How To Be Like Sherlock Holmes: 4 Insights From Research
uldn't it be great to be able to just look at someone and tell what they're really like? Sherlock Holmes does this all the time and it's incredibly cool. Check out this clip from the BBC show Sherlock. Of course, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character and nobody can read people quite that well. We can all get better at it, though. But where do you learn a skill like that? And I mean for real -- methods backed by science. So…
7 minutes
How To Eat Healthy: 5 Easy New Tips From Research
u know you should eat healthier. But it's not easy. Temptation is all around and willpower, well, isn't. The solution is in making better choices. Psychology. But most of the answers we hear aren't legit. So I called a guy who knows the real deal: Brian Wansink. He leads food psychology research at Cornell University and the White House chose him to revise US dietary guidelines. He has a great website and is author of two smart books on the subject of tricking yourself into…
7 minutes
How To Get In Shape Using Psychology: 6 New Tricks From Research
y is there an obesity epidemic? It's not because we eat the wrong things or we lack exercise. Research shows that, plain and simple, most of us just eat too much: Reported consumption increased by 268 calories for men and 143 calories for women between the two surveys. This increase is more than enough to explain the increase in steady-state weight... The available evidence suggests that calories expended have not changed significantly since 1980, while calories consumed have risen markedly. That's hardly shocking.…
11 minutes
How To Go From Dreaming To Doing: 4 Steps To Motivation
u have stuff you know you should be doing. But it doesn’t get done. You need to go from dreaming to doing -- but it's hard. You want to accomplish more at work, hit the gym, get a new job or study harder at school… but it’s not happening. I’ve talked about strategies to make challenges easier like the 20 second rule. But what if you’re just not starting in the first place? What gets you going when you’re not motivated to reach those longer term…
6 minutes
4 Things Millionaires Have In Common, Backed By Research
at do millionaires do differently? Are they harder workers? Do they have brains that can bend spoons? Do they exhibit Bond Villain levels of cunning? For their books The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind the authors surveyed over 700 millionaires to find out. 80% were self-made, accruing all their wealth in one generation. And they were doing a number of things you and I probably aren't. Here are a few patterns the researchers saw: 1) Most Millionaires Are Self-Employed Got a great idea for a business?…
7 minutes
7 Ways You Can Easily Increase Your Willpower
general, people have an overly positive vision of themselves and their abilities. But what's the one thing surveys show most everyone will admit they have a problem with? Self-control. And who is most likely to give in to temptation? Ironically, it's the people who think they have the most willpower. Via The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It: Research shows that people who think they have the most willpower are actually the…
6 minutes
How To Be Resilient: 8 Steps To Success When Life Gets Hard
tick with it!" "Be resilient!" "Never give up!" I see a lot of stuff about resilience, persistence and grit. What I don't see is a lot of legitimate info on how to actually increase those qualities. How can we be more resilient? How can we shrug off huge challenges in life, persist and -- in the end -- succeed? So I looked at the most difficult scenarios for insight. (Who needs resilience in easy situations, right?) When life and death is on the line,…
11 minutes
What The Music You Love Says About You And How It Can Improve Your Life
e Music You Love Tells Me Who You Are Ever been a bit judgy when you hear someone's taste in music? Of course you have. And you were right -- music tells you a lot about someone's personality. Research has learned a great deal about the power of music: Your musical taste does accurately tell me about you, including your politics. Your musical taste is influenced by your parents. You love your favorite song because it's associated with an intense emotional experience in your life.…
6 minutes
