Category: Allgemein
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People love to blame procrastinators for their behavior. Putting off work sure looks lazy, to an untrained eye. Even the people who are actively doing the procrastinating can mistake their behavior for laziness. You’re supposed to be doing something, and you’re not doing it — that’s a moral failure right? That means you’re weak-willed, unmotivated,…
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Let’s pretend for a moment you’re giving a presentation in a room full of very important people. You want their feedback—ideally, some sign of positive approval—because you know you’re being evaluated. You look to a person in the front row. You notice their facial expression: a furrowed brow, sideways smirk, maybe a disapproving head shake.…
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Late historians Will and Ariel Durant spent four decades of their lives studying, compiling, and writing the history of Western civilization. The product of their efforts, The Complete Story of Civilization, went on to span several million words across more than 8,800 pages divided into 11 books. After finishing the last one, they took on an…
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The well-known phenomenon of “name dropping,” the casual mention of who you know, is part of the ego’s strategy of gaining a superior identity in the eyes of others and therefore in its own eyes through association with someone “important.” The bane of being famous in this world is that who you are becomes totally…
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s investigations of “optimal experience” have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. His studies led him to conclude that happiness is an internal state of being, not an external one. His popular…
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We often don’t realize that we’re suffering from burnout until it’s too late. When we push our creativity and productivity to its limits, we can easily find ourselves teetering on brink of burnout. And there’s a fine line between being in the zone and falling down the slippery slope of mental, emotional and physical exhaustion.…
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Pride is often colored by a self-view of being better than others. In particular in the art and music scene we might judge other people to make us feel better. If we pride ourselves on being fit, we might judge people who are out-of-shape. These judgmental perceptions might gratify us with an air of superiority.…
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The rise of individualism (with its focus on the self and inner feelings) and decline in social norms that accompanied the modernisation of society means that the community and the family are no longer able to provide the same support for individuals as they once did. And research has shown that being embedded in social networks…
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The key to having a choice about your emotional behavior is to be aware of the fact that you are becoming emotional. With a calm mind, you are more likely to be able to act by rational choice and appropriately to the situation. When you are in a grip of an emotion, that’s going to bias your…
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Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate?…
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“We’re all our own worst critics.” Ever heard that one before? Yes, it’s an obnoxious cliché, but it’s not just self-help fluff. Evolutionary psychologists have studied our natural “negativity bias,” which is that instinct in us all that makes negative experiences seem more significant than they really are. In other words: We’ve evolved to give…
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In a particularly low moment a few years back, after arriving friendless and lonely from Britain to live in the United States, I downloaded a “happiness app” onto my phone. It was surprisingly hard to choose one. There were close to a thousand bliss-promising options in the app store — ones that would teach you…
Mental Support for Creative Minds 