1: Perhaps we’re worried that we don’t do enough to help other people.

“Obviously, I don’t know you,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals, “so I suppose it’s possible that you are a malevolent weasel who actively wishes harm on your fellow men and women.”

But that’s probably not the case.

Instead, we’re probably making it too complicated.

Let’s say we think of something we’d like to say … continue reading

“Were we to meet this figure socially, this accusatory character, this internal critic, this unrelenting fault-finder, we would think there was something wrong with him. He would just be boring and cruel. We might think that something terrible had happened to him, that he was living in the aftermath, the fallout, of some catastrophe. And we would be right.” -Adam Phillips

1: “Inspiration is for amateurs – the rest of … continue reading

1: “I vividly recall the moment I realized I’d been overcomplicating my son’s fifth birthday party, which had come to feel like a significantly stressful undertaking,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.

“What the stress really signaled, I saw, was that I cared about the project,” Oliver writes, “which is entirely different from saying that it … continue reading

1: Author and podcaster Sam Harris was at lunch with a friend.  

He remembers “moaning on about the various problems he was confronting in his work,” Oliver Burkeman writes in his book Meditations for Mortals.

Sam’s friend interrupted him mid-flow. “Were you really expecting to have no more problems at some point in your life?” she asked.

Her question was jarring. It suddenly occurred to him that he “had … continue reading

“Every morning, therefore, at about 9.30 after breakfast each of us, as if moved by a law of unquestioned nature, went off and ‘worked’ until lunch at one. It is surprising how much one can produce in a year, whether of buns or books or pots or pictures, if one works hard and professionally for three and a half hours every day for 330 days [a year]. That was why, … continue reading

1: It was the early 1970s, and cognitive psychologist Virginia Valian was stuck.

She “found herself so paralyzed by work anxiety that she couldn’t write a word of her PhD thesis,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.  

Our lives can be shaped by what it is we are trying to avoid, Oliver observes. “We talk about … continue reading

“Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever.” The Tao Te Ching

1: Who doesn’t love a new beginning?  

New projects. New things. New relationships.

“Because the moment of starting belongs to the world of limitlessness: For as long as we haven’t done any work on a project, it’s still possible to believe that the end result might match the ideal in our minds,”  Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations … continue reading

1: “There is a vast academic and popular literature on the art of decision-making,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals.

“But much of it misses the point,” Oliver observes.

How do we get it wrong? “By treating decisions as things that just sort of come along,” he writes.

“It’s as though we’re sitting behind our enormous desk in the executive suite,” Oliver explains, “sipping our coffee, and every … continue reading

1: Author Oliver Burkeman was anxious.

He was waiting for the subway at the Union Street station in Brooklyn “fretting in my customary manner, this time about the logistics of a forthcoming move between apartments, although it could have been anything,” he writes in his terrific book Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.

What was he worried about? He was … continue reading

1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations.

On Fridays or over the weekend, we are exploring some of the life lessons captured by author  Oliver Burkeman in his wonderful book Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.

It was a glorious morning in … continue reading