What I Have Been Reading: “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.” Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz

This is inspired by the key findings of a huge Harvard University study of happiness, that’s now gone on for more than 80 years. The study followed more than 700 men — and now their families — from the late 1930s until today. The leaders of the study succinctly summarised 80 plus years of research:

“For eighty-four years (and counting), the Harvard Study has tracked the same individuals, asking thousands of questions and taking hundreds of measurements to find out what really keeps people healthy and happy.

One crucial factor stands out. … It’s not career achievement, or exercise, or a healthy diet. Don’t get us wrong; these things matter (a lot). But one thing continuously demonstrates its broad and enduring importance: Good relationships.

If we had to take all eighty-four years of the Harvard Study and boil it into a single principle for living, one life investment that is supported by similar findings across a wide variety of other studies, it would be this: Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period.“

What I Have Been Thinking About: The utility of meetings. I just hate them! And there’s always so many at the start of a new year. I read that 79 years ago Russian spies were trained to infiltrate and manipulate US bureaucracy with techniques to sabotage their meetings. Direct from the spy training manual, how many of these strategies do you recognise – do you think there may be Russian spies in your meetings too?

1. Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit shortcuts to be taken
2. Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length.
3. When possible, refer all matters to committees for “further study and consideration.”
4. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
5. Haggle over precise wording of communications, minutes, and resolutions.
6. Refer back to matters decided at the last meeting and attempt to reopen the question of the advisability of that decision.
7. Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge (others in the meeting) to avoid haste
8. Try and defer decisions and outcomes to another meeting

What I Have Been Watching :“Happy Valley” on Foxtel. I came in at series 3 but picked it up okay. Set in Yorkshire, it’s about a ballsy police sergeant Catherine who leads a team in locking up bad guys. I loved all the characters and was sad when I finished it. I always feel like I’ve lost good friends when a show is over. But at least I can go back and watch series one and two now!

What I Have Been Working On: My relationships

What’s Coming Up: We have a special complimentary livestream event this Tuesday evening for those that want to learn how to purchase distressed real estate for little to no money down. For details go https://www.propertylovers.com.au/dpm/

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Till next week,

Warm regards

Dom

We released a new podcast episode, it is a Breakdown On The Current State Of The Property Market. You can listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Youtube, our Website or wherever you find your podcasts, you don’t want to miss it.