{"id":54478,"date":"2021-11-17T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=54478"},"modified":"2021-11-17T15:59:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T19:59:15","slug":"living-a-good-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/living-a-good-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Munger&#8217;s 8 Secrets to Living a Good Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are the secrets to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-makes-a-good-life\/\">living a good life<\/a>? What are the possible obstacles to your happiness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The secrets to living a good life include surrounding yourself with friends and family, avoiding self-pity, hard work, and being around people you admire. Envy, lack of ambition, and drug addiction are all factors that can prevent you from living a good life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to discover more about the secrets of living a good life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>To Start Living a Good Life:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Have low expectations and a good sense of humor<\/li><li>Surround yourself with the love of friends and family.<\/li><li>Figure out the lifestyle that you want most. You might indeed work eighty hours a week for fifteen years to make partner at a law firm, just to get the right to do more of the same. But if you don\u2019t, this might not be the right life for you.<\/li><li>To get what you want, try to <em>deserve<\/em> what you want.<\/li><li>Avoid self-pity. It\u2019s counterproductive and doesn\u2019t change your situation. If you don\u2019t feel self-pity, you\u2019ll have an advantage over many people, since it\u2019s a common response. Munger had a friend who carried a stack of business cards, and when he heard a self-pitying comment, he\u2019d give the person a card; the card read, \u201cYour story has touched my heart. Never have I heard of anyone with as many misfortunes as you.\u201d<\/li><li>Be around people you admire. Don\u2019t work under someone you don\u2019t want to be like.<\/li><li>Work hard. Munger likes the word \u201cassiduity\u201d because it informally means, \u201cSit down on your ass until you do it.\u201d<\/li><li>Anticipate trouble. You\u2019ll better know how to avoid it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Live Miserably<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Munger also suggests inverting the secrets to living a good life. Think first about how to live miserably, then avoid doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Ingest chemicals that alter your mood or perception to feel better.<\/li><li>Envy other people for what they have.<\/li><li>Resent people and hold grudges.<\/li><li>Be unreliable so no one depends on you.<\/li><li>Don\u2019t learn from other people\u2019s mistakes. Make every mistake yourself the first time.<\/li><li>Be as non-educated as you possibly can. Have zero curiosity to learn and improve.<\/li><li>When you get into a real battle in life, give up at the first opportunity.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the secrets to living a good life? What are the possible obstacles to your happiness? The secrets to living a good life include surrounding yourself with friends and family, avoiding self-pity, hard work, and being around people you admire. Envy, lack of ambition, and drug addiction are all factors that can prevent you from living a good life. Read on to discover more about the secrets of living a good life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12,43],"tags":[533],"class_list":["post-54478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-relationships","category-self-improvement","tag-poor-charlies-almanack","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Charlie Munger&#039;s 8 Secrets to Living a Good Life - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are the secrets to living a good life? 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