You’ve finished this course, which was designed to help you cope when you find yourself in a new situation. Well done, genuinely, for getting this far. I hope you’ve reflected after each article and made some small changes in your mindset, your approach, and your life. Most people don’t get this far. I told you…
Starting is easy. Sustained progress is the hard part. Anyone can begin. You’ve begun dozens of times. The gym membership in January. The business idea in March. The diet that lasted eleven days. The side project that filled a weekend before quietly disappearing. Beginning feels like progress because it involves movement. But movement without direction,…
A lot of people are bored at work — more than would ever admit it, and in some industries, far more than others. Not burned out. Bored. There’s a difference, and it matters more than most people realise. Burnout gets all the attention. It’s dramatic. It makes good copy. There are TED talks about it,…
You have it scheduled and you’ve set a goal to do something by a certain date. You’ve picked the date. It’s far enough away to feel achievable and close enough to feel real. You’ve told yourself this time is different. You’ve maybe told a few other people, too. The goal is clear, the deadline is…
A few years ago, out of the blue, I received two written complaints about my practice. Generally, I have a complaint rate of about one in every four thousand consultations. It doesn’t seem like a large amount, and what’s important is that neither of these complaints were about misdiagnosis, medical error, or clinical mistakes. The…
Every living thing on the planet moves toward reward and away from punishment. Bacteria do it. Animals do it. You do it. It’s not complicated. It’s not sophisticated. It’s the most basic operating principle in all of biology: seek pleasure, avoid pain, move toward what helps you, move away from what hurts you. Charlie Munger…
You’ve done the hard work of Stage 1. You’ve looked honestly at where you are, understood why you’ve been stuck, and started to see and change the thinking patterns that have been holding you back. That takes courage, and most people never get even this far. They remain all talk and no action, and this…
Maybe you’re at home right now, sitting there reading this with a coffee, thinking about all the things you should have done but never got around to, or maybe you’re thinking of the things you should do but you find it difficult to take the first step. You’ve got dreams, plans and good intentions. Possibly…
You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take. Wayne Gretzky said that, the famous ice hockey player, and it’s one of my favourite quotes. Not only because it’s true, but because it gives us a perfect example of how omission bias affects us every single day. For some people, omission bias is…