I
[Music]
thank you very much we must be moving
from the front stage villain to the back
stage hero I mean Here I am a former
politician now a banker talking about
happiness
I mean how credible is that it’s really
wonderful to be here today and in my 12
minutes I will give you an introduction
three points and a conclusion and in
these twelve minutes I will have given
the recipe for what happiness is all
about you see by way of introduction the
interesting thing is that happiness is
something that we all seek I actually
think it’s the meaning of life Aristotle
talked about it John Locke talked about
it the US Constitution talked about it
life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness but it’s also an extremely
individual thing you know if I ask you
what makes you happy it’s probably
something completely different from what
makes me happy for me when I hear the
words 12 minutes I think of a Cooper
test and that makes me happy for some of
you you might have Alex you’re nuts
that’s not fun that’s not happiness I
think that in order for an individual to
be happy you need to have an ingredient
with three things in it body mind and
empathy number one then is body and here
I think there are three things that you
need to do in order to feel good about
yourself number one is you need to sleep
enough how many of you slept eight hours
last night ten percent you know my
percentages that’s fairly close
it’s important to rest you cannot work
on four hours or five hours or six hours
sleep you need the recovery time number
two I would argue you need to eat well
and the older you get the better you
need to eat it’s different when you’re
young you can work on crisps you can
work on energy drinks and not things but
as you grow older it’s a little bit like
a hangover you know it’s not what it
used to be right a bottle of wine was
quite easy when you were young nowadays
you know it takes two days to recover
the bottom line is that you know you are
what you eat food can be really tasty
and good it doesn’t have to be unhealthy
if you want to be happy in your body I
think you need to eat well and number
three is exercise and here I’m not
saying that you need to be a nutcase
like myself put on lycra sweat it out
scream and shout and enjoy Cooper tests
exercise can be just walking to work
walking up stairs going cycling going
swimming doing aerobics Zumba whatever
you get kicks out of but my argument is
that one hour of exercise gives you two
more hours of energy for each and every
day so in terms of your body it does not
matter what you look like
what matters is what it feels like and I
would argue the body feels pretty damn
good when you’ve slept well when you’ve
eaten well and you’ve gotten a little
bit of exercise point number one point
number two is mind and here we don’t
think about it very often but if you are
like me I think we should be on high
alert
I have noticed that as time goes on and
as the instruments at our disposal go on
I get more and more short-term in my
thinking and in my attention span I surf
the net I’m on social media I check my
email I click around wherever I go
and what I’m leaving out is deep reading
and I actually believe that when you
want to fulfill the mind when you want
to train the mind when you want to
fulfill the soul you need to read and
you need to deep read and I will give
you a challenge
once we approach the conclusion but in
order for you to train the mind you need
to do three things all the time number
one is to read and I don’t consider
opening my Twitter feed every morning
and reading the latest tweet from Donald
Trump being an intellectual you know
rigor it’s not I kind of put you
probably in a bad mood but that’s how
things go but you need to deep read what
else do you need to do I think you need
to listen to people I think you need to
write and I think you need to observe
those are all things that train the mind
and if you want to take it one step
further and as I grow older I do have a
dream of training my mind I want to do
two things one is to learn how to pray
play an instrument because I’m really
bad at I tried to start playing the
guitar three times once with my son and
I’m just a miserable failure but I think
it’s great intellectual stimulus and the
second thing I want to learn a new
language
I don’t do grammar at all I just do
language by feel but I wish I could pick
up another one so in order for you to
train your mind I would argue you have
to be curious you have to be open to new
impulses you have to let all of your
prejudices go it is part of human nature
to have a prejudice you get a picture of
a human being through the public eye or
what they look like or what they have
said but until you have met that human
being you don’t know what that human
being is like and you cannot then you
should not make a value judgment so be
curious and fight all of your life fight
cynicism that is the worst mental
disease that you can have the minute
that you think that you know better than
someone else I think you’re done for so
read write listen observe and learn
something new with an
open mind point number three is empathy
I think as we the Homo sapiens develop
we are going to according to many not
least Harare in both Homo sapiens and
Homo Deus we’re gonna evolve we’re not
gonna be regular human beings anymore
there is going to be a time when we
become cyborgs or when we become some
kind of hybrids and some would argue
that with our smartphones we kind of
already are we get impulses and
reactions which our brains weren’t used
to doing before and we are going to get
to a stage whereby robots
digitalization artificial intelligence
internet of things will do things for us
that we as human beings had to do
previously and then there’s one thing I
would argue that we’re left with and
that is empathy and empathy is about how
we as human beings treat each other and
for me the key is and I say this as
someone who has felt quite often as an
incomplete husband incomplete father or
incomplete prime minister or incomplete
friend I say it with sincerity you have
to work at this you have to be present
with other human beings you have to be
present in any court every conversation
that you have you know my son is here
today first time he’s listening to me
speak for 12 minutes and he doesn’t this
hasn’t fallen asleep yet which I which I
think is great but that’s where it all
starts from it starts basically from
your kin from your family then it moves
on to your friends and then it moves on
to the relationships that you have at
work and I know that we are getting a
sense that there’s more violence there’s
more viciousness and there’s more
meanness in this world I don’t buy that
argument we just see it more at face
value because of social media media or
other things I actually say
the world is becoming a better place
believe it or not we have much less
violence than ever before and I say this
carefully not least in the light of what
we have seen in Barcelona yesterday or
what we saw in the United States earlier
this this week we have less disease and
we have less famine so what’s left is
human relations and empathy and here is
where I come to my conclusion after body
mind and empathy is to give you three
pieces of advice on how to conduct this
happiness package the first one is very
theoretical at something I call eight
plus eight plus eight I believe that
happiness is something that takes place
right now it’s not something that
happened it’s not something that you
have in the future it’s something that
you need to live with all the time
and what I’ve tried to do in my life is
to live a life of eight plus eight plus
eight I’ve miserably failed but it’s a
good aim what does that mean it means
eight hours of sleep a night
it means eight hours of hard work a day
and it means eight hours of your own
time for whatever you spend that time
with I don’t believe in these people who
say that they can do 20-hour workdays
and be effective that’s me I’m allowed
to say yeah TEDx you’ll hear
beep I it doesn’t go like that you can
be effective for approximately maximum
of eight hours someone got it right when
they said that so eight plus eight plus
eight my point number two and it’s a
challenge I just wrote my blue wings
column on it then it’s out of September
and then this stems from from my
thinking or reading and please join me
in this challenge it’s a one plus one
plus one day what I was trying to say
without having noticed that I faff
around too much or social media and
elsewhere and do not read enough I have
made a rule which starts in the 1st of
September this year and ends in the 1st
of September next year
that every day I will do three things
one hour of reading a book well you read
about 400 words a minute with that pace
you can go up to 100 200 books depends a
little bit on the lengths of the books
okay number two I will exercise one hour
day well I do that anyway so that’s kind
of easy no problem it doesn’t have to be
the Cooper test and number three I will
spend only one hour of social media a
day and that will be my one plus one
plus one rule and every month I will
post my record on Facebook to see if I’m
able to do this now my wife said that’s
easy for you because you’re moving to
Luxembourg and the family is staying
here well yeah it’s true but I will try
one plus one plus one feel free to join
me and the final thing I want to say as
that thing has gone blank what final
thing I want to say it is about empathy
it’s for words that that I tell my
children every night when we go to bed
and it’s something that my parents told
me as well and I just want you to
remember those four words because I I
think they sort of form a package in
which happiness can can exist because
happiness is a process and the four
words are dream dream big always believe
believe in those dreams and believe that
you can actually do it so dream believe
work hard
I know it’s two words but still and
finally fourth succeed so dream believe
pour a card and succeed if we can keep
that package I would argue that you can
develop a stage of happiness and if you
keep the package of taking care of your
body taking care of your mind and taking
care of the people around you I think
that’s
happiness is all about thank you very
much
[Applause]
you
[Music]
thank you very much we must be moving
from the front stage villain to the back
stage hero I mean Here I am a former
politician now a banker talking about
happiness
I mean how credible is that it’s really
wonderful to be here today and in my 12
minutes I will give you an introduction
three points and a conclusion and in
these twelve minutes I will have given
the recipe for what happiness is all
about you see by way of introduction the
interesting thing is that happiness is
something that we all seek I actually
think it’s the meaning of life Aristotle
talked about it John Locke talked about
it the US Constitution talked about it
life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness but it’s also an extremely
individual thing you know if I ask you
what makes you happy it’s probably
something completely different from what
makes me happy for me when I hear the
words 12 minutes I think of a Cooper
test and that makes me happy for some of
you you might have Alex you’re nuts
that’s not fun that’s not happiness I
think that in order for an individual to
be happy you need to have an ingredient
with three things in it body mind and
empathy number one then is body and here
I think there are three things that you
need to do in order to feel good about
yourself number one is you need to sleep
enough how many of you slept eight hours
last night ten percent you know my
percentages that’s fairly close
it’s important to rest you cannot work
on four hours or five hours or six hours
sleep you need the recovery time number
two I would argue you need to eat well
and the older you get the better you
need to eat it’s different when you’re
young you can work on crisps you can
work on energy drinks and not things but
as you grow older it’s a little bit like
a hangover you know it’s not what it
used to be right a bottle of wine was
quite easy when you were young nowadays
you know it takes two days to recover
the bottom line is that you know you are
what you eat food can be really tasty
and good it doesn’t have to be unhealthy
if you want to be happy in your body I
think you need to eat well and number
three is exercise and here I’m not
saying that you need to be a nutcase
like myself put on lycra sweat it out
scream and shout and enjoy Cooper tests
exercise can be just walking to work
walking up stairs going cycling going
swimming doing aerobics Zumba whatever
you get kicks out of but my argument is
that one hour of exercise gives you two
more hours of energy for each and every
day so in terms of your body it does not
matter what you look like
what matters is what it feels like and I
would argue the body feels pretty damn
good when you’ve slept well when you’ve
eaten well and you’ve gotten a little
bit of exercise point number one point
number two is mind and here we don’t
think about it very often but if you are
like me I think we should be on high
alert
I have noticed that as time goes on and
as the instruments at our disposal go on
I get more and more short-term in my
thinking and in my attention span I surf
the net I’m on social media I check my
email I click around wherever I go
and what I’m leaving out is deep reading
and I actually believe that when you
want to fulfill the mind when you want
to train the mind when you want to
fulfill the soul you need to read and
you need to deep read and I will give
you a challenge
once we approach the conclusion but in
order for you to train the mind you need
to do three things all the time number
one is to read and I don’t consider
opening my Twitter feed every morning
and reading the latest tweet from Donald
Trump being an intellectual you know
rigor it’s not I kind of put you
probably in a bad mood but that’s how
things go but you need to deep read what
else do you need to do I think you need
to listen to people I think you need to
write and I think you need to observe
those are all things that train the mind
and if you want to take it one step
further and as I grow older I do have a
dream of training my mind I want to do
two things one is to learn how to pray
play an instrument because I’m really
bad at I tried to start playing the
guitar three times once with my son and
I’m just a miserable failure but I think
it’s great intellectual stimulus and the
second thing I want to learn a new
language
I don’t do grammar at all I just do
language by feel but I wish I could pick
up another one so in order for you to
train your mind I would argue you have
to be curious you have to be open to new
impulses you have to let all of your
prejudices go it is part of human nature
to have a prejudice you get a picture of
a human being through the public eye or
what they look like or what they have
said but until you have met that human
being you don’t know what that human
being is like and you cannot then you
should not make a value judgment so be
curious and fight all of your life fight
cynicism that is the worst mental
disease that you can have the minute
that you think that you know better than
someone else I think you’re done for so
read write listen observe and learn
something new with an
open mind point number three is empathy
I think as we the Homo sapiens develop
we are going to according to many not
least Harare in both Homo sapiens and
Homo Deus we’re gonna evolve we’re not
gonna be regular human beings anymore
there is going to be a time when we
become cyborgs or when we become some
kind of hybrids and some would argue
that with our smartphones we kind of
already are we get impulses and
reactions which our brains weren’t used
to doing before and we are going to get
to a stage whereby robots
digitalization artificial intelligence
internet of things will do things for us
that we as human beings had to do
previously and then there’s one thing I
would argue that we’re left with and
that is empathy and empathy is about how
we as human beings treat each other and
for me the key is and I say this as
someone who has felt quite often as an
incomplete husband incomplete father or
incomplete prime minister or incomplete
friend I say it with sincerity you have
to work at this you have to be present
with other human beings you have to be
present in any court every conversation
that you have you know my son is here
today first time he’s listening to me
speak for 12 minutes and he doesn’t this
hasn’t fallen asleep yet which I which I
think is great but that’s where it all
starts from it starts basically from
your kin from your family then it moves
on to your friends and then it moves on
to the relationships that you have at
work and I know that we are getting a
sense that there’s more violence there’s
more viciousness and there’s more
meanness in this world I don’t buy that
argument we just see it more at face
value because of social media media or
other things I actually say
the world is becoming a better place
believe it or not we have much less
violence than ever before and I say this
carefully not least in the light of what
we have seen in Barcelona yesterday or
what we saw in the United States earlier
this this week we have less disease and
we have less famine so what’s left is
human relations and empathy and here is
where I come to my conclusion after body
mind and empathy is to give you three
pieces of advice on how to conduct this
happiness package the first one is very
theoretical at something I call eight
plus eight plus eight I believe that
happiness is something that takes place
right now it’s not something that
happened it’s not something that you
have in the future it’s something that
you need to live with all the time
and what I’ve tried to do in my life is
to live a life of eight plus eight plus
eight I’ve miserably failed but it’s a
good aim what does that mean it means
eight hours of sleep a night
it means eight hours of hard work a day
and it means eight hours of your own
time for whatever you spend that time
with I don’t believe in these people who
say that they can do 20-hour workdays
and be effective that’s me I’m allowed
to say yeah TEDx you’ll hear
beep I it doesn’t go like that you can
be effective for approximately maximum
of eight hours someone got it right when
they said that so eight plus eight plus
eight my point number two and it’s a
challenge I just wrote my blue wings
column on it then it’s out of September
and then this stems from from my
thinking or reading and please join me
in this challenge it’s a one plus one
plus one day what I was trying to say
without having noticed that I faff
around too much or social media and
elsewhere and do not read enough I have
made a rule which starts in the 1st of
September this year and ends in the 1st
of September next year
that every day I will do three things
one hour of reading a book well you read
about 400 words a minute with that pace
you can go up to 100 200 books depends a
little bit on the lengths of the books
okay number two I will exercise one hour
day well I do that anyway so that’s kind
of easy no problem it doesn’t have to be
the Cooper test and number three I will
spend only one hour of social media a
day and that will be my one plus one
plus one rule and every month I will
post my record on Facebook to see if I’m
able to do this now my wife said that’s
easy for you because you’re moving to
Luxembourg and the family is staying
here well yeah it’s true but I will try
one plus one plus one feel free to join
me and the final thing I want to say as
that thing has gone blank what final
thing I want to say it is about empathy
it’s for words that that I tell my
children every night when we go to bed
and it’s something that my parents told
me as well and I just want you to
remember those four words because I I
think they sort of form a package in
which happiness can can exist because
happiness is a process and the four
words are dream dream big always believe
believe in those dreams and believe that
you can actually do it so dream believe
work hard
I know it’s two words but still and
finally fourth succeed so dream believe
pour a card and succeed if we can keep
that package I would argue that you can
develop a stage of happiness and if you
keep the package of taking care of your
body taking care of your mind and taking
care of the people around you I think
that’s
happiness is all about thank you very
much
[Applause]
you
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