Do you have a bad habit that you wish you could kick? Maybe you smoke, drink, eat, gamble, or self-gratify too much? What is causing that, and what can you do about it? Before explaining the causes and what you can do, I have to preface this post with the fact that there are dozens and dozens of techniques to eliminate bad habits. Professionals...
Read MoreWhat is success? Is it what most people think it is: fame, money, social status, and an enviable job? Well, it can be. But, obviously, life success is for you to determine. There are plenty of people who, to quote Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction, “walk the Earth” and live fulfilling lives. There are plenty of other people who work...
Read MoreYou know the cliché 80s montages, right? The one where the protagonist has an urgent goal, a burning desire, and the belief that, with enough work, they can succeed. So they buckle down and put in the work until they are ready, at which point the day of the text or competition arrives and they succeed. Audiences love those kinds of movies because...
Read MoreCivilized society is an interesting concept. Social animals thrive by cooperating with each other for everyone’s benefit. Foundational ethical behaviors include not harming each other, protecting each other, and helping each other. Then, there are social norms, such as wearing clothing, saying, “Hello,” to people you know when you see them, and...
Read MoreIt’s the most famous ethic in all of human history and the one that guides good decision making when interacting with others in most situations: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Also known as the Golden Rule, it is a moral foundation for interacting with other
Read MoreI went to the gym about a month and a half ago and forgot my key card to scan in. For years, I have simply walked up to the counter, smiled, scanned my card, and walked into the locker room to put my back in a locker. One of the ladies at the counter said, “It’s okay, you can go in.” A month and a half later, I am waving and saying, “Hello,”...
Read MoreA big question on the internet—especially between the religious and atheist communities—is where morality comes from. The debate stems from the fact that the former think that you need religion/God to have morality and the latter think it comes from not wanting to hurt people. But, from my research for the book, The Meaning of Life: A guide to...
Read MoreLife is full of cycles, opposites, complements, and balance. The Earth revolves around the Sun, the Moon revolves around the Earth, and the Earth rotates to create a day-and-night cycle that many animals have evolved to set their periods of activity and rest to. There are also complements in nature such as men and women, sunshine and rain, effort...
Read MoreWe are a social species. The evolution of life led to cooperative organisms because the life forms that worked to deliberately help each other and not hurt them were more likely to survive. But you can't just have organisms behave like that randomly; for the behavior to occur regularly, there has to be an incentive to do
Read MorePeople worked for thousands of years to build up society so that the average person's life is easier and easier. Microwaves, sedentary jobs, air conditioning, and similar modern conveniences have made it so that life is safer and easier to manage than ever before. While this is mostly a good thing, it does create one huge issue: people's lives...
Read More