Want a Good Life? Just Don’t Do Stupid Stuff

One of my basic philosophies is that life consists of these simple daily steps:

1. Wake up
2. Do stuff
3. Go to sleep

Although the hangup for most people is step number 2, which can often lead to problems with step number 3, which can then lead to problems with step number 1!

What can we do to improve step number 2? The answer is in this article from The Art of Manliness:

When it comes to achieving a good life, we often think about the things we need to start doing. The habits we need to add. The practices we need to optimize.

Yet research, and reams of anecdotal experience, show that avoiding negative things has a far bigger influence on outcomes than adopting positive ones. 

Studies have found that while being a bad parent has a huge effect on how children develop, being a super involved parent — making it to every soccer game, helping with every project — has very little; as long as you’re not violent/abusive/neglectful, kids turn out fine. 

Same thing with health: taking a walk will not have as powerful an impact as quitting smoking. 

It’s no coincidence that those foundational moral laws, the Ten Commandments, consist almost entirely of “thou shall nots.” Don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t envy, don’t cheat, and your life is probably going to turn out alright. 

You’ll never even get a chance to work on the higher “shalls,” if your life’s been wrecked by ignoring the “shall nots.” 

Guys agonize over which college to go to . . . and then end up dropping out because they got a girl pregnant. They ponder the right career path . . . while racking up monumental debt that will limit their options. They want a rich family life. . . but marry someone who will preclude happiness in that area, and every other. 

While we get so anxious trying to figure out the best, cleverest things to do, it’s really the things you don’t do — the bullets successfully dodged — that get you most of the way there. You win by not losing. 

Or as billionaire investor Charlie Munger put it, “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”

I wrote about Charlie here.

As you can see, the stuff that you don't do can often be more important than the stuff that you do.

So, maybe I should change my philosophy to:

1. Wake up
2. Don't do stupid stuff
3. Go to sleep

Interesting days

Today - Dog Day, Cherry Popsicle Day, WebMistress Day and Women’s Equality Day

Tomorrow - International Bat Night, Burger Day, Banana Lovers Day, Pots De Creme Day, Petroleum Day, Tug-of-War Day and The Duchess Who Wasn’t Day

Next Wednesday - Global Talent Acquisition Day, Calendar Adjustment Day, V-J Day and Blueberry Popsicle Day

September 26 - Lumberjack Day, Human Resource Professional Day, Save Your Photos Day, Rabbit Day and Johnny Appleseed Day

Month long celebrations:

September 15 - October 15: Hispanic Heritage Month