psychology

One of the pinnacles of human existence is to align our innate desire to create with our day-to-day labor.

Often, it’s this realization—that you and your problems are actually not privileged in their severity or pain—that is the first and most important step toward solving them.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons rejections letters are so formal (implying a greater social distance) while acceptance letters are more familiar (implying a smaller social distance). Encoding the desired relationship in the language reinforces the message.

System 2 receives questions or generates them: in either case it directs attention and searches memory to find the answers. System 1 operates differently. It continuously monitors what is going on outside and inside the mind,

That, in essence, is why the same telegram may mean something different for Watson and for Holmes. For Holmes, it triggers the expected pattern associated with a mindset that is habitually set to solve crimes. For Watson, it hardly matters and is soon trumped by the pretty sky and the chirping birds. And is that really such a surprise? In general,

Fault is past tense. Responsibility is present tense. Fault results from choices that have already been made. Responsibility results from

Well, according to former Harvard president Charles W. Eliot, There is no mystery about successful business intercourse… Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that.’

We resist the seductive luxury of registering and reacting to just a single (trigger) feature of the available information when an issue is important to us.

If this isn’t possible in your life today, start with the 3M plan: devote 15 percent of your time to a project that aligns with your core passion and purpose. Fifteen percent is about an afternoon a week, though you can easily split this into a pair of two-and-a-half-hour blocks and get similar results.