 |
|
|
|||||
Below, Chris Bailey shares five key insights from his new book, Intentional: How to Finish What You Start. Chris is an author and lecturer who explores the science behind living a more productive and intentional life. He has written hundreds of articles on the subject and garnered coverage in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and Harvard Business Review, among many other outlets. Whats the big idea? Most of us struggle with follow-through, not because we lack discipline, but because we dont understand whats driving us and accommodate that which holds us back. When you clarify your core values, lower the friction to getting started, and align small intentions with bigger goals, action becomes more natural and meaningful. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Chris himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Know your 12 values. To be honest, whenever Ive heard the term values in the past, I kind of tuned it out, especially with personal values. What would always come to mind for me were those cheesy corporate exercises where some management consultant comes in and lays down a list in front of you with a hundred values on it, and they say, Pick the 10 that mean the most to you. Most of those are not rooted in science. Theyre not rooted in the psychology of values. But in researching this book, I found that there is real science to be found on the topic of values. There exists science on values that has not only been proven in research but also validated cross-culturally in more than 80 countries across thousands of studies with hundreds of thousands of participants. The latest research shows that there are 12 fundamental human values that we all share in varying amounts. To give you a lay of the land, there are essentially two fundamental motivations we all havetwo axes upon which our motivations fit within. In any moment, were either focused on enriching ourselves or enriching others. Thats the first axis. And the second one is were either motivated to conserve things as they are or we want to change or improve the way that things are. All 12 values fit within these fundamental motivations. Values are, in this way, motivations in and of themselves. As I list them, reflect on which connect most with you. Some might even repel you, and that can be informative as well. Here are the top 12 values: Self-direction cultivating your own thoughts, ideas, and actions. Stimulation seeking novelty. Hedonism pursuing (usually sensory) pleasure. Achievement striving for success through demonstrating competence. Power prestige and control over resources or people. Face preserving your image and avoiding humiliation. Security valuing personal and societal safety and stability. Tradition respect and commitment to customs. Conformity fitting in with rules, obligations, and expectations of others. Humility recognizing your insignificance in the grand scheme. Universalism understanding and protecting the welfare of all people and nature. Benevolence being a devoted and reliable member of the groups you occupy. We are all a different combination of these values. Reflecting on this can let you connect with your motivational core. 2. Shrink your resistance level to getting something done. The science of intention is quite beautiful and powerful, but it shows as well that there are reasons that we procrastinate on the things that we intend to do. Just as there are 12 values, there are essentially six main things that lead us to procrastinate tasks. We often procrastinate a task if it is at least one of the following: Boring Frustrating Unpleasant Far off in the future Unstructured Meaningless The reason for procrastination is usually some combination of these. These reasons are not connected with our 12 values. When something is unstructured and also a bit frustrating and unpleasant, there are a lot of different tactics that we can deploy. One of my favorites is shrinking our resistance level. This comes up often with meditation, but it can work for writing, working out, or finally cleaning up that ugly closet in your basement. What you do is essentially feel out your resistance level to doing that thing. You might think, Hey, do I want to meditate for 40 minutes today? No, no, no, no, no. No way. No way do I want to meditate for 40 minutes. Okay. What about 30? No. Okay. What about 25? No. 20 to 15? I can probably do 15. In this way, you accommodate the resistance level you have toward doing something. There will still be a little bit of resistance, but you gain control. You reconnect with that value of self-direction, which is a very common value overall. You just get a grip over the intentions that you set and begin to shape. 3. Build self-reflective capacity. Buddhist monks observe intentionality but from the direction of the causes and effects that happen within our own minds. After a Buddhist Dharma talk, I asked one of the monks, Where does intention come from? He listed off a lot of sources that were mapped on top of the research. It comes from our biology, right? We set an intention to go to the bathroom on a road trip. It comes from social environments, right? We adopt the intentions of others through phenomenon like social contagion. It comes from conditioning by family and culture, and intentions come from our desire to avoid pain and find happiness. Intention also comes from the lessons we have learned, which shape how we think about and view the world. But the final source that he mentioned was not in the research and it was our self-reflective capacity. Self-reflective capacity is our ability to look within ourselves and reflect on what we would want to do differently and where we truly wish to go. Its where our deepest intentions come from because we can ask questions of our inner world. I have a challenge for you: stop reading for a moment, and set an intention for what you will do next after finishing this Book Bite. Its where our deepest intentions come from because we can ask questions of our inner world. What do you want to do? What do you want to listen to? What do you want to engage with? Who do you want to talk to? An intention will arise when you ask a question of your inner world. What do I want to do next? What do I truly want to get out of doing this current thing? It can come from a question like that, but it can coe from journaling too. These intentions can come from going on long walks and just letting the mind wander. It can come from meditation, which leads us to become more intentional and connect with this self-reflective capacity. It turns out there is actually a lot of research behind this self-reflective capacity, but this frame for looking inward is sometimes where our deepest intentions come from. When you find these intentions, when they arise in your mind, you can go back to the 12 values and think, Oh, this actually does align with what I want to do most or what I value most in my life. Its wild how that naturally happens. 4. Get to know the intention stack. There is a shape to the intentions in our life. Every intention we set is different. Some differ in where they come from, as discussed in the previous insight. Some differ in how long they arewe have an intention to get a promotion in our career, but also an intention to take a morning run. They differ in how strong they arethe strength of an intention is how much we desire doing it. They vary in how deep they are, which is how connected they are with our values, but they can also be nested within one another. We all have these things that were intending to do, these grand goals that we want to achieve, but we dont always make them happen. Why dont we make those happen? Because goals are an intention. An intention is just a plan that were going to do something. There are smaller and larger intentions relative to the goals in our life. Smaller intentions might include our plans for following through on a goal. Even smaller still are the intentions we have at this moment, like finishing reading this Book Bite. You can work your way up in terms of how long the intentions in our life take place. We have the present intentionsthe things that were doing today. We have broader plans, then you work your way up to goals, which are the broader stories of change that were making in our life. And broader than that are our priorities in life, like our health, fitness, and relationships. Above our priorities are (our ultimate intentions) our values. Theyre what were ultimately after in life. An intention is just a plan that were going to do something. Lets say you have a goal right now, like the next intention youre going to do after this Book Bite: dial into a conference call. But many intentions take place over a longer period of time than this. Maybe dialing into a conference call fits with your plan of developing relationships with three new partners in your business, which might fit into your business goal of finding an expansion partner, which might fit into your priority to expand into a new market, which might fit into your ultimate value of accomplishment through work and benevolence through helping others grow, too. 5. Anticipate obstacles. Desire and aversion fluctuate over the timeline of goal attainment, across the various goals that we have. But research shows that from the outset of your next goal, one of the best things that you can do in your head is something called mental contrasting. Essentially, you ask yourself, what obstacles are going to get in the way of me achieving this goal? If you want to work out more, do you have travel coming up? If you want to write a book, are you going to find it difficult to find the time? So maybe you need to wake up earlier. What obstacles will get in the way of you being intentional about the goals that you set? Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its simple to accidentally become entranced by an endless loop of videos on Instagram or TikTok. But sometimes, that mindless scroll is interrupted by a reminder that what you thought was a 10-minute break spent on your phone was closer to 30 minutes. Olivia Yokubonis, armed with a kind voice and scientific research, often pops up in feeds on social platforms, gently reminding viewers that they might not remember the video they saw two videos before she appeared on the screen. Yokubonis is a content creator who goes by the name Olivia Unplugged online, making videos to combat overuse or mindless use of social media. For the most part, people who view her videos welcome the disruption from the endless loop of content, treating it as a wake-up call to get off their phones. Other times, they are snarky. People will comment and theyll be like, Oh, (its) ironic that youre posting. And Im like, Where else am I supposed to find you, Kyle? Outside? Youre not outside. You are here, sitting here, she said. For us to actually be seen, we have to be where people are. Yokubonis content responds to the feeling many people have: that they spend too much time on social media or apps. Most people have no clue how much time they spend on social media, said Ofir Turel, a professor of information systems management at the University of Melbourne who has been studying social media use for years. Through his research, Turel found that when he presented people with their screen time information, they were practically in a state of shock and many people voluntarily reduced their usage afterwards. Yokubonis is part of a growing group of content creators who make videos encouraging viewers to close out the app theyre on. Some are aggressive in their approach, some more tame; some only occasionally post about social media overuse, and some, like Yokubonis, devote their accounts to it. She works for Opal, a screen time app designed to help users reclaim their focus, she said, but those who engage with her content might not have any idea she is working for the company. Brand logos, constant plugs to download the app and other signs of branding are almost entirely absent from her page. People love hearing from people, she said. Millions of views on her videos point to that being true. Its a fine line and a balance of finding a way to be able to cut through that noise but also not adding to the noise, she added. Ian A. Anderson, a postdoctoral scholar at California Institute of Technology, said he finds this kind of content interesting, but is curious whether it’s disruptive enough to prompt action. He also said he wonders whether those with the strongest scrolling habits are thoughtless about the way (they’re) intaking information. If they’re paying full attention, I feel like it could be an effective disruption, but I also think there is a degree to which, if you are really a habitual scroller, maybe you arent fully engaging with it, he said. I can think of all sorts of different variables that could change the effectiveness, but it does sound like an interesting way to intervene from the inside. With billions of active users across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms, talk of cutting down on screen time is perennial, as is the idea of addiction to social platforms. But theres tremendous disagreement over whether social media addiction actually exists. Is social media addiction real? Researchers, psychologists and other experts agree some people spend too much time on social media, but the agreement tends to stop there. Some researchers question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media, arguing that a person must be experiencing identifiable symptoms, like strong, sometimes uncontrollable urges and withdrawal, to qualify as addiction. Others, like Turel, acknowledge the term seems to resonate with more people and is often used colloquially. Anderson said he recognized the prevalence of casual mentions of being addicted to phones and was curious to see if that talk was benign. A recent study of his suggests the debate extends further than academic discourse. In a representative sample of active Instagram users, Anderson found that people often overestimate whether they are addicted to the app. On a self-report scale, 18% of participants agreed that they were at least somewhat addicted to Instagram and 5% indicated substantial agreement, but only 2% of participants were deemed at risk of addiction based on their symptoms. Believing you are addicted also impacts how you address that issue, Anderson said. If you perceive yourself as more addicted, it actually hurts your ability to control your use or your perception of that ability and makes you kind of blame yourself more for overuse, Anderson said. There are these negative consequences to addiction perception. Cutting down on screen time For those looking to curb their social media habits, Anderson suggests making small, meaningful, changes to stop from opening your social media app of choice. Moving the apps place on your phone or turning off notifications are light touch interventions, but more involved options, like not bringing your phone into the bedroom or other places where you often use it could also help. Plenty of intervention methods have been offered to consumers in the form of products or services. But those interventions require self-awareness and a desire to cut down on use. Content creators who infiltrate social media feeds with information about the psychology behind why people scroll for hours a day can plant those early seeds. Cat Goetze, who goes by CatGPT online, makes non-pretentious, non-patronizing content about artificial intelligence, building off her experience in the tech industry. But shes also been on a lengthy road to cut down her own screen time. She often makes videos about why the platforms are so compelling and why we tend to spend longer than we anticipate on them. Theres a whole infrastructure theres an army of nerds whose only job is to get you to increase your time spent on that platform, she said. Theres a whole machine thats trying to get you to be that way and its not your fault and youre not going to win this just (through) willpower. Goetze also founded the business Physical Phones, which makes Bluetooth landline phones that connect to smartphones, encouraging people to spend less time on their devices. The inside of the packaging reads offline is the new luxury. She was able to build the business at an accelerated pace thanks to her social media audience. But the early success of Physical Phones also demonstrates the demand for solutions to high screen time, she said. Social media will always play a part in our lives. I dont necessarily think thats a bad thing. If we can get the average sceen time down from, if its 10 hours for a person to one hour, or from three hours to 30 minutes, that is going to be a net positive benefit for that individual and for society, Goetze said. That being said, Id love to be the person that theyre watching for those 30 minutes. Kaitlyn Huamani, AP technology writer
Category:
E-Commerce
The state of Indiana is no stranger to underdog stories. Hoosiers and Rudy, two of the most iconic underdog sports films ever made, both take place in the state, and both are based on true stories. Hoosier nation now has a trilogy. Indiana University’s football team had been a Big Ten doormat for as long as the conference had existed. Then, athletic director Scott Dolson hired Curt Cignetti as head coach, and Cignetti embarked on the greatest turnaround story in modern college sports. In just his second season, he led the Hoosiers to their first-ever national championship, defeating the University of Miami Hurricanes, 27-21, on Monday night, and completing a perfect season that nobody saw coming. Well, except for Cignetti himself. It took more than just one person, but Cignetti was the catalyst that eventually catapulted IU to the top of the sport. Here’s a look at some key numbers from an unforgettable Hoosiers season. 16-0 Indiana became the first major college football team to go 16-0 in a single season since Yale in 1894. The caveat being that those Bulldogs didnt play all 16 games against other colleges, mixing in a few games against athletic clubs. $93 million Cignetti has signed three different contracts with Indiana: his initial contract in November 2023, an extension worth $8 million per year in November 2024, and then a behemoth extension worth nearly $93 million over eight years in October 2025. 3 Through that last contract, Cignetti is entitled to a good-faith market review and renegotiation that makes him no less than the third-highest-paid Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) coach should the Hoosiers make it to the College Football Playoff semifinal. Thanks to Coach Lane Kiffins contract at LSU, Cignetti will be due for another raise shortly. 5 Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza became just the fifth quarterback in the last 75 years to win the Heisman Trophy while leading his team to an undefeated national championship. He joins Joe Burrow (LSU, 2019), Jameis Winston (Florida State, 2013), Cam Newton (Auburn, 2010), and Matt Leinart (USC, 2004) in that club. Mendoza is currently –8000 to join Burrow, Winston, and Newton as first overall NFL Draft picks as well. 12 Mendozas 12-yard touchdown run on 4th down and five with just under ten minutes to play is the most memorable play from the game. The Hoosiers dialed up a designed quarterback run, and the Miami native made a juke move to gain the first down, then powered through multiple would-be tacklers to dive over the goal line for the score. 715 Entering the 2025 season, Indianas 715 all-time losses were the most by any program in major college football. Conference foe Northwestern lost its 716th game against USC on November 7th, taking the dubious honor from the Hoosiers. 2.5x Indianas football budget rose more than 2.5x from 2021 to 2024, when the budget was last reported at just over $61 million. That figure likely climbed even more from 2024 to 2025, with the Hoosiers going all in on Cignetti. The 2024 mark was the first time since at least 2005 that IU has exceeded the median Big Ten football budget. 24 Indiana University is not a stranger to winning national championships, football notwithstanding. The Hoosiers have won 24 NCAA team championships between six different sports, including five in mens basketball. The last NCAA Championship that IU won was mens soccer in 2012, when it defeated Georgetown. .798 Curt Cignettis winning percentage as a head college football coach ranks among the most impressive in the country. Between Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania, FCS Elon, James Madison (in both FCS and FBS), and now, Indiana, hes won 146 of his 183 games. Nick Saban widely regarded as the greatest college football coach ever won just a shade over 80% of his games. Its not the highest mark of all time (Mount Union legend Vince Kehres won over 92% of his games, coaching Division III) or even in his own conference (Ohio States Ryan Day has won 87% of his games) but considering the circumstances, he keeps pretty special company. He wins. Google him. +10,000 Per Sportsoddshistory.com, Indiana was +10,000 to win the national championship in the preseason. No other national champion dating back to the start of the database (2001) had preseason odds longer than +5000. The Hoosiers had the same odds as Florida State, which went 5-7, Nebraska, which went 7-6, and USC, which went 9-4. $10.90 The amount Cignetti spends every day on his Chipotle Burrito Bowl for his lunch in the office. Chicken, beans, rice, and a side of guac.
Category:
E-Commerce
Netflix exceeded Wall Street’s revenue estimates for its holiday quarter, as it crossed 325 million subscribers, the company said on Tuesday. Revenue came in at $12.1 billion for October through Decembertopping forecasts of $11.97 billion for the quarter, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG. Nielsen reported that Netflix’s monthly viewership rose 10% in December, thanks largely to the final season of hit sci-fi series “Stranger Things,” which generated 15 billion viewing minutes. Netflix also streamed two National Football League games on Christmas Day and released a third film in the “Knives Out” murder mystery series. Investors remain focused on Netflix’s $82.7 billion pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery’s studio and other entertainment assets, as it seeks to fend off a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance. Netflix amended its merger agreement to an all-cash offer for the film and television studios, its extensive content library, and major entertainment franchises, including “Game of Thrones,” “Harry Potter,” and DC Comics’ superheroes like Batman and Superman. “Our revised all-cash agreement will enable an expedited timeline to a stockholder vote and provide greater financial certainty,” Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement accompanying Tuesday’s amended bid. In its note to investors, Netflix said the Warner Bros acquisition will provide it with an even broader and higher-quality selection of movies and shows for its subscribers, while it will be able to offer more personalized, flexible subscription offers with the addition of HBO Max. The company said it obtained commitments for a $59 billion bridge loan on December 4 to support the Warner acquisition. On Monday, it increased the bridge loan commitment by $8.2 billion to support its all-cash $27.75 per share offer. In financial results, Netflix reported adjusted per-share earnings of 56 cents for the fourth quarter ended in December, slightly above estimates of 55 cents per share. Netflix forecasts continued growth in 2026, with revenue of $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion. Ad revenue is expected to roughly double, Netflix said. Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Below, Chris Duffy shares five key insights from his new book, Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy. Chris is a comedian, television writer, and the host of TEDs award-winning How to Be a Better Human podcast. Chris wrote for both seasons of Wyatt Cenacs Problem Areas on HBO, executive-produced by John Oliver. He is both a former fifth-grade teacher and a former fifth-grade student. Whats the big idea? Humor isnt just about being funny. When we notice, share, and even save the small absurdities of everyday life, laughter can make us more relatable, more curious, and better able to connect, think, and work together. Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Chris himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. People like you more if youre a little bit of a mess. Many of us spend so much energy and stress trying to get things to be perfect. I know I do. Ive wasted countless hours trying to hide my flaws from other people, especially strangers. But it turns out that not only is that a battle Im never going to win, but its counterproductive. One of my favorite studies had study subjects rate potential job candidates (who were secretly in on the experiment). When asked to rate high-performing candidates and average candidates, study participants preferred the high performers. No surprise there. But the highest-rated candidates of all were the high performers who had also just spilled coffee all over themselves before walking in the door. In other words, we want you to be able to do your job, but we dont mind if youre kind of a mess. In fact, we prefer it! Youre relatable. Now, Im not suggesting that you dump scalding hot coffee on yourself before your next high-stakes interview. But I am suggesting that being willing to openly acknowledge and laugh at your flaws and imperfections wont undermine your success, it will enhance it. Nobody likes a perfect goody two-shoes; everyone loves a person whos a bit of a mess but trying their best. 2. Looking for laughs can lead to big, serious ideas. Millions of people are alive today because of the discovery of penicillin. But when Alexander Fleming walked into the lab and saw penicillin for the first time, he didnt shout Eureka! Instead, he walked up to a dirty petri dish that had been left out overnight and said, Thats funny, before taking a culture of the mold. The idea of seeing something odd and funny and then investigating it has led to many breakthroughs. In fact, every year, hundreds of the worlds most brilliant thinkers converge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the Ig Nobel Prizes. If youre not already familiar with the Ig Nobels, theyre a lot like the Nobel Prizes. But instead of recognizing the most world-changing achievements in physics, chemistry, and peace, the Ig Nobels recognize the most hilarious discoveries of the year. Their slogan is Research that makes people laugh, then think. The idea of seeing something odd and funny and then investigating it has led to many breakthroughs. The winners are people who have published papers on things like constipated scorpions or what happens if you use a crash test dummy thats shaped like a moose. An international team won the Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for studying the sensations people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times. Or Georgia Tech scientists were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering a universal urination duration. Using fluid dynamics, they demonstrated that all mammals weighing over three kilograms take about twenty-one seconds to completely empty a full bladder. So why would actual Nobel Laureates and celebrated geniuses from around the world make time in their busy schedules to attend an event like this? For one, its fun. I attended the 2024 Ig Nobels, and it was hilarious and an absolute blast. But the Ig Nobels attract such a distinguished crowd for another reason as well! These people are smart enough to know that when it comes to big ideas, a laugh is never just a laugh. Following your sense of humor makes you pay more attention and be intellectually open to new, surprising insights and observations. 3. You dont have to be the center of attention to have a great sense of humor. I am a glutton for attention. I love talking to strangers, and I have built my career around happily getting up in front of crowds to share my thoughts. Im a tried-and-true extrovert. My wife, Mollie, on the other hand, is an introvert who would much rather be curled up at home with a good book than chatting with a neighbor on the bus. But heres the thing: Mollie has an incredible sense of humor! People often make the mistake of thinking that a sense of humor means youre at a party, in the middle of a large group, loudly telling a joke. In fact, it could just as easily be that you are on a walk alone when you notice an extremely chubby squirrel going to town on an acorn. The point is that youre bringing laughter into your daily life and enjoying the delightful absurdity of the world that you might otherwise have missed. People often make the mistake of thinking that a sense of humor means youre at a party, in the middle of a large group, loudly telling a joke. And if youre curious, Mollie really did see that jumbo squirrel having the time of its life. Even just hearing her report secondhand later in the day, I was clutching my sides too at that little squirrel feast. 4. If you want a group to work well together, try being like Abraham Lincoln. When Abraham Lincoln assembled his famous team of rivals, he had a cabinet full of brilliant statesmen. There was only one problem: They mostly hated each other, and they didnt particularly like him. So how did Honest Abe turn the group of rival politicians into a team? Lincolns answer was, in part, to laugh with them. To create a group identity with inside jokes, folksy anecdotes, and shared humor. Everyone who knew Lincoln knew he had no shortage of jokes. One contemporary said Lincolns jokes were as plenty as blackberries. And if theres one thing we know about blackberries, its that there are lots of them. Modern portrayals of Lincoln tend to paint him as a serious and tragic figure, for understandable reasons. But much of Lincolns skill as a politician and leader was his ability to connect with people by getting them laughing. Benjamin P. Thomas, a Lincoln scholar, wrote that Lincoln was ready with an instant witticism or retort under almost any circumstances. One excellent example of Lincolns humor is a joke he made about himself being ugly. During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, when he was accused of being two-faced, Lincoln responded, Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one? A very solid self-burn! Bob Mankoff, the former cartoon editor for The New Yorker, has long been interested in Lincolns humor. In an essay, he wrote that Lincoln was much more about laughingwith than laughing at. And when laughing at, it was often himself he was mocking. Much of Lincolns skill as a politician and leader was his ability to connect with people by getting them laughing. That Lincoln-style congeniality and empathy can help disarm detractors and create a more comfortable space for positive group dynamics to form. There are evolutionary reasons to suspect that this may be one of the earliest and most important functions of humor. Animal behavior experts have long observed that chimpanzees and other primates engage in an equivalent of human laughter. After laughing together, primates are often more relaxed and less aggressive. If it works for chimps, it might work for your colleagues at the office, too! 5. You can stockpile laughter in a file folder. If youre anything like me, you can instantly recall humiliating and embarrassing moments from decades ago. I will often be in the shower minding my own business when all of a sudden I have a vivid recollection of something horrifying, like the time I had a phone conversation with my crush in high school and it ended with her saying I dont think I have a crush on you anymore because you talk too much. Or when I was in one of my first ever big deal meetings with a TV executive, I told her I hated reality TV and then turned around to see a giant poster for the show Jersey Shore with her name listed as one of the producers. Its no challenge for me to give a vivid play-by-play of any one of thousands of cringeworthy interactions. But ask me to give you an equivalent retelling of the funniest jokes and best laughs Ive had, and it takes a lot more effort. We tend to forget the laughs and retain the skin-crawling mortification. But you can change that! Every time you find something that makes you laugh uncontrollably, write it down or find a way to experience it again. Maybe its a list on your computer of the online videos that make you cry tears of laughter, a jar full of Post-it notes with inside jokes from your marriage, or an album of the most hilariously bad photos youve ever taken of your kids or your friends. The form it takes isnt particularly important, but your ability to re-access a good laugh when you need it is. Every time you find something that makes you laugh uncontrollably, write it down or find a way to experience it again. When I interviewed the care team at a Hong Kong nursing home about the wildly successful humor program they had implemented, they told me that residents in the program had needed less pain medicine, felt more connected, and experienced an increase in life satisfaction. One of the biggest parts of their program was simply keeping a folder of writing, cartoons, images, and jokes that made them laugh and then sharing it with others. Thats a prescription that any of us can try, and theres no copay. Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] next »