1: The big thinkers say no.

“Money has never made man happy, nor will it,” Ben Franklin once said.

Centuries before, Aristotle wrote: “The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.”

More recently, Maya Angelou observed: “Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love … continue reading

Aristotle tells us that to flourish as human beings we need targets.  We need goals.

This week we’re reviewing some of the key lessons from Brian Johnson’s Optimize Mastery course. Today’s lesson is: Happy people have projects.  That’s step one.  

In choosing goals we want to aim for something just beyond our comfort zone.  If it’s too easy, that’s boring.  If it’s way too challenging, we lose interest. Essentially, we’re … continue reading

Are we approaching life with zest or avoiding it? Is our real goal hoping to avoid challenge and failure? Put another way: do we see obstacles as threats or as challenges to get better?

This week we’re looking at some of the lessons from Brian Johnson’s Optimize course. The big idea for today is: happy people are open to life’s experiences. Brian encourages us to adopt a playful attitude towards … continue reading