So it’s last week, Monday evening, and I’m upset. The last four hours of work have been rough, and I’m feeling frustrated and anxious and burned out. I think to myself, I need to go for a walk in the park. But then I think to myself, What’s the point? I’m in such a bad mood that it won’t help. I hesitate. I waffle. And then, reluctantly, I put on… Read More »Predicting Your Future Emotions
For the past decade, my injuries have kept me in some kind of physical pain for most of my waking hours. But am I always suffering? No. In fact, I’m generally happier than I was before I got injured. Let’s unravel this apparent paradox. Pain Does Not Equal Suffering It’s a common misconception – one that I held for most of my life – that pain is synonymous with suffering.… Read More »Suffering = Pain x Resistance
Over at Optimize.me, Brian Johnson likes to draw a distinction between two states: “energized tranquility” and “enervated anxiety.” Energized tranquility is calm determination. It’s motivation mixed with confidence and hope. Enervated anxiety is the opposite: a state of weakness, exhaustion, and worry. It’s burnout mixed with helplessness. And sadly, it’s what a lot of us feel on a regular basis. Luckily, we can change that by knowing what state we… Read More »Fire and Grace
Photo by Steven Pierson. Creative Commons 2.0. In Alexandria, Indiana, hangs a strange piece of ever-evolving art: the world’s largest ball of paint. It began in 1977 when Mike Carmichael and his three-year-old son painted a baseball. How did that turn into the world’s largest ball of paint, you ask? They never stopped painting it. They got friends and neighbors to paint it. Eventually, they enlisted strangers who happened to… Read More »Legacy, Contribution, and The World’s Largest Ball of Paint