We often think that it’s the big moments in life that matter but really it’s the small steps in the right direction that bring us closer to happiness everyday. Sure, the milestones such as weddings, promotions and births are beautiful, but they come so few and far in between that we shouldn’t solely rely on them for joy. …
Setting goals has its own special magic. When we transform desires and fantasies into tangible ideas and goals and commit them to paper we are taking a powerful step toward attaining what we want in our life. New Year is the traditional time for setting goals. As we anticipate the year, in the midst of …
When you have a daunting mountain to climb, it is often best to break it into molehills. In his classic paper, “Small Wins,” University of Michigan psychologist Karl Weick argued that large social problems are best broken down into smaller ones with concrete achievable goals. Social problems as enormous as, say, unemployment, can be so overwhelming that solutions …
Are you ready for a career change? Perhaps you’ve been in your current job for a while and it’s no longer what you want (on reflection maybe it never really was). Or perhaps change is being forced upon you from a variety of factors. Ready or not, you know you need to figure this out …
Consistency is the key to success, whether professional or personal. Yet, knowing something in theory and succeeding at it in practice is very different. When our daily lives are filled with distractions and different priorities, it can be difficult to stay on top of things and remain consistent. Problematic – yes, but impossible – …
Your goals feel boring or blah. You’re not seeing the progress you expected to by this point. You’ve messed up along the way. You don’t have enough time to take action on the plan you masterminded at the beginning of the year. You feel overwhelmed. You feel guilty. We’ve all been there! And though any one of …
It’s good to have goals, no matter what size they are. Maybe you want to cook more frequently instead of ordering take out. Maybe you want to finally finish writing that novel. Or maybe you just want to get past a new level of a particularly tough video game. Unfortunately, some goals are harder to …
This world of ours is so fast paced, it is easy to feel like we are constantly balancing a hundred things at once. With technology, computers, and phones which are rarely more than an arm’s length away, we have 24/7 access to an endless feed of videos, photos, friends, news, sports, games, and entertainment. While, …
How can ‘actionless action’ help us to pursue our ambitions? Read More »
In 1780, hunched over a table at his home in London, Jeremy Bentham wrote the first lines of the first chapter of one of his most famous works. It read, “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought …
Feeling unmotivated? Use “Skinner’s Law” to get yourself back on track Read More »
Most of us were taught to measure success by ticking off boxes on a to-do list or hitting predetermined milestones. It’s easy to fall into the trap of what is called the Performance Mindset. We’re inundated with the notion that setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals and striving for peak performance is the …
How SMART Goals Sabotage Success (and the Brain Science of What Works) Read More »
