Self-Improvement

So, a funny thing happened to me the other day.  For some reason, I don’t mind working any more, either physically or mentally.  After my despair-ectomy, I started creating a reading nook in my house, which involved a lot of lift-and-carry work. ...

This weekend I was working on a little household project: cleaning out a spare bedroom so I could create a quiet reading nook, apart from the distractions of my office and the noise of the TV in the living room.The spare room was filled with boxes...

So here it is, nearly a week since I performed my personal despair-ectomy, and things are continuing to change in interesting ways.I’m no longer quite as euphoric when my negative thoughts don’t result in feelings of depression.  In fact, I...

On Friday evening, I went out with my wife to celebrate our most recent personality upgrades over dinner, and discussion of how we might want to change some of our routines now that we are both a bit more inclined to take care of ourselves. ...

We all understand temptation – or at least we think we do.  Alexander Woolcott is supposed to have said, “All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening,” while the Bible says we should “enter not into temptation: the...

Earlier this week, reader Betsy Nein had this comment:I’m 68 years young living in Fla. and wanting to do much more in my remaining years. Problem is, I’ve always knew what I didn’t like to do, but not exactly it was that I did like to do. What’s my...

Last week, an anonymous reader wrote this comment:how do you live your dreams when you don’t even know what they are what do you do when you have no passion, no drive no reason to get up and out of bed at any time of the daySo this week, I’m writing...

Can people really change?  We tend to assume that circumstances change easily and often, but that people change rarely, slowly, and with great difficulty.  But these assumptions are wrong.The truth is that people can change easily and instantly. ...

It’s been way too long since my last article.  Partly, that’s because a piece like “How to Stop Having Problems” is a tough act to follow.  What do you do after you stop having problems?In fact, that very question created some interesting new...

Today I saw a blog post by Jack Thomas that was a review of my book, You, Version 2.0.  In it, he mentioned the “Mmmmm Test” that I described in one of the essays in the book.  The funny thing about it is that I had completely forgotten I wrote...

I’ve now shipped signed and numbered copies of You, Version 2.0 to eleven countries.  About half of the books went to the US, and then there were multiple copies to each of Britain, Australia, Germany, and Israel.  The remaining countries (Spain...

I have a confession to make: I’m lousy at multi-tasking.  I’m one of those people who feels like they have to finish everything they start, even if they never actually do finish anything.  I prefer to “drive” only one project at a time, because I...