From The Psychology of Money to Stoicism, happiness is so simple

Mondo Psychological Updated on 2024-01-30

Everyone has a unique experience of how the world works, and personal experiences are more convincing than experiences from others, so all of us—you, me, and everybody—have a unique set of perspectives on money in our lives, and those perspectives are very different. Because of this, what seems incredible to you may make sense to me.

This is a passage from "The Psychology of Money", which says that because everyone has different experiences and experiences, they have different views on money, and what seems unreasonable to one person may be reasonable and natural to another.

I think that this is not just the case with regard to money, but also with regard to many things and attitudes, the most extreme of which is "honey of A, arsenic of B".

But many people don't understand or often forget this in their lives, and many contradictions and conflicts between people arise in this way.

From this I am reminded of a famous quote by Russell:Heterogeneity is the source of happiness.

Many people don't understand this, they feel that what they think is happiness is happiness, and by extension, they feel that their ideals are ideals, and even feel that their concepts are the truth, and other people's are wrong or even unreasonable.

If this other person is someone who has nothing to do with them, most people will laugh it off, and some people will spray it on the Internet. But if the other person is related to him, colleagues, friends, or even relatives and family members and other people who have a closer relationship, many people will have demands, hopes, and hope that the other person will change those thoughts, words and deeds that they find incredible, so contradictions and pain arise.

Many of life's contradictions and pains are due to this. This reminds me of the Stoic "dichotomy of control," which distinguishes between what is within one's power and what is beyond one's reach. We often forget this, can't distinguish what we can control and what we can't, and even always want to control what we can't control, such as other people's thoughts, words and deeds, especially between close people, such as parents trying to control children, wives trying to control their husbands or husbands trying to control their wives, and so on.

This kind of thinking is really trying to control or change things that we can't actually control, and it's overstepping the rules of other people's affairs, which only adds to our troubles and makes ourselves and others unhappy.

This is how the so-called "desire for control" arises, and if you master the Stoic "dichotomy of control", know what you can control and what you don't, focus on what is close to you, and understand that what belongs to others is someone else's business, not yours, and you do this, you won't get caught up in it.

You'll also find that happiness is so simple.

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