1: You might think joy would be an easy emotion to embrace, Kelly McGonigal writes in her new book Joy is a Risk Worth Taking.

“But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the last decade of studying this emotion, it’s that for many people— even those who want more meaning, pleasure, connection, and hope in life—joy can be a hard feeling to trust.”

Why does this happen?

“Some … 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: “I’ve only experienced joy a few times in my life,” Kelly McGonigal‘s eighty-year-old father said when she told him she was writing a book about joy.

She asked him what those experiences were.

“The first moment he shared happened in 1977, a few weeks after my twin sister and I were born,” Kelly writes in her new book Joy is a Risk Worth Taking. “My mom was … continue reading

1: Things aren’t going well between Oba and Mari.

They’re about to have a crucial conversation, one where the stakes are high, opinions differ, and emotions run strong.

Oba: “Mari, I was wondering if we could talk about what happened on Friday night—you know, when you got home late from work and went straight to our room?”

Mari: “Oh, you mean Friday night when you were sitting on the couch … continue reading

1: Tom was at a crossroads.

He was 55 years old and had worked at the same engineering company for 17 years.

“Throughout my career I’ve faced recurring interpersonal conflicts that resulted from frequent ‘blowups,'” Tom shares in Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and their co-authors.

Tom took pride in getting things done, even if his approach damaged … continue reading

1: “Why does this matter to you?”

That’s the question author, consultant, and facilitator Peter Block asked Daniel Coyle

They had just met. Daniel, a writer, had set up an interview with Peter. They met at a coffee shop in Cincinnati, which is where Peter now calls home.

“A rangy eighty-five-year-old, Peter had settled into his chair and gave me a fond, knowing smile, as if we’d met each other … 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: How do you react when something bad happens in your life?

“Your knee-jerk reaction to bad events can be to only see, and to dwell on, the negative, giving you a biased view that can affect your mood and paralyze you from acting,” Tynan writes in his book Superhuman by Habit.

When you think about positive, healthy habits, chances are your brain immediately focuses on work and productivity … 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: 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