1: During the first part of World War II, the worst assignment for British troops was being sent to fight in North Africa. “Methodical and orderly, the British hated the grueling weather and terrain that wreaked havoc on their machines and their plans,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.
“They acted how they felt: slow, timid, cautious,” Ryan … continue reading
1: “Amelia Earhart wanted to be a great aviator,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way. “But it was the 1920s, and people still thought that women were frail and weak and didn’t have the stuff. Woman suffrage was not even a decade old.”
Being a pilot wasn’t an option for Amelia. So, she found a job as a social worker.
“Then one day the phone … continue reading
1: “There was little evidence that Demosthenes was destined to become the greatest orator of Athens, let alone all of history,” Ryan Holiday writes in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.
The boy was born weak and feeble with a severe speech impediment. His father died when he was seven.
And then things got worse.
“The large inheritance left to him—intended to … continue reading
1: Following their defeat in Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army retreated toward the refuge of Virginia.
“At that moment Lee was more vulnerable than ever before,” write Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin in Lead Yourself First. “Lee’s remaining troops were in enemy country, disoriented by defeat, and without reinforcements or ammunition to fight anything near a sustained battle.”
President Abraham Lincoln immediately understood the … continue reading
The answer is neither, according to the research of Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert.
In his popular TED talk, Dan tells us that if it happened over three months ago, major life traumas have little impact on our happiness.
In fact, his research shows external circumstances predict only 10% of our overall happiness.
This week we’ve been looking at some of the lessons from Shawn Achor’s book The Happiness Advantage… continue reading
