Cats are in possession of nothing less than the secret of how to live - and this owner has decided to share how to live like your feline

Some days, you don’t feel like going to work, watching the news, taking every catastrophe to heart or even caring about your own future.

You don’t feel like having an opinion on the government’s latest reforms which make you gnash your teeth, any more than you feel like worrying over your career trajectory, or knowing if you’ll have much of a pension by the time you retire.

You don’t want to be constantly plagued by your own personal problems, which are themselves linked to those of your family and friends, and you don’t want to fret about the quality of your diet, or feel guilty for ‘destroying the planet’ every time you draw a bath.

You long to switch off and unplug from it all, just for a day, just for a moment, and breathe.

I look round to see that Ziggy, my cat, has padded silently into my study. He stares at me, blinking, then leaps onto my desk and lies down on the keyboard.

It’s a little ritual that we’ve had for years now, stretching back to when I still did much of my writing in longhand and he used to bite the cap of my pen. It makes me laugh, this game we play.

It’s as if on the one hand he loves that I write, but on the other hand he does all he can to prevent me writing. Up until this moment, I considered his soft pawing at me, his comings and goings between my lap and the keyboard, to be nothing more than affectionate games.

But perhaps he’s been trying to tell me something else all these years, something as simple as: ‘Hey, don’t you feel like downing tools for the day?’ Down tools.

As he nuzzles his nose into my neck, I realise that, today, I don’t care if I’ll be able to pay the bills, or whether the stock market is about to crash. After all, does he care?

Maybe this is the secret he’s been wanting to communicate all this time: know how to let go, focus on the essentials, think about your wellbeing, be like him. Live like your cat! Cats clearly live much better than we do. So why not follow their example?

This I did, by decoding how they operate, their aspirations and lifestyle. It had been there right in front of me, all these years, without me realising.

We have everything to learn from cats, in both our personal and our professional lives. I invite you to discover their simple secrets, so you can take a step back from your everyday, fi nd your wellbeing again, and smile. But what do cats do right? How should we take inspiration from them? From this day forward, imagine another way of viewing life, by living like your cat.

Your friend the cat

Cats have fascinated us since time immemorial. We have observed them and attempted to understand their strengths, their qualities, their behaviours, their habits and their compulsions.

There is a kind of magic in their ability to live serenely and to be happy – assets that cats naturally possess, and which we can certainly use in our everyday lives, both personal and professional.

Cats follow a philosophy of life that could be summed up in a few words: eat, play, sleep, look out for their comfort, and do only that which pleases them. That’s already a lot compared with us. But there is much more, as you will see.

Cats have a lifestyle that allows them to live without stress, for cats have a single priority: their wellbeing.

By bringing ourselves closer to their way of living, we can open up a fresh perspective, a new world view, while gaining a different, deeper understanding of ourselves. So welcome to the cats’ world view, their thoughts and their philosophy. Learn to appreciate life as they do

Your cat knows what it wants and how to get it

Cats don’t beat about the bush when they want something from you; they will pester you until they get what they want. Cats are demanding, and you can’t dupe them with a new brand of kibble if they’re not crazy about it.

At best, your cat will sulk, or knock over the bowl, and you’ll be forced to put the new pack away in the cupboard and go out and buy the usual brand.

Your cat knows what it wants and will stick to its guns. By the same token, you will never be able to force your cat to come in at night if it’s strolling about or happily ensconced in a flowerbed two feet away from you. Cat.

Cats are excellent hunters, and when they are pursuing their prey nothing can distract them from their objective. This stubborn obstinacy is the cat’s great quality. Cats always know what they want. There’s no point even trying to negotiate.

How often should we ourselves have to make compromises according to some external factor? There’s a saying that goes: ‘I don’t really know what I want, but at least I know what I don’t want.’

I only half-like this saying, which often serves to cover up true desires which we sweep under the carpet, not believing ourselves capable of attaining them.

‘What do you really want?’ is a question that we should all ask ourselves regularly and with the utmost honesty. All too often we end up settling for what our friends and family ‘want’ or ‘expect’ of us, rather than what we ‘believe’ we are made for.

We forget the motivations and desires that truly drive us. ‘What do you really want?’ Cats know exactly what they want, and spend their whole life focused on that alone. Knowing what you want is one thing. The second step is to give yourself the means to achieve it, to be demanding and direct in your aspirations. Don’t beat about the bush.

This mania we all have, to a greater or lesser extent, of avoiding saying exactly what we wish to say or clearly asking for what we want, is exhausting in more ways than one.

Be straightforward. Don’t be scared to call a spade a spade, to tackle subjects directly, to tell the truth as it appears, and to state explicitly what you desire.

Be direct, and you’ll save both time and energy. Finally, although cats know what they want, they do more than merely demand it through their attitude or behaviour (at least we humans are fortunate to have the power of speech): they act.

Be direct, ask. ‘I want, I can, I do!’ should become as natural for you as proud whiskers are for a cat.

Examples of cat behaviour...

• CHARISMA: The cat’s biggest lesson is that if you wish to acquire a little more animality and charisma, simply be. Don’t hide, don’t lie to yourself, don’t play a role, don’t whirl your arms about in an attempt to mesmerise the present company. Do nothing, that’s all. Radiate your personality as if you were a transmitter, a light source. Don’t waffle on during a discussion; don’t hog the floor just to blow your own trumpet, you’ll only bore your audience.

• CALM: Your cat does not cultivate stress once a situation, or danger, has passed, been avoided or dealt with. Your cat seems to let go of whatever was bothering it – disposing of any residual intellectual traces – as if the event had never occurred. That is perhaps your cat’s greatest strength, and one of the keys to its majestic calm.

• ASSERTIVESS: Cats takes the space that is their due, without crushing their neighbour, but they do not tolerate any encroachment on that space. They assert themselves quietly. They don’t play the tyrant, but neither do they accept a walk-on part.

• PUTTING YOURSELF FIRST: Cats devote most of their lives to ensuring their own well-being. And in order to do that, you sometimes have to know how to be a little selfish and think only about yourself. That doesn’t mean being a navel-gazer, narcissist or egocentric, but giving yourself permission to place your personal well-being above that of others at times.

• SELF ACCEPTANCE: Your cat has the intelligence not to lumber itself with a bogus question that is liable to promote endless sterile ruminations. Consequently, your cat loves itself for itself, for what it is, and is therefore happy. Knowing how to accept yourself shouldn’t be complicated once you adopt the attitude of your cat, who considers itself to be great just as it is .

• BEING IMPENETRABLE TO JUDGEMENT: Cats are independent, solitary characters. On the rare occasions they attach themselves to humans or to other animals, it is by choice and with discernment. This means that quite naturally – and with not a little pleasure – they ignore what other people think of them, something that we humans tend to accord far too much importance to. Cats don’t have this need to be loved, appreciated, admired and at the very least accepted by ‘other people’. Cats simply are. Th eir own view of themselves is all that matters.

• DELEGATION: It’s a well-known fact that a cat does nothing, and spends its time being served by others. The cat is king or queen of all it surveys. You don’t have to copy this royal and dominating attitude to the letter, but neither should you be everyone’s gopher, always at your family’s service. Meeting every expectation, whim and desire of your kids or your partner doesn’t make for the most restful existence. Learn to be served like your cat, and start by delegating the little everyday tasks.

• CHOOSING YOUR OWN COMPANY: Choose, as your cat does. It’s the simplest option. Choose who you hang out with, who you love, and who you wish to spend your life with. The cat who has chosen you will first have tested your affection, your personality and your loyalty. If this cat feels you to be essential to its current and future life, it will love you and remain loyal to you, out of choice. Life is too short to share it with idiots. Stop putting up with morons, choose your company, choose your friends.

Extracted from How To Live Like Your Cat by Stéphane Garnier (translated by Roland Glasser) is published by 4 Estate, out now .