According to Rory Sutherland, 6 million pounds was used to reduce the journey time between Paris and London by 40 minutes. He argues that with 0.01% of this money you could have put WiFi on the trains and people will think the journey is shorter.
His position is that we overemphasize reality and forget perception. He says the problem with waiting is not the length but the uncertainty of it. People would rather wait 9 minutes for a vehicle they are sure will be there in 9 minutes than 5 minutes for a vehicle they were not sure would come in 5 minutes. This is why Uber is big business. You can see the driver coming and the time it would take him. You prefer to wait than to call up the cabman that MAY be with you in less time.
If you put the traffic counter down on the blue light, you are telling drivers “you have just 10 seconds to quickly pass this light or you have to wait for an unknown time”. And this leads to more accidents. If you put the same countdown on the red light, you are telling drivers “you have just 10 seconds to wait then you are free to go” or “after 10 seconds you can SURELY go”
The latter reduced accidents. While the former cause more accidents. Because perception is important.
The way to make someone take 30 pills, he says, is not to hand him 30 white pills. Give him 21 white pills and 9 blue pills. Then say “after taking the white bills then take the blue pills.” Before he reaches the blue pills, the blue pills will motivate him. When he reaches it he will realise he has taken 22 pills why not just take the remaining 8. Perception can drive life.
Those of you that drive know your car appears to drive better when it is washed. I was just telling a brother some days back when my car was giving us a headache. The car was also very dirty because of the flood the day before. I told him to let us go and wash the car, there is something about a clean car that helps. It is perception and it works.
There are more examples but the point I want to make is that your happiness is your decision.
It is your perception. If you choose to be happy, you will be happy. If you choose to find reasons to be happy you will see them. If you choose to be sad you will be sad, if you choose to find reasons to be sad you will see them. It is all your perception and you can choose it or change some SMALL things that will change it for the better.
My car fell in a hole inside water and I paid to bring it out. It was traumatic because my daughter was inside the car when it happened and since then the car does not drive well.
How did I see it? “Ma shaa Allah, this will push me to get a better car. I may have been lazy because this one is still drivable. When it pack up I will have to get another one”. So the incident was good to me because I choose to see it that way, I didn’t concentrate on the fact that I actually can’t avoid any other car for now; I choose my reality.
When COVID19 stroke I said thank God my mother has since left this world. I can’t imagine her going through this fear and anxiety. Whereas some will even say in this fear and anxiety I wish I could speak to my sweet mother but she is no more. And you wonder why you are sad when this is how you think?
Learn to bring out the bright side. It cost you nothing. The only thing you will lose is sadness.
English 
