Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.
Ego Is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures such as George Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who all reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.
In an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion, the battle against ego must be fought on many fronts. Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.”
Just like we need healthy food, clean water, sound sleep and solid relationships, we REQUIRE challenges; problems to be faced and overcome! That’s one of the reasons why some troubled people create their own problems. Of course, I’m not suggesting that you create your own, because there’s plenty to be faced without putting in a request, but I am suggesting that instead of resorting to anxiety, depression or avoidance that you simply engage the struggle and respect the process!
Although depression is frequently treated with prescribed drugs, because it’s thought to be a genetically based chemical imbalance, this scientific conclusion has never been proven in the lab; although it’s heavily marketed by companies that stand to make a huge profit. In the majority of cases, what’s thought to be a chemical imbalance, is simply negative and pessimistic thinking that has led to our depression. Quit “Depressing” in other words. How we view and think about ourselves and the world is the problem here, not our genetics and certainly not our brain chemistry! Change your thinking; become more optimistic, live with a mindset of growth and temporary setbacks that can be overcome with effort, find courage to face yourself and the world as it is, work to improve who and what you are, and in the process, you will change your life!
Comments Off on Depression Is RARLY faulty Brain Chemistry!
In a word, YES! Each one of us has a general philosophy in which we engage the world. However, the real determining factor concerning our philosophy is whether it’s working for or against us; either way philosophy still works.
Maybe the more important question here to be asked… is your philosophy “positively and constructively” working for you?
“Any nation that draws too great a distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” We do better when combining them both!
The right words, the right ideas, the right philosophies can come from a well thought out quality book; the point is to read books that lead to better thinking, better action, a better life. That’s why we should read!
In 2012, Eric Greitens unexpectedly heard from a former SEAL comrade, a brother-in-arms he hadn’t seen in a decade. Zach Walker had been one of the toughest of the tough. But ever since he returned home from war to his young family in a small logging town, he’d been struggling. Without a sense of purpose, plagued by PTSD, and masking his pain with heavy drinking, he needed help. Zach and Eric started writing and talking nearly every day, as Eric set down his thoughts on what it takes to build resilience in our lives.
Eric’s letters—drawing on both his own experience and wisdom from ancient and modern thinkers—are now gathered and edited into this timeless guidebook. Greitens shows how we can build purpose, confront pain, practice compassion, develop a vocation, find a mentor, create happiness, and much more. Resilience is an inspiring meditation for the warrior in each of us.
Those with a lower tolerance for stimulation (up to 50% of us) would be wise to choose a job that reflects this predisposition. Within this aforementioned 50% there’s another 20% who find themselves “highly sensitive” and do not thrive at all even under moderate stimulation. This is an important personal quality many have that should not be ignored. To find meaning and enjoyment in our lives, it’s important to understand and listen to ourselves… to “know they self” is an important concept worthy of our time.
Dysthymia (dis-THIE-me-uh) is a chronic type of mild depression and it’s frequently undiagnosed. Symptoms usually last for at least two years in which a person’s moods are regularly or habitually low; being cynical, critical, apathetic and unable to enjoy life in general. Although symptoms are not as severe as with major depression, this condition interferes with one’s ability to function smoothly and enjoy life; many cope with this condition by using drugs and/or alcohol.
We can work on this here.
Dysthymia symptoms in adults may include:
Loss of interest in daily activities
Sadness or feeling down
Hopelessness
Tiredness and lack of energy
Low self-esteem, self-criticism or feeling incapable
Trouble concentrating and trouble making decisions
Irritability or excessive anger
Decreased activity, effectiveness and productivity
Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom
Amazon.com Review:
Southern California psychiatrist William Glasser, the author of Reality Therapy, believes that almost all human misery is caused by people trying to control others. In fact, he says, the only behavior we can control is our own; by the same token, no one can make us do anything we don’t want to. It’s only when we give up spending our energy trying to force others to conform to our ideas or to keep them from doing the same to us that we are able to live the way we want to.
Dr. William Glasser offers a new psychology that, if practiced, could reverse our widespread inability to get along with one another, an inability that is the source of almost all unhappiness.
Comments Off on Finished Revisiting: Choice Theory
Yes, but sparingly and in small amounts! It’s not a primary part of any single meal. I frequently go days without any animal protein at all. I certainly don’t supplement with it.
Baby kale, baby spinach, baby chard, cherry tomatoes, chopped carrots, dried cranberries, chopped raw almonds and tofu! This is where the magic is in nutrition – NOT supplements! Veggies and Fruit!
Alcohol provides very little nutritional benefit, it’s a tremendous source of calories and weight gain, it’s known as a deconditioner (especially for those already out of shape) and it’s an irritant to the nervous system for many people (leading to anxiety, palpitations and even depression). Want to get healthy and stay healthy? Minimize or even avoid alcohol in all it’s many forms.
Whether it’s weight-loss, increased performance or wisdom, we have to apply ourselves to the objective everyday if we wish to improve. By applying ourselves to the daily tasks, associated with a chosen goal, we make the small improvements necessary to become better at it tomorrow.
It’s far more rewarding, and a better use of our time, for us to work on our personal shortcomings, rather than spend time pointing out the shortcomings of others.
We hit up California a few weeks ago; no time like the present to try something new! We rented a beat up surfboard and tried our hand at Surfing. What have you tried lately? Stay Active!
Re-reading a fantastic book by one of the leading psychologist of our time – the Founder of Positive Psychology!
How to Change Your Mind and Your Life!
Known as the father of the new science of positive psychology, Martin E.P. Seligman draws on more than twenty years of clinical research to demonstrate how optimism enhances the quality of life, and how anyone can learn to practice it. Offering many simple techniques, Dr. Seligman explains how to break an “I—give-up” habit, develop a more constructive explanatory style for interpreting your behavior, and experience the benefits of a more positive interior dialogue. These skills can help break up depression, boost your immune system, better develop your potential, and make you happier.. With generous additional advice on how to encourage optimistic behavior at school, at work and in children, Learned Optimism is both profound and practical–and valuable for every phase of life.
A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think.
Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more.
Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us).
Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
Try the “Bolthouse” salad dressings in the refrigerated section near the produce in your local grocery store! My favorite is the Italian. Which is Yours?
Happy Valentine’s Day to Your Health (yellow tomatoes, radishes, brussels sprouts and portobello mushrooms)! And yes, I actually ate the contents, better for you than dark chocolate any day!
Absolutely not! It’s an animal protein, making it low nutrition and low fiber per bite compared to a fruit or vegetable, and it’s a caloric bomb too; most people are overweight already. As far as the healthy Omega 3 oils the media is always raving about? Skip the fish and eat green things! Where do you think Omega 3 oils come from? They come from small fish that eat plankton and algae (green things) and then bigger fish eat the smaller fish that ate the green things, accumulating the Omega 3 oils in their tissues. In other words, green plants and leaves are the origin of Omega 3 oils! Skip all fish and eat plants instead! By the way, fish is a polluted dirty mess due to its living environment (pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, mercury, PCB’s, etc.).
This line of thought is tired and flat out wrong! I don’t cheat on my wife in moderation and I don’t stab myself with a pocket knife in moderation either. A bit extreme? Not really. Poor choices are simply poor choices in any amount. Tighten it up!
If you think there’s always a study to contradict the next study, you would be right. If you think there’s always a well performed and respected study to contradict the next well performed and respected study, you would be wrong. It’s not nearly as common. The media will report on any study, regardless of its merit, confusing the public on personal health issues. My suggestion, don’t listen to the media when it comes to your health information.
Comments Off on Science, Research and Health Indifference!
Well, according to our media and those who parrot whatever they hear from others, it’s a magical and healthy substance, great for salads and cooking. In reality, it’s a processed vegetable oil that’s nothing but a calorie bomb! Avoid, as you would all vegetable oils!
Vegetables are by far the most nutritious category of food in which to select our calories, but GREEN vegetables are far and away the captains of nutrition on a team full of All-Stars!
