Blaming others is the fastest, easiest way to avoid responsibility. We all know what it is like for someone to wrong us and for that person to be the reason why we are having a problem. And, if possible, we can try to respond, retaliate, or hold the person accountable. But, there's another side to this, which is what you do afterwards and whether...
Read MoreNote: Contentious topics are used for illustrative purposes only; I am not advocating for you to take any specific ethical position. "There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs," is a famous saying about economics and economic policy. It acknowledges the reality that there are benefits and drawbacks to anything in life. Small creatures are...
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 MoreDo you remember your first steps? (Probably not) Do you remember someone else’s first steps, such as a child’s? In either case, there was a lot of failure involved in the process. Maybe the child wasn’t strong enough yet, or maybe they fell a bunch of times. Maybe they were scared. Yet no one remembers that nor points to their failures while le...
Read MoreWhen you’re feeling cynical, miserable, or pessimistic, you are likely to say words to this effect: “Life sucks, and then you die.” What causes this? Well, all life situations are a result of nature and nurture: so some of your life outlook is built in your genetics, and some of it comes as a result of your life experiences.
Read MoreSetbacks can hit your psyche pretty hard. Major losses involve mourning and recovery processes. New roadblocks require resilience and new strategies. When success requires desire and belief, evidence to the contrary of your progress toward your goals can be difficult to look past so that you can retain your will to carry on.
Read More“The only constant is change.” You’ve heard the saying before, usually when something great is coming to an end. It’s often a harsh reminder that no matter what you do, there will always be more to do and always be entropy slowly eroding the progress you make in this world. At the same time, many people today can’t even handle 5 minutes without...
Read MoreWhen you can’t feel anything other than depression, loneliness, isolation, dread, or emptiness, getting back to normal can require a monumental amount of willpower and effort to push through the resistance and lack of motivation. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet or perfect solution to the problem because there are several different causes...
Read MoreLife is getting more grim, right? Climate change, fascism, a global pandemic, social unrest, terrorism, potential wars of the cold, nuclear, and civil kind, flattening of lifespans and homeownership levels…it seems like every day there is a reason to be pessimistic. But of course that’s absolutely absurd to think that’s an objective assessment....
Read MoreThis seems like it should be the shortest blog post ever: “Should you believe what’s true or what benefits you? What’s true, of course! What a stupid question!” Okay, well what if someone just had the greatest failure or disaster of their lives and the truth is that their life will never be the same again? What if their dog, friend, or family me...
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