There will be times in your life when it feels like you’re slipping backward faster than you’re moving forward: You fix the leaky bathroom sink, but then the water heater breaks and the check engine light goes on in your car. You get a raise, but inflation and unexpected expenses leave you worse off than you were before. You work hard to recover from shoulder surgery, but then you tear… Read More »One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
People That coworker you don’t like? Think of something good about them – a strength, an admirable trait, a positive behavior. Surely there’s something. Do this to remind yourself that absolutist thinking is flawed. Also do it to reduce your dislike of that person. Absolutely disliking them makes you unhappy and makes your relationship with them unproductive. Every interaction you have with them will be better if you can remember… Read More »Don’t Think in Absolutes
Here’s a piece of art I made this spring: Zoomed out, it looks great. The overall feel of it is exactly how I intended. It’s a two-dimensional drawing made only with straight lines, but it gives an illusion of 3-dimensional curves. But here it is zoomed in: If you get up close, you can see many imperfections in the work: places where I colored outside the lines with my Sharpie,… Read More »Don’t Sweat the Details
Here’s one of my favorite quotes of all time. It comes from Bill Bryson’s delightful book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. “Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth’s mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances… Read More »Toughness is in Your Genes