When it’s too hard to quit a bad habit, what’s a trick to regaining control?
n't try to reduce the habit, reduce the variability in the habit. In other words, don't even try to quit smoking; try to smoke the exact same number of cigarettes each day. This little effort toward self-control led to a decrease in smoking over time. Via The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It: Behavioral economist Howard Rachlin proposes an interesting trick for overcoming the problem of always starting…
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What’s the single most reliable method for increasing happiness ASAP?
bsp; Do something nice for someone else. The founder of positive psychology, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman, explains in his latest book, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being: ...we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested. Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 10 things you need to know to be happier 8 ways that money can…
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What gives your brain as much pleasure as food or money?
lking about yourself. Via the WSJ (Hat tip: Nick Krasney): Talking about ourselves—whether in a personal conversation or through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter—triggers the same sensation of pleasure in the brain as food or money, researchers reported Monday. About 40% of everyday speech is devoted to telling others about what we feel or think. Now, through five brain imaging and behavioral experiments, Harvard University neuroscientists have uncovered the reason: It feels so rewarding, at the level of…
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5 steps to becoming an expert:
llow @bakadesuyo Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, popularized the concept of the 10,000 hour rule -- it takes about 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice" to become an expert in a field. What else can help us master something? Be cooperative and focus on your own performance -- not outdoing others. A negative attitude, not a positive attitude, makes you more likely to learn from your mistakes. In fact, the shift to focusing on negative feedback is one of the marks of an…
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5 ways to easily increase self-control:
llow @bakadesuyo 1) Practicing a little willpower every day increases self-control over time. 2) For immediate results: tighten your muscles, sit up straight or cross your arms. 3) Get enough sleep and don't miss meals. 4) Context is key. Those around you exert more influence on your behavior than you think. 5) Don't get cocky. Thinking you have great self-control leads to failure. Sometimes little temptations are harder to resist than bigger ones. Follow me on Twitter here or get updates via…
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Should you go back to bed?
llow @bakadesuyo I've posted before on how little sleep you can get away with: ...by the end of two weeks, the six-hour sleepers were as impaired as those who, in another Dinges study, had been sleep-deprived for 24 hours straight — the cognitive equivalent of being legally drunk. The best part was, if you asked them, they felt fine and didn't realize they were impaired (the same way drunk people respond to such questions, minus the slurring.) Why else is…
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5 ways to make someone more attracted to you:
llow @bakadesuyo Guys: Buying flowers for girls works. Having a fancy car helps too. Girls: If you're interested, be direct. Staring into each other's eyes can increase the chance of falling in love. This can help you develop a tighter bond with someone. A little uncertainty boosts romantic attraction too. Here are tips for how to handle a first date and this is the secret to a successful online dating profile. Smiling makes people more attractive but women don't find…
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5 things you didn’t know about body language:
Men can tell if women are fertile by the way they walk and psychopaths can tell who is a good victim by their stride. 2) You can learn to be more charismatic. 3) Hand position can signal power or submissiveness. 4) There are types of body language that are better when you're trying to persuade someone. 5) Sitting up straight can make you feel more powerful, act more powerfully, feel less pain and increase your self-confidence... unless you're a…
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