It looks as if the UK military are catching up with the US marines. According to the Sunday Times, senior military personnel are being taught “happiness” lessons and meditation.
The inverted commas indicate that there is still a fair amount of scepticism about it, from the journalists at least. Which seems to contrast with what was said in a similar article about the Marines a few months ago. But it does seem that happiness, mindfulness etc. are being seen as realistic ways to improve performance by the Western world’s military.
So I’m quite please by the fact that Taming the Pound (which went to the publishers over three years ago) has as a key point happiness. And it covers mindfulness as a viable way of making better decisions, defining priorities that really matter and dealing with the pressure of life without getting pushed into debt, short term thinking and risk-taking. As I mentioned in a post a while ago.
I’m wondering if I was really prophetic. I did suggest that we ought to teach this stuff in schools, and that financial “experts”, like bankers (and the economists who advise on the National economy) ought to have to learn it as well.
Maybe that will happen – it really will be a strange world if education and finance (that are thought to go for experiments – often bizarre ones) stay rooted in the 19th and 20th century while the military (notorious for conservatism, tradition and clinging to the past) move into the 21st.
Maybe I’m winning and the powers that be in finance, Government and education will actually begin to adopt methods that work – wouldn’t that be great.
