Better's Blinkist

Release your vital energy: be active and get rid of energy guzzlers.

But what generates energy? It may sound banal, but it’s true: enough sleep, a balanced diet and physical activity. A lack of sleep weakens our immune systems and memories and slows down our metabolism. Outdoor activities, by contrast, raise our energy level and help us improve our thinking. It’s been proven that light is good for the psyche and stimulates the production of serotonin and dopamine, two hormones responsible for feelings of happiness

3 December, 2019 08:47 Share

Thoroughly sorting things out is extraordinarily satisfying because disorderly clutter – whether literal or figurative – always wears us down.

3 December, 2019 08:47 Share

True wisdom is knowing how to live a simple life in accordance with nature.

Nature’s plan for us is to live simply, to abstain from worldly pleasures and the desires that drive us to accumulate vast fortunes, gorge ourselves on food and desperately seek fame and fortune. Wisdom allows us to see that. Living in accordance with nature also means confronting the fears that emerge when we look upon the natural cycle of life, in which loss and death are inevitable.

29 July, 2019 11:57 Share

Philosophy is the key that unlocks wisdom and happiness.

Or consider geometry. It lets us measure everything from the distance between two stars to the size of our estates. But it offers no insight into why a man who has lost every acre of his estate can still smile in the face of the world. If you want to measure a soul, you’ll need to turn to philosophy.

29 July, 2019 12:02 Share

What is philosophy? Simply put, it’s the study of truth in the world that surrounds us and the world of the divine; in other words, philosophy is the key to the good life and virtuous living.

29 July, 2019 12:03 Share

Don’t just study any old way, do it properly!

Casually perusing lots of different authors will only give you a superficial understanding of their ideas. Think of it like dashing around the world and never staying very long in any one place. You’ll return home with hundreds of fleeting impressions and a ton of new acquaintances – but very few true friends.

29 July, 2019 12:03 Share

Simply repeating what Plato or Zeno have to say on a given topic might be a good way for children to learn, but it’s not enough for adults. Mature learning is active – you gain your own knowledge. Great philosophers can help you with this, but in the end, you’ll have to take leave of them as well, as you forge your own path. This means comparing their insights and drawing your own conclusions. Once you start doing that, you’re already contributing to philosophical knowledge about the world.

29 July, 2019 12:04 Share

What’s in it for me? Learn how to work around your neurological wiring.

Like poker, life-changing decisions are largely based on luck. But calling it all "luck" is a bit disingenuous – it’s more like a game of probabilities. What’s more, the decisions we make are linked to the ways our brains are neurologically wired. So what can you control? Well, probably more than you think.

9 September, 2019 07:25 Share

Human minds tend to confuse decisions with their outcomes, which makes it hard to see mistakes clearly.

decisions are rarely 100 percent right or wrong. Life isn’t like that. Life is like poker, a game of incomplete information – since you never know what cards the other players are holding – and luck. Our decision-making is like poker players’ bets. We bet on future outcomes based on what we believe is most likely to occur. So why not look at it this way? If our decisions are bets, we can start to let go of the idea that we’re 100 percent "right" or "wrong," and start to say, "I’m not sure." This opens us up to thinking in terms of probability, which is far more useful.

9 September, 2019 07:26 Share

If we want to seek out truth, we have to work around our hardwired tendency to believe what we hear.

The good news is, we can work around our tendencies with a simple phrase: "Wanna bet?"If we were betting on our beliefs, we’d work a lot harder to confirm their validity. If someone bets you $100 that a statement you made was false, it changes your thinking about the statement right away. It triggers you to look more closely at the belief in question, and motivates you to be objectively accurate. This isn’t just about money. Whenever there’s something riding on the accuracy of our beliefs, we’re less likely to make absolute statements and more likely to validate those beliefs

9 August, 2019 08:09 Share

And as easily as beliefs are formed, they’re equally hard to change. When we believe something, we try to reinforce it with motivated reasoning. That is, we seek out evidence that confirms our belief, and ignore or work against anything contradictory. After all, everyone wants to think well of themselves, and being wrong feels bad. So information that contradicts our beliefs can feel like a threat.

9 September, 2019 07:30 Share

We can learn a lot from outcomes, but it’s difficult to know which have something to teach us.

The best way to learn is often by reviewing our mistakes. Likewise, if we want to improve our future outcomes, we’ll have to do some outcome fielding. Outcome fielding is looking at outcomes to see what we can learn from them.

9 August, 2019 08:10 Share

We can try to circumvent self-serving bias by looking at other people’s outcomes. But in that case, it just operates in reverse: we blame their successes on luck and their failures on bad decisions.

9 August, 2019 08:10 Share

Some outcomes we can attribute to luck and forget about – they were out of our control anyway. It’s the outcomes that seem to have resulted primarily from our decisions that we should learn from. After analyzing those decisions, we can refine and update any beliefs that led to our initial bet.

9 August, 2019 08:12 Share

Most outcomes result from a mix of skill, luck, and unknown information. That’s why we often make errors in our fielding. Knowing how much of each is involved is tricky. Plus we’re all subject to self-serving bias. We like to take credit for good outcomes and blame bad outcomes on something or someone else.

9 September, 2019 07:32 Share

To become more objective about outcomes, we need to change our habits.

That’s where Phil Ivey excels. His poker habits are built around truth-seeking and accurate outcome fielding rather than self-serving bias. The author mentions a 2004 poker tournament in which Ivey mopped the floor with his competitors, then spent a celebratory dinner afterward picking apart his play and seeking opinions about what he might have done better.

9 August, 2019 08:12 Share

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have habits as good as Phil Ivey’s, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work with what we’ve got. One way we can improve the way we field outcomes is to think about them in terms of – you guessed it – bets.

9 September, 2019 07:33 Share

Let’s say we got into a car accident on an icy stretch of road. It might be that we were unlucky, that’s all. But would that explanation satisfy you if you had to bet on it? Chances are, you’d start to consider other explanations, just to be sure. Maybe you were driving too fast, or maybe you should have pumped your brakes differently. Once the stakes are raised, we start to look into the causes a little more seriously, to help us move beyond self-serving bias and become more objective.

9 September, 2019 07:34 Share

We can improve our decision-making by being part of a group, but it needs to be the right kind of group.

We’ve all got blind spots, which makes truth-seeking hard. But it’s a little easier when we enlist the help of a group. After all, others can often pick out our errors more easily than we can. But to be effective, a group dedicated to examining decisions isn’t like any other. It has to have a clear focus, a commitment to objectivity and open-mindedness, and a clear charter that all members understand.

13 October, 2019 05:45 Share

To work together productively, a group needs CUDOS.

Centuries ago, the Catholic church put this into practice by hiring individuals to argue against sainthood during the canonization process – that’s where we get the phrase "devil’s advocate."

13 October, 2019 05:47 Share

To make better decisions, we need to spend some time in the future.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld describes himself as a "Night Guy." He likes to stay up late at night and doesn’t worry about getting by on too little sleep. That’s Morning Jerry’s problem, not Night Jerry. No wonder Morning Jerry hates Night Jerry so much – Night Jerry always screws him over. It’s a funny description, but temporal discounting – making decisions that favor our immediate desires at the expense of our future self – is something we all do.

13 October, 2019 05:47 Share

We can get around this with backcasting, imagining a future in which everything has worked out, and our goals have been achieved, and then asking, "How did we get there?" This leads to imagining the decisions that have led us to success and also recognizing when our desired outcome requires some unlikely things to happen. If that’s the case, we can either adjust our goals or figure out how to make those things more likely. Conversely, we can perform premortems on our decisions. Premortems are when we imagine that we’ve failed and ask, "What went wrong?" This helps us identify the possibilities that backcasting might have missed. Over more than 20 years of research, NYU psychology professor Gabrielle Oettingen has consistently found that people who imagine the obstacles to their goals, rather than achieving those goals, are more likely to succeed.

13 October, 2019 05:48 Share

Final summary

You might not be a gambler, but that’s no reason not to think in bets. Whether or not there’s money involved, bets make us take a harder look at how much certainty there is in the things we believe, consider alternatives and stay open to changing our minds for the sake of accuracy. So let go of "right" and "wrong" when it’s decision time, accept that things are always somewhat uncertain and make the best bet you can.

13 October, 2019 05:48 Share

What’s in it for me? Learn to think your way to success.

The world’s most successful people have one thing in common: they aren’t afraid to think outside the box and carve out their own path. But the journey along that road can be lonely. After all, we’re a sociable species by nature. We like fitting in, and the price of social acceptance is falling in with accepted ideas. Going against the grain, questioning common notions and striking out on your own isn’t likely to win you many friends.

27 January, 2020 07:08 Share

That goes to show just how important creative thinking and tenacity are when it comes to success. But, as John C. Maxwell shows, you don’t have to be an Einstein or Galileo to have great ideas. In fact, everyone can learn to think creatively – all it takes is knowing the right techniques and a bit of practice!

27 January, 2020 07:09 Share

Big picture thinkers are constantly learning and know how to empathize with others.

The author has a handy technique that puts him in the right mindset to do that: he starts his day by looking at his schedule and asking himself what learning opportunities are likely to present themselves. Once he’s noted down the activities that are most likely to teach him something, he mentally primes himself to be on high alert. That means he’s much more likely to be receptive to what’s going on around him.

8 August, 2019 09:18 Share

That’s something you can take up too: spend a couple of minutes each morning looking over your itinerary and ask yourself what opportunities to learn new things you’re likely to encounter. Making an effort to become a big picture thinker is important because it gives you a window into how other people see the world. In other words, it makes you more empathetic.

8 August, 2019 09:19 Share

That’s something you can take up too: spend a couple of minutes each morning looking over your itinerary and ask yourself what opportunities to learn new things you’re likely to encounter. Making an effort to become a big picture thinker is important because it gives you a window into how other people see the world. In other words, it makes you more empathetic.

27 January, 2020 07:10 Share

Set and achieve clear targets by thinking realistically and making sure you do your homework.

What is reality? Don’t worry, this isn’t a philosophy lecture! In fact, there’s a pretty simple answer: reality is the difference between your desires and how the world actually is. If you want to succeed in the real world, you have to leave your daydreams behind and start thinking realistically. That means setting targets and drawing up a game plan that’ll put you in a position to hit them.

27 January, 2020 07:10 Share

It’s important to clear your mind of all preconceptions, prejudices and second-hand opinions when you’re doing this kind of background work. Instead of making assumptions, get to know the facts yourself. Chances are, you’re not the only person facing this particular situation. Your thinking needs to be solid, it doesn’t have to be original. You can learn a lot by looking at what other people have done in similar circumstances

27 January, 2020 07:11 Share

Increase your options and make yourself more attractive by embracing creative thinking.

The first point to remember is that creativity doesn’t just mean having lots of original ideas – you can start thinking creatively by simply considering a greater number of options.

8 August, 2019 09:23 Share

The reason that’s so important is that the best thinkers aren’t looking for the only answer – they’re looking for the best answer out of many. The added bonus? It’ll help you craft a backup plan in case your preferred solution doesn’t work out.

8 August, 2019 09:23 Share

Set your mind free and explore your creativity in your own field and you’ll find that people will be irresistibly drawn to you!

8 August, 2019 09:24 Share

The first point to remember is that creativity doesn’t just mean having lots of original ideas – you can start thinking creatively by simply considering a greater number of options.

27 January, 2020 07:16 Share

So if you’ve got a great idea, ask yourself what changes you could make to improve it. Think of it like a fishing net – the wider you cast it, the more fish you’re likely to catch. The reason that’s so important is that the best thinkers aren’t looking for the only answer – they’re looking for the best answer out of many. The added bonus? It’ll help you craft a backup plan in case your preferred solution doesn’t work out.

27 January, 2020 07:16 Share

Think unselfishly and you’ll make yourself part of something bigger.

Adopting new modes of thinking boosts your chances of success, but there’s also a way of thinking about the world that can change your entire life: unselfish thinking.

8 August, 2019 09:24 Share

helping others is hugely rewarding. In fact, few things are anywhere near as fulfilling. Spend a day serving others unselfishly and you’re pretty much guaranteed a sound night’s sleep.

8 August, 2019 09:24 Share

The paper mainly talked about how the inventor’s most famous brainchild – dynamite – had been responsible for so many deaths. Nobel was appalled at the idea that this was how people would regard his legacy. Wracked by guilt, he decided to make a more positive contribution to the world by supporting peace.

8 August, 2019 09:25 Share

The lesson here is that it’s always better to be part of something fantastic than aiming to be fantastic yourself.

8 August, 2019 09:26 Share

Popular thinking is often wrongheaded – disregard it if you want to get the best outcomes.

It’s easy to get caught up in the crowd and thoughtlessly accept other people’s ideas about the world. That applies as much to business leaders falling in line with a company’s traditions as it does to new parents acting on the old wives’ tales their parents told them.

8 August, 2019 09:27 Share

But how do you break your habit of relying on others’ assumptions? A good place to start is cultivating the habit of thinking things through for yourself before following others. Once you start considering what’s best rather than what’s popular

8 August, 2019 09:28 Share

But how do you break your habit of relying on others’ assumptions? A good place to start is cultivating the habit of thinking things through for yourself before following others. Once you start considering what’s best rather than what’s popular, you’ll already be well on the way to success.

8 August, 2019 09:28 Share

Boost your thinking process by collaborating with others, whoever they are.

Whether learning a new recipe, putting the finishing touches on that golf swing or mastering a new piece of software, you’ve got a much better chance of getting the hang of things if you learn from someone with experience. Collaboration is the mother of innovation

8 August, 2019 09:30 Share

Well, as the author of How to Become CEO Jeffrey J. Fox puts it, you have to be on constant high alert for good ideas, regardless of how likely or unlikely the source is. That means dropping prejudices and really listening to people. The next great idea might come from your taxi driver or your children. The point is that you’ll never know unless you’re receptive

8 August, 2019 09:31 Share

Just as important is striving to adopt a mentality based on collaboration rather than competition. Cooperation happens when your aim is to complete the ideas of others, rather than one-up them.

8 August, 2019 09:31 Share

Final summary

Leading a happy, fulfilled life is about learning to think collaboratively and unselfishly. It’s about asking what you can do for and with others rather than simply trying to get ahead yourself. That means opening your mind to creativity and avoiding following the crowd. Once you start doing that, you’ll be mentally prepared for success.

8 August, 2019 09:31 Share

What’s in it for me? Discover the secret to happiness and success.

In fact, happiness – far from being the result of all your hard work – is actually one of the tools you can use to increase your performance, and thus your quality of life.

23 April, 2019 01:29 Share

Traditional psychology focuses on the negatives without seeing the positives.

traditional psychology aims to bring people back up to what is considered the average level of happiness or fulfillment.

23 April, 2019 01:33 Share

the problem with this approach is that, in our obsession with averages, we ultimately can’t move beyond that point into excellence. By improving only in the areas where you are lacking, you miss out on opportunities to surpass the average.

23 April, 2019 01:33 Share

This is important, because one student who isn’t depressed is also the one who’s most likely to succeed – both in school and later at work.

23 April, 2019 01:34 Share

Positive psychology investigates what it is that makes people excel, with the ultimate goal of applying that knowledge and thereby raising the average.

23 April, 2019 01:34 Share

After living among Harvard students for 12 years and traveling all over the world trying to figure out what lifts people above average, the author found that successful people are successful because of their specific interpretation of reality.

23 April, 2019 01:35 Share

his experience of students in Soweto, South Africa revealed the vast majority to be delighted with their studies as they saw schoolwork as a challenge and a privilege

23 April, 2019 01:35 Share

Success revolves around happiness, not the other way around.

the truth is that happiness is highly subjective, relative to the individual experiencing it

25 April, 2019 10:49 Share

when we feel good and have a positive mindset, we are smarter, feel more motivated and enjoy more success

25 April, 2019 10:49 Share

In terms of neurobiology, this is quite obvious. When we experience positive emotions, our brains become flooded with dopamine and serotonin – chemicals that both make us feel good and boost the parts of our brains responsible for learning by organizing new information, retaining it and more efficiently recalling it later on

25 April, 2019 10:50 Share

happiness leads to success in nearly every domain of our lives – from relationships to jobs, health and creativity.

25 April, 2019 10:50 Share

seven principles you can adopt to increase your happiness and thus your performance and success.

25 April, 2019 10:50 Share

The "Happiness Advantage" will give you a performance edge.

Researchers found that those who started out happier also ended up receiving better evaluations and higher pay later on.

25 April, 2019 10:51 Share

Researchers found that those who started out happier also ended up receiving better evaluations and higher pay later on.

25 April, 2019 10:51 Share

Interestingly, these successful people don’t see happiness as a reward for their hard work and accomplishments. Rather, they are successful precisely because of their positive mindsets, which allow them to make the most of their lives.

25 April, 2019 10:52 Share

the truth is that anyone can achieve the Happiness Advantage. It’s simply a matter of attitude and consistency.

25 April, 2019 10:53 Share

showing appreciation for the small crumbs of positivity scattered throughout life. These include things like short but pleasant conversations with friends or even watching a funny video.

25 April, 2019 10:53 Share

research shows that the brains of monks who spend years meditating tend to exhibit growth in the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for feeling happy.

25 April, 2019 10:53 Share

Research shows that the most enjoyable part of an activity is not the activity itself, but the anticipation. So, just thinking about your next vacation can raise your endorphin levels by 27 percent.

25 April, 2019 10:54 Share

Enhance your performance by enhancing your mindset.

You can take advantage of the fact that your brain’s resources are limited. Your brain has to decide whether to allocate its resources towards experiencing pain, negativity and stress or using those same resources to experience things like hope, optimism and meaning

9 June, 2019 08:21 Share

When they were then tested in physical strength, posture, perception, cognition and short-term memory, the majority of participants improved in every category! In essence, by changing their mindset, they changed their ability to perform. The same thing occurs with happiness: having a positive mindset can lead to true happiness and increased performance. Indeed, the more you believe in your ability to succeed, the more likely that you will.

9 June, 2019 08:22 Share

Train your brain to look for the positive over the negative.

This obsession is now known as the Tetris effect. This effect comes in two variations: The first is the negative Tetris effect. This occurs when your brain gets stuck in patterns that hurt your chances at success. For instance, tax auditors, whose work focuses around finding mistakes, have the tendency to only see the weaknesses in their colleagues rather than their strengths. This contrasts with the positive Tetris effect, whereby your brain has been trained to look for opportunities that increase success. Basically, the more positivity your brain experiences, the more optimistic you will become. You should therefore actively seek positive experiences, as studies have shown that optimistic people set more difficult goals and put in more effort to attaining those goals than their pessimistic counterparts.

9 June, 2019 08:23 Share

Fall up by turning negative momentum into positive momentum.

After a crisis or adversity, your mind follows one of three paths: • The negative event produces no change, and you end where you started. • Further negative consequences. You end up worse after the event; this path is why we are afraid of conflict and challenge • The Third Path: use adversity and failure to become even stronger and more capable than before. Finding the Third Path is the difference between those who become frozen by failure and those who surge above it. This is because people are not defined by the events that happen to them, but rather what they are able to produce from those events.

9 June, 2019 08:26 Share

Gaining control and focusing on little changes is how you can make the greatest improvements.

One way is to put your negative emotions into words. Write down what you’re feeling, or talk about it with someone you trust. Brain scans show that putting your negative emotions into words diminishes their power, and is ultimately the first step in regaining control. At this point, you can push forward by concentrating on small goals. As you accumulate resources, knowledge and confidence, you’ll be able to accomplish even greater goals.

9 June, 2019 08:28 Share

Willpower alone cannot affect change – instead, try to minimize barriers and form good habits.

So how do we establish – and sustain – good habits? It all boils down to reducing activation energy, the physical and mental energy needed to overcome inaction. What does activation energy look like in action? Think about the writing exercise from our previous blink, in which you make a list of positive things that have happened to you in the last 24 hours. You can reduce your activation energy by keeping an open notebook and a pen on your nightstand. If you want to get better at guitar, buy a guitar stand so you won’t complain about having to take it out of the closet and out of the case to start playing. Or hide your pack of cigarettes from yourself if you want to smoke less. These are simple, 20-second changes, but they can make a huge difference in your lifestyle.

9 June, 2019 08:31 Share

Social support is one of your greatest assets.

Successful people, however, know that their social relationships are valuable investment. Social interactions fill us with positivity, and as we strengthen our relationships over time, we raise our happiness baseline. For instance, at the office, your team will see better results when more team members invest in social unity. Even the tiniest interactions around the water cooler can trigger happiness.

9 June, 2019 08:31 Share

some leaders believe that they don’t have time for socializing with their employees, that they’ll lose authority or that there should be a clear distinction between work and friendship. But research at MIT has found that employees with strong bonds with their managers produce more profit than those with weaker bonds. So, if you’re in a position of leadership, take the time to introduce new members of your team to everyone – even to different departments – or do things like scheduling team lunches. Most importantly: show gratitude. This is the most effective way to create bonds, so take time in the day to recognize someone for their accomplishments. Make sure this recognition is personal and especially in front of others if possible, like at a monthly meeting.

9 June, 2019 08:32 Share

You have the power to share your happiness with the world.

Neuroscience explains this unconscious adoption of behavior with mirror neurons. These cause you to imitate the behavior of others or experience what you believe they’re experiencing. For instance, when you see someone on TV hit their knee, you immediately cringe and grab yours as if you were in pain. The same thing applies for your mindset: if you feel anxious or otherwise negative, it’s likely that this will cause your colleagues to feel the same way. Of course the opposite is true as well: the happier you are, the happier everyone around you will be.

9 June, 2019 08:33 Share

Negotiation occurs in every aspect of life – and there’s more to it than rationality and intellect.

t’s more than just mathematical logic and a keen intellect. That’s because humans aren’t always rational; they often fail to act on the basis of logic or reason. To make matters more complicated, humans aren’t always predictable either. People often act based on their animal nature, which is irrational, spontaneous and a bit wild.

13 October, 2019 08:42 Share

Successful negotiation is about building trust and getting information.

Looking back on the situation, the author realizes that the robber only spread this misinformation to confuse the author and his colleagues, buying himself time to plot his escape.

13 October, 2019 08:40 Share

Closely listening to and even repeating what your counterpart says can build trust.

The first is called mirroring, which essentially means repeating what your counterpart says but with an inquisitive tone. Just consider the Manhattan bank robbery negotiation from the previous blink. The robber in that situation, Chris Watts, made continual demands for a vehicle. He mentioned that his own car was gone as his driver had fled.

13 October, 2019 08:43 Share

Largely because it makes the other person feel that you’re similar to him. After all, your counterpart is only human and will naturally be drawn to similarities. That’s because, just like other animals, people like to be in groups with similar traits. Doing so gives us a sense of belonging and forges trust. This is powerful in a negotiation: when your counterpart starts to trust you, he will become more likely to talk and find a solution.

13 October, 2019 08:43 Share

One group of waiters was asked to use mirroring while the other was asked to utilize positive reinforcement through phrases like "no problem" and "great." In the end, the waiters who mirrored the orders made by customers received much higher tips, earning 70 per cent more than the other group.

13 October, 2019 08:44 Share

The tone of your voice can do wonders for negotiation.

For instance, if the other party is likely to become upset or nervous, you should employ a deep but soft voice, or what the author has called your Late-Night FM DJ voice. By being slow and reassuring, this tone is sure to have a profound effect on the other person.

13 October, 2019 08:44 Share

After all, it’ll comfort him, making him more likely to share the information you’re looking for. At a certain point during the bank robbery negotiation, the author had to take over communication with the robber from his colleague, Joe. To prevent Watts from growing upset or nervous due to the shift, the author told him in a deep, calm voice that Joe was out and he was in. It was put forward in such a downward-inflecting manner, radiating calmness and reason, that Watts didn’t even flinch.

13 October, 2019 08:44 Share

While on vacation in Istanbul, a colleague of the author’s was amazed by his girlfriend’s ability to cut great deals with backstreet spice merchants. He soon realized that she always pushed for better prices, but did so in a playful, positive way. While the merchants were themselves skilled bargainers, her approach drew them in, convincing them to give her a better deal. Try this yourself, when you’re at a store or market!

13 October, 2019 08:45 Share

Understand and state the emotions of your counterpart to position yourself effectively in a negotiation.

Rather than ignoring emotions, you have to combine them with empathy to your tactical advantage. However, being empathetic doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with the other person. It just means attempting to see his perspective. This is where tactical empathy comes into play; it refers to using your understanding of your counterpart’s perspective to better position yourself in the negotiation.One technique to do so is called labeling. It simply refers to telling your counterpart that you understand and acknowledge both his position and feelings.

13 October, 2019 08:45 Share

Lieberman showed participants pictures of people expressing a strong emotion, thereby activating their amygdalas, the brain area responsible for fear. However, when the same participants were asked to state what emotions they saw, their brains experienced activity in the areas related to rational thinking.

13 October, 2019 08:46 Share

The author figured out what they were feeling and then labeled those feelings; he told them that he knew they didn’t want to leave the apartment, that they were worried that if they opened the door, they would be shot and that they must be scared of going back to prison.After six hours of dead silence, the fugitives surrendered and later told the author that he had calmed them down. In other words, his labeling had worked. He simply understood and acknowledged their emotions, reaching a favorable outcome in the process.

13 October, 2019 08:46 Share

Don’t accept the other party’s demands, don’t compromise, and don’t rush.

Have you ever been in such a hurry to settle a dispute that you ended up unhappy with the final result? Nobody wants that, and it’s crucial to remember that accepting a bad deal or even compromising is always a mistake. This is called splitting the difference, and you’ve got to avoid it at all costs.

13 October, 2019 08:47 Share

For the same reason, it’s essential to take your time, even when your counterpart sets deadlines. Remember, your job is to learn about the other party and, if you’re pressed for time, chances are your judgment will be clouded. It’s important that you avoid this. It can help to remember that most deadlines are flexible and relatively random.

13 October, 2019 08:47 Share

Final summary

In one respect, negotiation is just like war: it’s crucial to know your enemy. That’s why you should always let your counterpart make the first offer. That being said, you should also be prepared for this initial offer to be extreme. In fact, it’s entirely normal for first offers to be far afield of your expectations. Just keep in mind that this only represents the limit for your counterpart and you can almost certainly get a much better deal.

13 October, 2019 08:48 Share

Rein in your ego by reminding yourself that there’s always more to learn.

This is a strategy applied by martial-arts expert Frank Shamrock. He believes that in order stay humble, fighters must not only learn from the very best and train with peers at their skill level, but should also dedicate time to training beginners. This allows fighters to see the full spectrum of skill levels in their sport, while also keeping their ego in check.

27 July, 2019 07:29 Share

"It is impossible to learn that which one thinks one already knows

27 July, 2019 07:31 Share

Pride makes us deaf to warnings and blind to things we could improve.

Proud people are very prone to becoming defensive – or even aggressive – if someone tells them they aren’t as special as they think they are, because their ego rests on this falsehood.

27 July, 2019 07:32 Share

While visiting his hometown of Boston, one of the town’s most respected figures, Cotton Mather, called out to him, shouting "Stoop! Stoop!" Franklin seemed to think he was above this gesture and ignored him, which was a foolish move – he walked straight into a low door-frame, knocking his head painfully!

27 July, 2019 07:33 Share

If we want to see past the blinkers of pride, we should consider, in every situation, how someone more humble would perceive things

27 July, 2019 07:33 Share

Keep your ego in check by learning to delegate tasks and trust your team.

Many of us tend to hoard tasks we should really be delegating. Why? Because our ego tells us that we’re the only ones who can do them right. By practicing delegation, you’ll force yourself to trust and respect the work of others. You’ll learn that other people’s time might actually be put to better use on the tasks that you used to do, and you’ll also see how useful your time can be when dedicated to new things.

27 July, 2019 07:33 Share

In his new company, he eschewed the stable top-down responsibility structures that made GM thrive. Instead, DeLorean – and his ego – had to have a say in every single decision, a dictatorial style of management that was unsustainable, to say the least. DeLorean’s endeavor eventually failed, ending in bankruptcy.

27 July, 2019 07:34 Share

We owe much of our success to others, and shouldn’t hog the praise for ourselves.

From the accountants who gave you the numbers for that winning presentation to the designer who made those striking infographics, thanking those who help you along the way will strengthen your own position. Your team will enjoy working with you and will perform better, and you’ll continue attracting new coworkers, too.

27 July, 2019 07:35 Share

When you do your best and things don’t work out, find out why so you can do better next time.

Sometimes, we don’t get a promotion or close a sure deal, even though we did our best. So how do we confront this? Rather than feeling disappointed, we can start by acknowledging the work we’ve done and recognize that we can’t always control the outcome of that work, or people’s opinions of us. An unexpected result should be welcomed as an opportunity to honestly reflect on our performance.

27 July, 2019 07:36 Share

Your brain is great at thinking but terrible at remembering things.

Knowledge workers in particular spend their days juggling dozens of tasks and projects at once, while being constantly bombarded by still more. To survive this onslaught, most people cram everything into their heads, trying to keep important information, appointments and upcoming tasks "on their mind." Unfortunately, this approach squanders the brain’s wonderful capacity to think by cluttering it up with a jumble of information.

18 December, 2019 01:13 Share

These are open loops – they haven’t been brought to closure – and your brain will constantly remind you about them, whether you want it to or not. This is distracting; you can’t possible focus properly when thoughts like "Remember to pay this month’s electricity bill" keep interrupting your flow.

18 December, 2019 01:13 Share

To fully implement the GTD system, you need the right workplace, tools and filing system.

You’ll also want to set up identical workspaces at home and in the office so you can be equally effective in both. If you spend a lot of time in transit, you may want to think about a mobile setup that lets you get things done even while on the road. Never share workspaces with anyone, not even your partner, because you don’t want to have to spend time setting up your workspace to your liking every time you arrive at it.

18 December, 2019 01:18 Share

Of course, in your digital system, you can also search for the information, but it still makes sense to have the information organized in a way that is helpful. Last but not least, make sure you purge your files at least once a year to avoid the system becoming a bloated mess. This purge not only makes the system more usable, it also gives you peace of mind since you know that you can file things away even if you’re not sure you’ll need them, because you’ll be doing some house-cleaning later when you can throw things away.

18 December, 2019 01:20 Share

What’s in it for me? Live your life in accordance with your purpose.

In order to perform to our best, i.e., at full engagement, we need to focus not on squeezing more into our limited hours but finding ways to do more with the time we have. To accomplish this, we need to shift our focus to managing our energy, not our time.

9 September, 2019 10:40 Share

In order to increase performance, we need to focus on managing our energy rather than our time.

try maximizing your energy (and therefore your productivity) by working less and taking lots of breaks. These breaks give you a chance to recharge your energy levels, thus allowing you to stay productive for more time. By focusing on managing our energy level rather than trying to cram 48 hours into a single day, we not only become more efficient, but also have energy left for our private lives.

9 September, 2019 10:41 Share

We can reach full engagement by maximizing all four of our energy levels.

In order to perform at our peak and feel our very best, we must maximize each of these energy levels, especially the physical and emotional ones. In fact, physical and emotional energy are our most fundamental sources of energy: without either, we would simply be too exhausted and deflated to accomplish anything.

9 September, 2019 10:42 Share

In order to maintain energy levels we need to train our energetic muscles and give them time to recover.

recovery is an integral part of sustaining high levels of energy and thus high performance. Indeed, all organisms must recharge their batteries by following life-sustaining rhythms, i.e., patterns of behavior that help them stay alive and kicking. For humans, this includes the need to rest every 90 to 120 minutes.

9 September, 2019 10:43 Share

To reach your full potential, you must develop and maintain good physical energy.

Our physical energy capacity is dependent upon how we eat, sleep and recover. Since the fundamental source of our physical energy comes from food, we should therefore look for foods that maximize our energy capacity, such as nuts, leafy green vegetables and yogurt. These foods provide the slow release of energy to our bodies, thus providing us with more sustainable energy. Drinking enough water is equally as important – in fact, muscles dehydrated by only 3 percent lose around 10 percent of their strength!

9 September, 2019 10:43 Share

In order to maintain positive emotional energy levels, never neglect what you enjoy or your physical health.

prioritizing work over play can have powerful negative consequences

9 September, 2019 10:44 Share

Training your mental energy helps you stay focused and creative at the same time.

At work, we overwork our left hemisphere by constantly carrying out mundane tasks while neglecting the visually stimulated right hemisphere. However, once we relax or do something enjoyable, our left hemisphere has a chance to rest while we work our right hemisphere. If we want to unlock our creative potential, we need to give both hemispheres a workout without over-exerting either, and thereby employ all our creative capacity.

9 September, 2019 10:46 Share

Creativity requires the work of the brain’s two hemispheres: the left hemisphere is used for logical, linear thinking, and the right is more visual and can see "the big picture."

9 September, 2019 10:46 Share

Spiritual energy is the source for motivation, derived from committing to others as well as ourselves.

Looking back to the smoker: although kicking the habit can be excruciating under normal circumstances, smokers who become pregnant find it much easier to quit. Why? Because they have the health of their child to think about. In other words, they have a source of motivation (or spiritual energy) that compels them to act more positively outside of their own self-interest.

9 September, 2019 10:47 Share

To live at full engagement, you must find a positive and intrinsically motivating purpose.

This was exemplified in one study where children were observed while playing as a way to assess what they most enjoyed doing. Surprisingly, when they were rewarded each time they engaged in their preferred activity, their interest in that activity suddenly – and rapidly – diminished.

9 September, 2019 10:47 Share

We have to connect to our deepest values to fuel the energy which gives our lives purpose.

Another strategy is to reflect on someone you deeply respect and ask yourself: What are the qualities you most admire about him or her? Those can be your values. Our values should ultimately serve as guideposts for every action we take and decision we make. When our values don’t guide our choices, the values themselves are meaningless.

9 September, 2019 10:48 Share

You should therefore aim to achieve spiritual alignment, i.e., the point at which you truly "walk the walk" and your values are evident in every aspect of your life. One way to help us towards this goal is to remind ourselves of our values every day by formulating them as a vision statement that tells us how to invest our energy such that we serve our values.

9 September, 2019 10:48 Share

Rituals are powerful tools to effectively manage energy capacity.

But rituals don’t only conserve energy: designing positive rituals helps us to live in accordance with our values and perform at our very best. But how can we form these rituals? One way is to use a technique called priming: every time you’re tempted by something "bad," do something "good" instead.

9 September, 2019 10:50 Share

Of two minds: how our behavior is determined by two different systems – one automatic and the other considered.

System 1 is the part of our brain that operates intuitively and suddenly, often without our conscious control. You can experience this system at work when you hear a very loud and unexpected sound. What do you do? You probably immediately and automatically shift your attention toward the sound. That’s System 1.

28 January, 2020 03:25 Share

System 2 is what we think of when we visualize the part of the brain responsible for our individual decision-making, reasoning and beliefs. It deals with conscious activities of the mind such as self-control, choices and more deliberate focus of attention.

28 January, 2020 03:26 Share

The lazy mind: how laziness can lead to errors and affect our intelligence.

What happened was that your impulsive System 1 took control and automatically answered by relying on intuition. But it answered too fast.

28 January, 2020 03:26 Share

This laziness is unfortunate, because using System 2 is an important aspect of our intelligence. Research shows that practicing System-2 tasks, like focus and self-control, lead to higher intelligence scores. The bat-and-ball problem illustrates this, as our minds could have checked the answer by using System 2 and thereby avoided making this common error

28 January, 2020 03:27 Share

Autopilot: why we are not always in conscious control of our thoughts and actions.

What do you think when you see the word fragment "SO_P"? Probably nothing. What if you first consider the word "EAT"? Now, when you look again at the word "SO_P," you would probably complete it as "SOUP." This process is known as priming.

8 October, 2019 06:00 Share

Priming, just like other societal elements, can influence an individual's thoughts and therefore choices, judgment and behavior – and these reflect back into the culture and heavily affect the kind of society we all live in.

8 October, 2019 06:04 Share

Incredibly, the priming of actions and thoughts is completely unconscious; we do it without realizing. What priming therefore shows is that despite what many argue, we are not always in conscious control of our actions, judgments and choices. We are instead being constantly primed by certain social and cultural conditions.

28 January, 2020 03:28 Share

Priming, just like other societal elements, can influence an individual's thoughts and therefore choices, judgment and behavior – and these reflect back into the culture and heavily affect the kind of society we all live in.

28 January, 2020 03:28 Share

Snap judgments: how the mind makes quick choices, even when it lacks enough information to make a rational decision.

In other words, you liked one aspect of Ben’s character, and so you assumed you would like everything else about him. We often approve or disapprove of a person even when we know little about them. Our mind’s tendency to oversimplify things without sufficient information often leads to judgment errors. This is called exaggerated emotional coherence, also known as the halo effect: positive feelings about Ben’s approachability cause you to place a halo on Ben, even though you know very little about him.

28 January, 2020 03:29 Share

The halo effect and confirmation bias both occur because our minds are eager to make quick judgments. But this often leads to mistakes, because we don’t always have enough data to make an accurate call. Our minds rely on false suggestions and oversimplifications to fill in the gaps in the data, leading us to potentially wrong conclusions. Like priming, these cognitive phenomena happen without our conscious awareness and affect our choices, judgments and actions.

28 January, 2020 03:30 Share

Heuristics: how the mind uses shortcuts to make quick decisions.

The substitution heuristic is where we answer an easier question than the one that was actually posed. Take this question, for example: "That woman is a candidate for sheriff. How successful will she be in office?" We automatically substitute the question we’re supposed to answer with an easier one, like, "Does this woman look like someone who will make a good sheriff

28 January, 2020 03:31 Share

Next, there is the availability heuristic, which is where you overestimate the probability of something you hear often or find easy to remember. For example, strokes cause many more deaths than accidents do, but one study found that 80 percent of respondents considered an accidental death a more likely fate

28 January, 2020 03:32 Share

No head for numbers: why we struggle to understand statistics and make avoidable mistakes because of it.

In fact, base-rate neglect is extremely common. One of the reasons we find ourselves ignoring the base rate is that we focus on what we expect rather than what is most likely. For example, imagine those cabs again: If you were to see five red cabs pass by, you’d probably start to feel it’s quite likely that the next one will be yellow for a change. But no matter how many cabs of either color go by, the probability that the next cab will be red will still be around 80 percent – and if we remember the base rate we should realize this. But instead we tend to focus on what we expect to see, a yellow cab, and so we will likely be wrong. Base-rate neglect is a common mistake connected with the wider problem of working with statistics. We also struggle to remember that everything regresses to the mean. This is the acknowledgment that all situations have their average status, and variations from that average will eventually tilt back toward the average

28 January, 2020 03:33 Share

Past imperfect: why we remember events from hindsight rather than from experience.

First, there is the experiencing self, which records how we feel in the present moment. It asks the question: "How does it feel now?" Then there is the remembering self, which records how the entire event unfolded after the fact. It asks, "How was it on the whole?" The experiencing self gives a more accurate account of what occurred, because our feelings during an experience are always the most accurate. But the remembering self, which is less accurate because it registers memories after the situation is finished, dominates our memory.

28 January, 2020 03:35 Share

This survey offers us a clear example of duration neglect, the peak-end rule, and our faulty memories.

28 January, 2020 03:37 Share

Mind over matter: how adjusting the focus of our minds can dramatically affect our thoughts and behaviors.

In a state of cognitive ease, the intuitive System 1 is in charge of our minds, and the logical and more energy-demanding System 2 is weakened. This means we are more intuitive, creative and happier, yet we’re also more likely to make mistakes. In a state of cognitive strain, our awareness is more heightened, and so System 2 is put in charge. System 2 is more ready to double-check our judgments than System 1, so although we are far less creative, we will make fewer mistakes. You can consciously influence the amount of energy the mind uses to get in the right frame of mind for certain tasks. If you want a message to be persuasive, for example, try promoting cognitive ease.

28 January, 2020 03:38 Share

Cognitive strain, on the other hand, helps us succeed at things like statistical problems. We can get into this state by exposing ourselves to information that is presented to us in a confusing way, for example, via hard-to-read type. Our minds perk up and increase their energy levels in an effort to comprehend the problem, and therefore we are less likely to simply give up.

28 January, 2020 03:39 Share

Taking chances: the way probabilities are presented to us affects our judgment of risk.

The way we judge ideas and approach problems is heavily determined by the way they are expressed to us. Slight changes to the details or focus of a statement or question can dramatically alter the way we address it.

28 January, 2020 03:41 Share

For example, people will consider a rare event as more likely to occur if it’s expressed in terms of relative frequency rather than as a statistical probability.

28 January, 2020 03:42 Share

Another way our attention is distracted from what is statistically relevant is called denominator neglect. This occurs when we ignore plain statistics in favor of vivid mental images that influence our decisions.

28 January, 2020 03:43 Share

Not robots: why we don't make choices based purely on rational thinking.

For a long time, a powerful and influential group of economists suggested that we made decisions based purely on rational argument. They argued that we all make choices according to utility theory, which states that when individuals make decisions, they look only at the rational facts and choose the option with the best overall outcome for them, meaning the most utility

28 January, 2020 03:43 Share

But what if we complicate things a little? Let’s say that their $5 million fortunes are the end-result of a day at the casino, and the two had vastly different starting points: John walked in with a mere $1 million and quintupled his money, whereas Jenny came in with $9 million that dwindled down to $5 million. Do you still think John and Jenny are equally happy with their $5 million? Unlikely. Clearly then, there is something more to the way we value things than pure utility.

28 January, 2020 03:44 Share

Gut feeling: why rather than making decisions based solely on rational considerations, we are often swayed by emotional factors.

The first reason is that we value things based on reference points. Starting with $1,000 or $2,000 in the two scenarios changes whether we’re willing to gamble, because the starting point affects how we value our position. The reference point in the first scenario is $1,000 and $2,000 in the second, which means ending up at $1,500 feels like a win in the first, but a distasteful loss in the second. Even though our reasoning here is clearly irrational, we understand value as much by our starting point as by the actual objective value at the time.

28 January, 2020 03:49 Share

diminishing sensitivity principle: the value we perceive may be different from its actual worth. For instance, going from $1,000 to $900 doesn’t feel as bad as going from $200 to $100, despite the monetary value of both losses being equal. Similarly in our example, the perceived value lost when going from $1,500 to $1,000 is greater than when going from $2,000 to $1,500.

28 January, 2020 03:50 Share

Kahneman’s prospect theory challenges utility theory by showing that when we make choices, we don’t always act in the most rational way.

28 January, 2020 03:50 Share

False images: why the mind builds complete pictures to explain the world, but they lead to overconfidence and mistakes.

In order to understand situations, our minds naturally use cognitive coherence; we construct complete mental pictures to explain ideas and concepts. For example, we have many images in our brain for the weather. We have an image for, say, summer weather, which might be a picture of a bright, hot sun bathing us in heat. As well as helping us to understand things, we also rely on these images when making a decision

28 January, 2020 03:51 Share

One way to avoid mistakes is to utilize reference class forecasting. Instead of making judgments based on your rather general mental images, use specific historical examples to make a more accurate forecast. For example, think of the previous occasion you went out when it was a cold summer day. What did you wear then? In addition, you can devise a long-term risk policy that plans specific measures in the case of both success and failure in forecasting. Through preparation and protection, you can rely on evidence instead of general mental pictures and make more accurate forecasts

28 January, 2020 03:52 Share