Belief

Belief

Don’t Stop Believing

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 30 2024

You might not be taking a midnight train going anywhere, and you might not be a small-town girl or a city boy, but Journey’s message should still resonate with you: don’t stop believing. Everyone talks about the meaning of life as if it’s some great mystery about what they should be doing with their lives, but in doing so they miss the...

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Belief

The Evolution of Beliefs: From Superstitions to Luxury Beliefs

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, September 25 2024

Beliefs are an interesting double-edged sword: they can be beneficial or harmful, depending on the relationship between your beliefs, reality, and your desired outcome. The interesting part about beliefs is that they are complex parts of our psyche and have monumental impacts on our lives. While there is a lot to be said about the topic of...

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Happiness

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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Belief

Why Do People Believe Things That Are Wrong?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 24 2024

Probably the thing that drives most people nuts in the world is when someone believes something that they don’t. This is the fundamental issue that has led to wars, genocide, and plenty of arguments on the internet. So what is happening here, and do you need to do anything about

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Belief

Critical Thinking and the Primacy Effect

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 17 2024

You will often hear people spout the virtues of critical thinking. Ironically, they can often be the people who are least likely to exhibit it themselves in certain situations. The reason is the Primacy Effect, or when you become biased toward the first explanation you hear about a topic and only then display critical thinking of information...

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Growth

The Truth and Ethics of When Life Begins

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, February 7 2024

Note: This blog touches on a hugely controversial topic and is not meant to persuade anyone to change their minds but is rather meant to discuss the various factors in people's understanding of the issue and ethical/legal conclusions that they draw from said understanding. One of the seemingly toughest questions that is actually one of the...

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Truth

If What You Say Is True, Why Doesn't Everyone Know About It?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 31 2024

Years ago, I was waiting for a train to the airport wearing a suit. I walked past, and someone asked me about my shoes. I explained them, and she asked, "Why don't you tell everybody about them?" I was fascinated by the question because I don't typically care to discuss anything that doesn't come up in conversation. Little did I know that this...

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Choice

What Underlies Bad Habits

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 8 2023

There are two famous books, The Power of Habit and Atomic Habits, that go into detail around how to break or change a habit. This won’t be a rehash of those books, though I do recommend reading them if you’re interested in how habits are formed and how they stick. All that is needed to know for this post is that a habit involves a trigger that...

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Desire

Belief Is the Difference Between Excitement and Longing

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 4 2023

I’ve written a lot about my beef with The Four Noble Truths, which is famously translated into English to communicate that life is suffering and the cause of all suffering is desire. It goes on to explain that if you detach from that desire—and, ideally, from all desire—you will let go of that suffering and reach a state of peace. Now, apologists...

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Choice

You Can Find Meaning in Whatever Happens to You

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, September 6 2023

Meaning is subjective; as such, you can decide that something has significance to you or decide that everything is stupid and meaningless. While this sounds like nothing in life really matters, it’s actually more positive than that. The best takeaway for your mental health and well-being is that you can take anything your life, find its meaning...

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