Chris Loper has been writing about self-improvement and helping busy adults with habit formation since 2017. He also writes an education blog for parents and students for Northwest Educational Services. Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the cocreator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of transformative classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families. His most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more. In 2021, Chris published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons. He lives in Issaquah, WA where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.
Francis Barlow’s illustration of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Public Domain. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is traditionally told as a story where the moral is: “Don’t lie because people won’t believe you when it matters.”1 And while that’s not a bad lesson, it’s not very profound. A more useful moral to learn from the story is: “All signals should be meaningful.” The boy cries wolf when there isn’t a… Read More »The True Meaning of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
I used to struggle mightily with emotional regulation. A slight worry with a sprinkling of stress would lead to anxious rumination and catastrophizing. A minor frustration would lead to righteous anger, which would sometimes spiral out of control into full-blown rage, followed by shame and desperate sadness. Eventually, I found the solution in one of the core tenets of Stoic philosophy. It’s a common misconception that to be a Stoic… Read More »The Key to Emotional Regulation
I recently read Hank Green’s two novels, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. Under the guise of a light sci-fi romp, these books are actually tremendously insightful. Together, they’re the best satire I’ve seen or read about the modern world, capitalism, political division, and our relationship with technology. One of the insights that stuck with me is an answer to the age-old question: Should I let go… Read More »Should You Let Go of Desire?
Here’s a piece of art I made this spring: Zoomed out, it looks great. The overall feel of it is exactly how I intended. It’s a two-dimensional drawing made only with straight lines, but it gives an illusion of 3-dimensional curves. But here it is zoomed in: If you get up close, you can see many imperfections in the work: places where I colored outside the lines with my Sharpie,… Read More »Don’t Sweat the Details