Pride in success can prevent us from taking further action toward our goals. We should not allow our brains to convince us that a failure is a success just so that we can stop trying.
It seems contradictory to those who are used to sacrificing living for pursuing their goals … but cultivating mindfulness will help you achieve your goals and enjoy life more.
So many acts in our daily lives -- refusing that second slice of cake, walking past the store with the latest gadgets, working on your tax forms when you'd rather watch TV -- seem to boil down to one essential ingredient: self-control.
How does someone else’s success mean anything bad for you?
Maintaining an interest in the goals you pursue can improve your work and reduce burnout, according to research from Duke University.
We all know that if you’re truly passionate about something, productivity becomes largely irrelevant.
It's hard to keep yourself going when you don’t feel the same excitement as you did in the beginning.
If you want to make a difference in the world, the single most important thing you can do is consciously and deliberately choose to do work that you are passionate about.
If you don’t know how, learn how. Use that fancy brain that learned how to walk, talk, and read. It’s still capable of further learning, is it not? Of course it is!
We have all had them as we set and go after our goals, no matter where we are or what our goals may be: naysayers, detractors, people who poke fun or get angry, or who simply tell us we can’t do it.
Little research exists in the area of self-talk, although internal dialogue often influences the way people motivate and shape their own behavior.
I make a living doing what I love, and doing what you love for a living is fantastic.
What truly inspires individuals to perform at their very best?
There are a number of factors that influence how well we do in school, including the amount of time we study and our interest in a subject.
A reader recently asked, “How can an achievement-motivated workaholic learn to back off, relax, de-stress, and feel good about doing it? I am too driven!”
Whether bloggers are writing to change the world, or just discussing a bad break-up, they may get an extra boost of motivation from traffic-measuring and interactive tools that help them feel more connected to and more influential in their communities.
There are a lot of people who read self-improvement blogs and books, but never put them into action. Are you one?
The prolific life has been characterized by abundant inventiveness and limitless creativity, and has been enshrouded in a veil of mystery - the sources of artistic inventiveness are too often viewed as out-of-reach for the average person.
Too often we get stuck in inaction -- the quagmire of doubt and perfectionism and distractions and planning that stops us from moving forward.
Psychological scientists have found that the size of different parts of people's brains correspond to their personalities; for example, conscientious people tend to have a bigger lateral prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in planning and controlling behavior.
We all procrastinate. I put off writing this article by doing a bunch of smaller tasks, for example. They were less important and I knew it, but they were quick tasks and so easier than writing an article on a tough topic.
We all have days when we’re just not very inspired, when we need passion and creativity breathed into us.
Reading teaches us a lot, but it’s in the actual doing of things that we do our real learning.
The color red can affect how people function: Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic.
Worried you won't meet your goal? According to research, you'll be more likely to succeed if you make specific plans to implement it.
It’s the lack of starting that kills most tasks and projects.
The authors of this study looked closely at the ways beginners versus experts respond to negative or positive feedback.
I couldn't motivate myself to do anything important this morning, which is a rare thing for me. I started to doubt myself, and wonder whether anything I do is worthwhile.
Whether it's for money, marbles or chalk, the brains of reward-driven people keep their game faces on, helping them win at every step of the way. Surprisingly, they win most often when there is no reward.
When people consider a particular goal, they often worry about the time commitment: 'If I start a business now, it could take years to make it profitable.' Such thoughts reveal a total misunderstanding of the nature of time.