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The Pursuit of Happiness Is Meaningless Without the Pursuit of Justice
Where’s the Justice League when you need ‘em? Ambushed By An Article Yesterday morning I was happily drinking coffee and reading the New York Times, when I came across this disturbing article by...
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Goals Should Provide (Not Require) Motivation
Goals should electrify the brain. Over the last couple years I’ve been experimenting with different systems for setting and achieving goals. During that time I’ve hit some walls and changed my mind...
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Your Computer is a Gateway to Other People’s Agendas
This cat’s day is shot. Until recently, the first thing I did in the morning was turn on my computer. I would then begin a very predictable series of actions: check email, look at news headlines and...
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Why Is It Important to Define Your Life Purpose?
It sounds intimidating, to define the purpose of your life. It also sounds unnecessary. Why not just live? Why not just enjoy life, and take each day as it comes? I don’t think there is any ultimate...
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Motivation Force Multipliers (3 Ways Sustain and Expand Energy)
How can we leverage any sparks of “natural” motivation we might have (our interests, passions, and desires) into steady and dependable motivation that does not fluctuate with our mood? How do we keep...
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Radical Responsibility and the Creative Process
I’m starting a new company called “BoozeSnap.” Yesterday morning I showed up at my writing desk not quite ready to work. I was in a foul mood, a little tired and lazy, and feeling distracted. Not just...
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Habit Bending — Manipulate the Trigger and the Reward
Coffee is the trigger. Chocolate is the reward. As regular readers know, I’m in the process of establishing a daily writing habit. I’m doing decently well; on most days I write between 600-1000 words...
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How to Increase Your Daily Word Count by 75%
Recently (twenty-one days ago), I modified my morning writing routine according to advice by Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit. The change I made was simple: swap out one behavior (fiction...
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No Rest Days (Until I Crashed)
Turns out I do need rest days. Over the past few months I’ve been experimenting with writing fiction every day. Sometimes, because of work and family obligations (and/or my own procrastination), I’ve...
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How To Calibrate Goals and Explore Obstacles to Increase Motivation
Nope. Not true. Considering obstacles (and creating contingency plans) increases motivation. Early this year I wrote about how goals should provide (not require) motivation. Setting the right kind of...
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How To Trigger Super-Momentum
Super-momentum: life in the productivity fast lane No more than a dozen times in my life, I have experienced a state of what I call “super-momentum.” For days, sometimes weeks at a time, I operated at...
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Family Values — A Different Take
In the United States, the phrase “family values” tends to be associated with a conservative “1950’s style” family structure and lifestyle, including a heterosexual marriage, a bread-winning father, a...
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Changing Habits — 5 Specific Proven Techniques
What would YOU do for a scrap of bacon? Recently I’ve become fascinated with learning and implementing techniques to replace destructive habits with helpful ones. I’m particularly interested in giving...
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A Thank You to Readers, and What’s To Come in 2015
“Start of blue hour at the village” by Jeff S. PhotoArt It was only a few months ago that this blog passed one million views, and now we’re quickly coming up on two million. I’m happy that so many...
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Improve Your Human Operating System — Consciously Reorder Your Values
Values … but which ones? What would Mr. Rogers do? Recently I read Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. I’d been curious about the book for a long time but I’d been reluctant to buy it … somehow I...
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Getting from Should to Must
Going on long walks with my tiger used to be in the “should do” category. Now it’s a “must do” … a pillar of my mental, creative, and cardiovascular health. OK — that’s not my tiger — but the walking...
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Making Good Habits Easier — What Is Most Effective?
Brain training! I’m fascinated by the science of habit formation. Habits are a gray area where we don’t exert free will directly, but we have some choice in terms of how our habits are shaped. We can...
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Take the Seven Word Challenge (Why do you do what you do?)
Seven is the number. Why do you do what you do? For each activity area in your life, can you state the main objective of your efforts in seven words or fewer? Recently I did this exercise for myself,...
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I Quit Facebook and I Don’t Miss It
Approximately two weeks ago I deleted my Facebook account. It wasn’t something I thought about a great deal. I suddenly realized “I’m done with Facebook,” and a day later I deleted my account. I’ve...
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Helping People — A Realization
Rescue: specific, well-defined, limited help Yesterday I received an angry email from a reader that gave me pause for thought. The reader asked me to do something I wasn’t comfortable doing and I...
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