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Desire

Meaning Well Doesn't Equal Doing Well

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 13 2024

This is a difficult post because, ironically, my intentions for it might not lead to the outcome that I desire. Which is, not coincidentally, the point of this post: good intentions don’t always result in the best outcome possible. They can help, but—and if you’ve read my posts emotions, you already know this—when combined with the wrong beliefs,...

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Happiness

Want to Be Happy? Foster Good Relationships (and Jettison Bad Ones)

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 10 2024

Most people are probably familiar by now the famous hypothetical question, “If you had three wishes, what would you ask for?” with the “trick answer” being, “To be happy.” Because that is what people are ultimately seeking (seek pleasure, avoid pain). John Lennon is credited with telling a story about completing a school assignment where they...

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Growth

Cooperation, Competition, and Growth

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 1 2024

We all want our lives to be better tomorrow than they are today. That is the nature of life. Life is growth. But how do you get better most effectively—or how do you get to be the best that you can be? The obvious answer is work/effort: to become more fit, you have to exercise. To improve a skill, you have to practice. To get a higher education,...

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Fair-Weather Friends

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, February 21 2024

Do you know people in your life who are only around when times are good and are nowhere to be found when time get hard? What is going on here, and what should you do to handle these situations? This is a tough post because I speak extensively about human behavior and yet, due to being at the top of the autism spectrum (i.e., trouble with eye...

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Ethics

Competition Is Cooperation

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 20 2023

Social species inevitably involve competition and cooperation. Before social species evolved, it was mostly competition as all living organisms fought for survival. Early forms of cooperation were coincidental, as bacteria move in patterns and birds clean the teeth of crocodiles. But once animals began to form large families and communities, mass...

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Growth

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, October 25 2023

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It seems like a simple, innocent question. Asking a child this question is either just to make conversation, to get to know them, or to understand what they want to do so you can keep it in mind for where/when you can help them in the future. No matter what the reason, the result is straightforward:...

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Meaning

What You Need in a Meaning of Life Book

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 12 2023

There are a lot of books out there on the meaning of life and your existence in this universe. Some are focused on the religious or the spiritual, while others are focused on the philosophical or the ethical. Of course, there is only one that I know of that worked back from evolutionary biology and psychology to conclude the human drivers of...

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Meaning

First, Seek to Understand

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, March 8 2023

Resolving conflicts has never been easy, but it feels like in a world where you can live in your own world that you never have to talk to someone who ever disagrees with you. Even debates are no longer really two people having a conversation to try to influence each other but rather each person talking to an audience to score points and "own" the...

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Life’s 8 Major Fallacies

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 5 2022

Mistakes People Make in Their Search for Meaning When people are looking for their meaning in life, they will have trouble finding it if they make erroneous assumptions about how life works or what they’re supposed to do with the one that they’ve been given.  Unfortunately, such fundamental assumptions are held sometimes without people having thoug...

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Desire

Follow the Signs

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 21 2021

Signs.  They’re indicators that you should make a decision or take an action in life.  There are real, tangible signals in life like your emotions.  Your emotions are giving you critical feedback as to your current state of growth or harm.  If you’re happy, you’re healthy and growing; if you’re afraid, there is a danger to your health and safety.

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