Quote that feels important this year

“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions” Primo Levi

Blog post I am loving 

I love discovering different blogs and I have been devouring more on business strategy recently, in particular Richard Koch, who made the 80/20 principle famous. A prolific author and investor his blog draws a beautiful balance between straight business and a deeper, more soulful understanding of life…check out this post where he outlines ‘Five Concepts for Happiness’ (Read in full here)

Here’s an excerpt

“The first of these [concepts] is Knowledge

More precisely, how it can make you happy and useful. And the thing is, it is not so much gaining knowledge that does the trick, but more spreading and creating it.

We tend to think of knowledge as something rather technical and compartmentalized. Knowledge is what universities and professors do. Oh, and companies as well if they have scientists beavering away in their basements. Knowledge is worthy. Knowledge is boring. Knowledge is someone else’s concern.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and nothing is more calculated to stop us from enjoying life to the full. Knowledge is not what they do. Knowledge is what you do. Knowledge defines what it means to be human”

Continue reading here

and One More Thing

You’ll be happier if you choose change…

I was reminded this week of a study from Steve Levitt which put the responsibility of decision making on a virtual coin toss. Essentially participants went to a website with a decision they couldn’t make their mind up on e.g. ‘Should I quit my job?’ If the virtual coin toss produced a heads then the answer was yes, tails was no.

The outcome was that the people who made a change…regardless of the outcome of the coin toss…reported they were substantially happier both 2 and 6 months later.

What do you need a nudge on?

What are you sitting on the fence about?

Even if you can’t make the change right now…make sure you keep asking yourself the question. Your happiness may be on the other side of making that choice…

Read the study summary here