Charlie Munger’s 5 Guarantees to Live a Miserable Life
But there’s hope for us yet
It isn’t coincidence there isn’t a saying that goes, “wow you woke up on the right side of the bed today!” But we often hear the opposite when we aren’t living up to someone’s expectations of how our mood should be. And it’s always gift wrapped with impeccable timing.
The idiom for waking up on the right side doesn’t exist because that’s the expected norm.
Think about a coworker or friend who’s always miserable, spreading his pessimistic views like a beacon. Rub people the wrong way long enough and those lasting impressions are how people identify you.
Even the best of us have bad days. Many times for unknown reasons. But largely, it passes. You’re back to crushing goals. People love you again.
Deep thinker Charlie Munger was once asked to give a speech at Harvard Westlake.
To determine what he wanted to say, he reflected on countless commencement speeches and chose one he wished were longer. He decided to recite, with his spin, a speech given by former late-night TV host, Johnny Carson.
In his speech, Munger highlights these 5 actions that will guarantee a miserable life.
1. Being A Slave To Addiction
“And I have yet to meet anyone, in over six decades of life, whose life was worsened by over fear and over avoidance of such a deceptive pathway to destruction.”
You know what triggers your senses and piques your interest. We’re all susceptible to addiction to varying degrees.
If we become a slave to our bad habits or even allow our good habits to morph into bad ones, we run the risk of walking into the realm of compulsive behavior with no regard for consequences.
Writing is an ongoing test. One that few have mastered. And because it’s so subjective, it levels the field. So the upside is bright.
Though, It’s a craft that takes extreme discipline. It’s easy to want to throw in the towel when improvement is lagging so far behind you wonder if it’ll ever catch up. And the space is filled with so many great writers — so good I’m almost convinced I’m on the bottom rung of King’s writing hierarchy.
And this is why most quit or aren’t consistent enough to allow improvement to kick in.
But what do all of your favorite writers tell you? Keep writing, stay committed. The only path to similar success is to cut the fat and put more time into getting better.
2. Bottling Up Resentment
“I cannot recommend it highly enough to you if you desire misery.”
Once, a cleaning lady threw my new dry clean only shirt in with the rest of the laundry. The color faded and it shrunk. I had no use for a pale blue crop top muscle shirt.
That was over 6 months ago! I mentioned it to my girlfriend last week and she laughed at me like I was joking. It took hearing her laughter to realize what a petty buffoon I’d been.
Resentment is venom. A symbiotic alien with lethal abilities. Her laughter pulled the poison out of me in a rare life awakening moment.
Forget the eye for an eye mentality. Realize that resentment is just a rewind button to replay old dramas that you can’t change.
3. Being Unreliable
Munger uses the tale of the tortoise and the hare to illustrate what happens to unreliable people over time. “Instead of being outrun by one fine turtle, you will be outrun by hordes and hordes of mediocre turtles and even by some mediocre turtles on crutches.”
No one likes a flake. They become the running joke among friends. All vying for the crown of wittiest remark about the flake’s flakiness. This continues until the joke has run its course and the flake is no longer invited to anything.
This puts you on a slippery slope. Are you the bad guy now for the overlooked invitation? For making assumptions? For being insensitive?
As much as Felicity Flake is the life of the party, don’t let her presence or absence govern your mood. Keep a good attitude and call her out on her behavior. Put the onus on her and if she’s a true friend, she’ll come around.
4. Allowing Life To Keep You Down
“Because there is so much adversity out there, even for the lucky and wise, this will guarantee that, in due course, you will be permanently mired in misery”
I ran track since Middle School. Usain Bolt wouldn’t vouch for me but up until college, I was sort of a big fish in a small pond.
As that pond grew into a lake, I realized the only Olympics I’d be qualifying for were the ones that played in my sleep.
I used to sit on my throne of pity and feel sorry for myself that I never “made it.” If not sports, what would I do?
After a couple of years of darkness, I eventually got a job. I wasn’t living the dream but better than swimming in my tears.
That job would lead me to another country. This country led me to my fiance. My fiance led me to health and self-development.
Sports are still a big part of my recreational life. But long gone are the days of cursing the gods for not giving me supernatural athleticism.
Once I quit the blame game, that’s when the headset came off and I was able to make moves toward something for my future, not my past.
5. Repeating Past Mistakes
“You can easily see the results of not learning from past mistakes by looking at the common disasters of mankind, such as drunk and reckless driving”
It’s easy to make the same mistakes when you aren’t aware they are mistakes. I can say my life 10 years ago would have been radically different if I knew what I know now.
Truth is, whatever I was doing, was what I enjoyed doing at the time. Even if it wasn’t, younger me didn’t know what I wanted in life. I was such a coward, I avoided the subject altogether.
I needed to go through trial and error to get to where I am. Now that I know what I want, I’m very deliberate about the choices I make.
To prevent unhappiness, Munger says you must keep learning. He goes on to use Isaac Newton, as an example. Newton received global recognition for his achievements because he studied the work of his predecessors.
Newton is quoted for saying the famous line, “If I have seen a little further than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”
Conclusion
The billionaire mindset costs nothing and looks very similar to our own. The action items Munger addresses in his speech are facts we already know. Most of the time a nudge in the right direction is enough to snap us out of a bad morning.
Change takes patience. Breaking years of repeated behavior isn’t like turning off a faucet. But for that patience, you’re awarded insight. Continue stacking insight until you’re wise enough to help others. Is there a better cause than that?