Swearing

Profanity is a lazy man’s way of trying to be emphatic.

A Cosumer Lifestyle

The point of life is not to become a more satisfied shopper.

Rod Dreher

Seeing Opportunities

The pitcher is not your adversary; he is a partner; offering you the opportunity to hit a home run.

Coasting

If you are in go-go-go mode with the gas pedal stuck in the down position, it isn’t necessary to slam on the break. Instead, try to give your mind enough time to process your experiences, instead of just "having them." Allow your body time to coast.

Otherwise, you may find yourself bouncing back and forth between the go-getters, pulling you toward constant activity by modeling it for you (and making you feel guilty for failure to keep up) and the enablers on the other side, pushing you to keep the engine running at all costs.

Since the important stuff is going on internally, figure out ways to get breathing into your life.

Stephen Goforth

Looking into the Mirror

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.

Carl Gustav Jung

Not Automatic

Growth is not an automatic process.

John Maxwell

Puzzles and Positive Moods

Puzzle-solving is such an ancient, universal practice, scholars say, precisely because it depends on creative insight, on the primitive spark that ignited the first campfires. And now, modern neuroscientists are beginning to tap its source.

In a just completed study, researchers at Northwestern University found that people were more likely to solve word puzzles with sudden insight when they were amused, having just seen a short comedy routine.

“What we think is happening,” said Mark Beeman, a neuroscientist who conducted the study with Karuna Subramaniam, a graduate student, “is that the humor, this positive mood, is lowering the brain’s threshold for detecting weaker or more remote connections” to solve puzzles.

Marcel Danesi, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto (says) “It’s all about you, using your own mind, without any method or schema, to restore order from chaos. And once you have, you can sit back and say, ‘Hey, the rest of my life may be a disaster, but at least I have a solution.’ ”

Researchers at the University of Toronto found that the visual areas in people in positive moods picked up more background detail, even when they were instructed to block out distracting information during a computer task.

The findings fit with dozens of experiments linking positive moods to better creative problem-solving. “The implication is that positive mood engages this broad, diffuse attentional state that is both perceptual and visual,” said Dr. Anderson. “You’re not only thinking more broadly, you’re literally seeing more. The two systems are working in parallel.”

Read more at the New York Times

The Path

The path to sainthood goes through adulthood.

M Scott Peck

Joint Efforts

Participate in co-creative relationships.

The Passion Within

The passion that lies within you must be discovered.

Laurie Calzada

Short-term Decision Making

The problem with credit cards is that they take advantage of a dangerous flaw built into the brain. This failing is rooted in our emotions, which tend to overvalue immediate gains (like a new pair of shoes) at the cost of future expenses (high interest rates). Our feelings are thrilled by the prospect of an immediate reward, but they can't really grapple with the long-term fiscal consequences of that decision.

Paying with plastic fundamentally changes the way we spend money, altering the calculus of our financial decisions. When you buy something with cash, the purchase involves an actual loss-your wallet is literally lighter. Credit cards, however, make the transaction abstract, so that you don't really feel the downside of spending money. Brain-imaging experiments suggest that paying with credit cards actually reduces activity in the insula, a brain region associated with negative feelings.

Jonah Lehrer
How We Decide

Weak Passions

Our passions are not too strong, they are too weak. We are far too easily pleased.

CS Lewis

Missing the Glory

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Marcelene Cox

Options

Pain and suffering is inevitable, being miserable is optional.

Art Clanin

Thinking Too Much

When a person gets nervous about performing, he naturally becomes extra self-conscious. He starts to focus on himself, trying to make sure that he doesn't make any mistakes. He begins scrutinizing actions that are best performed on autopilot. This kind of deliberation can be lethal for a performer. The opera singer forgets how to sing. The pitcher concentrates too much on his motion and loses control of his fastball. The actor gets anxious about his lines and seizes up onstage. In each of these instances, the natural fluidity of performance is lost. The grace of talent disappears.

Jonah Lehrer
How We Decide

Channeling Passion

Passion must be captured and directed in order to accomplish actual work.

Rick Karlgaard

Learning From Mistakes

People with a genetic mutation that reduces the number of dopamine receptors in the ACC suffer from a similar problem; just like the monkeys, they are less likely to learn from negative reinforcement. This seemingly minor deficit has powerful consequences. For example, studies have found that people carrying this mutation are significantly more likely to become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Because they have difficulty learning from their mistakes, they make the same mistakes over and over. They can't adjust their behavior even when it proves self-destructive.

John Lehrer
How We Decide