Here is a guide to the many articles on this site, including: Book Recommendations, Thinking Tools, Focusing on Values, Understanding Emotions, Acting on Priorities, and other categories.[…]
Adapting Advice to Your Own Purposes
A friend once shared with me how her 17-year-old daughter adapted some advice for her own purposes. It's an inspiring story with several lessons. The young woman was training to become an opera singer — an ambitious, long-term goal. It was particularly challenging for...
Keep Your Purpose in Mind to Keep Your Break on Track
If you want to stay on a schedule, you need to be able to take breaks that last a certain amount of time, and no longer. But that can be difficult. By definition, you are taking a mental rest from concentrated effort. How do you take that rest, without slipping into...
Getting More Emotional Impact from Good Things that Happen in Life
Some years ago I recommended the daily practice of identifying three good things that happen each day. This idea, which I got from Martin Seligman, helps you develop a more optimistic mindset. The original tip is also on the blog. In addition to making you more...
Tactic: How Do I Love Thee
"How Do I Love Thee" Tactic Overview What: This is a simple tactic that triggers value-based emotions toward a person, task, or situation that you already value. When: Use this tactic when you are feeling surprisingly indifferent toward a known value. (Choose a...
Book Recommendation: How to Lie with Statistics
by Darrell Huff
We are bombarded with factoids and sound bites in political speeches, subway ads, water-cooler conversations—everywhere. It takes a sharp focus to separate the babble from the facts. For guidance with this important task, I recommend Darrell Huff's classic book, How...
Exercise: Identifying Inner Conflicts
Exercise: Identifying Inner Conflicts Background External conflict is the easy case, because you know what the conflict is, and you know in principle what you have to do to resolve it. But sometimes conflict is more complicated. There's an internal conflict getting in...
Replace Duty Motivation with Means-End Motivation
If you've been following my work, you know that I recommend you motivate yourself entirely by values, not by threats. This means throwing out "duty" as a way to get yourself to do an important but unappealing task. By a "duty," I mean an out-of-context rule or...
Dissolve Enemy Images
Dissolve Enemy Images An enemy is a person who deliberately harms you or sabotages your success. An "enemy image" is completely different. An enemy image is an automatized negative emotional response toward someone. Whenever you see, hear, or are reminded of the...
Avoiding Setbacks When You Add a Weekly Commitment
When you are on a program of continuous improvement, you are often adding some new activity to your weekly schedule, or improving the existing one. But by continually raising the bar you create a hazard: the increased potential for failure! Here are a few things that...