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.
Five and a half years ago, I broke my left foot. At the time, my only sources of income were waiting tables and bartending, and my primary sources of fun were hiking and skiing, so having a broken foot was a big problem. To make matters worse, it didn’t heal very quickly. In fact, it’s still not completely healed. I have persistent pain and inflammation that limit what I can… Read More »The Gift of Big Problems
“Are you closer right now to where you want to be than you were a half-hour ago?” –Robert K. Cooper The more often the answer to this question is yes, the further you’ll make it along the path of becoming better. And the answer to this question probably depends on your answer to another: Did you spend the last half-hour with your eyes on the process? In other words, were… Read More »My New Favorite Question
Another one of the cornerstones of my approach to becoming better is cultivating helpful mindsets: Many people approach self-improvement and behavioral change with profoundly unhelpful mindsets that either sabotage their efforts or prevent them from making any effort at all. So it is essential to work on shifting from these unhelpful mindsets toward beliefs and attitudes that facilitate growth and change, success and happiness. Here are some examples: When… Read More »Helpful Mindsets
One of the cornerstones of my approach to becoming better is the use of effective strategies. You might recall last week’s post on an epic piece of wisdom from Steven Pressfield. Today, we’re focusing on the “mechanical solutions” part of that quote: “The problem is not you. The problem is the problem. It’s hard because it’s hard. The solution is mechanical. Work the problem.” –Steven Pressfield Difficult problems call for… Read More »Effective Strategies