Imagine you’re walking to work. You see a child drowning in a pond. You’re about to jump in and save her when you realize you’re wearing your best suit, and the rescue will end up ruining your suit, costing hundreds. Should you still save the child? Of course you should.…
In a Harvard Business Review article, the former U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, was quoted as saying, "Loneliness and weak social connections are associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity. But we haven't…
Because gratitude, happiness, and positive leadership are favorite subjects of my blog posts, I was given the opportunity to read a pre-publication edition of The Kindness Cure, by Tara Cousineau, PhD, which will be published on February 2. "Be Nice" is the second of my Six Simple Rules and when I…
I, and others on this blog, have written that helping others is a happiness secret. After many people helped others impacted by this year’s hurricane season, a New York Times article pointed out why this is the case. According to Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist and founder of the Center…
I do not attend many religious services over the course of a typical year. There is one service I love attending more than the others. It's an Interfaith Thanksgiving service, held on a rotating basis, in one of a group of participating houses of worship from the towns surrounding where…
I was listening to a great episode of one of my favorite podcasts, the TED Radio Hour. “Disruptive Leadership” was the topic and its messages were very much aligned with my thinking, as described in “Be a Leader,” the third chapter of my book, Six Simple Rules for a Better…
Since 2011, when I published my book and began blogging, I have also been a regular reader of other blogs. My favorite, Becoming Minimalist, has countless useful posts to help you have a simpler, better life. Reading Becoming Minimalist, and other minimalism blogs, led to several changes in my life.…
My daughters loved reading “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green. They also loved the movie. I watched it recently, after happening upon it on a cable TV movie channel. I thought it was very good. (If you don’t want to watch a movie that will make you cry,…
I recently read about a study published by a San Francisco State associate professor of psychology showing the value of experiences over things. I’ve written a few times about investing in experiences vs. “stuff” and it was interesting to see a study endorsing that route to a happier life. People…
When you reach a certain age (in my case, it was in my mid-40s), parents of friends begin to have health problems and/or pass away. Over the past 10 years, I’ve been to many funerals, including several very recently. I nearly always cry, but I also frequently smile, and often…
Henry Klein and I met about 20 years ago. We were living in the same town and met on a men's softball team we played on together. Henry is an attorney and a couple of years after we met him, when Marcie and I wanted to create wills, mostly to…
This is a guest post by Julie Singer, who teaches us, among other things, something we've discussed before: one of the great sources of happiness is helping others. As a college student, at times you can feel like you have no control over anything. It may be your emotions, your…