Life is all about growth, but we live in a world with a near-incalculable (i.e., how many bottom of the ocean?) number of organisms on it, all competing for growth-enabling resources. Trees compete for sunlight, animals compete over food and water, and some animals have to eat others to survive. Naturally, it would seem that the fight-for-your-li...
Read MorePossibly the most surprising, amazing, and contentious finding in the last 20 years of the study of neuroscience is the idea that the brain’s decisions might be made up to 10 seconds before person is consciously aware of it. The most famous popular psychology assertion on the topic of free will comes from Sam Harris, who stated that free will is an...
Read More“Happiness is a choice.” If you’ve ever listened to a self-help guru or optimistic person, you’ll have heard this statement. Many respond with, “Easy for you to say…you have ______. If I had that, I’d be happy, too,” or its opposite, “But you don’t have _______. If you had that, you wouldn’t be happy, either.” To many, happiness seems to be a matte...
Read MoreEvery well-adjusted person wants to be viewed as a good person. “Good” in this case means ethical. Everyone follows rules to live their lives optimally, and ethics are rules to follow when other people are involved to maximize your own growth while minimizing any harm done to anyone else in the process. But is that enough to find meaning and fulfil...
Read MoreAnyone who’s ever taken an introductory Psychology class knows Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The hierarchy reviews the order of priority of needs for humans’ growth. At the base is biological needs such as food and water. Without having those basic needs met, no organism will be able to survive for long. The second level is safety—again, this is abo...
Read MoreWhere do we come from? How did we get here? What happens when we die? Where do we go? These are a few of people’s big questions about how reality works. They are interesting philosophical questions, and, unfortunately, they are ones that I cannot answer definitively because I only speak about things that can be scientifically proven in my book and...
Read MoreEven in a world where you have almost no control over your life, you control what you focus your attention on. This is one of your most powerful abilities to choose how your life unfolds. Two of my favorite examples of this are: In the first example, the advice is sound: if you are looking at something and it displeases you, you can just look away...
Read MoreAn exploration of your motivation As an Executive Advisor, I’ve helped business leaders for years present their strategies to other leaders and to their teams. Their biggest issue was always around getting their audience to acknowledge and support the points they were making and the actions that they were proposing. In presenting to these audienc...
Read More“Honesty is the best policy.” “Always tell the truth; that way, there’s less to remember.” Everyone spouts the benefits and importance of honesty. But is it really ethical to be open and honest all the time? No, no it’s not. Let me explain. There are two factors at play in this: ethics and emotions. Ethics are rules you follow to minimize har...
Read MoreThere is a trend today that people not-so-affectionately call the “oppression Olympics” where people compete to see who can claim the most victimhood so that they achieve certain benefits such as more power, influence, and control over how others behave in relation to them (full disclosure: I come from a poor background and am guilty of trying to o...
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