Discovering My Own Values, by Leah Perlman
the end of your life” a friend once asked,  “What do you hope to have happened?” I thought it a great question and decided to give him a thoughtful answer, so I pocketed it for later and bought myself a month for the assignment. For a while my mind flooded with questions of plot. Will I fall in love? Will I have kids? Will I know passion in my work? Will I touch lives? Will I change the world? For the better? What will my regrets be? Where will I have traveled? Where will I have lived? Will I have really traveled? Will I have really lived? When I was a kid watching movies, I used to shout during tense scenes, “Ah! What’s gonna happen!?”&nbs... posted on Nov 8 2011 (38,905 reads)

27 Non-School Skills Children Need, by Leo Babauta
knows that our school system, in general, is not giving our kids the basic reading, writing, ‘rithmatic and science skills needed to be competitive in the high-tech workforce of the upcoming generation (at least, that’s the general assumption, and we won’t argue it here). But there’s much more to life than those basic subjects, and unless you have an exceptional teacher who is willing to break out of the mold, your child isn’t learning the crucial things he or she needs to learn in life. Think about your own experience for a moment. When you got out of high school, did you know everything you needed in order to survive in life, let alone... posted on Aug 28 2012 (116,505 reads)

7 Ways To Change Negative Beliefs About Yourself, by Michele Rosenthal
simple daily practices can alter the neural pathways in your brain and help you turn your thinking around In fourth grade I was placed in an advanced math group with four other students. Every day we gathered around a circular table at the back of the classroom and learned algebra. Being part of this special group felt good; when it came to math I was calm, confident, and competent. One day the teacher announced a math quiz: 12 addition problems (simple equations containing four numbers each) to be done in 6 minutes. “These are very easy,” the teacher explained. “If you can’t get all twelve correct, then you’re just plain stupid.” Stupid?... posted on Sep 26 2014 (111,243 reads)

James Doty's Helper's High, by Bonnie Tsui
Doty is not a subject under study at the altruism research center that he founded at Stanford in 2008, but he could be.  In 2000, after building a fortune as a neurosurgeon and biotech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, he lost it all in the dotcom crash: $75 million gone in six weeks.  Goodbye villa in Tuscany, private island in New Zealand, penthouse in San Francisco.  His final asset was stock in a medical-device company he’d once run called Accuray.  But it was stock he’d committed to a trust that would benefit the universities he’d attended and programs for AIDS, family, and global health.  Doty was $3 million in the hole.  Everyone tol... posted on Aug 22 2014 (24,002 reads)

The Crossroads of Should and Must: An Intelligent Illustrated Field Guide to Finding Your Bliss, by Maria Popova
is how other people want us to live our lives… Choosing Must is the greatest thing we can do with our lives.” “Does what goes on inside show on the outside?,” young Vincent van Gogh despaired in a moving letter to his brother while floundering to find his purpose. “Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney.” A century later, Joseph Campbell stoked that hearth of the soul with his foundational treatise on finding your bliss. And yet every day, countless hearths and hearts grow ashen in cubicles around the world as we... posted on Jul 1 2015 (15,635 reads)

The Crossroads of Should & Must, by Maria Popova
is how other people want us to live our lives… Choosing Must is the greatest thing we can do with our lives.” “Does what goes on inside show on the outside?,” young Vincent van Gogh despaired in a moving letter to his brother while floundering to find his purpose. “Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney.” A century later, Joseph Campbell stoked that hearth of the soul with his foundational treatise on finding your bliss. And yet every day, countless hearths and hearts grow ashen in cubicles ar... posted on Oct 6 2016 (17,350 reads)

How to Be a Lifelong Learner, by Kira M. Newman
instructor of the world’s most popular MOOC explores how to change your life through the power of learning—and why you have more potential than you think. People around the world are hungry to learn. Instructor Barbara Oakley discovered this when her online course “Learning How to Learn”—filmed in her basement in front of a green screen—attracted more than 1.5 million students. Part of the goal of her course—and her new book, Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential—is to debunk some of the myths that get in the way of learning, like the belief that we’re bad at math or too old to change ... posted on Jul 4 2017 (15,982 reads)

Repairing the Fabric of the World, by Parabola Editors
met Jonathan F.P. Rose in Manhattan, the week a snow storm knocked out power in much of the Northeast. Heating by woodstove and carrying water home from the local fire station for five long, cold days left me feeling a bit rough and smoky, not to mention unprepared, to be sitting in the comfortable offices of his company in a historic old building near Grand Central Station. Yet the moment I met Rose, a tall, friendly man who met me talking and moving at a confident stride, I realized that my days as a kind of suburban pioneer woman, muddling along in a harsh new world that everyone blamed on global warming and our decaying infrastructure, was the best possible situation to meet a new ... posted on Jul 14 2018 (9,369 reads)

Rachel Callender Sees Superpowers, by Nathan Scolaro
SCOLARO: So let’s talk about the work you’re doing now and then journey back through your story. RACHEL CALLANDER: Okay cool. My work involves speaking to health professionals about the need to communicate with patients using openhearted language, especially at diagnosis. I teach how the first words used at diagnosis critically shape how a patient or parent or family member perceives the present and navigates their future. These words can either help the individual be their best self through this challenging time and find meaning even in pain, or they can create anger, mistrust, frustration, and break down the crucial relationship between with the health profe... posted on Aug 27 2018 (8,977 reads)

War No More: David Swanson, by Leslee Goodman
Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. A prolific writer, his books include War Is a Lie, When the World Outlawed War, War No More: The Case for Abolition, War Is Never Just, A Global Security System: An Alternative to War, and his most recent, Curing Exceptionalism: What’s wrong with how we think about the United States? What can we do about it? All are available on his website. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio and is a three-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.&... posted on Jan 28 2019 (6,188 reads)

Grateful Changemakers: Karma Kitchen, by The Gratefulness Team
a restaurant where there are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, we invite you to pay it forward for those who dine after you.” This restaurant exists, and it’s called Karma Kitchen, a self-described “volunteer-driven experiment in generosity.” Karma Kitchen was first opened in Berkeley, California in 2007 by volunteers inspired to seed the value of a gift economy. Karma Kitchen has served over 74,700 meals and generated over 60,300 volunteer hours in Berkeley alone, but ultimately, it’s impossible to measure all t... posted on Dec 24 2018 (8,235 reads)

Growing Through the Cracks: A Conversation with Sachi Maniar, by Richard Whittaker
the past ten years, Sachi Maniar has nurtured breathing spaces for young people in the midst of profound intensity. When she first stumbled into the company of youth in conflict with the law, with runaway, orphaned and abandoned children, Sachi felt herself inexplicably at home. The work that blossomed from that feeling would eventually turn into a full-fledged organization that has now touched thousands of young lives, across three facilities in Mumbai as well as 18 other facilities in India. At its core Sachi's work reminds us of each person's fundamental belonging, of the beauty inherent in wholeness, and the power and freedom that come... posted on Jan 9 2023 (2,525 reads)

Going Beyond Profit, by Somik Raha
crowded room listened to an intense man, strangely dressed in shorts, talk about marketing. Drawing parallels with Nike, this man pointed out that great brands don't talk about the details of their products, but celebrate the values they stand for. He went on to articulate the core value of his company, Apple: "To think differently." And so their ad campaign celebrated out-of-the-box visionaries, ranging from Einstein to Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. Every time I watch that classic Steve Jobs talk, I wonder what the secret is behind his legendary effectiveness in communication. Slick videos, minimalist slides and articulate delivery all play their part, but the most imp... posted on Aug 8 2011 (14,641 reads)

5 Must-Read Books on Error and the Science of Being Wrong, by Maria Popova
Ronald Reagan has to do with gorilla costumes, Shakespeare and fake pennies.   The intricate mechanisms of the human mind are endlessly fascinating. We’ve previously explored various facets of how the mind works — from how we decide towhat makes us happy to why music affects us so deeply — and today we’re turning to when it doesn’t: Here are five fantastic reads on why we err, what it means to be wrong, and how to make cognitive lemonade out of wrongness’s lemons. BEING WRONG The pleasure of being right is one of the most universal human addictions and most of us spend an extraordinary amount of effort on avoidi... posted on Nov 11 2011 (9,188 reads)

Ben Davis Keeps His Promise To Meemaw, by Tonic.com
van. One father. One son. Thirty-one cities. 30,724 pounds lost among 1,516 participants. 1,255,740 views on YouTube. When Ben Davis makes a promise to his Meemaw, he means business. It was Christmas Eve of 2008 when Ben’s grandmother expressed her concern for him simply by asking whether he was happy.    “I was 360 pounds,” Ben told me. “I was in a deep depression, I had lost a relationship as a direct result of the depression—I was, in no way, happy—and her inquisition that night … it pushed me to really examine my life and spurred me to get it together. To get a grip and get my life back on track.” Inspired, he... posted on Jan 4 2012 (11,948 reads)

10 Life-Changing Facts About Anger, by Gail Brenner, PhD
I was angry. And I was a little afraid. After all I’ve not been free in so long. But, when I felt that anger well up inside of me, I realized that if I hated them after I got outside that gate, then they would still have me. I wanted to be free so I let it go.” ~Nelson Mandela upon leaving prison after 27 years of confinement   Frustrated, impatient, raging…aaarrrrrrgh! Yes, it’s normal to feel angry – you are human, after all. But if anger causes problems in your life – if it interferes with your health and happiness – then consider these 10 life-changing facts. Get curious about anger, and you just might discover a... posted on Feb 16 2022 (206,386 reads)

The Gift that Matters, by Rachel Macy Stafford
a very young age, my oldest daughter has been a gift giver. Like most children, her offerings consisted of items that adults wouldn’t ordinarily classify as gifts. Broken seashells, traumatized frogs, dying weeds, and misshapen rocks were often presented in small, dirt-laden hands beneath a wide smile. In the past two years my child’s gift giving practices have moved up a notch. Gifts are no longer found in nature; they are found in our home. Yes, it’s re-gifting at its best—wrapping barely-used items and presenting them with great love.   I must be honest; I used to cringe at the sight of my child tearing through our (multiple) junk drawers looki... posted on Feb 9 2013 (26,131 reads)

7 Tips to Fight the Deadly Feeling of Boredom, by Gretchen Rubin
of the patron saints of my Happier at Home project, Samuel Johnson, wrote, “It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.” One “little thing” that can be a source of unhappiness is boredom. Waiting in traffic. Waiting for the subway. Doing the dishes. Waiting in a doctor’s office. Listening to your thirteen year old talk through her different clothing options for the day. Here are seven tips to re-frame the moment. Even if you can’t escape a situation, by re-framing your emotions about it, you can transform it. 1. Put the word ... posted on Apr 17 2013 (35,053 reads)

6 Ways To Find Work You Love, by Roman Krznaric
idea of fulfilling work—a job that reflects our passions, talents and values—is a modern invention. Open Dr. Johnson's celebrated Dictionary, published in 1755, and the word “fulfilment” doesn't even appear. But today our expectations are higher, which helps explain why job satisfaction has declined to a record low of 47 percent in the U.S., and is even lower in Europe. If you count yourself amongst those who are unhappy in their job, or at least have that occasional niggling feeling that your work and self are out of alignment, how are you supposed to go about finding a meaningful career? What does it take to overcome the fear of cha... posted on Aug 8 2013 (52,277 reads)

Are We Losing Our Focus?, by Jill Suttie
a new book, Daniel Goleman argues that focus leads to greater happiness, better relationships, and increased productivity. My teenage son does homework while watching sports games on his computer and Facebooking his friends. Of course, I understand the draw—homework can be boring and tedious. But, I wonder what kind of impact this multi-focused attention is having on his learning and social life, not to mention his future success. According to Daniel Goleman’s new book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, I should wonder. Goleman, renowned psychologist and author of the bestselling books,Social Intelligence and Emotional Intellig... posted on Dec 20 2013 (26,547 reads)