In my last article, I argued that accepting reality helps you move from a state of suffering to a state of serenity. Indeed, when you are suffering, achieving serenity is a practical short-term goal. It provides an important stepping stone to a deep, lasting...
In Launch, some people come with money goals. In a few cases that makes sense, but not usually. A well-set goal needs to guide and motivate the action necessary to achieve it — and provide a lasting satisfaction with every step along the way. Money goals often don't...
Every tactic is useful only in a context. That includes my favorite general-purpose workhorse, "thinking on paper." Sometimes it is more efficient to think in your head. Sometimes it is more efficient to discuss an issue with someone else. And sometimes it is more...
With 20:20 Hindsight, I wish I had written this article before the last one, which analyzed the relative merits of “Don’t Panic” versus “Keep Calm and Carry On” as advice. That may have been a bit esoteric for some readers. So, better late than never, here is more...
Rational Goal-Setting Series Goals are our means of reshaping the world around us. They guide our everyday actions so that those actions create the values that sustain our lives. When you achieve a short- or long-range goal, you trigger a moment of joy. Significant...
If you lack momentum on some project, that means your goal or the path to your goal is vague in some way. It is not enough to have a generalized idea of the outcome and the steps involved. You need clarity regarding how your steps will get you from here to there. If...
If you want to manage your motivation, you need to understand your own value hierarchy. A value hierarchy is not a list of your top ten values or a bucket list. It is a psychological structure consisting of all of the values you have formed in relation to one another....
Guilt is the emotion that you feel when you believe you have failed to live up to your own moral standards. It is perhaps the most enervating emotion. It makes you want to curl up in a little ball to block it out and avoid it. But that is the worst thing you can do....
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The importance of taking small steps is well known. It's the most likely advice you'll get if you're bogging down on something. "Try taking a small step." And yet, I have often found this advice unhelpful. I'm...
Exercise: Recalibrating Emotions Background Emotions are an important source of feedback. They are our automatic life-reporting systems. We experience joy in our successes, and eagerness to achieve the next goal, which motivates us to work hard on the task at hand. Or...
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