Students, athletes and performing artists are often advised to imagine themselves performing successfully. But is that motivation influenced by what perspective they take when imagining their performance?
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.
One of the biggest challenges in meeting any goal, whether it be related to productivity, waking early, changing a habit, exercising, or just becoming happier, is finding the motivation to stick with it.
How does someone else’s success mean anything bad for you?
Employees who pursue creative activities outside of work may find that these activities boost their performance on the job.
The color red can affect how people function: Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic.
When we're waiting in line or sitting in a boring meeting, time seems to slow down to a trickle. And when we get caught up in something completely engrossing - a gripping thriller, for example - we may lose sense of time altogether.
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.
I've been a professional writer since I was 17, so nearly 24 years now. I’ve made my living with words, and have written a lot of them -- more than 10 million.
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.
Maintaining an interest in the goals you pursue can improve your work and reduce burnout, according to research from Duke University.
People are better able to exercise self-control when they choose goal-pursuit strategies that fit with their promotion or prevention focus.
Sometimes immersing yourself in the creative world of people doing amazing things can bring unexpected results.
"Over the course of five years, I've managed to pay off over $35,000 in debt, quit my day job, and go from having nothing saved to fully funding my retirement accounts every year. In the process, I've developed a 14-point philosophy."
Reading teaches us a lot, but it’s in the actual doing of things that we do our real learning.
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.
While some psychologists still argue that people perform better when they do something because they want to, research suggests we shouldn't even make that distinction.
Procrastination is in all of us, and one of the best ways to procrastinate is to do all the busy-work that makes us feel like we’re doing stuff -- while not doing the stuff we know we should be doing.
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.
Just being in the same room as greatness can inspire you to new levels of the possible.
What is a mind map? Put simply, it's a type of diagram, used to help you outline information in a visual format. But really, a mindmap can be anything you need it to be.
A common mistake people make is that they’ll spend 500 hours creating a product and then 20 hours promoting it. Then they wonder why no one is buying.
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.
Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Side effects include missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, feeling overwhelmed, resentment and guilt.
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.
Whether it's sports, poker or the high-stakes world of business, there are those who always find a way to win when there's money on the table.
There are a lot of people who read self-improvement blogs and books, but never put them into action. Are you one?
Even the most motivated of us can feel unmotivated at times. In fact, sometimes we get into such a slump that even thinking about making positive changes seems too difficult.
Excuses are lies we tell ourselves to avoid dealing with unpleasant truths. But as long as we buy into those excuses, we can never move past them.
The authors of this study looked closely at the ways beginners versus experts respond to negative or positive feedback.