What you really want to do is master your social life.To me, over the years, life will come at you in three phases:Phase 1. Achieving PhysicalHealthThe hardest part of life is being born. Its' when you are most susceptible to disease and the environment.According to one study, "More than a third of babies die on their first day of life -- making the birth day the riskiest day for newborns and mothers almost everywhere."If you are reading this as an adult you have already won the genetic lottery. Phase 2. Acquiring ResourcesThis is not just making money. But in the modern world you primarily will use some form of paper money to exchange resources with people.You must be able to accumulate enough resources for yourself and your family or you are on a quick path to a short, unhappy life. You don't need billions, but you have to at least get to some level of financial independence.As the Nobel prize winning author Daniel Kahneman says, you need to make at least $75,000 per year in order to achieve the happiness 'tipping point'.I think that figure is just the starting point in moving from scarcity to independence. You should strive to go beyond that level into real prosperity and even beyond into global impact.3. Mastering The Social GameSocial is the hardest. Today's book of the day is "Social" by the Harvard professor, Daniel Lieberman.He says the default state of the human brain is social.When we are not adding up our taxes or playing chess we revert to thoughts of our social standing:Does he/she like us?Who is gossiping about us at work?Will they promote me?Who can we trust?This is why everyone in the modern world spends all day starting at their IPhone and their Facebook.`Lieberman says that if Facebook was a religion it would be the third most active religion after Christianity and Islam.Crazy...Your social skills will be the ultimate determinant of your success at finding the good life.Pretty much everything you need to know about the first 2 phases of life have already been figured out. It's not rocket science on how to be fit and healthy. And I can pretty much show anyone the 67 steps to becoming a millionaire.But social - oh brother - social is hard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related