Can you turn stress into excitement?
ny studies have shown we easily confuse our feelings: Ariely thinks it might have something to do with "misattribution of emotions": "Sometimes we have an emotion and we don't know where it's coming from, so we kind of stick it on something that seems sensible." The rush from a Red Bull and a roller coaster can make us believe we're in love with the person next to us. We can even fall in love with someone trying to kill us…
2 minutes
Here’s The Secret To Persistence, According To Research
en challenged, focus on "getting better" -- not doing well or looking good. Get-better goals increase motivation, make tasks more interesting and replenish energy. This effect even carries over to subsequent tasks. Via Nine Things Successful People Do Differently: Get-better goals, on the other hand, are practically bulletproof. When we think about what we are doing in terms of learning and mastering, accepting that we may make some mistakes along the way, we stay motivated despite the setbacks that might…
2 minutes
4 Secrets To Becoming Luckier, According To Research
open to more opportunities, interact with a large network of people, break routines and keep a relaxed attitude toward life. Via Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries: ...lucky people pay more attention to what’s going on around them than unlucky people. It’s more nuanced than that. Here’s where being open to meeting, interacting with, and learning from different types of people comes in. Wiseman found that lucky people tend to be open to opportunities (or insights)…
3 minutes
Here’s How To Scientifically Train Your Mind To Be Happy
aining your mind to look for errors and problems (as happens in careers like accounting and law) can lead you toward a pervasive pessimism that carries over into your personal life. Via One Day University Presents: Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness (Harvard's Most Popular Course): We discovered if you play Tetris for too long you start parsing the world into “How do I make straight lines.” It’s great if you’re playing Tetris, but maladaptive if you’re not. This is…
2 minutes
Here’s The Best Time To Do Anything:
a Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon: A Guide to the Best Time to Buy This, Do That and Go There": Best time to have surgery: Morning (4x less likely to have complications in the morning than between 3-4PM) Best time to get a human being on the phone when calling a company's customer service line: As early as possible (lowest call volume) Best day of the week to eat dinner out: Tuesday (freshest food, no crowds) Best…
1 min read
The Two Techniques You Can Learn From Naturally Happy People
turally happy people unconsciously engage in: Social comparison (or the lack thereof) Retrospective judgment Via Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth: Sonja Lyubomirsky identified ways in which dispositionally happy people think in ways that bolster their moods: social comparison and retrospective judgment. Even if you're not a naturally happy person you can use these techniques to increase positive feelings. So what the heck do those fancy words mean and how can we leverage them? 1) "Social comparison" means don't…
2 minutes
Psychotherapists Say This Is The Key To Happiness
e story you tell yourself about your life. When your vision of your life story is inadequate, depression can result. Psychotherapists actually help "rewrite" that story and this process is as, if not more, effective than medication. Via The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human: According to the psychologist Michele Crossley, depression frequently stems from an “incoherent story,” an “inadequate narrative account of oneself,” or “a life story gone awry.” Psychotherapy helps unhappy people set their life stories straight;…
4 minutes
Here’s Why Stupid People Don’t Realize They’re Stupid
know how skilled you are at something, you need to watch yourself, watch others and compare. If you don't have the experience (or the mental firepower) to do this effectively, your judgements won't be accurate. To oversimplify it a tad -- stupid people may be too stupid to realize they're stupid: Successful negotiation of everyday life would seem to require people to possess insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills. However, people tend to be blissfully unaware of their…
3 minutes
