Health, Wealth, and Happiness
If we had to choose between health, wealth, and happiness, I would suggest that happiness is the ultimate goal. Be healthy enough to enjoy life and have enough wealth not to have to worry about money.
Some people think you need health, and particularly wealth to be happy. Although these do significantly help, it’s not necessarily true, it’s all about perspective; you could have all the money in the world and still not be happy.
How to achieve Health
There are two aspects of health we need to consider: physical health and mental health.
One of the challenges to mental health in today’s fast paced, multi-tasking, don’t have time to smell the roses world, is that we miss the opportunity to live in the moment. Each demand on our time is really one we place on ourselves and they might all seem vital to our life at that instance, but the result can be to create anxiety and tension.
When a walk in the countryside is about getting from A to B as quickly as possible rather than taking time to enjoy the beauty of the landscape. We rush from one thing to the next with hardly a chance to enjoy any of it; make it about the journey as well as the destination.
Low level anxiety seems to be the curse of the modern age caused by low level addiction to social media, sugar, alcohol, shopping, etc. FOMO images fill our airwaves, pictures of how amazing other people’s lives are on every social media channel - life is full of winners and losers, based on someone else’s definition of what that is. This is how we reach saturation point - you don’t need to be rushing around trying to be a winner based on someone else’s perspective.
If we want sustainable happiness or life satisfaction, the sort that comes from better results and less anxiety, then we need to help ourselves and that probably means having some sort of plan.
Exercise: gym, running, walking in the countryside, team sports.
Stretch: your mind and body every day (before and after exercise).
Good healthy food in good company – ‘fun’ food in moderation. Keep hydrated.
Sleep: aim for 8 hours a day. You will feel fresher, more alive, and cognitively healthier.
Take breaks from anxiety-creating activity on phones and laptops, particularly before bedtime.
Take time out to enjoy your surroundings and live in that moment.
Both the brain and muscles get stronger as we use them, that’s why exercise and sleep are fundamental components of a long and healthy physical and mental life. Exercise, particularly resistance training, helps to build muscles, and sleep provides the time needed to recover and repair muscles, and thereby strengthen them. Physical exercise also improves brain function and helps with ongoing mental health via improved blood flow to the brain.
Add factors such as a good diet, enriching your environment, socialising with like-minded people, and challenging your brain by experiencing new things, to the list of things that help improve your general wellbeing.
How to achieve Wealth
Financial success is guaranteed if you follow three simple steps:
1. SAVE – Spend less than you earn, pay yourself first & automate.
2. PROTECT – Your family & your wealth.
3. INVEST – Be effective, keeping costs and tax low.
Blogs 1 to 10 explain exactly what you need to do to achieve this. If you want to know more, click on this link. Becoming FIRE - Financial Independence Retire Early (retiring early is optional!) - is about living the life you want to live. FIRE is about creating the life you want.
How to achieve Happiness
Creating the life you want is not easy and it usually doesn’t just happen. Crafting the life you want means having a life plan, setting goals, learning and changing, tweaking and optimizing what is working and not working. Nobody’s perfect. Be Curious. Keep Learning. Learn from mistakes.
What brings you joy?
What brings you sustained happiness?
What do you want out of life?
Have a ‘Positive Mental Attitude’ PMA: can do rather than can’t do.
Be kind and respectful. Treat others as you want others to treat you.
Live in the present: we often worry about the past and the future and truly miss the present. The key to happiness is to switch off worry!
Make a list of your favorite things & try new things.
…..and anything else you can think of!
How do you achieve health, wealth, and happiness?
It’s not easy.
Our emotional state and well-being are the most important part of our lives. When we treat our body well - exercising, eating a good diet, and getting enough sleep, fit and filled with energy - our emotions will be positive.
Maintaining good mental health is a tough challenge, and along with friends and family, there are organisations and charities that can help if you are having a hard time.
You can definitely improve your wealth by following the 3 simple steps: save, protect, invest, and becoming a long term buy and hold passive investor in low cost global index funds.
Of course, there will be some health and wealth curveballs thrown along the way and how we react to these will define our life going forward. Hopefully, a side benefit of achieving these two states of being, with some work on the other areas outlined, will be a feeling of happiness or satisfaction in your life.
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