Life
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It’s the hope that kills
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1 min read
It’s the hope that kills you. Hope is that tease of an emotional tug that keeps you on edge, craving for fruition. But no matter how much you pray and imagine, it mostly yields nothing. Hope is hopeless. Luck is an idea that guarantees to hover over circumstance. Who doesn’t want the calm-inducing pacifier of…
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Pause to go forward
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1 min read
We all hit the wall. Stuck in inanition, we get frustrated with a lack of progress. But all blocks are temporary. Our neurons continue searching for one another to talk to without forcing them to connect. When the well runs dry, quitting to do something else should always be an option. The activity doesn’t always…
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Going first is not as bad as you think
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2 min read
No one wants to take the first piece of dessert because of the chance it’s been touched. People prefer the pieces in the back. The same goes for the first milk carton at the grocery. Why grab the first one we can see presumably untouched versions inches behind? No one wants to sit in the…
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The magic of disengagement
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1 min read
We practice and then we walk away. We get out of our heads and go for a walk, a swim, make a cup of coffee — whatever disengagement there is. Taking a break isn’t quitting. It’s letting neurons go to work without forcing them to. Competence comes without comprehension. Nature cuts though the intellectual. We’re…
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Stuck in our own heads
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1 min read
Inattentive, we let the details slip right through our heads. We are in a state of continuous partial attention, whipped around by facts, fake news, hyperbole, and reality. The foreign invaders monopolize our “private” profiles and manipulate the entire public sphere into tribes that all think and see alike. We turn a blind eye to…
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Aiming for the opposite
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1 min read
When we try to sink, we float. When we try to float, we sink. When we try too hard, we often meet burnout. When we take breaks, we re-energize and excel. When we get tired of hoping, we give up. When we accept what we have, we get what we want. Life is like trying…
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‘Life should be touched, not strangled’
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1 min read
“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. It’s like boats. You keep your motor on so you can steer with the current. And when you hear the sound of…
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The effect of expectation
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1 min read
The placebo creates a ceremony of expectation. It builds off novelty and reinvigorates confidence in the possibility of recovery. We all fall victim to the soft mental implantation of a placebo, the oldest medicine in the world. One simple belief kickstarts a chemical revolution. But in reality, the answer just needed to be poked from dormancy.…
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The placebo effect of a good luck charm
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2 min read
NASA engineers eat peanuts before every launch as a lucky charm. Picasso held on to his fingernail clippings to maintain his spiritual “essence.” You can more read about artists and their peculiar amulets in Ellen Weinstein’s new book Recipes for Good Luck: The Superstitions, Rituals, and Practices of Extraordinary People. Why do some creators hold…
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The paradox of holding high standards
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1 min read
The irony of holding high standards is that often times they prevent us from taking action. Perfectionism can be a thought stopper rather than a thought starter. Sometimes we can only solve a problem if we’re willing to let it go. It helps to do things with a bit of insouciance. We should feel free…
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Too many interests, more than one skill
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2 min read
We need doctors who specialize in heart surgery and spend 100% of their time helping other people. But we also need polymaths (Newton, Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) to combine ideas to push society forward. As Dilbert’s creator Scott Adam points out, achieving excellence is rare. If you want something extraordinary [in life], you have…
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“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” — Virginia Woolf (Books by Virginia Woolf)