Each week, I post a video about some 'Pigeon of Discontent' raised by a reader. Because, as much as we try to find the 'Bluebird of Happiness,' we're also plagued by those small but pesky 'Pigeons of...
They say that people teach what they need to learn. By adopting the role of happiness teacher, if only for myself, I was trying to find the method to conquer my particular faults and limitations.
Once I started trying to give positive reviews, though, I began to understand how much happiness I took from the joyous ones in my life---and how much effort it must take for them to be consistently g...
'Potato-chip news' is news that's repetitive, requires little effort to absorb, and is consumable in massive quantities: true crime, natural disasters, political punditry, celebrity gossip, sports gos...
I’d asked myself, Why do habits make it possible for people to change? and now I knew the answer. Habits make change possible by freeing us from decision making and from using self-control.
The Levity Effect,
One study showed that children who got a reward for coloring with magic markers—an activity that children love—didn’t spend as much time with markers, later, as children who didn’t expect a reward. Th...
Just because we're doesn't mean we're being productive. Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.
I had everything I could possibly want -- yet I was failing to appreciate it. Bogged down in petty complaints and passing crises, weary of struggling with my own nature, I too often failed to comprehe...
Studies show that if you reward people for doing an activity, they often stop doing it for fun; being paid turns it into work.
Although we presume that we act because of the way we feel, in fact we often feel because of the way we act.
Life is too short to save your good china or your good lingerie or your good ANYTHING for later because truly, later may never come.
Sprinters call Marathoners plodding, and Marathoners call Sprinters irresponsible, but there’s no right way. Procrastinators, however, are happier when they change their work habits to work more stead...
Like Dr. Johnson, I’m an Abstainer: I find it far easier to give up something altogether than to indulge moderately. And this distinction has profound implications for habits.
It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that if you have something you love or there's something you want, you'll be happier with more.
Turn off your email; turn off your phone; disconnect from the Internet; figure out a way to set limits so you can concentrate when you need to, and disengage when you need to. Technology is a good ser...
Studies show that people tend to persevere longer with problems they've been told are difficult as opposed to easy.
The fact is, changing a habit is much more challenging if that new habit means altering or losing an aspect of ourselves.
Scheduling makes us far more likely to convert an activity into a habit (well, except for Rebels), so for that reason, I schedule even some slightly ridiculous habits, such as Kiss Jamie every morning...
—Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography
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