Confidence, Certainty, and Understanding Your Own Motivation
In the previous article in this series, I said that confidence is the emotion that proceeds from the conclusion that you have sufficient skill that your current or proposed effort will result in success. But if the task is at all difficult, how can you reach such a...
Confidence versus Optimism
Confidence is a crucial aspect of happiness. In this article, I will resume my series on the "Concept of Happiness” with a focus on confidence. As a reminder of the context, happiness comes from the achievement of your values. Not a value. Your values. You need to...
Stopping and Starting: Why It Can Be Hard to Make Transitions
Over the years, I have written several articles on how to do a mental cleanup when you need to stop a task prematurely to get started on something else. And I've also written about warming up your mental circuits to get started from a cold start. I reviewed how to...
Defense Values, Anti-Values, and “Pseudo-Self-Esteem”
After my recent article on defensiveness, I coached a member of the Thinking Lab who was concerned that productiveness was a defense value for him. He realized that he had a compulsion to prioritize getting things done over every other value — relationships, health,...
FAQ: What Is Defensiveness?
If you've been reading my newsletter for a long time, you know I advocate motivating yourself by values, not threats. In the simplest cases, this just requires introspecting your obvious emotions to identify the values landscape, meaning the values around you and the...
FAQ: What is a “Deep Rational Value”?
I aim to teach people to think clearly and logically about value-laden issues. As a means to this end, I exhort my Thinking Labbers to identify "deep rational values" [Footnote 1] at stake in every confusing situation. This is critical to your short- and long-term...
The Weekly Review
The very first article I wrote for my newsletter was a book recommendation for David Allen's book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. That was 2004. Recently I realized that I had misunderstood the utility of a key tool from his system — the...
Your Reasons Matter
When you are committed to living by reason, contrary emotions can create all sorts of conundrums. For example, a Thinking Lab member recently reported some doubts about a decision he made to take a break and go for a walk. Based on our discussion, I would say that all...
Goals, Values, and Productivity
Many people tend to use the terms "values" and "goals" almost interchangeably. But though your goals and your values are related, they are not the same thing at all. Understanding the difference between your goals and your values can help you avoid or solve many...
The Role of Philosophy in Happiness
This series of articles on happiness would not be possible without the philosophic foundation I got from studying Ayn Rand, with much help from other Objectivist philosophers. Ayn Rand gave me an integrated understanding of the world, how you know it, and what matters...