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: 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

1: What’s the difference between waking up early and being an early riser?

Or, eating a healthy meal and being a healthy eater?

What about getting some work done and being a productive person?

Waking up early, eating a healthy meal, and getting some work done are good things.  Certainly.

These are things you do.

Describing yourself as an early riser, a healthy eater, or a productive person shifts focus … continue reading

1: It was November of 1988, and Terry Looper was on his way to Las Vegas.

Terry owned 10 percent of the company that was about to be sold.

“Once the papers were signed, I should’ve been on top of the world,” he writes in his book Sacred Pace: Four Steps to Hearing God and Aligning Yourself With His Will.

“I was not just a millionaire as I’d always … continue reading

One of my clients said, on her deathbed, “This is so beautiful…and so warm. There is light, everywhere.” Lomi, age 76

1: “Please forgive me! Please forgive me!” Ruth exclaimed.

“She was sitting up with her eyes open wide,”  Diane Button writes in her powerful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.

The seventy-year-old Ruth was experiencing severe distress and agitation. Diane, who serves as … continue reading

1: “Some Scandinavian canoeists succeeded in getting through all the rapids of Scandinavia.”

Charlie Munger, the longtime business partner of Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was delivering a commencement address to the 2007 USC School of Law graduates.

“They thought they would continue their success by tackling the big whirlpools in northwest America,” he continued.

Things didn’t work out so well. “The death rate was … continue reading

1: Science defines identity as “a well-organized conception of the self, consisting of values and beliefs to which the individual is solidly committed.”

Our identity is based on two things. 

First, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.

And second, the standards or commitments we hold for ourselves.

“Put simply, our identity as a person is what we’re most committed to,” Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is … continue reading