“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.”
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 123.3
There’s a reason we tend to believe that the ultra-rich are secretly unhappy. It’s because we know that they still want more, that they’re never fully satisfied. There are some things that money can’t buy, of course.
Desiring things and wanting things implies that you lack those things — and that creates an unhappiness that can’t be cured. It manufactures dissatisfaction out of thin air, you could say.
Ever wonder why those who have little can be so happy? Folks who don’t have a lot of money often seem to be very content anyway. Ask them, and they’ll tell you that they’re just happy with what they have. They don’t want anything else. They don’t need to chase luxury. They reduce their want, and increase their happiness.
So here’s the wisdom in today’s chapter of the The Daily Stoic: reduce your wanting, and it will reduce your feeling of lacking — and your soul won’t pine for that which it can’t have. Happiness will fill that space instead.
