Critical thinking is an invaluable tool for testing information and determining what might be true as you make a decision or take an action in the real world. For example, you might be looking for a toaster on the internet and see one that is highly rated. Critical thinking would prompt you to ask yourself, “Is this really the best toaster, or is...
Read More“If I only had _______, then I would truly live my life to the fullest.” More money. A degree. When your kids are older. If only you didn’t have that one thing in your way, you would truly be your true self and live your true life. There’s another saying, though: “It’s always something…” So what is holding you back in life, and what is it holding...
Read MoreMost people know that you need to want something badly enough to drive forward and believe in yourself enough to continue through adversity. It is the main reason why people say, “Believe in yourself!” and, “It all comes down to who wants it more!” when trying to motivate people toward their goals. Many life philosophies, such as the Law of...
Read MoreEstablishing rules for life is pretty straightforward: to avoid harm to yourself or others, don’t do x, y, and z. To thrive, do a, b, and c. It seems simple, right? However, there is one problem: what happens if you agree with others on the rules and then they break them? This one seems simpler than it is: punish them in a way that is...
Read MoreLife 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...
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