Desiring less can have the same impact on your well-being as gaining more money.

It’s always just What’s next? What’s missing? How can I get to the next level? That’s what you do because that’s what your brain wants.

People often chase the wrong emotion. They go for a buzz of happiness, which is fun but fleeting. It’s better to go for contentment, which feels even better and is much more durable.

Your brain doesn’t want stuff. It doesn’t even want new stuff. It wants to engage in the process and anticipation of getting new stuff

Your brain just wants dopamine. I’ll leave it to the excellent book The Molecule of More to describe the process: Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more—more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. From dopamine’s point of view, it’s not the

In fact, for most people there’s a hierarchy of spending that goes something like this: If you don’t want something and don’t have it, you don’t think about it. If you want something and have it, you might feel OK. If you want something and don’t have it, you might feel motivated. If you want something and can’t have it, you drive yourself

When you don’t appreciate what you already have and only focus on what’s missing, nothing ever feels good enough. Happiness remains elusive.

Psychological wealth is such an important concept, and with money it comes from proper expectations. Happiness is contentment. Contentment is what you have relative to what you want.

Desire is a hidden form of debt that must be repaid before you get to feel any happiness.