Today, I’m offering a quick corollary to my previous post, Don’t Believe Everything You Think. The message here is simple: You are not your thoughts. Our inner experience is largely composed of thoughts. We create and listen to a running narrative of our life. We think about the past. We think about the future. We react. We judge. We wonder. We ponder. We remember. We plan. We predict. It’s easy… Read More »You Are Not Your Thoughts
Remember the feedback loop that controls your life? We’ve talked a lot about how to master the actions component of that feedback loop, and for good reason: Actions are always under our control, and actions speak louder than thoughts. But thoughts are also important, and we do have some control over them. So it’s time to start exploring the topic of developing better thoughts. What do I mean by that?… Read More »Don’t Believe Everything You Think
Behavioral change is hard. Luckily, there are strategies that make it easier. One of the best is keeping track of your effort.1 This means finding some way to record how frequently you work toward your goals. Indeed, research has shown that tracking how often you work toward your goals leads to greater progress. Effort-tracking is effective for four reasons: 1. Process Focus Effort-tracking helps you keep your eyes on the… Read More »Effort-Tracking
Cut From the Tennis Team When I was a freshman in high school, I tried out for the tennis team. I loved tennis, played regularly, and was a pretty decent player for my age. Unfortunately, the coach was a man who would probably have been more at home coaching the cross country team than the tennis team. Tryouts mostly consisted of distance running, which was not my strong suit. It’s… Read More »Is it for the Best?