1: In the fall of 1979, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer set out to build a time machine.
But this wasn’t the kind of time machine from Back to the Future. There was no DeLorean with gull-wing doors.
Instead, Ellen rented an empty monastery in the woods near Peterborough, New Hampshire.
“The color television was swapped for a black-and-white version,” Daniel Coyle writes in Flourish: The Art of Building … continue reading
1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.
Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations.
At the end of each week, I’ve been sharing an idea from Tynan’s book Superhuman by Habit about how to install specific, positive habits into your life.
So far, we’ve covered:
Today, we’re talking … continue reading
1: Darlene worked as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, near Dayton, Ohio.
One day as she walked past an incubator, she sensed something was wrong.
“All of the machines hooked up to the child showed that her vitals were within normal ranges,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better.
The nurse caring for the baby didn’t seem worried.
But to Darlene, something seemed off.… continue reading
1: Tynan thought mindfulness and meditation were “too wishy-washy and time consuming,” he writes in Superhuman by Habit.
When he tried meditating, he found it hard to keep his attention on his breath. His mind kept wandering, which left him frustrated and ready to give up.
But then he discovered something that completely changed how he saw meditation.
“If meditation were easy, it would not be as beneficial,” he writes. … continue reading
1: Of all the potential habits to focus on, “health habits are some of my favorites to work on because they have extraordinarily high payoffs,” Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit.
“Rather than improve just one area of your life,” he notes, “they tend to really transfer well to other areas.”
This is sometimes called a “keystone habit: One habit that leads to positive changes in other parts of … continue reading
1: What if the fastest way to make progress isn’t focusing on your bad days—but keeping score of your good ones?
Six months after suffering a concussion, Jane McGonigal was still living with postconcussion syndrome. “It didn’t heal properly,” Jane writes in her book SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully.
The headaches “were bad enough that I was taking the maximum safe dosage of pain relievers almost every day,” … continue reading
1: Do you believe that all meaningful problems are deeply rooted and difficult to change?
David Yeager, a mindset researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, shares a story that reveals how deep people’s skepticism can run about the power of short interventions to improve people’s lives.
This week we’re examining multiple studies that show your mindset, or how you think about something, can have a profound impact … continue reading
1: Two-thirds of the housekeepers in Stanford Professor Alia Crum’s study believed they weren’t exercising regularly.
One-third said they got no exercise at all.
“Their bodies reflected this perception,” Kelly McGonigal notes in The Upside of Stress. “The average housekeeper’s blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, and body weight were exactly what you’d expect to find if they were truly sedentary.”
Their perception was their reality.
Which is different from … continue reading
1: Do people who have a positive attitude about aging live longer?
More than seven years longer, according to researchers at Yale University.
They followed middle-aged adults for twenty years. “Those who had a positive view of aging in midlife lived an average of 7.6 years longer than those who had a negative view,” writes Kelly McGonigal in her terrific book The Upside of Stress.
“To put that number … continue reading
1: Many people believe they are the only ones who don’t fit in.
“Feeling like you don’t belong can change how you interpret everything you experience,” writes Kelly McGonigal in her powerful book The Upside of Stress.
“Conversations, setbacks, misunderstandings,” she notes, “almost anything can be viewed as evidence that, in fact, you don’t belong.”
“The belief that you don’t belong also feeds into many destructive states of mind, … continue reading
