 is this fact that you probably don't have a compass. You probably don't have a hierarchy in your world. This is getting back to more classical life coaching stuff, but we all need a hierarchy. And we actually need to know what has to exist in my life and what do I want in my life. So for example, if you're a student, you may say, well hey, an education has to happen right now. It can happen later, but man for me has to happen right now. A relationship, I don't know. That changes from man to man. But if you don't have a hierarchy, you'll never know where to put things so that they balance. Does that make sense? For me, I love, there's a couple of things I love. I love rock climbing. I love salsa. I love martial arts. But there's no salsa, there's very little salsa and no martial arts in my life. Why? Because I've chosen rock climbing as the highest priority for my hobbies, yeah? So that's an example. There has to be priority. And you have to actually be willing to knock things out. That's just part of everyday life based on that priority. But all that comes with having this moral compass. But yeah, priority is kind of the key to that. Not a problem, man. Anybody else, guys? Just put your hand up and I'll, oh, yep, fantastic. First of all, thank you for the speech. Not a problem. Your speech is actually quite great. And Nick, thanks for bringing me along. It was my idea to come in. Yep. He had an extra ticket. He told me to come down and I'm kind of, I'm really glad I'm being, a lot of what you said resonated with what I've been thinking about and putting a lot of stuff straight away to you. One question I do have. A few years ago I used to study a bit of philosophy. Yep. And I wanna know, is it all about the pursuit of happiness? Ah, that's a good question. Yes, I would say so. Being in the pursuit of something that you love, I would usually say being in the pursuit of passion or being in the pursuit of love, right? But other people would call it the pursuit of happiness. But it's dangerous because we're all, any human being, we're wired to be in the pursuit of happiness. There's always have been, I don't need to tell you. Guys, stop pursuing unhappiness. Just pursue happiness. Don't worry about that, I'm happy to stop. You know, I'm not making fun of you. I just mean, obviously we're all in wired to do that. So to say, to me to say, being in the pursuit of happiness is dangerous. Why? Because Charlie Sheen is in the pursuit of happiness. You know, he's sleeping with lots of girls, he's doing lots of coke, he's doing what he does in the pursuit of trying to be happy, but it doesn't make him happy. So there's an art form to the pursuit of happiness. And to me that's again, pursuing the right type of happiness in the right way. Does that answer your question? Yeah, yeah, we're wired that way. We're endocrinologically developed that way. Okay, it doesn't matter how much you wanna escape it guys, we have a limbic system that is an emotional part of our brain that's kind of wedged here right inside and its whole existence is to get us to run away from things that feel like shit and to run towards things that bring us happiness. But like I said, you gotta be careful, there's two types of happiness. But yeah, absolutely, as far as I'm concerned, the more happy you are, because that's the way you're developed, the more you're gonna enjoy life. So yeah, I will put it that way. Two more questions guys, yes? Where does the feeling of content fall into play? So contentness? Being content. Yeah, so being content is much closer to eudaimonia, but there's content, which is toleration content, and there's content which is, I'm really happy with who I am content. So content actually kind of has, is another one of those words that has multiple meanings. You know, you can say, I'm content with how things are, which is like, I'm tolerating this crap until I get there, but I'm happy enough to tolerate it. Or there's content with, I'm quite happy with things are. If nothing changed, I'm totally happy. There's very different things. So the content which is I'm really happy with things, that's eudaimonia. The content which is where I'm just tolerating for things to keep going on, then it becomes, no, that's all wrong, but it's different definitions for the same word. Cool. Oh, cool. Thanks very much, Damien. Not at all. My question was, why do you think that the stuff that you've talked about isn't valued in our modern society, in our world? Right. Well, that's a big question. In my opinion, part of it is because the stuff that I talk about doesn't make as much money. Essentially, I mean, money drives our commerce, and our commerce has been entirely dependent on people consuming since about the, what is it, the 15 or 1600s, anyone know more about finance than me? Once we invented money lending, which used to be illegal, by the way, called the usury, but once we started inventing that, we had to start spending, because if we didn't keep spending as a culture, in fact, if people, by the way, if everyone pays off their loan at once, our economy disappears and our money has no value. Interesting thought. But yeah, so a lot of it depends on the consumerism, because what you find is the more consumerist country, the lower this eudaimonic happiness becomes. Why? Because to consume, you have to be focused on the fact, on these hedonistic pleasures, you have to be focused on the idea that I can't be happy unless I attain something physical, focused on end point, and you can't be happy with that end point, you have to keep one a new end point so that you drive the economy. So in my mind, why? Because I don't think that there's any one person overarching on the excellence, yes, yes, keep them far away from the eudaimonic goals, but what's happening is just this, the way that our financial culture has to work, for people to be successful financially, people have to keep spending. So what do we do? We create ads that say, you're not perfect until, yeah, you're not cool until, have a cigarette, yeah. So our culture has actually created this whole way. And that's why I believe, I believe it has everything to do with money and our financial system, yeah. Yeah, Damian, thanks for the speech. It was very informative. My question relates kind of what was just asked. You said the pursuit of happiness, there's no real end state. Is that what you're saying? Yes, absolutely. Where do you rate self-actualization, if at all you do? Yeah, no, to me, it's all part of the same thing. I mean, what you're doing when you're fine, can I ask you one more question? Hold on to that, Mike. What do you mean by self-actualization? Because there's a lot of words that have multiple meanings, of course. So just try to explain that a little bit. A point at which you would be content. A point? With where you are at life and I can. Okay, so to me, if you say a point at which you're content becomes an endpoint goal. And if you find someone whose goal was to be content, whose goal was to find that endpoint goal to be content, they're likely not to have found it. If someone's whole life purpose is just to learn to be more and more content on an ongoing basis, they're far more likely to get there. I find it's actually quite dangerous. The idea that a lot of people have, which is when I have this, I'm gonna be content. Because content self-actualization often depends on certain achievements. So to me, I thought once upon a time I was gonna be self-actualized. If people just recognized me as having interesting valuable things to say, and I could have a positive impact on people's lives, and that paid for my livelihood, then I'd be self-actualized. But as you can see, as I was explaining, I don't feel self-actualized as a result because it becomes a point in the future. What you'll find is that monks, even meditative monks, as amazing as they are on an FMRI machine, there are still moments where they go up and down. So there are moments when they feel less content, moments where they feel more content. But their bodies are much better at dealing with those ups and downs. But yeah, I find it dangerous if you look at a point, what you should be in is a constant pursuit of being self-actualized, which is where this, you don't want to compass comes from. What you're doing, you're constantly moving in direction that actualizes, helps you discover more and more about who you are. Understood, yeah, thank you. Thanks, buddy. Fantastic, guys, that's the last question. That's it, that's it. Awesome, thank you very much, guys. And again, just like James said, I love what I do. I love talking to people about work. I love influencing people's lives. I love having a positive impact on the way that they exist. I do love that. So if you want to come and talk to me at any point, please feel free, I'm always available. Again, if I'm annoyed, I'll tell you, I'll just say, leave me alone. Hey, those of you who come up to me and ask questions are the ones who are far more likely to actually progress in life. I noticed that with all my students, the students who actually push the hardest to learn the most and really grasp what they're trying to grasp, they're the ones who get the furthest. So don't be shy, guys. Thank you very much.