How to lead a good life: six tips from Rolf Dobelli’s book The Art of the Good Life

Living the good life is what it is all about. But how do we do it? Is it through lots of money? Freedom? Happiness? What does a good life mean anyway?

Sorry, I won’t be able to answer that question. But I can share some mental tools that I learned from Rolf Dobelli’s book The Art of the Good Life. Rolf Dobelli, best selling author of The Art of Thinking Clearly, draws from the latest research in psychology, the stoicism philosophy and from the wisdom of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, to provide 52 tools to help people lead a good life.

Here are my six favourite tools:

The peak end rule

Imagine that you are traveling to another city for vacation. Things are going great. You check in at a luxurious hotel. You go out to eat at the fanciest restaurants. You take in the sights. You experience things that you cannot experience in your home city. The highlight of your trip was meeting your favourite celebrity at a fancy restaurant and getting a photo with them. But then, at the end of the trip, you get the bad news from the hotel. The bill.

Compare that with another scenario: you pay for the hotel in advance so that you don’t get the bill at the end of the trip. Instead, you check out of the…