This is a guest post by Ash Govender. Making changes can be hard. In your own case, you may have often heard someone say: “make it a habit to…..” followed by some difficult to accomplish task. Then, you try it a few times until you either stop because you don’t…
I have written about the fresh start effect, which I heard about on an episode of the Freakonomics Radio podcast, When Willpower Isn’t Enough. I have written often about the way willpower impacts our ability to make changes that stick—simply, we have a limited amount of willpower (it’s been studied),…
Freakonomics, which I read many years ago, remains one of the most entertaining books I have read. Stephen Dubner, one of the book’s authors, hosts the Freakonomics Radio podcast, which I don’t regularly listen to (because I listen to too many others). The podcast’s web site describes it this way:…
A friend of mine was studying for a licensing exam. She had completed all of her schooling, and when she passed the exam she would be able to begin her career. During the couple of months when she was studying and dealing with its attendant stress, someone shared with her…
I read a good piece in Fast Company with suggestions from people who are successful with their New Year’s resolutions. The first suggestion was near to my heart: Their resolutions revolve around small changes. New Year’s resolutions tend to fail because we take on too many goals at once, or…
As I have done for each of the past few years, here are the many ways I enjoyed the experiences of my year: places I visited, music and podcasts I listened to, books I read, what I watched on TV, and more. Reading I love reading and I love learning.…
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…
If you haven’t seen the HBO documentary, Becoming Warren Buffett, I highly recommend it. The “Oracle of Omaha,” legendary for his investing prowess, is an amazing person from whom, and from whose example, much learning is available. A couple of my favorite takeaways from the film: If you were given…
I'm a big believer in lifelong learning. The fifth of my Six Simple Rules is, "Be a Lifelong Learner." I do a ton of reading (books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs), I listen to podcasts, and I attend classes, workshops, and seminars, among other things. I'm also a strong believer in…
I love reading. And I love books. I haven't switched over to e-books yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Over the years, I've kept bookshelves full of the books I read. There were three reasons why I collected books: I liked how they looked on my bookshelves. I…
Here's another reason it's so hard to eat well. While people are more driven to avoid pain than they are driven to pursue pleasure, the pain of bad health is not immediately visible. So the pleasure of a eating a piece of cake is stronger than the idea of the…
"Be Organized" is one of my Six Simple Rules for a Better Life. I felt very qualified to write about that subject because I'm about as organized as a person can be. That also makes me feel very qualified to review the new book, Super-Productive: 120 Strategies to Do More…