Life

While we’re focusing on being the best possible Protagonist in our respective inner stories, everyone else is seeing only how we’re doing in our other, more public role. If you think about what people are admired and remembered for, it’s always for the kind of Other Person they were.

Studies of individuals who report high life satisfaction consistently show one pattern: they engage in activities with naturally extended feedback loops. Mastery of skills, service to others, deep relationships, creative expression—all require tolerating periods of boredom or frustration before delivering their rewards.

If you have an intractable, long-running problem in your life, and you’ve tried everything you can think of as far as running at it headfirst—try switching tracks, leaving that problem aside for awhile, and getting really , really into whatever pops into your intuition. Have you been meaning to learn everything there is to know about Indian... See more