I recently had the opportunity to present one of my favourite books at a public reading at the library of my home town. My first name “Felix” means “lucky, successful” in Latin. Therefore, I feel somehow committed to act as a happiness ambassador. Hence, I opted to read from “The Art of the Good Life” from the Swiss author Rolf Dobelli.
Each of us is looking for a happy life i.e. to enjoy many happy moments in life. This is not easy to achieve in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA world). Especially if we take in consideration that our brain is biologically still wired to a stone-age environment that shaped most of our behaviors and heuristics. Hence, each of us has to deal with 100+ cognitive biases.
Rolf Dobelli is convinced that thinking tools are nowadays more important than money. In his book he has compiled 52 thinking tools. The sources for the tools are from current psychology research, from the practical exercises of Stoicism, and from the investment literature and applied behavioral economics influenced e.g. by Charlie Munger who is the right-hand man of Warren Buffett.
The “mental subtraction” thinking tool is one of the most powerful in this book. The sketch above illustrates the principle:
- Start by closing your eyes, concentrate on your current state of mind and ask yourself “how happy am I currently?” on a scale of 1 to 10
- Then step by step subtract mentally things you take for granted today e.g. your arms, your eye sight, your house, or your family and build empathy with yourself in the new situation e.g. without arms how would you hug somebody, how would you use your mobile phone, how would you drive etc?
- Close the exercise by asking yourself again: “how happy am I currently” on a scale of 1 to 10.
The audience at the public reading was impressed by this experiment that also explains why bronze medalists are happier than silver winners.
How happy are you today?
