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: You’ve got it all wrong.

You’ve been taught that stress is bad for you.

This belief is harmful, Kelly McGonigal argues in The Upside of Stress.

“The best way to manage stress isn’t to reduce or avoid it, but rather to rethink and even embrace it.”

The fight-or-flight survival instinct is part of your stress response.  When something major happens, your sympathetic nervous system mobilizes your entire body.… continue reading

1: What we’ve taught about stress is wrong, Kelly McGonigal argues in her terrific book The Upside of Stress.

Despite what we’ve been taught and told, the latest science shows that stress, by itself, is not harmful. However, believing stress is harmful to your health is toxic.

So, how do you transform your view of stress? Are there actions you can take when you feel overwhelmed to direct your … continue reading

1: What is the effect of showing smokers graphic warnings on cigarette packs?

When doctors are asked this question, “In general, they believe that the images will decrease smokers’ desire for a cigarette and motivate them to quit,” writes Kelly McGonigal in her terrific book The Upside of Stress.

Actually, studies show the warnings have the opposite effect.

“The most threatening images (say, a lung cancer patient dying in … continue reading

1: In 1998, thirty thousand adults in the United States were asked a series of questions about stress.

How much stress had they experienced in the past year?  Do you believe stress is harmful to your health?

“Eight years later, the researchers scoured public records to find out who among the thirty thousand participants had died,” Kelly McGonigal writes in her terrific book The Upside of Stress.

As predicted, … continue reading

1: Turns out anxiety and excitement are the exact same emotion.

Physiologically, that is. Which just means how your body operates.

“Whether you are anxious about something or excited about it, your body responds in a nearly identical ‘high arousal’ state,” Jane McGonigal writes in her book SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully.

How does your body react?

“You have excess energy, you may feel butterflies in your stomach, … continue reading

1: “We had lost our bearings. We were wandering in the valley of death,” Andy Grove writes in his book Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.

The year was 1984, a pivotal moment for Intel.

The company had been founded 16 years earlier.  “Every start-up has some kind of a core idea,” Andy notes.

“Ours was simple. Semiconductor technology had … continue reading

How to Promote Calm: Science-Backed Breathing

1: Stress gets a bad name.

Like many things in life, the Goldilocks rule applies here.

Too much stress.  Not good.  In fact, it will kill us.

But too little stress is not good either.

To perform at our best, we want to harness stress and use it to our advantage.

Or as Goldilocks says, “Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right.”

“Stress … continue reading

1: “Should Yahoo bring back Koogle?”

Felicia Horowitz smiled at her husband, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz.

“Huh?”

It was 2012, and Yahoo had just fired its CEO, Scott Thompson.

“Tim Koogle? How do you even know who Tim Koogle is?” he writes in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things.

Felicia then recalled a conversation they had shared eleven years earlier, back in 2001.… continue reading

1: The summer of 1995 was a dizzying time for the people working at Netscape.

In August of that year, the company went public.

“The Netscape initial public offering (IPO) was both spectacular and historic,” Ben Horowitz writes in The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers.

“The stock initially priced at $14 per share, but a last-minute decision doubled the … continue reading