Why resilience matters more than perfection
Jerry Seinfeld once shared a simple piece of advice for building momentum: mark an X on your calendar every day you write. The idea is to “not break the chain.” But what happens when the chain does break? Not if. When. It happens. We miss days. We get sick. We lose motivation. Life doesn’t ask […]
To change a behavior… change the behavior
Our brains excel at coming up with shortcuts. They have to. We’re exposed to too much information and too many choices to process everything. Habits are one shortcut we take. We train—intentionally or not—our basal ganglia that when a certain condition is met, we take a specific action. Our phone dings, we check our phone […]
Our beliefs shape everything we do
Our behavior is shaped by our beliefs about how the world works. The Reality Model helps us see the connection.
Let past, present, and future work together
Think of yourself as three people in one. Your Past Self is who you used to be. Every action you have taken is in the past. Your Future Self is who you want to become. You have hopes, dreams, and ambitions for the life your Future Self is going to live. Your Present Self is […]
Act on what matters before your window closes
Your Present Self—who you are today—is the culmination of every action you have ever taken. Brick by brick, your Past Self has built your life through the actions you’ve taken. Every habit, every memory, and every personality quirk is because of these past actions. Some of it is intentional; some of it is quite accidental. […]
What we do depends on how we feel about what we know
What we do depends on how we feel about what we know. We cannot learn something or change how we feel about something without changing our behavior.
No batter how bad it was, you can turn on a dime
No matter how bad the past was, there’s nothing you can do to change it. What you can do is change how you perceive your past, which changes everything.
Accept what you can’t change. Act on what you can
Regret anchors you to the past. It robs you of your joy in living in the present and makes you give up on the future.
Everyone rubs off on us, for better or worse
Everyone is an example of what we should emulate or avoid. Will their influence drag us down or help us be our best?
Balance the cortisol with a little oxytocin
Our brains have a natural fight-or-flight response designed to keep us alive. Sometimes it kicks in when it shouldn’t. Here’s how to reset your response.
