Jumpstart Your Dream Life

Why We Suffer From Losses More Than We Gain From Wins

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Imagine two scenarios:

In the first one, you make a $10 bet with a friend. You lose. The next day, fortune smiles on you as you walk down the street. You see a $10 bill lying on the sidewalk.

In the second scenario, nothing happens. You neither enter into any bet with anyone, nor do you find any money lying on the street.

In both scenarios, your net gain is $0.

Would both of these scenarios affect you the same psychologically? Or would one have a greater emotional impact than the other? Which scenario would you choose?

If you picked the second scenario, you made the right choice.

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How to Make New Year’s Resolutions That Stick

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It’s around this time New Year’s Resolutions start to slip.

Remember counting down to when the clock struck midnight? The second it happened, a burst of fireworks shot into the sky. They exploded into an array of colors, signaling the promises, hopes, and dreams of a new year to come.

But as January slowly crawls towards February, our enthusiasm from that moment wanes. The New Year, with its new hopes, turns into “maybe later”. We begin to back out of our aspirations.

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Why Are YouTubers So Rich?

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Making YouTube videos for a living is nice, isn’t it?

You hear about it all the time. Ads showing YouTube stars’ multi-million dollar mansions. Viral videos exploding with millions of views. People making full-time incomes from the comforts of their home.

Top YouTubers can make upwards of $10 million in a year. When you add up the advertising revenue, sponsorships, and endorsement deals, those figures go up even higher. Being a professional YouTuber sounds lucrative, doesn’t it?

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10 Things That Will Matter a Lot Less in 10 Years

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“My life is over.”

Have those words ever crossed your mind? That moment when something so catastrophic, disastrous, and damage-inducing occurred that you never thought you would recover? That moment when there were no other roads, when you had run out of options?

And yet, here you are.

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This Parable Shows Why You Shouldn’t Sweat the Small Stuff

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“If only…”

Any sentence that starts with these words never ends well. It’s filled with pain, loss, and the feeling of unfulfilled potential. We believe that if only things happened differently, then the rest would fall into place.

Like heavy snow on a rooftop, fixating on the negatives will weigh you down. When the burden is too great, the foundations weaken. Then, they collapse.

In the face of disappointment, it’s easy to lie down and not want to get back up.

But things are not always what they seem. What seems bad may not be so bad after all. It may even turn out to be good.

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The Streisand Effect: Why Censorship Leads to the Spread of Information

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In 2003, Barbra Streisand made a grave miscalculation.

She attempted to sue photographer Kenneth Adelman for invasion of privacy. In the process of documenting the California coastline, he photographed her Malibu mansion. Adelman then included the photo as part of the California Coastal Records Project.

Adelman created the publicly available 12,000 photo collection in order to document coastal erosion. His aim was to influence government policymakers. No matter the intent, Streisand didn’t take kindly to the inclusion of an image of her home. She launched a $50 million lawsuit.

Before the lawsuit, “Image 3850” had only been downloaded from Adelman’s site six times, two of which were by Streisand’s attorneys. Afterward? Over 420,000 people visited the site in a month due to the resulting publicity.

As for the lawsuit, things didn’t go well for Barbra Streisand. The case was dismissed and Streisand subsequently had to pay Adelman’s legal fees totaling $155,567.

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Give Thanks: Gratitude Makes You Happier, Healthier, and More Popular

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What does it mean to “give thanks?”

Well, it depends. It depends on who, where, when, and how.

If you were around in October 1621 at the Plimouth Plantation, you might have been part of the “First Thanksgiving”. Here, the Native Americans and Pilgrims came together to celebrate the first harvest in the New World.

The settlers had struggled the previous winter due to a lack of supplies and food. Many had starved or became ill and died as a result. Yet, a number survived. Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag tribe, had given the colonists food to get through their first winter.

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Ghosts, Monsters, and Curses: Why We (Still) Believe in the Unbelievable

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Bigfoot. Aliens. The Loch Ness Monster. There are all sorts of creatures out there that people buy into. While many of us see them as myth, there are many still who are rabid followers, chasing after any clues and signs.

Once in a while, something new pops up. A photo reveals a hazy shape off in the distance. Someone claims they saw a strange creature while hiking in the forest. A group of people hear unusual noises. When questionable evidence comes up, many people jump to the same conclusion every time: they were right all along.

However, there are few stories that have shared the same mystique as the legend behind the Hope Diamond.

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Just-World Hypothesis: Do People Always Get What They Deserve?

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“Whoops – My wand is a little over excited!” – Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Do you believe people get what they deserve in the end?

Because that’s exactly what happens to Gilderoy Lockhart, a character in the Harry Potter books.

Born in 1964 to a Muggle father and a witch mother, Lockhart attended school at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he joined the house of Ravenclaw. While there, Lockhart proved to be a good student, even though he constantly attempted to seek attention for himself.

In 1982, Lockhart mastered the spell of Memory Charms, enabling him to erase people’s memories. After graduation, he travelled to all sorts of exotic places. Using his newfound skill, he learned the greatest deeds that witches and wizards performed before promptly erasing their memories and claiming their deeds as his own.

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You Are Capable of Change, You Just Need Your Brain to Believe It Too

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Your brain becomes fossilized with age.

At least, that’s what they say.

In order to be classified as a fossil, a specimen usually has to be over 10,000 years old. When you consider this, comparing aged brains to fossils isn’t exactly a flattering metaphor. Fossils are hard, lifeless remains of what once was a thriving being – and that’s exactly what your brain becomes with time.

But it starts even earlier than that.

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