Recently I recorded a series of four talks for “Tricycle” magazine, discussing how tools from the Buddhist tradition can help us to overcome our addiction to social media. The talks won’t appear online until January next year but in the meantime I thought I’d turn my notes into a series of articles — probably six in total. I’ll go beyond what I said in those talks because of course as soon as you give a talk you realize all the…
One important attitude behind self-growth in any area of life is: always be open to the possibility that you are wrong about something. Because only by admitting you’re wrong can you truly learn, grow, and change yourself. My favorite way to prove myself wrong is to play “devil’s advocate” toward my current beliefs. I assume the opposite of what I believe is true, and I begin to search for facts and evidence that support this opposing view. Often when I…
I love to read books from different fields to get new perspectives. The most recent book that I have read is Factfulness by Hans Rosling. The book teaches us how to think clearly about the world. It says that there are ten instincts that can pull us in the wrong direction and it teaches us how to recognize and control them. When we see the world with those instincts, we have an overdramatic worldview. As a result, we tend to…
Do you have superpowers? When it comes to self improvement, we often focus more on our weaknesses and what we want to fix about ourselves rather than our strengths and what we are already good at. The main reason for this is that we tend to have a “negativity bias.” Our minds are designed to solve problems and fix things. And as a result, we take our strengths for granted and instead we spend most of our time thinking about…
You don’t measure up with anyone, because you can’t accurately compare yourself to others. One of the ultimate traps in life, especially when it comes to our happiness and well-being, is spending too much time comparing our lives with others and trying to measure it in relation to someone else. We compare ourselves in virtually every area of our lives. We compare each other’s homes. We compare each other’s jobs. We compare each other’s bodies. We compare each other’s relationships.…
To live a full life, you need something that’s rarely mentioned: you need solitude. Here is a definition of solitude from the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. Time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds. When you look at great people in history, you can see that they have this characteristic in their lives. It takes different forms, but they have time alone with their own thoughts. For Albert Einstein, it was playing music.…
Our beliefs and underlying assumptions about ourselves can have a big influence on how we act each and every day. Often times we may not even be aware of these beliefs, even though we think or say them on a frequent basis. Instead, we just take them as accurate views of the world and we don’t question them as only opinion. One of the most important things to understand when it comes to self improvement is that there are common…
Self-compassion and kindness toward yourself is an essential factor in anyone’s happiness, mental health, and well-being. According to a new study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, thinking kind thoughts about yourself is not only good for your mental health, but can actually affect you at a physical and biological level. Researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Oxford separated participants into 5 different groups and had each listen to a different 11 minute audio recording. Some of these…
We are living in a world where more and more things can be outsourced or even automated. Lifetime employment is no longer a given. You need to keep upgrading yourself to stay relevant. A big part of them, I believe, is being creative. Being creative helps you adapt to changing situations. It helps you stand out from the crowd. So here is my question to you: What are your best creativity tips? Or, put another way: How do you get…
We all have to do things in life that we don’t necessarily like to do: a project at work, doing chores around the house, going to the gym, or attending an event you don’t want to go to. That’s just part of being responsible and taking care of what needs to be done in life. While it can be tedious, boring, and unpleasant to do these activities, psychologists have developed various “mental strategies” to make these activities a little easier…
The way you make decisions is essential. After all, your life is just the result of your decisions. So how do you make the right decisions in life? I found something interesting in the book summary of Reinvent Yourself. It says that in order to advance in life, you should make growth-oriented decisions instead of fear-based ones. For example, let’s say that you are in a job that you don’t like. If you decided to stay because you are afraid…
As we approach the upcoming new year, it’s always a great time to take a step back and reflect on what we’ve learned and experienced over the past twelve months. First, let me ask you an important question: “Are you better or worse than you were exactly one year ago today? Or about the same?” I sincerely hope it was a good and productive year for you; but even if it wasn’t, keep in mind this is just one chapter…
We are now only a couple weeks away from the new year. That doesn’t mean that you can’t get anything done during this time, though. Even during the holiday season, you can still make the most of your time. Let’s finish this year strong! Here are some tips on how to do that. 1. Finish Your Project Yes, there are only a few days left, but you can make the most of them to finish your project. In fact, the…
I recently read the book summary of Big Mistakes by Michael Batnick. The book has an interesting subtitle: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments. Interesting combination, isn’t it? It contains story after story of how very smart people made bad decisions in investing. But how could that happen? How could these smart people make bad decisions? In essence, what happened was that they failed to manage their risks. They didn’t prepare themselves for the worst things that could happen.…