his 2003 book The Breakout Principle. In it, Benson mapped out the four stages of any flow experience. Stage 1, Benson discovered, is struggle. It could be physical or mental, like running a marathon or climbing a hill, playing chess, solving a complex problem, or creating a presentation. Stage 2 is release from that struggle. This happens at the

coming back should be as important as the going in the first place. This is the return, when you, the hero, have been on a road of trials and are now bringing the reward back into the old world, so that it can become new. In terms of a holiday, once again, this is the time to reflect on what you’ve seen and learned, who you’ve met, how they’ve made

The solution they came up with was something so simple it’ll make you wonder why no one had thought of it before – the first safety checklist – and it worked. Using the checklist, the Flying Fortress bomber would be flown for 1.8 million miles with not a single accident from ‘pilot error’. It would go on to help the Allies win the Second World War,

It didn’t matter how long people went away for, whether they went for four days or a fortnight, they still got the same amount of happiness from their holidays.

The man in hole shape is also, so psychologists have discovered, the one most likely to lead to personal happiness. Studies in narrative psychology have found that there are two distinct types of personal narratives that people tell, and that these stories follow two very different ‘emotional sequences’. In one, the story begins with an event that

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 = no change at all and 10 = drastic and complete change, by how much have your ideas, beliefs and preferences changed in the past ten years? On the same scale of 1 to 10, by how much do you expect your ideas, beliefs and preferences to change in the next ten years? If you’re like most other people, including me,

Then, if you’ve time and inclination, you could follow all seven branches: S: Will this experience give you a story to tell others, or that tells you who you are? T: Will it help you develop, grow, transform? O: Will you be outside and offline? R: Will it bring you closer to others, and enhance your relationships? I: Will it be intense, and launch

The Checklist Manifesto.

And anyway, what would you change? Where are you compromised right now? Are you on autopilot, going with the flow of what you’ve always done or was expected of you? Are you still playing a sport or following a hobby you’ve fallen out of love with? Are you hanging out with friends who, truth be told, you’ve had enough of? Are you trudging down a