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.
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
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
“Now, here’s the deal … we don’t want to be like that moron at the gym who thinks he’s going to turn around seven years of sitting on the couch in one afternoon. Pick one area and just focus there. Start small. Go slow. Stretching and pushing ourselves too much and too quickly is a recipe for misery and anxiety.” –Tripp Lanier1 There’s a strange, old idea about how to… Read More »Boil Yourself Like a Frog: a Metaphor for Sticking with Healthy Habits