Here are our most popular exclusive features of 2017.
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- Zeigarnik Effect: How Incomplete Tasks Trigger Stress. Unresolved and interrupted tasks thieve the attention of your brain until you have a clear—if subconscious—proposal of what you’re going to deal with them. Just the simple act of capturing a task that reaches your head can achieve that sense of completion.
- Lessons on Adversity from Charlie Munger: Be a Survivor, Not a Victim. Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice-Chairman overcame “horrible blows, unfair blows” on the road to success. Munger counsels, “Feeling like a victim is a perfectly disastrous way to go through life.” Don’t operate life on the assumption that the world ought to be fair, just, and objective. You are neither entitled nor unentitled to good treatment.
- How to Guard Against Anger Erupting. The most effective way to deal with anger in yourself is by not disregarding or repressing it. When anger rises past a threshold, it requires a reasonable and pleasing expression—an outlet—to be diffused. The key to expelling anger in a way that must feel good and fair is to invoke your calm, wise self and put out some of the fire of the emotion before moving forward.
- Why People to Act Immorally and Justify Their Unprincipled Behavior. People can rationalize behavior that is at odds with their own moral principles. When people feel angry, pressured, or depressed, their mental footing tends to ebb away. They are more likely to engage in self-absorbed behaviors that they would otherwise spurn, especially if the payoff for such behavior is high and the odds of getting caught and punished are low.
- Rewards and Incentives Can Backfire. Offering rewards for motivating people to do unlikable tasks could sometimes become counterproductive. In what psychologists call “the overjustification effect,” a reward, instead of motivating, could fortify a person’s revulsion for the task. In other words, the reward could reinforce the belief that the task can’t be worth doing for itself.
- Choose Your Role Models Carefully. The modern world has a dangerous problem with hero-worship—pop artists, rappers, film stars, sportspersons, capitalists, and so on command attention and affection as never before. While admiring, and drawing wisdom, meaning, and inspiration from heroes can be constructive, you must take “hero narratives” with a grain of salt. Don’t blindly place much faith in today’s experts and celebrities.
- Expressive Writing Can Help You Heal. People often block out thoughts that provoke negative emotions as a way of reducing their stress and regulating their moods. By exploring your deepest thoughts and feelings with a reflective, inquiring, honest attitude, you can shift perspective. Standing back and reflecting on your suffering from different points of view can bring about an improved emotional state.
- Twenty Reasons People Don’t Change. If you have trouble getting people to change, perhaps one—or more—of these twenty reasons are to blame. Be realistic about changing others’ hearts and minds. If you can learn to accept them for who they are and let go of your conceptions of their perfection, your relationships become richer.
- The More You Can Manage Your Emotions, the More Effective You’ll Be. People who lack the capacity to withstand psychological distresses such as anger, fear, frustration, and sadness are at a marked disadvantage in life. When faced with life’s unceasing challenges, they engage in destructive behaviors, often with verbal and physical aggression toward themselves and others.
- Six Powerful Reasons to Eat Slowly and Mindfully. Cultivate a healthy relationship with food. Dedicating time to eat slowly, mindfully, and intentionally—and enjoying the pleasure of food—can make an enormous difference in your diet and health.
And here are articles of yesteryear that continue to be popular:
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