Risks

Disney CEO Bob Iger told Wall Street Journal reporter Kara Swisher in a 2005 interview — “If someone is going to eat our lunch, it might as well be us”.

This has business repercussions — be bold, take chances and act before someone else gets into your space.

It also has a personal meaning:  be bold, take chances and act before someone else gets into your space.

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35,000 Decisions a Day

That’s what research in the Journal of Health Psychology reveals – lots of little decisions we may not even be aware of and some big ones.

Those who are indecisive get bogged down and overwhelmed.

Decision makers turn out to be the ones who can accept that their decisions could go well or not.

Sometimes it’s just the best choice in the moment.

People with mental health issues or suffer from low esteem find it harder to trust their decisions.

Think of a decision as what works for you not so much whether it is a good or bad decision.

And sometimes having the luxury of time doesn’t make for better choices.

Decision makers don’t wait for perfect — they just act.

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Outsourcing Confidence

You can’t expect to outsource self-confidence by looking to someone else.

Believe in you.

Never look to others for that which you don’t have.

The brain can be retrained – teach it to believe in you.

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Character

“Character is built not in good times, but in bad times” said Apple founder Steve Jobs.

He said this to freshmen at his alma mater Reed College on August 27, 1991 and he knew what he was talking about.

NeXT computers were not selling well and Pixar experienced layoffs.

Adversity is a predictor of your next success because if you persist, it means you really want something and if you keep persisting, you cannot be denied.

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The Most Important Relationship

The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.

It’s not possible to have healthy relationships with others without having one with you.

People spend so much time obsessing over making friends and very little time accepting and recognizing the one they are having with themselves.

Be the best friend you’ve always wanted.

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Banishing Fear of Failure

No one succeeds all the time – in fact, it is not necessary.

Even Caitlin Clark doesn’t make every basket (an amazing 40% from the three-point range which means this women’s hoops superstar misses from that distance 60% of the time – more than she succeeds).

Since when do we have to feel badly about not succeeding?

Failure is the rehearsal for success.

Because if you do it again, it tells you how badly you want it (and to keep doing it means it’s only a matter of time before you succeed).

There’s a reason we don’t always get what we set out to do – sometimes adversity introduces us to ourselves, to those around us and something we may not have even previously considered.

Today, I’m not going to be so hard on myself – I’ll concentrate more on trying.

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144 Times a Day

What you do 144 times every day?

Eat?  No way.

Meet people?

Change the channel?

New research shows that the average American now checks their phone 144 times a day.

But that’s down from 344 times a day in 2022.

89% of us within the first ten minutes of waking up.

What my NYU students are now doing to get their life back is to ask this one question:

How can this app or digital device make me more effective or happier.

It helps to prioritize phone use rather than try to eliminate it.

For more startling phone usage and habits reached, view it here.

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Happy

Happiness comes from realizing how fortunate you are.

A grateful person is rarely unhappy.

They find ways to see even small things – and especially small things – as reasons to be joyful.

Scientists tell us the human brain was not built for happiness – we’re actually not doing anything wrong when we’re unhappy, it’s not the default setting.

The brain was designed primarily to trigger flee or fight not euphoria.

Stimulating the brain by focusing on gratitude for small things is a proven way to lift yourself up.

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Out with Doubt

Nothing worth doing is worth doubting.

Assume a virtue if you have it not as Shakespeare said.

Don’t look elsewhere for belief in yourself.

If you don’t have it, they won’t have it for you.

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Cure for a Rough Day

When things just don’t seem to be going right, there’s always this.

For every person, not you, that you run into, think to yourself “you may also be having problems today, too – I wish you well”.

This silent affirmation redirects the barrage of unfortunate events to other people you may never know who are going through the same thing.

Life has ups and downs and that applies to everyone so compassion toward others helps.

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