Depending on how you count what a “choice” is, you’ll make hundreds of thousands to billions and billions of choices in your lifetime. Choices include the big ones like which school to go to, which jobs to apply for, and whether or not you marry or reproduce as well as the little ones like where you focus your attention at any given time or whethe...
Read MoreIn my blog post a few weeks ago, “If You Want to Be Happy, Then You Have to Be Happy”, I spoke about how if you wait for things to be better before you’re happy, then you are making yourself miserable now for a future that either will come (and you’ll have been miserable for no reason up until then) or will never come (and you’ll always be miserabl...
Read MoreEveryone knows that people love a good story. It helps them learn, remember things, and stay engaged in a presentation or conversation. But why is it such a more impactful way to convey information than simply stating facts, such as “2+2=4”? Because the story is a journey, and effective engagement, influence, and relationship-building follows th...
Read More"Money is the root of all evil." Yes, it's a cliché because people will do horrible things over money: lie, cheat, steal, fight, and even kill. It's also the source of much jealousy in this world: some people have it; some people don't; some people resent that others have more than they do (regardless of how much they have). But most anger, jeal...
Read More“I was supposed to have a spouse and kids by now.” “One of my classmates from high school is now a CEO.” “I’m so far behind in my retirement savings.” People naturally compare their life progress to others, and they start to wonder what they need to do to “catch up” to others when they fall behind.
Read MoreEveryone dreams of getting recognized for what they’ve done or the kind of person they are. Many people throughout history inspire people today for all that they’ve done for humanity. However, there is one depressing reality about many of those people who are revered for their accomplishments: so many of them never achieved even remotely the leve...
Read MoreDedicated to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-2021) Photo courtesy of Ehirsh and Wikimedia (Public Domain). When I first heard of the idea of positive psychology, i.e., the study of living a healthy, happy life, the first names that came up were Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Considered to be the pioneers and leaders in the field, these...
Read MoreSuccess. It is what everyone talks about striving for. But what is success? Is it earning a lot of money or having a family? The American Dream, for example, was the secure job, the house with the white picket fence, the spouse, ~2 kids, and a dog. Is that success for you, though? And even if you could define what success was, how would you k...
Read MoreReality can seem so harsh and unfair sometimes. There is so much left up to chance: that freak injury during the big game; that seemingly arbitrary promotion of someone else over you. I get that it can be hard to keep yourself sane and together. However, there is great news: modern knoweldge and wisdom from science and philosophy have pretty muc...
Read MoreI know, I know—this headline is going to elicit groans from all of the memories of having to deal with an HR department when getting hired, promoted, or let go. I get the stigma associated with HR. But in my research and identifying the keys to success in life, I was looking for analogies that could best explain how it worked. When doing so, the...
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