1: Arthur Brooks was four years old.
“My dad had to visit a sick friend and took me with him,” Arthur writes in his new book The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
“Unfortunately, children weren’t allowed up to the floors where the patients were. So he sat me in a lobby and told me to wait there.
“After what seemed like nine hours … continue reading
1: When you’re searching for something important in life, it helps to answer two questions.
“The first is general; the second, specific,” Arthur Brooks writes in The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
Exhibit one: Perhaps you want to find a spouse.
The general question is: “What are the characteristics of an appropriate mate?”
As in, what are the “general features of a person … continue reading
1: Human beings are really good at solving technical problems and answering specific, hard questions.
This ability has driven extraordinary progress in science and economics over the past five hundred years.
You likely believe that “while the world is incredibly complicated, with enough knowledge and hard work, every problem can be solved,” Arthur Brooks writes in The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.
“And … continue reading
1: “Joy is not, as many people believe, a frivolous or selfish emotion,” Kelly McGonigal writes in her new book Joy is a Risk Worth Taking.
“Nor is joy only possible when every aspect of life is going well.”
So, what is joy?
Kelly describes it as “the uplift you experience in moments that connect you to something that makes life worth living.” She adds, “It’s the flash of … continue reading
1: Imagine having a boss who regularly fails to keep commitments.
“How could you tell the boss you don’t trust him?” Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and their co-authors ask in their classic book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.
“Surely there’s no way to say this without him becoming defensive, right?”
Maybe. Maybe not.
The solution is to find what the authors call a … continue reading
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence from Britain.
“That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” so read the motion.
But “there was … continue reading
1: Jennifer’s father was ill.
“The two things that he could do to improve his physical condition most significantly are to eat better and exercise,” she tells Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram, who write in their book The 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time.
And, “the two things he refuses to do are eat better and exercise,” she says.
Jennifer … continue reading
1: When Diane Button was new to end-of-life care, so many questions flooded her mind.
“I wondered if I would ever get to a place where I would feel comfortable stepping into the home of a dying person with ease and grace,” she writes in her wonderful book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
Fortunately, she had a mentor. “Hospice chaplain Clarence Liu was was … continue reading
“One of my clients had candles spread all over her house, in every room,” Diane Button, an end-of-life doula, writes in her book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
“They were on nightstands and dressers, surrounding her bathtub, and even along the walkway of the woodsy entrance into her house,” Diane notes.
“There were dozens of them, and they were beautiful, but not one … 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
