Purpose of Wealth (3): Comfort
Hello Aluxers and welcome back as we continue our Purpose of Wealth series.
As much as people would like to brush it off as unimportant, comfort is actually the
3rd reason why people crave wealth and one that is justifiable in its pursuit
If you haven’t watched the first two parts covering freedom and security,
we recommend you start there as this is the first one to
touch on the positive material benefits brought on by wealth
What is comfort if not the minimisation of pain and misery?!
Comfort is what allows the individual to go through life and focus
on pleasure and well being. We are sensorial creatures,
so comfort comes in many shapes and forms, going beyond the nice couch in the living room.
The first big part of comfort is not external, it has to do with what’s inside the body.
COMFORT THROUGH FOOD
Everything we put in our body and environment
alters the way we experience life. One of the greatest benefits of wealth
is that it will allow you to improve these based on your personal needs and long term benefits.
For the average person, healthy food has become a luxury and an inconvenience.
It’s easier to grab some takeaway than to fix yourself a salad,
and most of the time it’s even cheaper.
People eat unhealthy food because of convenience
and on a second layer, because of financial reasons.
Wealth serves as a facilitator for quality intake of energy and resources.
When you eat right, you feel great and feeling great is just a form of comfort.
Your body doesn’t hurt,
your muscles are strong and your brain functions at a higher capacity. You feel amazing!
This allows you to take care of you.. The number one person you should be taken care of.
For our earliest ancestors, food was - quite literally - wealth. Those who had access to food
sources were deemed the wealthiest - because they didn’t have to struggle or fight for survival,
that’s just how big of an impact food has on our comfort levels.
So we have this underlying component that associates food with our wellbeing.
There's an entire universe of sensorial experiences that are triggered by food.
One could literally explore every culture around the world through food if they chose to do so.
If you look for a layer on top, you’ll find shelter.
COMFORT THROUGH SHELTER Shelter is the combined
outcome of Freedom and Security. It’s your own corner of the universe that
you’ve designed to fit who you are to the best of your ability.
You’re king in this little empire that you made up!
Your home - because shelter is what your ancestors used to call it - is where you
will spend on average two thirds ⅔ of your entire life. ⅓ you’ll be in your bed sleeping.
The purpose of wealth it to facilitate you as much comfort throughout your life as possible,
and nowhere is there more of a clear application than in your own home.
For one to be happy, one requires space, clean air and water.
The right medium can radically improve creativity, relieve stress and induce happiness.
Today, the average person can not afford true comfort. As a society,
we have chosen to prioritise economic development over the quality of life.
People are now living in sub-optimal conditions,
in what is closer to self-picked cages than anything else.
How can one be happy when you’re living
here? [please add click sound-design elements as we’re shifting through the photos]
Growing up in a former comunist country, we know damn well what that’s like.
And please note that these people are fortunate to have a home,
they are actually the global middle class.
A good portion of the population lives in what are actual slums:
This is why you work hard. This is why you build wealth!
So that nobody you care about will ever go back to these kinds of living conditions.
Which takes us to the 3rd and what is probably the most important type of comfort.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT IN A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT
The good thing about growing up poor as a kid is that you don’t know you’re poor.
But inevitably you figure it out and by that point it’s usually too late.
The scars of growing up in poverty have already altered who you are as
an individual and these events now serve as your core decision making factors.
In a very small portion of these a fire starts burning up inside of them
that allows them to escape poverty. Even for them.. This hunger never stops.
While for the rest, they just settle for what’s - ironically - comfortable to them: mediocrity.
Meadiocrity means putting up with shit you shouldn’t have to just because that’s how things
are. Discomfort, abuse and discrimination are just a few pieces of what this lifestyle endures.
Through wealth, one can shield the next generation of these scars.
We all want our children to grow up healthy, to thrive,
be strong and valuable members of our society.
With wealth, one has the power to change the landscape,
to give those who have the potential a fighting chance to follow what they truly feel like,
not do what they must in the hopes of survival.
There are many types of comfort out there,
but few seem more valuable than knowing your child is safe.
Which takes us to the next type of comfort:
COMFORT THROUGH PRIVACY We’ve touched a little bit about privacy
when talking about freedom, but there’s more to it in terms of the comfort privacy provides.
Privacy means the world is leaving you alone to be yourself,
to be peaceful and comfortably away from other societal problems.
The more the world evolves the more we begin to see Privacy as one of the most
essential elements of a comfortable and free life, especially with the way technology is evolving.
In our opinion, privacy is a fundamental right of every individual and it’s not just us.
They figured this one our in 1948 under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 12 which states:
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy,
family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
150 countries agreed to abide by this… so what about social media actively using your data to
make money… What about facial recognition software installed on CCTV cameras across the world?
This is where things get tricky, because the argument always boils down to:
we need to protect people from terror - which is valid, but if this comes through
the infringement of human rights to privacy… are we actually making progress as a society?
Nobody can live a truly comfortable life knowing that everything they do is being
monitored and used against them, because that’s not what freedom is fundamentally.
Everything you do online is monitored. You watching this video or listening to the podcast
version is being tracked. Every search you make, every click you do, every website, your name,
your face, your age, your location, your love interests, your marital status, they even
measure the time you spend looking at someone’s photo in order to draw some data from it...
This is why we personally no longer connect to the internet without a VPN. It’s a simple
to use software that hides all this information from prying eyes with one click. We reached out
to the VPN company we use, NORDVPN and they’re offering an exclusive deal to our community:
Go to alux.com/vpn right now and get yours. Not only will you get the best possible price,
but it’s the first step for you to take control of your privacy. That’s alux.com/vpn
You never realise just how much different elements affect your comfort,
which takes us to the last one in our life.
FUN AS EMOTIONAL COMFORT What is life without a little bit of fun?
The purpose of wealth is to facilitate your well being in all shapes and forms.
Fun is an integral part of feeling alive. We all have a variety of desires and a good
portion of those can be easily fulfilled with capital, so why not use your wealth for fun.
Almost every type of fun can be acquired through money, from adventures, to travel, to toys.
There’s a certain feeling you get when that dose of dopamine hits you
when you receive a gift - in whichever form it is.
We are social creatures and fun is a shareable concept. You can have
fun with other people and share the dopamine-inducing source with others.
What is the point of going through life without having fun?
That’s where we think most people on wallstreet get the building wealth aspect
wrong. Money & wealth are supposed to be facilitators of living, not the other way around.
Some people live to work, while others work so they can live!
As long as you live, never forget this!
Make your money, hit your goals,
but remember to use it so that your life isn’t just a financial highscore.
The concept of fun encompases everything that makes your existence feel like it was worthwhile.
Think about it: The most valuable things
you have from your past are the fun memories you were able to collect.
Nobody remembers their 6th paycheck,
but we all remember hanging out late at night with our friends.
Fun is emotional comfort.
While for some fun comes from material toys,
others find fun in connecting to the universe in an emotional sense.
When you look at wealth as a source for comfort, you realise the holistic approach
one must follow: from feeding your body, protecting your body, protecting your mind,
looking out for the future in the context of taking care of your soul…
Wealth can do all of this for you, if you know how to use it.
As for those of you still around, of course we have a bonus:
Bonus: COMFORT IN A PREDICTABLE FUTURE LEADS TO HAPPINESS
We feel stress… because we’re struggling to choose between what we want to do
and what we have to do. If you take an iron bar and use force in two different points
it creates tension in between them. That’s why we’re feeling stressed.
We’re unsure about the future. We’re unsure,
everything is going to be fine, because today is fine, yesterday was fine as so was the day before.
There’s tremendous value in having a predictable future that’s aligned with our expectations.
On a deep level Happiness is the highest form of comfort!
Think about it:
We are happy when our reality is the same with what our expectations of what reality should be.
If you think you have comfort but are not happy… did you really achieve true comfort?
This is the types of questions one should ask themselves in order to figure out where to focus
their efforts and by being here and consuming this type of content you’re pushing yourself
towards personal progress. ---- [when putting all
parts together in 1 long-ass video this is where you cut this part] ---
And that’s exactly what we will discuss in part 4 of this series:
Progress - in all its wonderful forms. Make sure to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss it
when it goes live and if you’re enjoying this series, write PoW in the comments. It stands
for purpose of wealth and it would be useful to us to know if you’re finding it valuable!