I think for so many people facing the world of self-development, self-improvement, trying to live better, it really is kind of annoying, because it’s kind of like a bunch of people telling you what to do, aand telling you that, you know, the way that you do things, you know, you may think it’s OK, […]

Got a comment from listener Veronica that made me think about a different way of looking at motivation and why we really want to have any change and self-development And it’s really like you could say a negative way of looking at it, in the sense that it’s about taking things away, clearing space. So

One of those old self-development tropes is this idea of decision fatigue. It’s like we only have a certain limited ability to actually take in all the information, consider all the relevant factors, and weigh it against our values, and somehow come up with a decision about what to do. We choose one path and

Today is my 40th birthday, and it’s kind of hard to believe that. It doesn’t quite sound right. And I think that’s the way birthdays are. It really puts a stamp on yourself with this number, a very finite number. And I’ve talked before about how when we think of our lifespan in years, it

The feeling of anxiety seems to really be connected to this question of “What if?” What if such-and-such bad thing happens? And of course, there is no end of possible what-ifs. There’s always things that might happen, and many of them are bad. So this question about “What if?”, it seems like there is no

So everybody wants to be happy. Everybody wants feelings, adventure, excitement, passion, romance, satisfaction, love, feelings of joy, feelings of ecstasy, feelings of elation, excitement. Am I starting to repeat some of these words? But we all want positive feelings. I mean, how empty would life be if we didn’t have this kind of sense,

It seems like everybody is looking for satisfaction. Everybody wants to be satisfied. And, you know, we’re being sold on this all the time, you know, looking for satisfaction, can’t get no satisfaction, this is how you can get it. Everybody’s looking for that feeling of completeness, complete comfort, complete fullness, just the feeling that

So often we find that mindset, state of mind, perspective, you know, we can really look at it as being entirely separate from the material world around us, because it really is possible to have any kind of mindset in any kind of conditions. You could be in, you know, surrounded by misery and just

I think one of the things that can maybe hold people back from self-development, from becoming stronger, developing our strength and personal autonomy and authority, is that we all start life as babies. Of course, we all begin in this helpless state where we are taken care of, hopefully, by someone else. And that’s how

The world of self-development has a whole range of fields inside it, and you know, reaching from some kind of abstract, spiritual, philosophical concepts about, you know, what is the meaning of life and what is the best way to be, and going all the way down into the nuts-and-bolts particulars of what are practical