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.
Pride is often described as bad. It’s associated with overconfidence,1 ego, and arrogance. Pride is sometimes at the root of racism and xenophobia.2 It can blind us to our shortcomings, leading to failure. “Pride cometh before the fall,” they say. But pride can also be good. Being proud of who you are helps you stand up for yourself when others put you down. Being proud of your hard work reinforces… Read More »Is Pride Good or Bad?
Long-time readers will know that I have a well-established morning routine: I perform the same self-care activities in the same order each morning. But what happens when the routine is disrupted? Well, last month, that disruption came in the form of a heel injury that demands to be iced for 20-30 minutes first thing in the morning. So I’ve been forced to adapt. Instead of starting my day with outdoor… Read More »How to Be Resilient When Your Routine is Disrupted
Anxiety and avoidance coexist in a self-reinforcing feedback loop. You feel anxious about a task, so you avoid it. But now it feels even harder to get started. And have even less time to finish. So you get more anxious, making you even more inclined to avoid the task. How do you get out of this downward spiral? It would be nice if you could snap your fingers and stop… Read More »You Won’t Feel Better Until You Start
You make what feels like a reasonable to-do list for the day, but then you only get half of it done. You carefully calculate how early you need to wake up to make it out the door on time, but then you wind up running late anyway. You tell your guests dinner will be at 6:00, but the food isn’t ready until 7:30. In each of these cases, you’ve fallen… Read More »How to Overcome the Planning Fallacy