Jumpstart Your Dream Life

How to Rewire Your Brain to Perform Difficult Tasks

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Why do some people accomplish so much, while others do hardly anything at all?

How is one person able to exercise, hold meetings, and finish numerous tasks before lunch, while someone else hasn’t gotten out of bed yet? How does someone work on their craft, day after day for years, while someone else can only daydream about getting started?

We all know what we should be doing. We should be learning. We should be staying healthy. We should be working on things that will pay dividends in the future.

But we don’t. You see, those things aren’t easy. In fact, they can be incredibly hard.

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Overthinking is Damaging Your Well-Being

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Imagine that it’s close to bedtime.

You’ve finished a long day of work, ate dinner, and watched TV. You get into bed and relax by doing some reading.

After a while, you realize it’s getting late and decide to call it a night. You reach over and turn off the light. It’s pitch dark now.

You know you should be falling asleep. And yet there you are, staring at the ceiling. Your mind is racing with all sorts of thoughts.

You think back to something you said and wonder if things came out wrong. You reflect on a past action that resulted in negative consequences. Then, you start to worry about all the things that could possibly go wrong.

With each passing thought, you feel yourself sinking into a low mood.

If this sounds like you, you may be suffering from overthinking.

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5 Types of Music That Will Increase Your Happiness, According to Science

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Music is the final touch to a setting.

Take any situation, put in music, and the ambience gets taken to another level. You notice this all the time in films. Music is used as a signal of impending danger, hope, or blissful tranquility.

Music alone can evoke powerful emotions. The reaction upon hearing a tune is almost instant. You might think back to a memorable time in your life or imagine a picturesque scenario.

It comes as little surprise that we turn to music as a quick way to boost our spirits. But what is it about upbeat music that makes us feel better? Do our minds and bodies change as a result from hearing certain songs?

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5 Ways You Can Increase Your Intelligence, According to Science

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We often assume intelligence is fixed from birth.

If you’re born with it, you have it. And if you aren’t? That’s too bad. End of story.

Previously, neuroscientists believed that our brains were “fixed”. No matter what someone did, there was nothing they could do to change their brains. If anything, our brain functions would become worse over time.

However, more recent research shows otherwise.

But before we get to that, let’s answer the question: what is intelligence?

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Sunk Cost Fallacy: Why We Keep Throwing Good Money After Bad

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We are incredibly picky about where we spend our time and money.

When someone wants to meet, we evaluate the usefulness of the meeting before agreeing to their request. If a store sells items that aren’t of interest to us, we leave and take our money elsewhere. We naturally veer towards activities that give us the highest returns.

Every day, we make mental calculations on what we’re doing, what we’re getting out of it, and alternative options out there. Then, we make incremental adjustments to optimize our lives.

In short, we are smart when it comes to deciding how to use our finite resources.

So why is it that once we’ve started something and realized it’s a bad opportunity – knowing full well that it’s draining our time, money, and energy – do we find it hard to stop?

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Bad Things Happen When You Ignore Warning Signs

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In January 2002, a lone man predicted a natural disaster that would impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Local expert Dieudonne Wafulah had been studying Mount Nyiragongo, a volcano in Congo, for 15 years without pay. He tracked the activity of Nyiragongo and another nearby, smaller volcano for signs of change. Although his equipment had been stolen and vandalized over the years, he persisted in his work.

Then, he saw it. Based on the patterns Wafulah witnessed, Mount Nyiragongo was about to blow. There had been a series of tremors in the earth some months before. Black smoke rose from the mountain. The lava pool inside the crater had shifted and was getting higher.

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8 Ways You’re Making Life Harder Than It Has to Be

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Do you crave the challenge?

When you see a problem waiting to be solved, you can feel your energy levels rise. Blood surges through your veins. Your mouth salivates. Like a hound tugging at a leash, you want nothing more than to lunge forward and tackle the issue into the ground.

Except the problem isn’t so easy to solve. After awhile, it stops being fun and starts turning into work. You wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into.

Sometimes, we don’t want to find the easy answer to a problem. We want to toil and struggle to feel like we’ve earned something. Otherwise, we don’t treasure the result.

While this helps us push through difficulties, the problem arises when you use this attitude towards everything. Some challenges are not worth the effort. Others can be achieved more quickly.

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Why Likability Matters More Than Competence

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Malpractice lawsuits are every doctor’s nightmare.

Once a doctor gets sued for malpractice, the implications reach far and wide. Patients distrust their doctor. Self-doubt creeps in. Some doctors even take it as a sign to leave the medical profession altogether. Even though many cases are dismissed or settled outside court, the effects of receiving that dreaded notice letter can last a lifetime.

A study using a malpractice database in Florida found that 6 percent of obstetricians accounted for over 70 percent of all malpractice-related expenses over a 5-year period. Further research showed that claims at all levels, from unpaid claims to large paid claims, played a predictor in whether a doctor was sued in the past.

Basically, some doctors get sued repeatedly, while others hardly ever get sued. There’s clearly a difference between the two. But what is it? Why do malpractice lawsuits happen in the first place?

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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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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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