Episode 43- Happiness, Derren Brown, Life & Death (Part 4 of 4)

And so we finally reach the end of this podcast odyssey with the longest episode of the 4-part series... The main topics here are fame (linking neatly to LALO episode 40) and the interestingly similar trajectory it shares with money in terms of how its escalation affects -or doesn't affect- a person's happiness, and then the granddaddy of all topics- death. There’s also some talk about mindfulness meditation here, offering another callback to a previous LALO episode. Once again Derren Brown turns to some ancient wisdom to illustrate his points in the book, but there are also some fascinating modern takes on fame, death and a few other things. As always your humble host weighs in with his thoughts too, as well as offering a slightly unusual greeting of the season. It's hard to summarise the many possible takeaways from a 6-hour  analysis of a 500-page book, but with my life coach’s hat on I can only strongly suggest a focus on excellence and full attention to tasks, including the tricky one of living itself. We also need to understand that we are telling ourselves stories all the time, often about events that we have little or no control over and with little evidence to back up our conclusions. Life is hard but can actually be far simpler than we make it if we can limit these stories and try to relax and live with grace and compassion, both for ourselves and for others. I sincerely hope you enjoy this final episode and have enjoyed the ones before it. If so, please subscribe, like, share etc... See you in 2024!   Feedback to [email protected] Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75 Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75   Support the show at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Antony’s website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com Antony’s John Lennon podcast https://glassoniononjohnlennon.com   If you are interested in very affordable Life Coaching, or know someone who might be, you can contact Antony on [email protected] or [email protected] (the LALO email occasionally gets full of spam)   episode links Rory Sutherland’s wonderfully entertaining TED talks https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything https://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man Pure Heaven (story by Antony Rotunno) https://www.antonyrotunno.com/2021/07/24/pure-heaven/ Sam Harris: The Lessons of Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL2uFYi86kk When I Die; Lessons From The Death Zone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2eUw0CUuMc Derren Brown- Unlock The Secret Power of Your Mind! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVblCpr_qAc Groundhog Day: A Lesson In Happiness (video essay) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT2fqrMjTSQ The mind-boggling true scale of the universe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7NzjCmUf0 Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g The Psychology of Amy Winehouse (‘Psychology In Seattle’ podcast) https://www.spreaker.com/user/10958640/the-psychology-of-amy-winehouse-2015-rer_1 Money: Humanity’s Biggest Illusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFO6OtnmEDo