What would you say to someone who told you that the key to happiness was sitting right under your nose, and that it had always been there? When the author of this book, Théun Mares, first told me that, I felt somewhat frustrated and disappointed. Nevertheless, I decided to humour him and not say anything at all in the hope that he would in time reveal the real secrets. Meanwhile, I carried on my search for happiness, with my eyes firmly fixed on the horizon. However, like the horizon, happiness kept moving back with each step forward that I took.

Luckily for me, I happen also to be a student of Théun's, as well as his editor, and since I could see that he did not appear to struggle at all with being happy in his life, I decided to start to take notice of what he had been telling me. Nevertheless, it took a while before I was able to see the truth in what he had said. It seems that this is a common problem, because we have an acquired tendency to discount the obvious and the commonplace, and instead to reach for complicated answers. In our rush for technological and academic achievement, we have become too "clever" for our own good and we tend to rationalize more and more about life, with the result that true happiness slips through our fingers.

Through working and studying with Théun I have developed the guiding principle now that one does not need to have any academic qualifications at all in order to understand how to live and how to get the most out of life. The keys to life and to happiness have to be within the reach and the abilities of even the simplest person, otherwise there would be no point to life. Therefore, rather than acquiring new tricks, the secret is to discard an enormous amount of what we have been taught about life. However, even though the keys to happiness may be simple, this does not mean that they are easy. In fact, putting them into practice is often fiendishly difficult, as there always seems to be a gap between what we know we should do and the habits of a lifetime.

What I have discovered in my association with Théun is that although there are no quick fixes on the path to happiness, once we make a decision to start on our journey, with a few tools in our pocket, life is never the same. Sometimes we fly, sometimes we crash, but we travel under our own power, and that's what gives life a new dimension of exhilaration, of excitement. To develop the confidence and the belief in oneself to say "Yes! I did it all my own way", is, for me, what makes every day different and worthwhile. The effect of this is that whether it is sunny or cloudy, you learn to make your own weather.

Over time, I have found that the principles explained in this book have lead me to a different understanding of the meaning of happiness. I have learned that happiness, far from being on the horizon, is all around us - it just needs to be grasped consciously. It really is as simple, but also as difficult, as making a choice to live, for once one chooses life, one also chooses happiness.

The reason why so many people love watching sport is not so much for the end result, for the victory, but because they want to share, vicariously, in each step of the battle - a battle in which seconds seem to be measured in minutes, as excitement and intensity are locked into focus whilst each side, or player, gives it their all. Similarly, when we choose for happiness and for life, it is the intensity and passion that we generate during each step of our own battles that is remembered. Victories come and go, but what we can get out of each battle is never lost. So, for me, choosing life has turned out to be a very practical affair, which involves learning to be nimble and alert and passionate enough about life to be able to catch hold of that elusive happiness which, in spite of appearances, is always present in each of our encounters, every day of our lives.

I hope that your own voyage of discovery is as exciting and rewarding as it has so far been for me.

Charles Mitchley,
Cape Town