Down with casual dress! Up with fancy dress!

The grumpy foraging for jazzy socks and work-appropriate chinos, often left in a wine-splattered ball since last Friday, marks the beginning of the run-in to the weekend.

There is a lot to be said about dressing down at work on a Friday at otherwise suited and booted city firms. It helps to create a convivial atmosphere in the office. What's more, comfortable trousers - the jegging a notable example, better facilitate the consumption of doughnuts.

But there is so much further that we can go with it.

We could be dressing up! Not down!

This could be a valuable opportunity to express what we are really like, not the chino-clad image of what we think we should be like.

But what type of fancy dresser are you and what does this choice say about you?

The aspirational superhero
Fake muscles aplenty.  You are ambitious. You know the superhero that you could be, if only you had the time. You stand for courage, leadership and for the greater good. Your heart is most definitely in the right place.  Your ego is perfectly formed, even in the absence of any great musculature.

Alas, your fears of living up to your own ideal can make you prone to bouts of self-doubt, "am I the superhuman leader that I am portraying myself to be, or am I one big polyester fake?"

The idealist
You choose a noted character that you resemble in some way - physically or ideologically; Churchill, Austin Powers or the 118 118 man. You align yourself to their beliefs and you are well-researched to 'live' your character. You take your role as ambassador for this ideal seriously. 

Your loyalty knows no bounds, but your natural inclination to follow perhaps betrays a lack of self-confidence, "people would never see me as a Buzz Lightyear kind of person, but I do have a similar moustache to Biggles."

The Comedian
You dress as a banana, or an egg, or a TellyTubby.  Your role is to improve the day of others around you, irrespective of your own personal discomfort. A smile is easily worth a bucket of sweat to you.

But why do you do it?  Like many comedians, you may conceal the sadness of the real you behind a physical or metaphorical mask and be prone to bouts of self-loathing, "how stupid do I look? I'm dressed as a giant breast and therefore can't work, or eat."

The Promoter
You choose a costume which promotes an area of your physique which has driven results for you in the past - sexy firewoman, morphsuit, mankini. You recognise the impact that your body has on others and you enjoy the attention.

Like many exhibitionists, you occasionally worry about trading on this asset, and hate yourself for it, but not too much. As Kelly Brook very sensibly said in today's edition of The Times, "If people are interested in my body, then OK, that's it. I'm not going to fight against it..."

The Don't Dress Up-er
Lack of commitment to your work. This is your shop window, and you didn't want to dress it. That, or you don't have a sense of humour. Or you don't fancy revealing the character trait behind your character selection, thus inadvertently revealing a different trait in the process. We are getting into modern game theory here.

Scrap the whole stupid idea. Especially since, for women, there is really only one option according to the online fancy dress outlets, and that is to dress as a stripper (albeit a stripper dressed as a firewoman, nurse, schoolgirl, superhero...) Even the fried egg is sold with stockings. This may suit many of Promoter inclination and/or fine physical form, but without offering the opportunity to distinguish you from other fancy dressers, it is no better than a chino.

Equality for all!

My early impressions of golf clubs were formed at Wentworth, where friend's fathers went to hide, or to conduct their extra-marital affairs.  Friends snuck in at night-time to drink cider and play spin the bottle in the bunkers.

Reading the front page news that this week two, yes two all in one go, women have been accepted to the Augusta National golf course, home of the Master's championship, unsettled me. I hadn't known that women were banned, and I couldn't decide whether I cared.

I watched the Wentworth promotional video to help form a view. I should never have done it. I'll never feel the same again.

"Wentworth...where history is made...legends are born"...rousing violin, cymbal crash, melancholy bassoon. God, I love a montage. "Luxury" - sticky buns, plumped pillows, valets, lush green grass, the 'ting' of ball on driver, ducks. "Celebration" - Aston Martin, bubbly bath, rose petals, champagne, creamy choux buns.  "Relaxation" - sensuous massage, official handshakes, more silky grass, insanely fluffy white towels. "Celebration" - ice sculptures, pecan pie, cosmopolitans, petits fours, venison, parasols. "Business" - men posing for a photo, nodding vigorously whilst drinking a Montrachet Premier Cru, shaking hands on their deal.

I want to join, and I don't even golf. If I were a woman in Augusta I'd have been fuming too.

I called the membership line. I spoke to a charming Irish chap. Apparently it is really incredibly accessible. It's his job, he says, to find a proposer and seconder to help us enter the club. He does it all the time, no worries.  There is currently space, no worries.  He asked which line of business my husband was in. I said that he looked after the children (just to see what it sounded like). He didn't miss a beat. He said he thought he knew someone he could connect us to, no worries. Done!

If I had decided on golf as my hobby, over children as my hobby, I could be there, no worries.  The annual fees are almost exactly equal to my annual childcare bill.  I could be revelling in the power network, slathering myself in machismo, hoovering up choux buns and Chardonnay, hooning up the drive in my Aston Martin, rolling around on the lush green grass, 'ting, ting, ting', "shot!", drinking cosmopolitans out of lewdly shaped ice sculptures whilst broking my next mega-deal. I'd be rich. Rich!

No going back now though. Instead I'm going to start a campaign for greater equality.

Equality for those of us who have finite resource and decide to breed. We are being excluded! Unfairly! Due to the fact that we can't afford to be members. The non-breeding middle-class are getting the better networking opportunities, using their free time to nod vigorously and shake hands, rather than shake heads vigorously and nod off. We deserve some positive discrimination. After all, its not just about us, we may be creating the "legends" of the future, and I really feel like I deserve a choux bun.

But would it hold the same appeal with no children to get away from, or to track down in flagrante? Would it hold the same appeal for husbands knowing that their wives will also likely be there?

Yes, in this instance, I really do think that the grass at the golf club is always greener.

Facebook friends don't un-me me

Unfriend, unfollow - relatively discreet.  Unbaby - the latest application of the prolific prefix of reversal - harder to explain.

Unbaby.me is a new browser extension which removes photos of babies from your Facebook feed and replaces them with pictures of anything else you fancy...cats, seals, bacon. In its first week the app had 30,000 downloads.

With this I hear the rasped breath of the social networking revolution, in death throes, having fallen on a pair of pruning shears.

It was inevitable.

Unfriending, unfollowing, trolling, flaming..we have been gradually killing off nodes in our networks with increasing fervour, because we have grown apart, or because we got bored, or by deliberately insulting eachother. With the use of preferences, likes, recommendations, pseudonyms and now content filters, we have created a world more parochial than it ever was off-line. A network of infinite possibility has been poorly nurtured and naively pruned.

Like the hop plant.

At its very best, the hop adds perfect balance to a delicious social beverage. At its worst it stings and suffocates.  Suspected of creating melancholy in the time of Henry VI, growing this 'wicked and pernicious weed' was forbidden. 

Gradually, 16th century British society came round to the value of the hop, a hardy perennial and social climber. Hop growers have perfected the art of cultivating this fickle friend. Deep, rich, soil, plenty of space, expect little early, plenty of manure. Each year the vines are 'dressed', that is, all the old ends are cut off, preserving the core. Aphis, red spider, fungus, are delicately wiped away with soap solution by hand.

To nurture our social network, we need to foster not stunt growth. We need to trim the lose ends, preserve the core. We need to invest, we need to give space, we need to wipe away the aphis.

We don't need to replace pictures of our friend's babies with pictures of bacon. 

What we should do is create the long-needed distinction between ‘followers’ and 'friends’. When posting on a social network, tag your post to one of the components of your life - family, work, sport. Your 'followers' can chose which part to follow.  Your 'friends' take the lot.

Cut away at the core, and your hop plant will die.

(Thanks to Botanical.com)

Sir Barlow I salute you

As a contrary 13 year old I resolved to hate Take That. I resolutely kept it up for 20 years. I didn't falter - not with Robbie, nor without Robbie, not with him again, not in clown outfits, not in bearskin.  That was until they strolled into the Olympic stadium and saved the London 2012 Closing Ceremony from the brink of complete disaster.

We had been subjected to the bizarre, the bad and the out of tune. We had listened to the most unmoving of key-note speeches. Jacques Rogge, the current President of the IOC had 4 years to prepare for the speech of his career.  He had time to write a poem, learn a dance, complete his own inspirational montage, yet he read from a sheet, no trace of emotion,  "we will never forget the smiles." Followed by Huw Edwards skin-itching tragi-speak "the cauldron...soon to be extinguished...gently...gradually..." until we are all dead.

Arrive Gary Barlow and his man-band.  A man grieving from the loss of his baby girl, tragically still born only one week ago.  With his opening line he instantly renewed our wonder in London 2012 and evoked such unimaginable pathos that I am reduced to wracking sobs even as I write, "You light the skies up above me, A star so bright you blind me, Don’t close your eyes, Don’t fade away, don’t fade away." Followed by elation. Elation at hearing the little one's voice supporting Gary - Mark, and marvelling at their smart Continental soldier jackets, and that we do have someone who can sing in tune, that the black paddles did have a purpose and that 204 nations are standing on a majestic Union Jack, waving their arms and singing "We Can Rule The World" with marmalade and jam. Tell me the coverage stopped right there, please.

I go promptly to the DirectGov website to nominate Gary Barlow for a Knighthood. He restored a nation's credibility, at the most difficult time in his own life. That is selflessness. That is inspiration. Turns out he already received an OBE in the Queen's Jubilee Honours list. Officer. Not enough. He needs a Knighthood and to be a Sir. I demand it. I'll fill out the forms right now.

These forms are remarkably straight forward. Anyone can be nominated. I wonder. Let's look at some of the awards, what were these people doing when they were 33?  Maybe we are all on track for a Knighthood?

Dame Zaha Hadid, made DBE in June 2012, aged 62. Iraqi-British architect responsible for the London 2012 Aquatics Centre design. Degree in Mathematics from the American University of Beirut. Partner at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture by the age of 27. Established her own Architecture practice in London at the age of 30.  She goes a bit quiet then, teaching at prestigious institutions around the world, until she is made the first female and first Muslim recipient of the Protzker Architecture Prize (comparable to the Nobel prize) at the age of 54.

Bit of a high achiever from a very early age. What about this one...

Dame Lucy Neville-Rolfe, corporate and legal affairs director at Tesco, made DBE in June 2012 at the age of 59. She has a BA and MA in Politics and Philosophy from Oxford. At 33 she was working in the European Community policy unit on Sheepmeat and Milk. She has 4 children. She wasn't headhunted from the Cabinet Office to Tesco by Sir Terry Leahy until she was 44. She didn't get her first accolade - CMG - to recognise overseas contributions until the age of 52.

Hoorah! Hope! From Sheepmeat and Milk policy to Damehood in 20 years, fitting in 4 children along the way.

Think we should all target Damehood by 60.

In the meanwhile, Sir Barlow, I salute you.

Target Practice

Success is the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted and London 2012 has offered wonderful examples of athletes tasting success or falling dramatically short, irrespective of the final medal.

British athlete Tom Daley's bronze medal in the individual 10m platform dive gave the BBC3 a record 6.6 million viewers on Saturday night.  He made front page of The Sunday Times Olympic section, relegating Luke Campbell, the Gold medal winning boxer, to Page 6. The Guardian ran the headline -  'Tom Daley makes diving bronze seem like gold'. Tom Daley knew that, given the strength of the field and his own capabilities on that day, bronze was the greatest he could achieve.

Stark contrast to the reception for Rebecca Adlington's two bronze medals in the swimming pool, 'Rebecca Adlington beaten into bronze' - Guardian 3rd August, which has left her considering her swimming future. Rebecca was disappointed with her time having swum slower in her 800m final than she did in the British Olympic qualifiers.

We can learn a great deal from our athletes in terms of the value of setting realistic targets and judging our success against them.

How to determine your target? How do we know the extent of your potential?

Turn Up - To even begin to understand your true potential you need to turn up. Our athletes were not selected by luck.  They joined swimming clubs and cycling clubs, they worked hard,  tried a few different sports and eventually they settled on one that suited them.  Play around with the components of your life that you spend your time on. If you don't feel that you can meet your idea of high performance in your life as you currently lead it, think about trying something different that does play to your strengths.

Baseline - Understand your strengths and weaknesses across each of the components of your life. Which components do you naturally excel at? Which do you enjoy most? Which are just fixed time requirements and you need to simply minimise the downside?

Target - Set yourself an achievable goal. Go after it. Smash it. Chose another one. Keep pushing out your targets. You may come to the ceiling of one or many. Decide what to do about that.

Call for help - Identify the support that you need to reach your target.  If you are unable to get the support, reassess the feasibility of the target. The best coaches, partners and employers will provide this support seamlessly to maximise your potential.

Time horizon - Schedule your goals. You can achieve anything that you set your mind to, but not all at once. Consider your constraints and plan your aspirations around them and around the aspirations of those that you are close to.

Recognise Success -  If you reach your target, recognise it.

All too often we berate ourselves for underachievement of what was always an unrealistic target. Even more frequently we don't celebrate the successful attainment of a target which we might consider to be mediocre in comparison to others.

When you reach the target that you have set for yourself, think of Tom Daley. Celebrate, as if it were Olympic gold, then start training for Rio.

Montage Yourself

John Wilson, the BBC Radio 4 Arts reporter recently presented a show called "Pump Up The Volume" investigating why many people call music sport's "legal drug". In some research studies, music has been shown to increase physical performance by 20 per cent, while reducing an athlete's perception of effort by 10 per cent.

Music doesn't just impact sporting performance though, and it's not just for athletes. We can employ music to drive performance across all components of our life.
Music blocks out the inhibitors to our success; the sound of your heart pumping over-time, the sound of the washing machine going, the soundtrack to your day to day which keeps you firmly rooted in the 'now'. It opens the door to a place in your mind where you are no longer constrained. You are your own definition of greatness for that moment. You can run faster. You have a great idea. You feel 21 again.

Music provides a soundtrack to our thoughts to create a mini-montage of our life in our minds, driving a shot of adrenaline through the body to fuel a burst of inspiration.

Use music when you are working on your aspiration.

Your mind will think you are capable of more. Now just the rest of you needs to catch up.

Empire State of Mensch

Following my earlier blog - 'If you can't join them, beat them', my attempt at recording an opinion on the facts.

Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP who beat expectations in 2010 by doubling the long-hoped-for swing of the 13 year Labour seat of Corby and East Hants, has this week resigned from her post, following a long-time struggle to find the “best outcome” for her family.

Mensch, a graduate of Oxford University joined the Young Conservatives at the age of 14 and was selected as Parliamentary candidate for Corby in 2006. She was cited in the Insight Public Affairs ‘The Next Generation: Parliamentary Candidates to Watch’ in 2009, which celebrated the 2 million copies of her 12 novels, written since her first publishing contract at the age of 22.

Praised for her comment, “women can have it all, if they want it all”, Louise has found her life balance increasingly difficult to optimise since her divorce from her first husband in 2009, with whom she has 3 children now 4, 7, and 8, and marriage to new love Manhattanite and manager of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peter Mensch.
This year she aims to publish her 13^th novel, under her married name, “I was longing to brand myself with his name for a very long time. He's a living legend, and to be his wife is the greatest honour.”

Successful in anything she puts her mind to, Mensch certainly challenges any suggestion of politics being a Calling. When news of alleged youthful drug-taking broke in 2011 she assumed it would all be over, “There goes my career. I was like - oh well, easy come, easy go, political career.”

As well as the beloved new husband, three children, millions in the bank from her immensely popular novels and Parliamentary career, she has also recently launched a new social networking site - Menshn, which, rather foolishly, she claims is not inspired by her own name. A “niche complement to twitter”, the site fixes three of twitter’s well publicised problems: poor topic structure, follower reach, and offensive use.

She swung the Corby electorate, twitter’s loyal followers should be a walk in the park.

I think I might sign up.

(Thanks to GQ.Com for quotes)

If you cant join them, beat them

Louise Mensch, Conservative MP for Corby resigns from her job for the sake of her family life.

It’s exhausting.

Another day, another story of a woman who has given up her ‘high profile’ career.

Exhausting is the effort needed to unpick these stories, to scrape off the media slap and consider the bare face of the facts. Why bother?  Well, we can understand deep-rooted perception by how people are portrayed in the media, and also we may just learn something about a better balanced life.

And my goodness you have to watch the journalists, because they care about this story only insofar as it fits around a point that they got up this morning already wanting to make. The available data is moulded around the journalist’s hypothesis with unwanted extras left lying on the cutting room floor.

The Telegraph Political bloggers have been vocal on this topic so I looked at their three posts.

Iain Martin, in his blog ‘The Louise Mensch Show was always going to end in tears’  tells the tale of the failure of a self-obsessed allrounder, a ‘blow up’ which he predicted coming. He sagely warns the PM to be more careful who he backs next time.  He employs buzz words to create drama – ‘careerism’ (twice), ‘Chick-Lit’,  along with nonsensical statements "Some seem to have been given the impression that politics would work around their needs .. with no need for any of that awkward business of mastering the Commons or honing a worldview.” 

Lord Norman Tebbitt’s blog, ‘The case of Louise Mensch is a good example of why the Tory grassroots have lost confidence in the national Party' questions today's relaxed approach to the office of MP, “It is the apparently casual attitude of Mrs Mensch towards the obligations she had undertaken which concerns me: it is as if these days being a Member of Parliament is no more than a job”.

Damian Thompson, Telegraph Blogs Editor, 'Louise Mensch quits. So why did she bother becoming an MP in the first place?' aims to incite anger against Mensch, “Louise is going to have to come up with something pretty convincing if she isn't going to leave people thinking: she got elected, got bored and flounced out” and employs mild threat to underline his point, “Corby Conservatives..may have a few messages to tweet back at her”.

For what it is worth, here is my take:

Empire State of Mensch

Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP who beat expectations in 2010 by doubling the long-hoped-for swing of the 13 year Labour seat of Corby and East Hants, has this week resigned from her post, following a long-time struggle to find the “best outcome” for her family.

Mensch, a graduate of Oxford University joined the Young Conservatives at the age of 14 and was selected as Parliamentary candidate for Corby in 2006. She was cited in the Insight Public Affairs ‘The Next Generation: Parliamentary Candidates to Watch’ in 2009, which celebrated the 2 million copies of her 12 novels, written since her first publishing contract at the age of 22.

Praised for her comment, “women can have it all, if they want it all”, Louise has found her life balance increasingly difficult to optimise since her divorce from her first husband in 2009, with whom she has 3 children now 4, 7, and 8, and marriage to new love Manhattanite and manager of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peter Mensch.

This year she aims to publish her 13^th novel, under her married name, “I was longing to brand myself with his name for a very long time. He's a living legend, and to be his wife is the greatest honour.”

Successful in anything she puts her mind to, Mensch certainly challenges any suggestion of politics being a Calling. When news of alleged youthful drug-taking broke in 2011 she assumed it would all be over, “There goes my career. I was like - oh well, easy come, easy go, political career.”

As well as the beloved new husband, three children, millions in the bank from her immensely popular novels and Parliamentary career, she has also recently launched a new social networking site - Menshn, which, rather foolishly, she claims is not inspired by her own name.  A “niche complement to twitter”, the site fixes three of twitter’s well publicised problems:  poor topic structure, follower reach, and offensive use.

She swung the Corby electorate, twitter’s loyal followers should be a walk in the park.

I think I might sign up.

(Thanks to GQ.Com for reporting)

____________________

When you look at the news of Mensch’s resignation objectively, you see a highly intelligent, hugely successful individual who is understandably not happy with the sub-optimal situation of throwing herself across three different locations: her constituency, London and New York, and who has every possible opportunity to make a small change to fix it.

The fact is that anyone with options, determination and self-belief will simply step over obstacles in the way of optimal life satisfaction. The trick for employers is to make their offering the most attractive, with the least number of obstacles.

Lord Tebbitt. Being MP of Corby probably was ‘just a job’ and one that she was very good at when she brought her party to victory. A life in Politics does not have the appeal it once did, ambivalence is rife as a result of what has gone before.

As for loyalty, Iain, Mensch loyally called out that Cameron had done everything in his power as an employer to help her. As a 'Leading Political Commentator', why don’t you call upon Cameron to focus on the power of his own leadership to drive greater passion and numbers to his party to solve such retention and succession issues.

And Damian, Louise doesn’t have to convince anyone of anything. The facts are there. She didn’t ‘flounce’ out. She gathered her kids, got on a First Class flight to New York to live with the manager of the world’s coolest band where, undoubtedly, she will knock her latest endeavour out of the park.

Jealousy is a terrible thing and all three Telegraph blogs smack of ‘if you can’t join them, beat them.’

Next…

A generation inspired or intimidated?

Suzanne Collins Hunger Games Trilogy, the story of a futuristic world where a girl and boy are chosen by lottery to fight to the death for the nation’s entertainment, has sold 35 million copies at last count.

The tactical, suspense-filled game of immaculately presented cat and mouse, with a ferocious hunt to the line for an earth-shattering finale very much came to mind as I watched the ladies cycling sprint final.   Add to the tension an audio-visual feast of high-definition race graphics, immaculate athletes introduced to the audience via mini-montage to the accompaniment of the futuristic chimes of the Chemical Brothers, and I felt that I was truly getting a glimpse of the future. 

The future of British sport is a Dave Brailsford (Performance Director for GB Cycling) world, where a simple formula is employed to devastating effect:  talent + commitment + coaching + research and development + attention to detail = high performance.   To see Victoria Pendleton fully clad in her armour moments before the ladies sprint final is to look at the face of Medusa. Terrifying and fatal.

Despite our epic success at London 2012, in Brailsford’s own words: “we need to work on the link between inspiration and participation.” Undoubtedly these Games have dangled the carrot of celebrity and immense personal satisfaction to the masses, but they have also re-fortified the barrier of the physiological and material pre-requisites needed to win, and the crushing implications of failure. 

Rather than inspired, are Britain’s future greats, who are perhaps a little shorter than they should be, or a little over 25, or don’t live in Manchester, or own nothing but a pair of plimsolls, entirely intimidated?  To inspire the masses to participate, it is crucial to not extinguish the flicker of greatness with over-bearing pre-requisite.

As well as our stellar medal count, I will be telling my kids about the Afghantistan woman Tahmina Kohistani , who I witnessed run the 100 metres wearing a full habib, come last in her heat, but with a lifetime best, “I am here to begin a new era for the women of Afghanistan to show people that ..There is no difference between us”.  About the double amputee Oscar Pistorius, the first to compete at the Olympics and Paralympics,  who raced to the 400 metre semi-final.  About the 54 year old Nick Skelton who jumped a faultless round in the team showjumping for gold, following hip replacement and a broken neck.

These are the athletes who inspire me to put my running shoes on. To believe that at 33, 5’4”, and parent of 2, magic may still one day happen.  Because if I don’t believe that, let alone if I let my children believe it, what would be the point of turning up at all?

What's your time horizon?

Professor Kay of the London School of Economics last week published his report, "The Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision Making".  The 'probe' into the financial sector was intended to consider the extent to which the UK equity market is excessively focused on short-term outcomes, to the detriment of its 'core role' in facilitating investment and enabling long-term profitability and growth.

What relevance to you in your quest for greater life satisfaction, other than the obvious hits that your savings are likely to have taken?

Think of your life satisfaction as the primary asset of Life Satisfaction Ltd of which you are the boss, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  Following one of our earlier concepts, 'CEO of You', you are also the major shareholder hoping to maximise your return from Life Satisfaction Ltd's success. 

So, let's play in today's equity market.

Kay's critique of the UK equity markets is that in an increasingly unstable and complex market, the trust and confidence in delivering a long term financial benefit has been replaced with the desire for short term gain.  Added to this is the fact that the value of the company is increasingly affected by what other's think of it, driving further short term impulsive action.

In essence, all those involved in the company are taking quicker decisions on how to maximise their asset value today based on insufficient consideration of a long term trends, combined with a concern as to what others are thinking,  at the expense of delivering a long term benefit.

Maybe we can understand after all how the equity fund managers and the country's best CEO's have got us to where we are.

At Professor Kay's report presentation, he stated: "This isn’t – let’s emphasise – because people are not trying to do the right thing, as they see it. It is because they are responding to the incentives created by the environment in which they operate."

So, how to assess the value of your life satisfaction asset, and how to incentivise yourself to a longer term view?

There are two bases for asset valuation:
1. The value of cash and earnings that it will generate over its life - if you were to invest in it
2. What someone else is willing to pay for that asset - if you were to trade it

Both bases play a part when looking to maximise your life satisfaction. Certainly it is worth focusing on the value of life satisfaction over as long a term as feasible. Giving up work to spend time with your children may not be the best strategy in optimising life satisfaction when considering a 15 year time horizon. Pursuing that promotion at the expense of your health will not be the best strategy over the same period. The aim here is sustainability.

How can you sustainably deliver a high value of life satisfaction over your lifetime?  If you are eco minded, you may even consider extending to consideration of your future generations. Incentivise yourself to meet the targets that you set for yourself across your Life Scorecard over time, not just one component today.

It's also worth considering what you would trade your life satisfaction for. Get to the point that you wouldn't want to trade your life for anyone's and you know you are on to a winner.