The best decision I've ever made

The best decision I've ever made

I came across the expression "experienced well -being" in Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" for the first time. The psychologist and Nobel laureate thus explains some facts on the subject of happiness, the most fascinating of the fact that the level of happiness of a person is increasing with the amount of money he deserves-but only up to a household income of $ 75,000 (£ 46,000) per person.

After that, the increase in well -being in relation to the increased assets is on average zero.

In plain language: A multimillionaire is not much happier than a person who earns $ 75,000 a year. He may be "more satisfied" with life in general, but his "experienced well -being" - that is, how happy and satisfied he feels about the moment and from day to day - is roughly the same as his less wealthy counterpart. I have thought of this concept several times in the past few months.

I had a good life in London. I had a big family with whom I laughed a lot, a partner who made me feel safe and loved, an interesting and challenging job at Penguin Random House and, the climax of the London residence, a property from the subway. Nevertheless, I rarely stopped and thought: "I just feel so happy."

Every weekday to travel through London's abysses for two hours through London, with the rush hour rudeness, not to breathe clean air, not to eat fresh food, the longing for sun that rarely seemed, all of this had an effect on my well -being.

I love London, I really do that, and I will return to her rusty towers, I am sure, but two months after our trip of my life I am impressed by the frequency with which I feel happiness, be it when sailing through breathtaking waters, waking up with a wonderful view or doing something that really scares me.

I feel amazement and awe more than ever. Yesterday it was a first edition of Treasure Island in Robert Louis Stevenson's house, the house in which he lived and died. Today it raced down the sliding rocks of Papase’ea in Samoa. There will be something new tomorrow.

I know that is not the real life. I know that it cannot be maintained. Even if I had the means of traveling forever, it would stop being new at some point. It seems obvious that the best thing about traveling is that it makes you happy, of course it does, but the frequency with which it does - increasing the well -being experienced - is empirically worth more than a million dollars.

Although I am sure that the romance and novelty of the street will be left behind, two months feel like the best decision I have ever made.
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