Creating More Meaning in Your Life in 8 Simple Steps

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 29 2020

Instilling your life with a greater sense of meaning and purpose—it sounds like a monumental feat.  Most people think that they have to identify a "moonshot" goal like curing cancer to give their lives significance.  Usually, this process involves some personal or societal judgment as to what is meaningful to pursue.  However, meaning is subjective...

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A Three-Step Approach to Being Present

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 22 2020

I was on the #EverydayHustle Podcast the other day, and Adam Ali asked me a little bit about being present in the moment for people who are showing up but aren’t always present.  Being present is not only important for enjoying your life as it happens, but it's also an important part of maintaining emotional and psychological well-being.

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What the 37% Rule Can Tell You About Life Decisions

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 15 2020

If you're not familiar with the 37% Rule, it comes from optimal stopping theory in mathematics where decision makers are trying to determine the optimal point at which to stop looking at more options and select from the best they've seen so far.  In brief, it finds that if you have a large number of options to sift through one at a time and can't r...

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Ikigai: A Japanese Philosophy of the Meaning of Life

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 8 2020

Ikigai is a term that roughly translates into "the meaning of life" due to its belief that it originates from words meaning “to live” and “the realization of what one hopes for”.  While this is a word that has many possible interpretation, in this post we're going to break down the two popular ways that people understand/define this concept and wha...

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"Who Am I, and Why Am I Here?"

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 1 2020

In The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life's purpose, I explain in detail how life works and how you can use that information to figure your purpose out for yourself.  However, it doesn't mention another major question, "Who am I?"  Because I wanted to keep the book focused on helping you figure out your journey, I didn't spend any time c...

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5 Examples of How Reciprocity Affects Our Ethics and Behavior

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 24 2020

Reciprocity is one of the three near-universal societal ethics (the others being fairness and minimal harm; they are near-universal since they sometimes conflict with each other).  Reciprocity has evolved in social animals over millions of years—cooperative behavior increases survivability, while anti-social behavior hinders it.  Therefore, groups...

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Self-Loathing Is Never the Answer—Seek to Have a Positive Impact Instead

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 17 2020

There are plenty of times when you might feel so bad about the world that you might want to blame and hate someone for it.  There are plenty of things to be angry or sad about in the world if you look for them.  When it comes to broad issues without a specific perpetrator, though, you might begin to blame yourself as if you had some part in it.  Ma...

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Dare to Be Mediocre

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 10 2020

"Be the best." You hear it all the time. Constantly strive to be the best in anything that you do. But that's not realistic in a broad sense: you can't be the world's greatest chef, baseball player, parent, video game player, driver, singer, and dancer. Quite the contrary, you are constantly balancing everything you do—getting better in one area al...

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5 Incorrect Conclusions About the Meaning of Life

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 3 2020

Because the meaning of life has been asked by billions of people, dozens and dozens of conclusions have been drawn about what it is for them and for society. While meaning is personal and unique to each individual, many people have come to conclusions about what the meaning of life is for all humans or all life on Earth. The Meaning of Life: A guid...

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Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 27 2020

You know the situation: you do everything you're supposed to do, you do everything the right way...and then bad things happen to you. How is that fair? Why do bad things happen to good people? This is a tough one to answer since it requires giving what might seem to be bad news (does that make me the bad thing happening to a good person reading thi...

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