Knowing how to make choices of an economic, political and personal nature is very important in our lives since we can get good or bad results as a result of our decisions. As authors of our own history, we reap what we sow. Our decisions will be greatly compromised if they are made on the basis of our impulses. There must be rationality in our choices.

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HOW TO MAKE RATIONAL CHOICES IN SEARCH OF SUCCESS AND
HAPPINESS IN LIFE
Fernando Alcoforado*
Knowing how to make choices of an economic, political and personal nature is very
important in our lives since we can get good or bad results as a result of our decisions.
As authors of our own history, we reap what we sow. Our decisions will be greatly
compromised if they are made on the basis of our impulses. There must be rationality in
our choices. The theory of rational choice was born in the area of economics trying to
explain how people should make their decisions. This approach was then used in
psychology, political science, and sociology, seeking to explain the mechanisms by
which people choose some options and discard others. According to this theory, people
always choose those options that imply less cost and greater benefit. All choices we
make in life are made for the purpose of benefiting us from the decision taken from an
individual, collective, or both perspective. The choice would be good if we achieved the
desired benefits and would be bad if the reverse were true.
It is assumed that a person acts rationally by considering available information,
probabilities of events and potential costs and benefits in determining preferences, and
consistently pursues the best choice in their political and economic decision-making. In
general, the rational decision in the political and economic fields involves compliance
with nine steps to be considered by the decision maker: 1) Objectives to be pursued:
what is intended to be achieved; 2) Alternatives to action: alternative paths to the
achievement of objectives; 3) Preferences: subjective and / or objectives criteria used in
the selection of alternatives; 4) Strategies: course of action for each selected alternative
aiming at achieving the objectives considering the resources available; 5) Scenarios:
Probable futures for the selected action alternatives considering the risk and uncertainty
associated with each selected action alternative; 6) Results: degree of success of each
alternative in achieving the objectives; 7) Evaluation with the comparison between the
alternatives of action and its results; 8) Choice of the best alternative; and, 9)
Implementation of the chosen alternative.
Choices of economic nature are those that involve decision making, for example, about
individual, corporate and public investments. Rationality in choices of an economic
nature requires that whoever decides about investments should be thoroughly
knowledgeable about the subject matter of decision and should have all the information
necessary to make the decision to make the best choice according to the criteria
presented above. In addition to being qualified to make the most appropriate choice of
economic nature, it is crucial that whoever decides to have information about the past
and the present and the prospective about the expected results in the future. In decisions
of an economic nature, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the alternatives considered
and to choose the one that provides the best result.
Choices of a political nature are those involving decision-making, for example, about
the election of President of the Republic, Governors, Mayors, State and Federal
Deputies, and Aldermen. Rationality in political choices requires that the citizen has a
culture or knowledge of economics, history, philosophy and political science and that he
has all the necessary information about the proposals of the candidates for elective
positions to make the best choice according to his objectives personal and / or of the
collectivity. In decisions of a political nature, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the

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alternatives considered and to choose the one that provides the best result from a
personal and / or collective point of view.
Choices of a personal nature are those that involve decision making, for example, about
the profession to be exercised, about the organization where to work, about the city or
country where to live, and especially with who to build a family and how to achieve
happiness. It could also be considered for personal decisions about the profession to be
exercised, about the organization where to work and about the city or country where to
live the same criteria to be adopted in the decisions of a political and economic nature
described above. Rationality in personal choices about the profession requires that
people has all the necessary information about the best professions of the future from
the point of view of the labor market with its respective remunerations and that the
alternatives considered are evaluated and that will be chosen one which provides the
best result from a personal point of view. Rationality in personal choices about the
organization where to work requires that who take the decision have all the necessary
information about the best organizations in the country or abroad where he or she can
work and that choose the one that delivers the best result from a personal point of view.
Rationality in personal choices about the best cities or countries to live in requires that
people have all the necessary information about the best alternatives that, after
evaluation, is chosen one that offers the best result from a personal point of view.
However, the rationality in choosing whom to build a family on the basis of the criteria
described above is a difficult challenge for a passionate couple acting generally on
impulse. The rational criterion for the couple to decide whether or not to marry is for
both to have an experience of living together for the time necessary to have mutual
knowledge. From the reciprocal knowledge of the couple, one can identify if there is
convergence in their conceptions of the world, if there is convergence between their
goals in life and if both are satisfied sexually. These are the determining factors of
success in the continuity of a couple's relationship. Success in setting up a family with
the choice of the ideal partner is an important step in achieving individual happiness
that would be more complete with the success that is achieved in the decisions of the
couple in the political field with the successful choices of rulers and representatives in
parliaments and with the successful choices in the economic field that provide them
with financial stability.
For our Greek ancestors and philosophers, the pursuit of happiness should be the central
motor of our life. Happiness itself results from our choices, and to make better decisions
many of us choose to follow guidelines, be they scientific, philosophical, or religious.
Individual happiness is achieved through self-education. Education is the means through
which people would be empowered to make the best choices in life. Education must be
supplemented by Positive Psychology on the basis of which it is possible to do
something more than solve or alleviate psychological disturbances, that is, it intends to
make us happy. Positive Psychology works harder with the weaknesses of the human
being, more the pursuit of happiness than the study of mental illness. Positive
Psychology is the medium through which people would conquer individual or collective
happiness (community, region, country), which is ultimately the main goal that guides
the choice of people in life. In short, while Education would act to empower people to
make the best choices in life, Positive Psychology would show the ways to achieve
happiness.

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The dominant thought is that the main role of Education is to prepare people well for
the job market. Another thought is that education has as its primary purpose to develop
a critical sense. The purpose of education should therefore be to enable the individual to
acquire skills, to develop a critical sense, to take advantage of the scientific and cultural
heritage historically constructed by mankind, but, above all, to be an instrument to
promote happiness. One of the purposes of Education, perhaps the most important one,
is to offer people opportunities and means to be happier. The world is waiting for a
revolution in education that has as its main objective to provide the conditions for the
achievement of the happiness of human beings.
To be happy, the individual must seek self-knowledge, including with the help of the
psychologist. Happiness is an achievement that is achieved through self-education. And
she will never be found out. To be happy, the individual must therefore rely on
Education and Positive Psychology. Explaining what kind of projects actually make
people happy, and what kinds of attitudes lead to happiness, or make it impossible, is
the object of Positive Psychology which, as a descriptive and non-normative discipline,
it merely records what actually makes people happy. Positive Psychology explores the
importance of knowing how to properly interpret the world and ourselves. Some of the
unhappiness of individuals results from wrong ways of interpreting things. What
happens is that in certain situations we become unhappy because we enter into a self-
destructive spiral of subtly wrong thoughts about ourselves and the other thoughts that
depress us more and more. To be able to detect and neutralize these thoughts,
recognizing that they are simply exaggerations and misinterpretations of things, is a
fundamental step for happiness, according to Positive Psychology (LOPES, Paulo.
Psicologia Positiva. Matrix Editora, 2017).
The purpose of life is not to satisfy one's desires in order to be happy, but just what each
of us has to give to the world. Happiness must be shared. Like many other species,
humans are gregarious and having bonds of trust and friendship with other people is an
important part of happiness. Regrettably, we live in an age of private and subjective life,
for the exacerbated individualism erected as an absolute value. Without broader
concerns, which go beyond the immediate borders of self, family and close friends, one
can hardly be genuinely happy. Happiness, after all, does not really come from the
inside - it also comes from donation to the world.
Individual happiness will not be realized without the collective happiness of the nation
that can only result from the political will of its leaders and its population. In antiquity,
philosophers regarded happiness as a matter related to politics. It was the United States
Constitution, which dates from 1787, which included the pursuit of happiness among
human rights, based on philosophical reflections that originate in the thought of David
Hume and Enlightenment ideas. Bertrand Russell has made it clear that "happiness
should always be considered as a good pursued by everybody" (RUSSELL, Bertrand. A
Conquista da Felicidade. Rio: Editora Nova Fronteira, 2015). This means that
individual happiness is not achieved without the realization of collective happiness.
In all times, the achievement of happiness has been an objective pursued by all human
beings. Some human beings seek selfishly to conquer their individual happiness and
others to individual happiness alongside collective happiness in all ages. Our vision is
that individual happiness would be achieved when the person could achieve their desire,
such as having a healthy life, forming a supportive family, having resources that

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guarantee their social and family ascension, being surrounded by true friends, to be
loved by husband or wife, to be recognized for the good he or she accomplishes in the
world of work and society as a citizen and to live in a well-structured progressive and
democratic society. Collective happiness could be achieved when human beings who
are part of a local, regional and global community were able to fulfill their desires living
in a well-structured and progressive democratic society that would provide them with
the conditions for the development of all fellow citizens. It is necessary to build a world
that will end the sadness in life and build happiness for all human beings.
An excellent example of countries that have traced the path of collective happiness of
their nations is the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and
Iceland). The UN World Happiness Report 2013 shows that the world's happiest nations
are concentrated in Northern Europe, with Denmark at the top of the list. The Nordics
have the highest ranking in real GDP per capita, the highest healthy life expectancy, the
greater freedom to make choices in life and the greatest generosity. Scandinavia is the
cradle of the most egalitarian model the world has ever known. The so-called
Scandinavian model is an important reference in the formulation of heterodox
(progressive) economic policies across the globe. The success of this model was due to
the combination of a broad welfare state with rigid mechanisms of regulation of market
forces, capable of putting the economy in a dynamic trajectory, at the same time that it
reached the best indicators of well-being between the countries of the world.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 78, holder of the CONFEA / CREA System Medal of Merit, member of the Bahia
Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the
University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business
planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of 14 books addressing issues
such as Globalization and Development, Brazilian Economy, Global Warming and Climate Change, The
Factors that Condition Economic and Social Development, Energy in the world and The Great Scientific,
Economic, and Social Revolutions that Changed the World.