In September 2004, I was on a street corner in the Central Business District (CBD) in Melbourne, on the way home and I remember thinking the following (and then writing it down in my journal):
I want to want no more.
Flash forward 12 years and last year, by listening to podcasts of Tim Ferriss, and reading what Neil Strauss and some of the people these people associate with believe in, I discovered the philosophy of Stoicism.
There’s a quote from some great writer (I forget which) I read the other day who said, ‘I never used one word where I could’ve used none.’ And the Stoic (meaning the capital ‘S’ stoic, as opposed to the small ‘s’ stoic adjective we use today) Seneca the Younger is the philosopher I’ve come to most identify with. He had a knack for articulating deep understandings and pieces of wisdom is very few words.
This is the quote of his I’m thinking about now:
‘Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more.’
Some might see not wanting more as a lack of ambition or goals. My ambition’s to want nothing more.