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Why willpower matters – and how to get it
The Guardian: In the smart restaurant of a very smart hotel in the West End of London, Roy F Baumeister, eminent American social psychology professor, orders a lunch of fish and chips, and then decides not to eat the chips. "I won't eat something that's not good for me unless it's absolutely perfect, and it's going to give me real pleasure," he says. "I'm afraid ... Well, it just didn't look like these were going to do either." What willpower, you might say. You'd be right; the chips looked pretty good. But Baumeister is also, coincidentally, a leading authority on that very subject, and has just published a smash-hit book on it with New York Times science writer John Tierney.
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The Science Behind the Serenity Prayer
The Huffington Post: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." These are the first lines of what's known as the Serenity Prayer, which is well-known to many recovering alcoholics. It's often recited in the rooms of AA as a reminder of the core principle of successful sobriety: Acceptance of the reality that for addicts, nothing but absolute, lifelong abstinence will lead to healthy and lasting recovery. As simple as that message is, it's very difficult for many alcoholics to embrace, at least at first.
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Why ‘experience’ shoppers are happier
Minneapolis Post: Next time you pull out your wallet to hand over some of your hard-earned money, you'd be wise to spend it on experiences rather than possessions. For as research on happiness and spending habits has demonstrated repeatedly in recent years, buying life experiences tends to makes us happier than buying things. What hasn't been as clear, however, is why some individuals are more likely to use their disposable income on, say, camping in the Boundary Waters or catching a show at the Jungle Theater than shopping at the Mall of America. In fact, psychologists know very little about habitual "experiential shoppers." A recent study, however, appears to have unlocked some clues.
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Does Online Dating Make It Harder to Find ‘the One’?
TIME: Everyone knows someone who met their spouse online. A friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in years told me recently that she, too, met her husband on an Internet dating site. They’re happily married, just moved into a new house, and are now talking about starting a family. When I asked her if she thought online matchmaking was a better way than offline dating to find guys who were more compatible with her — and, therefore, better husband material — she laughed. “No, because I couldn’t stand him when I first met him,” she says of her husband. She thought he was full of himself and rude during their first encounter. It definitely wasn’t love at first sight, she said — that took a while.
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Secrets of a super successful introvert
CNN: I was in a terrible hurry, running late for a business meeting in Philadelphia. I'd spent more than $100 for my train ticket from a vending machine at New York's Penn Station -- but in my haste had grabbed only the receipt, which I now presented to the conductor. "You need the ticket," he said. I apologized and explained that the receipt was all I had. "The rules are the rules," said the conductor. "Either you pay the fare or you leave the train." I'm constitutionally opposed to following rules for their own sake; plus, this man was treating me rudely. But I'm not confrontational, so I wasn't going to let my annoyance show.
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Yet another study confirms your tech addiction
msnbc.com: Scientists, online dating sites, your constantly irritated significant other and Wilhelm Hofmann at University of Chicago's Booth Business School could all save a lot of time over whether we are "addicted" to social media and/or our cellular devices. Rather than pondering or conducting surveys, they could simply do what most normal answer-seeking people do: Go to Wikipedia. Read the full story: msnbc.com
