The Confidence Equation

These identities can make us afraid to get started in just the same way that more specific fears can. Back in the 1960s, psychologist Howard Becker suggested that the labels society places on us profoundly affect the way we behave. At the time, Becker was focused on labels in the context of criminality: he found that people who are labelled as

If we don’t know why we’re embarking on any given project, it’s near impossible to get on with actually doing it.

When the going got tough, those who believed they could do it – regardless of their ability – were the ones who actually could. And, crucially, the students who were primed to be more confident ended up enjoying the exercise a lot more too.

creative activities are particularly likely to make us relax. And they have four characteristics that are especially helpful in making us feel good – ones that I like to remember using a simple acronym: CALM.

After leaving the cafeteria, Feynman found himself reminiscing about how he’d seen the world as a teenager. When he was in high school, the things that had most fascinated him about the world had seemed mundane to others. He would see water growing narrower the further it got from the tap and wonder if he could figure out what determined that

The good thing about the amygdala is that it helps us survive. If we didn’t have that part of our brain urging us to avoid tigers and snakes and high-speed vehicles, the human species might not have lasted this long. The bad news is that the amygdala can also identify perceived but illusory threats. Researchers call this the ‘amygdala hijack’. It’s

These little triggers to action are called ‘implementation intentions’. And the science of behaviour change indicates they can be revolutionary.

The solution? Turning your abstract purpose into a set of concrete goals and actions. Moving from the ‘why’ to the ‘