A Million Ways to Live

The Deferred Life, Part 2: Deferred Happiness Syndrome

Deferred happiness is the idea that you can't be happy until you reach some goal or hit some milestone in your life. It's common to see people defer happiness until they make more money, find a romantic partner, finish school, move to a new city, or a million other scenarios. Today we talk about this idea often called Deferred Happiness Syndrome. We talk about why humans are prone to it, what type of people are MOST prone to it, and how to break the cycle of deferring happiness with some very practical strategies and techniques. This is our second episode in a series called "The Deferred Life" The first one covered the idea of deferring life until retirement to work in a job that makes you unhappy. Here's a link to that episode: The Deferred Life, part 1, Retirement [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2233933/14927067-the-deferred-life-part-1-retirement] Other Resources mentioned in this episode: Happiful Article on Clive Gordon: https://happiful.com/could-you-be-experiencing-deferred-happiness-syndrome [https://happiful.com/could-you-be-experiencing-deferred-happiness-syndrome] A Million Ways to Live was produced By Chris Egan For more information, please visit AMWTL.com

The Deferred Life, Part 1: Retirement

Deferring happiness until retirement ... It is commonplace today for people to work their entire lives in jobs they hate, saving for a someday-retirement that may never come.  People have come to accepted this way of deferring life — or deferring happiness — to be normal and even mandatory. Entrepreneurship, FIRE (Financial independence Retire Early), minimalism, and many other movements that go against the traditional path have grown more popular as people seem to realize that the default “Work-save-retire” path may not be the best one for them. YOLO Resources mentioned in this episode: Playing With Fire (Link to documentary [https://www.playingwithfire.co/the-documentary]) The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd (Link to Book) [https://pathlesspath.com/] A Million Ways to Live was produced By Chris Egan For more information, please visit AMWTL.com

Don't Die: Bryan Johnson's Quest to Live Forever

Is trying to live forever a good way to live your life? That's the question we try to tackle today, but we take an indirect approach by looking at longevity through the lens of Bryan Johnson's Blueprint project. Bryan Johnson is the founder of multiple companies including one that he sold to PayPal for $800million. Today he focuses much of his time on his Blueprint project where he takes what many would consider an extreme approach to longevity — spending $2million per year on a team of doctors, testing, procedures, and countless measurements — acting as a human guinea pig in an effort to reduce his speed of aging, and ultimately, not die. Do you want to live forever? Could you live like Bryan Johnsons? Listen in as we ask ourselves these very questions. Bryan Johnson's Blueprint Protocol [https://protocol.bryanjohnson.co/] Listen to our last episode on Minimalism: a life philosophy or just an approach to decluttering [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2233933/13668769-minimalism-a-life-philosophy-or-just-an-approach-to-decluttering]. A Million Ways to Live was produced By Chris Egan For more information, please visit AMWTL.com

Minimalism: A Life Philosophy or Just an Approach to Decluttering?

This week we dive into minimalism. We discuss some different definitions of minimalism, rules that aim to make becoming a minimalist easier, and some of the pitfalls people fall into. The big question we end up tackling is: Can minimalism be a life philosophy or is it just good for decluttering? Some of the resources we used for research or talk about in this episode include: The Minimalists [https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/] article: What is Minimalism The Minimalists Podcast [https://www.theminimalists.com/podcast/] Minimal-ish [https://www.desiraeendres.com/minimalish] Podcast Clutterbug Podcast [https://clutterbug.me/podcast] All the Hacks Podcast [https://www.allthehacks.com/] Joshua Becker article [https://www.becomingminimalist.com/apply-minimalism/]: 15 Places(Other than Posessions) to Apply Minimalist Principles Marie Kondo [https://konmari.com/] The Dark Side of Minimalism: "Decluttering Ruined My Life" [https://youtu.be/y3tqdVnJPrQ?si=70I1052S75tFQ2vL] Thanks for listening. We appreciate it!  Please leave us a review and let us know how you enjoyed the show. A Million Ways to Live was produced By Chris Egan For more information, please visit AMWTL.com

A Guide to the Good Life: How to be a Stoic

Today on AMWTL, we discuss the book A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine.  The book is written as a practical guide for anyone who wants to becoming a practicing Stoic and we use it as a lens through which we look at Stoicism and assess it's worthiness as a guiding philosophy of life ... because we're totally qualified to make that call.  We also talk a little about the history of Stoicism, its origin in Greece and the decline of the philosophy after the death of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor who is often considered the last charismatic practitioner of Stoicism. And so much more! Listen in and let us know if you think Stoicism is a good way to live ... or not. A Million Ways to Live was produced By Chris Egan For more information, please visit AMWTL.com