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.
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?
This is a post about how to beat depression (and/or anxiety, addiction, and ADHD). But first, story time. [The following is drawn from the first chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.] Vivek Ranadivé was perhaps the least likely person to lead a junior basketball team to the national championships. When he agreed to coach his 12-year-old daughter’s team, Redwood… Read More »Why I Run a Full-Court Press on Myself