Being able to overcome inertia is what separates the visionaries from the crowd, the notables, the heroes, the leaders. That’s it. Simply taking action takes you from just another member of the crowd to a leader. Instantly. This seemingly simple truth had me looking for some deeper explanation. View article at pmorganbrown.com.
Cognitive Biases
February 4th, 2010 § 0 comments
Innate cognitive biases can lead humans (and animals) to unfortunate errors in judgement. Often, these evolutionary behavioral and cognitive traits are also helpful adaptive mechanisms. Welcome or unwelcome as they may be, completely eradicating such biases — or at least their negative effects — is highly unlikely. An awareness of our shared tendencies, however, may help us better govern our thinking and decision-making processes. View list of cognitive biases at wikipedia.org.
How You Give Your Power Away
February 4th, 2010 § 0 comments
Once you achieve a certain degree of financial abundance, you tell yourself, then you can use your wealth to finally have some breathing room to figure out your purpose, do what you love, and make a real contribution. Step 1: Become a worthy millionaire. Step 2: Do something more rewarding and fulfilling. View article at stevepavlina.com.
Never-Never
February 1st, 2010 § 0 comments
Missing is a pain
in everyplace
making a toothache
out of a day.
But to miss something
that never was:
the longest guilt
the regret that comes down
like a fine ash
year after year
» Read the rest of this entry «
The Sedona Method: Lester Levenson’s Story
January 29th, 2010 § 0 comments
Contemplating the source of intelligence and energy, I discovered that it too was available in unlimited amounts, and that it came simply by my freeing myself from all these former compulsions, inhibitions, entanglements, hang-ups. I didn’t have to be subject to anything. Seeing this allowed the power that was right behind my mind to flow through as it had never flowed through before. View article at playswithlife.me.
How to Find What You Love to Do
January 28th, 2010 § 0 comments
You must decide what destination to steer your life in. Otherwise, you leave yourself wide open for others to direct your life, as well as at the mercy of the winds and storms of life. If you know where your destination is, the rest is easy.
You will find once you know what you want to do, all uncertainty and burden will be lifted off your shoulders and you will have clear vision as to what your journey is and that journey will truly be joyful. View article at briankim.net.
Overcoming Procrastination Over Decisions
January 26th, 2010 § 0 comments
Making decisions is a behaviour which can be learned, just like any other behaviour. You can train yourself to make big decisions by practising making small decisions. View technique at markforster.net.
If It’s Not Working, Change Your Approach
January 25th, 2010 § 0 comments
Your ability to change your thinking, feeling, and doing is the key to changing your lot in life or changing the results you get. View article at sourcesofinsight.com.
How Much Did You Pay for that Comfort Zone?
January 25th, 2010 § 0 comments
Comfort zones feel good. They take the sharp edges off life. Comfort zones are a relaxing place to recharge, to heal, and to prepare us for our next adventure. View article at zen-moments.com.
How to Build a Stronger Ego
January 22nd, 2010 § 0 comments
How does it serve you — or anyone else — to play the game of life with a weak character? Are you really doing much good by checking out from life and cocooning yourself in a mini-monastery? Instead of trying to weaken your ego, consider what good you might achieve with it instead. How would you like to develop your character during your time here on earth? View article at stevepavlina.com.
You Do Not Belong to You. You Belong to the Universe.
January 22nd, 2010 § 0 comments
So I vowed to keep myself alive, but only if I would never use me again for just me – each one of us is born of two, and we really belong to each other. I vowed to do my own thinking instead of trying to accommodate everyone else’s opinions, credos and theories. I vowed to apply my inventory of experiences to the solving of problems that affect everyone aboard planet earth. -Buckminster Fuller View article at tinyapps.org.
Getting Back To Work: A Personal Productivity Toolkit
January 20th, 2010 § 0 comments
Work is a sort of conditioning. It’s not natural to sit at a desk for hours on end, nor is it natural to perform dull, repetitive tasks, but we train ourselves to do it. Unfortunately, it’s easy to lose that conditioning, and it takes a while to get it back. View article at kuro5hin.org.
Invictus
January 18th, 2010 § 0 comments
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
January 18th, 2010 § 0 comments
What would your life be like if you did not care what other people thought of you? If you were completely independent of people’s opinions, good or bad, and would go about your day without so much as a single self-conscious decision. It would be wonderful freedom, of course. You would feel free to do what you wanted, and have a clarity of mind that comes with not being constantly preoccupied with thinking about the judgment of those around you. View article at everydaywonderland.com.
The Americanization of Mental Illness
January 13th, 2010 § 0 comments
In the end, what cross-cultural psychiatrists and anthropologists have to tell us is that all mental illnesses, including depression, P.T.S.D. and even schizophrenia, can be every bit as influenced by cultural beliefs and expectations today as hysterical-leg paralysis or the vapors or zar or any other mental illness ever experienced in the history of human madness. View article at nytimes.com.
No Limits #37: Purpose of Life
January 11th, 2010 § 0 comments
A collection of essays on the purpose of life. View this publication at scribd.com.
Loss Aversion Bias
January 9th, 2010 § 0 comments
Loss aversion is an error in our brains that makes us fight like a rabid animal to avoid a small loss, while chewing our cud stupidly when it comes to getting what we want. Data from Kahneman and Tversky suggests we prefer avoiding loss about twice as much as acquiring gains. That’s a trap. View article at petermichaud.com.
Reclaim Your Right to Be Self-Ruling
January 7th, 2010 § 0 comments
We need never answer any part of ourselves that wants to punish us, intimidate, or otherwise drag us down… we owe them nothing — not one consideration, not even the wish that they would leave us alone! View essay at guyfinley.com.
The Concept Fan
December 28th, 2009 § 0 comments
Concept fans help you find new approaches to problem solving when you have rejected all obvious solutions. Originated by Edward de Bono in his book Serious Creativity, they develop the principle of ‘taking one step back’ to get a broader perspective. View this technique at mindtools.com.
Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up
December 21st, 2009 § 1 comment
Ask yourself why this result feels like a failure. What theory does it contradict? Maybe the hypothesis failed, not the experiment. View article at wired.com.
Create New Habits: Self-Regulation
December 13th, 2009 § 0 comments
Start with a little bit of self-regulation – to get an effect across many habits. View article at senia.com.
I Live in a Van Down by Duke University
December 7th, 2009 § 0 comments
My “radical living” experiment convinced me that the things plunging students further into debt – the iPhones, designer clothes, and even “needs” like heat and air conditioning, for instance – were by no means “necessary.” And I found it easier to “do without” than I ever thought it would be. Easier by far than the jobs I’d been forced to take in order to pay off my loans. View essay at salon.com.
Overcoming Procrastination
December 2nd, 2009 § 0 comments
If you really want to tame the procrastination beast, you’ll need something stronger than quick-fix motivational rah-rah. This problem isn’t going away on its own. You must take the initiative. The upside is that tackling this problem yields tremendous personal growth. You’ll become stronger, braver, more disciplined, more driven, and more focused. These benefits will become hugely significant over your lifetime, so recognize that the challenge of overcoming procrastination is truly a blessing in disguise. The whole point is to grow stronger. View article at stevepavlina.com.
How to Grow a Lotus
November 27th, 2009 § 0 comments
Perhaps you’ve been thinking of meditating but find that legs simply won’t hold into one of those pretzel-like poses. So you’re holding back – interested, but unwilling to put yourself through the excruciating pain.
Well, join the club – you’re just one of millions of westerners who find Padmasana (Lotus Position) and the other cross-legged postures among the most difficult yoga poses to master. Unlike our Indian friends, we did not grow up sitting on the floor, and consequently our hips have developed an adaptation to our sitting on chairs. View instructional essay at zenmontpellier.site.voila.fr.
How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time
November 27th, 2009 § 0 comments
Everyone around the water cooler knows that meditation reduces stress. But with the aid of advanced brainscanning technology, researchers are beginning to show that meditation directly affects the function and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory. View article at time.com.
Time Management, by an MIT Postdoc
November 25th, 2009 § 0 comments
This past summer, for example, I completed my PhD in computer science at MIT. Simultaneous with writing my dissertation I finished the manuscript for my third book, which was handed in a month after my PhD defense and will be published by Random House in the summer of 2010. During this past year, I also managed to maintain my blog, Study Hacks, which enjoys over 50,000 unique visitors a month, and publish over a half-dozen peer-reviewed academic papers.
Put another way: I’m no slacker. But with only a few exceptions, all of this work took place between 8:30 and 5:30, only on weekdays. (My exercise, which I do every day, is also included in this block, as is an hour of dog walking. I really like my post-5:30 free time to be completely free.) View article at iwillteachyoutoberich.com.
There Is Nothing Wrong with Us
November 22nd, 2009 § 0 comments
If the ways we have been trying to affect change were going to work, they would have by now. If “changing” and “doing” and “improving” worked, we would be a world of perfected beings living in Utopia…But that is clearly not our experience of ourselves and the world. The great majority of us are still struggling to become who and what we believe we should be. View article at cherihuber.com.
10-2-5 Procrastination Hack
November 22nd, 2009 § 0 comments
You’ll blaze through an hour’s worth of work/not work and will find yourself looking forward to both the breaking and working parts of the cycle. (Dang, how’s that for a change?) View technique at 43folders.com.
Eliminate a Limiting Belief: Lefkoe Technique
November 21st, 2009 § 0 comments
Free walk through of a very popular technique for eliminating an unwanted, limiting belief. Experience this technique at recreateyourlife.com.






