trivial and vain. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. And fortunately, we don’t have to nearly die to tap into this. A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want. It doesn’t matter who you are or how many things you have left to be done, a car can hit you in an intersection and drive your teeth back into your skull. That’s it. It could all be over. Today, tomorrow, someday soon.

🪙 Amor Fati - Get an Amor Fati medallion to carry this mantra with you everywhere you go: https://prints.dailystoic.com/products/amor-fati-medallion-1

Two thousand years ago, writing in his own personal journal which would become known as Meditations, Emperor Marcus Aurelius would say: “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” Another Stoic, Epictetus, who as a crippled slave has faced adversity after adversity, echoed the same: “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.” It is why amor fati is the Stoic mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens: Treating each and every moment—no matter how challenging—as something to be embraced, not avoided. To not only be okay with it, but love it and be better for it. So that like oxygen to a fire, obstacles and adversity become fuel for your potential.

✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🎓 FREE GUIDE to Stoic philosophy: https://dailystoic.com/freeguide

🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/

00:00 Intro
01:21 1. Good character, good deeds
02:39 2. Memento Mori
05:17 3. Amor Fati

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#Stoicism​ #DailyStoic​ #RyanHoliday​

Stoicism for everyday life. 

For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals. Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history’s great leaders...

🎓 Sign up for our free 7-Day Course on Stoicism, packed with the best Stoic exercises, best books on Stoicism, and more -dailyStoic.com/Start

Daily Stoic

3 Stoic Mantras To Build Your Life On

During the darkest time in German history, incited mobs threw stones into the windows of innocent shop owners and women and children were cruelly humiliated. A young German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer began to publicly speak against the atrocities. After years of trying to change people's minds, Bonhoeffer was arrested and sent to prison. Here, Bonhoeffer reflected on how the poets and thinkers of his own country had turned into a collective of cowards, crooks and criminals. He finally concluded that the root of the problem was not malice, but stupidity.

Bonhoeffer proposes his theory

Bonhoeffer argued in his famous letters from prison that stupidity is more dangerous than malice because one may protest against evil, and it can be exposed and prevented by the use of force. But we are defenceless against stupidity. Protests or force can do nothing, and reasons fall on deaf ears. Facts that do not fit a stupid person's prejudgment are ignored or pushed aside as inconsequential or incidental.  However, being easily irritated, this stupid person becomes dangerous by attacking. Therefore, great caution is needed when dealing with a stupid person.

The theory of stupidity

To get the better of stupidity, we must try to understand its nature.  Stupidity is not an intellectual defect but a moral one. There are many intellectual people who are stupid and many intellectually dull people who are not stupid. Stupidity is not a congenital defect, but people are made stupid or allow this to happen to them.

How to get the better of stupidity

Individuals that are in groups manifest this defect of stupidity more often than people who live in solitude. Every strong upsurge of power infects people with stupidity. It seems that when there is a rise in power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and give up an autonomous position.

The stupid person is not independent

When conversing with a stupid person, you will notice that you are not dealing with him as a person but with slogans and catchwords that have blinded him. He is under a spell, misused, and abused in his being.  Having become a mindless tool, the stupid person is capable of any evil and incapable of seeing that it is evil. Only liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. However, internal liberation is most often only possible if external liberation precedes it.

Liberation from stupidity

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against stupid ones we are defenseless — reasons fall on dead ears. Bonhoeffer's famous text, which we slightly edited for this video, serves any free society as a warning of what can happen when certain people gain too much power. #stupidity #sprouts SUPPORT us to hear more about inspirational figures like Bonhoeffer. https://www.patreon.com/sprouts 🐦: DOWNLOAD video without ads and background music 🤫: https://sproutsschools.com/video-lessons/ SIGN UP to our mailing list and never miss a new video from us 🔔: http://eepurl.com/dNU4BQ SOURCES and teaching resources 🎓: https://sproutsschools.com/bonhoeffers-theory-of-stupidity/ VISIT our website www.sproutsschools.com THANKS to our patrons This video was made with the support of our Patrons: Adam G, Alejandro Canet, Andrea Basilio Rava, Badrah, Beth Roberts, Bettina Kind, Broke, Cedric Wang, Daniel Kramer, David Markham, Denis Kraus, Don Bone, Enrique Arellano Farias, Esther Chiang, Gatsby Dkdc, Ginger, Marq Short, Jeffrey Cassianna, Joanne Doyle, John Zhang, Judy RolandSergei Kukhariev, kritik bhimani, Mathis Nu, Muhammad Humayun, Nancy Bueffler, Raman Srivastava, Scripz, Si, Shao Xiang, Tetiana Gerasymova, Tsungren Yang, Vishruth Harithsa, and all the others.Thank you! To join them visit www.patreon.com/sprouts CHAPTERS 0:00 The Darkest Chapter 0:55 Letters from prison 4:29 About Bonhoeffer 5:19 Our Patrons 5:28 Subscribe and support COLLABORATORS Script based on the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Editor: Jonas Koblin Artist: Pascal Gaggelli Voice: Matt Abbott Coloring: Nalin Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa Production: Selina Bador Production Assistant: Bianka Proofreading: Susan DIG DEEPER Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Final Words - This Day in History Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes SOURCES Dietrich Bonhoeffer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer Original Text http://southsidemessenger.com/bonhoeffer-on-stupidity-entire-quote/ Bonhoeffer Pastor, martyr, prophet, spy (Student edition) https://books.google.co.th/books?id=PRmMBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=bonhoeffer+%22arrest%22&source=bl&ots=QPUYQtpnHn&sig=ACfU3U0_B2plpEAqox7NfoMhC4p4MD09FA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj43u-mrtHsAhUPfX0KHUY2BU0Q6AEwBXoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=bonhoeffer%20%22arrest%22&f=false CLASSROOM EXERCISE How would you define Bonhoeffer's version of stupidity? Work together as a class to devise a definition. What qualities must someone possess, or lack, to be considered stupid as Bonhoeffer describes it. In what type of situation would someone display their stupidity? What can we do to avoid stupidity in today's society? Discuss with your class and let us know in the comments below what they think.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against stupid ones we are defenseless — reasons fall on dead ears. Bonhoeffer's famous text, which we slightly edited for this video, serves any free society as a warning of what can happen when certain people gain too much power. #stupidity #sprouts

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THANKS to our patrons 
This video was made with the support of our Patrons: Adam G, Alejandro Canet, Andrea Basilio Rava, Badrah, Beth Roberts, Bettina Kind, Broke, Cedric Wang, Daniel Kramer, David Markham, Denis Kraus, Don Bone, Enrique Arellano Farias, Esther Chiang, Gatsby Dkdc, Ginger, Marq Short,  Jeffrey Cassianna, Joanne Doyle, John Zhang, Judy RolandSergei Kukhariev, kritik bhimani, Mathis Nu, Muhammad Humayun, Nancy Bueffler, Raman Srivastava, Scripz, Si, Shao Xiang, Tetiana Gerasymova, Tsungren Yang, Vishruth Harithsa, and all the others.Thank you! To join them visit www.patreon.com/sprouts 


CHAPTERS
0:00 The Darkest Chapter
0:55 Letters from prison
4:29 About Bonhoeffer
5:19 Our Patrons
5:28 Subscribe and support

COLLABORATORS 
Script based on the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Editor: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Matt Abbott
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Production: Selina Bador
Production Assistant: Bianka
Proofreading: Susan

DIG DEEPER
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Final Words - This Day in History
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

SOURCES
Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

Original Text
http://southsidemessenger.com/bonhoeffer-on-stupidity-entire-quote/
 
Bonhoeffer Pastor, martyr, prophet, spy (Student edition)
https://books.google.co.th/books?id=PRmMBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=bonhoeffer+%22arrest%22&source=bl&ots=QPUYQtpnHn&sig=ACfU3U0_B2plpEAqox7NfoMhC4p4MD09FA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj43u-mrtHsAhUPfX0KHUY2BU0Q6AEwBXoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=bonhoeffer%20%22arrest%22&f=false 

CLASSROOM EXERCISE 
How would you define Bonhoeffer's version of stupidity? Work together as a class to devise a definition. What qualities must someone possess, or lack, to be considered stupid as Bonhoeffer describes it. In what type of situation would someone display their stupidity? What can we do to avoid stupidity in today's society? Discuss with your class and let us know in the comments below what they think.

We make educational videos  about psychology, pedagogy and child development. We publish them on Creative Commons so students, teachers and parents can to use for free. To download our videos go to www.sproutsschools.com. To support our work go to www.patreon.com/sprouts

Sprouts

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity

We live in a culture that prizes keeping one’s options open. It’s better to be maximally flexible, the popular reasoning goes so that we can respond to any opportunity at a moment’s notice. Committing to anything, even for just a few months, locks away other possibilities, and is thus undesirable.
But even if you want a more varied life, you still need to commit to projects for bursts of time to make progress. The person who commits to three-month projects may not achieve mastery. Still, they will get further than the person who merely thinks about doing those projects.

The Mindset of Open Options

It’s more fun to think about being good at something than to actually do the work to get good. Thus we daydream, rather than take action.
The problem is that daydreaming alone doesn’t lead anywhere. None of the projects we imagine but never work on are ever realized. This can deflate even our daydreaming, as part of us knows, deep down, we’re never really going to do it. The solution is to pick a project and see it through.

Tying Yourself to Reality

A side-effect of committing to one project is that you end up putting off all the rest. By the time you finally start a project, you’ve been thinking about it for a while.
This extra incubation time has two virtues:
<ul>
<li>It filters out bad ideas. Since you only pursue the ideas that have stuck with you during your commitment to other projects, you end up pursuing projects you care about deeply.</li>
<li>Extra time results in better plans. As you ponder a potential project, you turn over the possible difficulties in your mind.</li>
</ul>

Give Ideas Time to Incubate

Short commitments tend to lead to greater accomplishment than long ones. 
It’s not the intention to commit that matters, but whether you follow through with it. 
A multi-year effort has a much higher chance at being abandoned than a three-month project does. Further, a three-month project can easily lead to another three-month effort in the same direction, provided the results from the first proved promising.

Set Shorter Projects

Focus sounds limiting, but it results in more getting done. Here's how to stop day-dreaming and finally make progress.

career

Career

You're Trying to Do Too Much - Scott H Young

<ol><li>Accountability - The government and private actors are accountable under the law</li><li>Just Law - The law is clear, publicized, and stable and is applied evenly</li><li>Open Government - The processes by which the law is adopted, administered, adjudicated, and enforced are accessible, fair, and efficient</li><li>Accessible and Impartial Justice - Justice is delivered timely by competent, ethical, and independent representatives and neutrals</li></ol>The four universal principles constitute a working definition of the rule of law. These were developed in accordance to internationally accepted standards and norms.

The Four Universal Principles

The four universal principles were further developed in the below factors:<ol><li>Constraints on Government Powers</li><li>Absence of Corruption</li><li>Open Government</li><li>Fundamental Rights</li><li>Order and Security</li><li>Regulatory Enforcement</li><li>Civil Justice; and</li><li>Criminal Justice</li></ol>

World Justice Project Rule of Law Index

The rule of law affects us all regardless of where we are or where we live. It is the foundation for communities of justice, opportunity, and peace -- underpinning development, acountable governments, and respect for fundamental rights.The rule of law correlates to higher economic growth, greater peace, less inequality, improved health outcomes, and better education.

How the Rule of Law Matters

The four universal principles of the rule of law, how we measure it, and what it means for you.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

What is the Rule of Law?

Imagining yourself as an underdog out to prove the naysayers wrong is a great motivator. The key to sustaining your motivation is to use your imagination and reframe the mundane, uninspiring activities or situations into something that gives you a sense of purpose.
The daily struggles can be turned into epic adventures using your imagination, and the brain can be tricked to make the body perform better.

Make Your Goal Important

Listening to a great soundtrack that pumps your inner fuel (Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen, or Lose Yourself by Eminem, for instance) is a sure-fire way to spark your imagination and sustain your goal-oriented behaviour.
Cultivating an underdog mindset is useful as it takes the pressure off and makes us reimagine ourselves as someone who is starting from zero and has nothing to lose, making our small victories seem epic.

Magical Imagination

A new study suggests that using your imagination to make commonplace things seem valuable can shape goal-directed behavior.

habits

Habits

problemsolving

Problem Solving

The Motivational Perks of Cultivating an Underdog Mindset

“Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”

"I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with.'"

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

"Time will not slow down when something unpleasant lies ahead."

"If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.”

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

"It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."

"I'll just go down and have some pudding and wait for it all to turn up ... It always does in the end."

"Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!"

"You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble?"

“It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world.”

"It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

“Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”

When the world feels like it's spinning out of control, take a page — and some advice — from J.K. Rowling's famous books.

When the world feels like it's spinning out of control, take a page — and some advice — from J.K. Rowling's famous books with the best Harry Potter quotes to live by.

movies

Movies & Shows

15 inspirational 'Harry Potter' quotes to live by

It's the idea that in order to lead healthy, happy emotional lives we need consistent habits and exercises that support our mental health and wellbeing.

What Emotional Fitness is

<ul><li>Decreased stress: you learn to manage your triggers.</li><li>Better communication in relationships: it helps you to tolerate and manage difficult emotions and then find more productive ways to work through difficulties.</li><li>Decreased anxiety: you train your mind to stop fearing its own emotional reactions.</li><li>You stick with your goals: you learn to deal with emotions like anxiety, shame, regret.</li><li>Increased self-awareness: you learn to build a better relationship with your emotions.</li></ul>

The Benefits of Emotional Fitness

<ul><li>Emotional clarity: Taking the time to deliberately reflect on our emotions, to observe and label them.</li><li>Emotional myth-busting: Eliminating myths and misconceptions floating around people’s minds about emotions. </li><li>Emotional tolerance: Learning to resist short-term gratification and instead invest in long-term values. </li></ul>

Get to know your emotions

<ul><li>Mindfulness: practicing mindfulness means building the mental muscle of awareness and attentional control.</li><li>Cognitive restructuring: learn how to modify the content of our thoughts. </li><li>Mental minimalism: just like we need to be good stewards of the stuff that we let into our lives, we also need to be good stewards of the stuff that we hang on to in our mental lives.</li></ul>

Cultivate better mental habits

A set of sources that will help you recognize, understand and manage your emotions

health

Health

communication

Communication

Boost Your Emotional Intelligence

Do you ever struggle to shake off bad moods? Or wish you could bounce back a little faster from stressful or frustrating experiences? If so, join the club. Most of us struggle with difficult emotions and moods because we were never taught much about our emotions, either how they work or how to work with them.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

Emotional Intelligence is Overrated. Aim for Emotional Fitness Instead.

Most people believe deep down that they have a true self that is morally good.
In an experiment, people were asked that if they could enter another body, which traits would most likely come with them. They consistently mentioned that they would retain traits related to their morality.

A psychological idea called the "true self"

<ul>
<li>The self is made up of a combination of your physical appearance, intelligence, memories, and habits.</li>
<li>The true self is what people will call their essence. It is what makes you you. </li>
</ul>
When people are asked which actions are in alignment with their true self and which not, they consistently say their true self consists of the parts that are morally good.

The self vs the true self

What we know from neuroscience and psychology, the true self doesn't exist. There is no evidence for a separate morally good true self deep within a person.
But the ides of a morally good true self still plays an important role, such as how we understand others' behaviour, assess our own lives and how we think it influences our behaviour.

The true self an example of folk intuition

One of the most common messages in college commencement speeches is, "Be true to yourself." Morals traits are continually shown to be the deep-down part of a person that makes them unique.
A study revealed that when people make positive changes in their lives, they are viewed as showing what was always deep inside them. When they partake in negative behaviours, they are viewed as moving away from their true selves.

When we're told to "be ourselves"

One reason is that it's beneficial for well-being and helps us to cooperate with and trust others.
Another reason is that we tend to reflect on our positive traits. When describing the essence of something, we tend to say the essence of these things is good. When we describe the essence of a table, we describe the traits of a good table, not of a broken table.

We see ourselves as morally good

<ul>
<li>If we believe in a morally good true self, it does not explain political strife, hate crimes and online nastiness. A possible explanation can be that our definition of "morally good" is based on our own values, which can vary.</li>
<li>Thinking that others have a moral good true self doesn't seem to be supported by the criminal justice system based on punishment and retribution.</li>
</ul>

Contradicting the belief in the morally true self

People that believe that they have a morally good true self care about morality as core to their identity. If they then behave immorally, it threatens the sense of their identity.
People might respond to the threat by denying that they're acting immorally or get defensive. Others might do a good deed to reestablish their goodness.

The morally good true self: potential ethical downsides

A belief in the morally good self is a powerful idea that can help a person to keep trying. But it can also fuel an existential crisis if your life doesn't match up to your "true self."
The idea of a true self deep down can mean there is a real you to be found - that there are happiness and fulfilment in doing it. However, it's good to be aware of the bias of a morally true self.

True self as a cognitive bias

And why it still can impact the way you behave and see the world.

Why Your ‘True Self’ Is An Illusion

"Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."

"It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand."

"The words you speak become the house you live in."

"Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart."

"Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail."

"Obstacles do not block the path. They are the path."

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