Novelty. I’m definitely in the familiarity camp. I love to reread my favorite books and to watch movies over and over. I eat the same foods, more or less, every day. I like returning to places I’ve vi...
When scheduling a new habit, it helps to tie it to an existing habit, such as after breakfast, or to an external cue, such as when my alarm rings,
When scheduling a new habit, it helps to tie it to an existing habit, such as after breakfast, or to an external cue, such as when my alarm rings, because without such a trigger, it’s easy to forget t...
When the Schiphol Airport put the image of a housefly above the drains of urinals, men began to aim at it—a change that reduced spillage rates by 80 percent. Gamification is used in the design of devi...
When we distract ourselves, we purposefully redirect our thoughts, and by doing so, we change our experience. Distraction can help us resist temptation, minimize stress, feel refreshed, and tolerate p...
When we do stumble, it’s important not to judge ourselves harshly. Although some people assume that strong feelings of guilt or shame act as safeguards to help people stick to good habits, the opposit...
When we try to form a new habit, we set an expectation for ourselves. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand how we respond to expectations.
How a couple fights matters more than how much they fight.
From Lewis’s brilliant essay On Three Ways of Writing for Children: When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read th...
While physical activity is a key aspect of the Foundation and has many emotional and physical benefits, people often assume that its most important benefit is something that, ironically, it doesn’t pr...
Making. A habit requires no decision from me, because I’ve already decided.
William Butler Yeats. Happiness, wrote Yeats, is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.
With habits, we don’t make decisions, we don’t use self-control, we just do the thing we want ourselves to do—or that we don’t want to do.
Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.
You
You can choose what you do; you can’t choose what you like to do.
A Secret of Adulthood: things often get harder before they get easier—but
You have to do that kind of work for yourself. If you do it for other people, you end up wanting them to acknowledge it and to be grateful and to give you credit. If you do it for yourself, you don't...
A stumble may be helpful, because it shows me where I need to concentrate my efforts in order to do better next time.
And the
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