About a year ago, I went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. I was interested in meditating before that, but like most people, found it pretty frustrating and didn’t do it regularly. If there’s one benefit of doing a 10-day retreat is that you quickly get over the mild feeling of discomfort in meditating. Instead […]
The Nine Habits to Increase Your Energy
Energy, not time, is the basis for productivity. Having all the hours in the day won’t help you if you’re exhausted for most of it. Your habits define your energy levels. If you have good habits, you’ll feel energized and be more resilient to burn out, both physically and mentally. If your habits are misaligned, […]
How Important is Growth?
There’s two common ways you can approach working on your goals and habits: The first is progressive. This is where you start off easy, but make it a little bit harder each time, until you can eventually do very difficult things, with a lot less effort. The second is consistent. Do the same thing, with […]
Games Worth Playing
The most important choice you can make in life is deciding which games you’re going to play. Life is full of games. There’s the getting-in-shape game, the climbing-the-corporate-ladder game, the saving-enough-for-retirement game and the get-married-and-have-kids game. Like all games, these all have objectives, rules and players. Sometimes the games are strictly well-defined, like the becoming-an-Olympic-athlete […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.