Hitting the Elevator’s “Close Door” Button

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, August 7 2024

There’s a famous story about the elevator buttons that are designated to close the door: many of them don’t do anything. The running joke is that it’s a placebo making riders feel like they have control while also spending the waiting time doing something, thus increasing rider satisfaction but not actually changing the wait

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The Meaning Generation

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 31 2024

Gen Z is often called “The Meaning Generation”. The fact is that there are many factors in the world that influence generational trends: wars, diseases, economic events, and cultural trends. Major world wars led to the name, “The Greatest Generation” followed by “The Baby Boomers”, while the lack of a major defining moment for them is what caused...

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The Process of Elimination Approach to Finding Meaning in Life

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 24 2024

Have you ever asked someone where they wanted to go to eat and they say, “I don’t care,” except when you suggest a place they reject it…over and over and over again? The response you want to shout is, “So you do care?” In other words, they don’t know what they do want, but they seem pretty certain about what they don’t want. Well, you might not...

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Who Controls Your Lock?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 17 2024

The difference between a shelter and a prison is who controls the lock. If you control the lock, you can protect yourself from things and people who could negatively impact your life. If someone else controls the lock, they can keep you from leaving and let anyone inside with you who could do your

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Want to Be Happy? Foster Good Relationships (and Jettison Bad Ones)

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 10 2024

Most people are probably familiar by now the famous hypothetical question, “If you had three wishes, what would you ask for?” with the “trick answer” being, “To be happy.” Because that is what people are ultimately seeking (seek pleasure, avoid pain). John Lennon is credited with telling a story about completing a school assignment where they...

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Ask, Believe, Receive? Or Desire, Believe, Work, Achieve?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 3 2024

I presented my findings on the eight drivers of someone’s sense of meaning and purpose in life, and someone immediately said that they could summarize it all in one idea: The Law of Attraction. Although the statement was incorrect—the Law of Attraction only covers 3-5 drivers at most (desire, belief, emotions, and as a stretch support and choice...

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Principles Behind The Meaning of Life Book

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 26 2024

When anyone writes a book, the first thing to figure out is what the book should be about. The second part is to figure out how to tell the story. When it comes to non-fiction specifically, that entails understanding what information to include, how to convey the information, and what you want the reader to take away from the information. As with...

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Negative Emotional Hacks

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 19 2024

I’ve written several blog posts on the emotional formula that you can use to manage how you feel as effectively as possible: Emotions = Desires + Beliefs + Experiences To summarize, the point of these posts have been to help you identify where your emotions come from and how to change the drivers of those feelings so that you can manage your...

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Trusting Your Feelings vs. Your Feelings Being Honest

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 12 2024

You should always listen to your feelings, and they are always being honest with you. However, you shouldn’t always trust them. How is that possible? Well, your feelings are a combination of your desires, beliefs, and experiences. Your feelings are constantly giving you feedback on all three. For example, if you are about to go skydiving and are...

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Choose to Have Meaning, Happiness, and Love for Yourself

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 5 2024

Choice and control are interesting concepts. There are things within your control and things outside of your control. When you have capability or control, you then have a choice as to what to do. You can go left or right. You can choose to take care of your phone or throw it against the wall for no apparent reason. When you have control, you...

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