Habits and Happiness 14: Success is always relative

I think it ‘s an old Woody Allen joke that "success is always relative but unfortunately the relative who is more succesful than you is your Brother In law". Anyway in my thought for the day way, I am thinking about what that means. First off all some encouragement for England they are relatively not that bad, and secondly if you want to find a comparator to make you feel better it’s not difficult,. that’s the idea behind a new UK TV programme called Fat World (or something) where enormous Brits are sent abroad to see what they might look like if they lived in say the US. There they meet a monstrously obese person whose life is so constrained they are effectively merged with their bed. Now I often get down looking at my gut but I feel good compared to the UK fatties as I know however glacially I am losing weight I am not putting away more pies than a Scottish Cup Final. Now it shouldn’t make me feel complacent but it’s good to benchmark yourself now and again against the best and worst. I can make the Men’s Heath mannequins and the emo twigboys in the health club look good and the UK’s fattest kebab guzzler can make me feel good. In our work and personal lives we can get het up comparing and contrasting ourselves with the best but sometimes when we compare ourselves with the worst we can find some solace.

The football point here is that England shouldn't feel too bad about their poor results as better teams have had worse ones and they are not North Korea!. Their real problems will start when they qualify for the next stages. Off to Keele for our Centres conference tomorrow where we roll out our new suite of academic programmes and membership routes . It’s also a chance to spend time with the academics who deliver our material and who are a major part of our success. I’ll also be cheering on England and no doubt being slagged off for it by a few fellow Celts!