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How to Become a ‘Superager’
The New York Times: Think about the people in your life who are 65 or older. Some of them are experiencing the usual mental difficulties of old age, like forgetfulness or a dwindling attention span. Yet others somehow manage to remain mentally sharp. My father-in-law, a retired doctor, is 83 and he still edits books and runs several medical websites. Why do some older people remain mentally nimble while others decline? “Superagers” (a term coined by the neurologist Marsel Mesulam) are those whose memory and attention isn’t merely above average for their age, but is actually on par with healthy, active 25-year-olds.
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Living With Purpose Yields a Longer Life and Higher Income
New York Magazine: Purpose isn’t just a virtue confined to ear-burrowing pop songs and best-selling self-help books: According to a pair of studies, it approximates the proximity of your grave and the size of your bank account. As noted on Minds for Business, both studies were done by Patrick Hill at Carleton University in Canada and Nicholas Turiano at West Virginia University. They used a national, longitudinal survey called Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) as their data set for each. The first study, published in 2014 in Psychological Science, looked at longevity. Read the whole story: New York Magazine
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Angela Duckworth: ‘A Passion Is Developed More Than It Is Discovered’
NPR: I spoke to Angela Duckworth, the New York Times bestselling author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, about the importance of controlling your own destiny, why she decided to pursue writing her book, why you need to have a deep passion in your work to be successful, why it takes time to discover your sense of purpose, and her best advice to you. Duckworth is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She has advised the White House, the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.
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Teachers Are Stressed, And That Should Stress Us All
NPR: We all experience stress at work, no matter the job. But for teachers, the work seems to be getting harder and the stress harder to shake. A new report out this month pulls together some stark numbers on this: Forty-six percent of teachers say they feel high daily stress. That's on par with nurses and physicians. And roughly half of teachers agree with this statement: "The stress and disappointments involved in teaching at this school aren't really worth it." It's a problem for all of us — not just these unhappy teachers.
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New psychology research identifies exactly where most people fail when setting big personal goals
Quartz: We all got the memo about how to create effective goals. Keep it real, the productivity experts tell us. Our objectives should be specific, measurable, and attainable. When we make resolutions before a new year, most people abide by these rules of thumb. Unfortunately, our minds also exploit a loophole in their ability to imagine the future: People are terrible at recognizing that the constraints that exist today are the same constraints that will exist tomorrow, next week and beyond. In the future, you’ll face the same deadlines at work that interfere with yoga or CrossFit. Your friends will still insist that you socialize over drinks, not cold-pressed juice.
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Why Naming A Precise Figure During Negotiations Could Backfire
The Huffington Post: In negotiating, is a more precise opening offer always better? It might be — but it depends on the experience level of the person with whom you’re negotiating, a recent study from Germany found. In the study, researchers showed that increasing the precision of an opening offer improved a person’s negotiations with amateurs, but could actually backfire on negotiations with experts. In most situations, precision can influence social perceptions during a negotiation, suggesting more confidence and competence, the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in October in the journal Psychological Science.
