Financial Sage: Why CONTENTMENT Is More Valuable Than HAPPINESS! | Morgan Housel EP 653

0:03Hey everyone, this is Lewis Howes and I am so excited to invite you to the Summit of Greatness 2024 happening at the iconic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. This is more than just an event. It's a powerful experience designed to ignite your passion, boost your growth, and connect you with a community of other inspiring achievers. Join us Friday, September 13th, and Saturday, September 14th for two days packed with inspiration and transformation from some of the most incredible speakers on the planet. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your life, unlock your potential, and be part of something truly special.

0:38Make sure to get your tickets right now and step into greatness with us at the Summit of Greatness 2024. Head over to lewishouse.com slash tickets and get your tickets today and I will see you there. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

1:01Has your life gotten better or worse since you've made this much more? I would say it has not made me happier. It's probably made me more content, which you might confuse with happiness, but it's very different. I don't think I'm happier in the sense that I don't wake up smiling more than I used to. But I think I probably have fewer anxious days than I used to. I say fewer because they still exist. So I think it has removed anxiety, but it has not improved happiness. I think that for most people is what money will do to them. Everyone's a little bit different, but I think that's actually a pretty common thing.

1:33It will remove what? It will remove anxiety. and it will reduce the number of bad days that you have. It's not going to increase the number of great days that you have. Really? Or if it does, it's minor. Because people will become accustomed to the new house, the new car, whatnot. You're never going to get accustomed to having bad days. The removal of that is always going to be a positive influence in your life. But it's different than happiness. Now, chasing contentment is worth chasing. It's a great thing. It's not to say money does nothing for you. It absolutely does. but contentness is not happiness.

2:06Wow. And so that's, I feel like that's been for me. I've also, my wife and I have always been kind of, we found a lifestyle that worked for us and we've gotten the goalpost to stop moving because what really matters for us is like time with our kids, going for walks, going kayaking and the social aspiration of like, oh, we need a bigger house, nicer car. It's like, it doesn't really appeal to us that much. Right. So in that sense, nothing has changed, but that's by design. What is something that you studied before psychology of money came out that You talked about with people who had more money or who were making certain money or had took a risk And you talk about this book as well about taking risks and some luck involved That you had to test the theory when all the success came to you How did you what was that that you researched that then you were like, oh i'm actually living my research?

2:58And how did you respond? I think before the books came out, I would have said what I just said, money's not going to make you happier. But I would have said it, but there was part of my brain that was like, yeah, but I'm sure. And I think then when you experience it, I think for me it was like, wow, that's really true. That's incredible. And to say that to someone who is still aspiring to gain some sort of net worth, I think just as I did, It's like even if you believe that you're like, yeah, but I think experiencing is wow, that's actually pretty amazing. Now, I bet you you've had this experience, too, right?

3:33Yeah, I think it's more about like the the thing that makes me happy is knowing like I worked really hard to create something. I overcame challenges. I put it out in the world. I overcame my fears. I, you know, believed in myself and I was able to alchemize and manifest an idea in my mind and actually take action to create something. And it added value to people. Yeah. And if it made me more money, then that's a cool little extra thing that I'm like, wow, that's nice. I can do more with it now. But it's really about the whole journey, I think, of what I had to overcome to make something. And thinking about, oh, it actually served another human being well.

4:10That's what I think about it. The other thing that I had never experimented with that we just started to in any meaningful way is giving money away. Which I'm kind of ashamed to say we really hadn't done in any meaningful sense until a year or two ago. Really? And doing it has, it's interesting. It's, it feels great. And if you think like, like, is buying myself a new watch, even a new car, is that going to increase my happiness? Maybe marginally. Is helping someone for whom this amount of money is meaningless to me, but life changing to them. And then you just see like, investing is all about like leverage and compounding.

4:44And you see the leverage of like, 10 grand is going to do nothing for you. But 10 grand can utterly change this person's life. Forever. then it's like wow that's a that's a cool thing yeah and i think there is once you get to some level of material life whatever it is there at least for maybe not for everyone but there is some like guilt's probably the wrong word but it's just like there's a lot of wrong going in the world and like do i need to like push up my ego a little more or help this person who really really needs it yeah so that's another thing where three years ago i would have said oh i bet that's the case.

5:18But then when you experience it, you're like, ooh, ah, that's interesting. Why do you think most people, based on history and predictions in the future, why do you think most people will never get out of a scarcity mindset? Whether money is relative, I guess, but at least a scarcity mindset of creating abundance for themselves. I think there's two things. One, if you are honest about history, the world is very fragile. And there's a lot, if you look at history, it's the constant chain of surprise and setback and disappointment and recession and bear market and pandemic. Now, look, ridiculous amount of progress baked in there.

5:56But that's not to say that I always think every 10 years, the world breaks on average. Once every 10 years, there's some event where you wake up and you're like, the world is not the same as it used to be. Everything is different now. September 11th was that, COVID was that. And historically, it's about once every 10 years. Really? And so when you have lived through a couple of those events in my adult life, in your adult life, it's by and large been 9-11, the financial crisis and COVID. Once you've lived through two or three of these events, I think it's very natural and healthy and accurate to say to yourself, the world is a dangerous place.

6:30And those are the big events to say nothing that may have happened in your own life. You lose a friend, you get laid off, you get divorced. So I think that level of anxiety is actually pretty, not only healthy, but accurate. But how does someone break free of that to have more abundance and peace inside of them, knowing that there's going to be chaos around them unpredictably in the future? To me, it's always been this idea, if you look just to focus on finances, save your money like a pessimist and invest your money like an optimist. Like save your money with the idea that the world's really fragile and you might lose your job next week.

7:03You might get divorced next year. You might get cancer, we might have a recession. And by the way, in due course, one of those will happen to you, to everybody. Everybody is going to experience some version of something like that. At some point. At some point. And you have no idea when it's going to occur. You need to prepare for it to occur at any moment. But the most important but is if you can endure that and survive those things, the rewards for those who stick around can be incredible.

7:39Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple podcast right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

8:29Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.