4 Things Astronauts Can Teach You About A Good Night’s Sleep
o knows about sleep? Astronauts. They have to. Their bodies are cut off from many of the normal external cues that remind us what time it is. But actually, it's even worse than that. In orbit they can experience a dozen sunrises and sunsets a day which makes their circadian rhythm go completely haywire. When you're in a tin can floating through the cold darkness of outer space, being off your game due to lousy sleep can have very bad results.…
5 minutes
Knowing Yourself: 3 Keys To Leveraging Ancient Wisdom
now Thyself" The Oracle at Delphi said "Know thyself." And that is deep and profound. It's also a pain in the ass because as with every cliche, the difficulty is in the execution and nobody ever bothers to tell you how to do it properly. I guess they're too busy brainstorming new fortune cookie wisdom while we sit around thinking they're smart for coming up with it and we're dumb for not being able to follow through. Knowing yourself is…
4 minutes
Faith In Humanity: 10 Studies To Restore Your Hope For The Future
ading a lot about the science of human behavior can make you cynical, sometimes deservedly so, but cynical nonetheless. On this blog I try to be accurate and useful and, as I have posted, research shows there is great power in optimism and hope. So I want to take a second to step back from brass tacks and take a look at some studies that can renew a faith in humanity. The world is not always fair. The bad are…
5 minutes
Being A Good Person: 5 Things That Can Help You Make The Right Choices
case you aren't getting your RDA minimum of irony lately, I'm here to inform you that ethics books get stolen more frequently than other books: Overdue or missing, as a percentage of those off shelf: Ethics: 21.0% Non-ethics: 10.0% Missing, as a percentage of those off shelf: Ethics: 8.2% Non-ethics: 6.4% Research shows that in a multitude of ways bad truly is stronger than good. Via Good Boss, Bad Boss: In everyday life, bad events have stronger and more lasting consequences than…
3 minutes
Undivided Attention: 6 Ways To Focus That Will Make You Happier
ve me your undivided attention for a second. (It'll make you happier, I promise.) You create your world with what you pay attention to. There are a million things happening right now: some good, some bad. Pay attention to the good, you'll feel better. Pay attention to the bad, and, well... you get it. Via Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life: ...the things that you don’t attend to in a sense don’t exist, at least for you. All day long,…
6 minutes
Finding Your Calling: Here’s How To Find Your Purpose In Life
at's your five-year plan? Your ten-year plan? If you're anything like me, your answer is probably something along the lines of "I have no idea." And just being asked that question makes you feel inadequate. Like you're always supposed to know what the future will hold. In his powerful book, How Will You Measure Your Life?, Clayton Christensen reflects that so many of his students at Harvard Business School feel they should always be able to answer "What is life all…
4 minutes
Fearlessness: 3 Things You Can Learn From Special Ops And Navy SEALS
ne-man army." It's a phrase that gets thrown around lightly. But for 7 hours, Hector Cafferata was exactly that. On November 28, 1950 during the Korean war, the then 21-year-old took on an entire regiment of Chinese soldiers, defending his group of badly wounded friends. He did it in 30 degrees-below-zero-weather while in his socks. He had only his eight shot M1 Garand and when grenades were thrown at him he batted them away with a shovel. I'm going to…
7 minutes
How To Become A Better Person: 6 Things That Make It Easier
en Batman had a utility belt. This blog is about how to become a better person by understanding how things really work and applying the lessons. It's those last three words that can be the really hard part. Willpower is limited. Time is precious. And doing is a lot harder than reading. You need help. Here are some things that worked for me. How To Become A Better Person: PRODUCTIVITY The Tool: RescueTime What is it: An app that monitors…
3 minutes
