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A Crucial Character Trait for Happiness

Six takeaways:

  1. Enthusiasm for life (as 19th-century philosopher William James put it, “zest [for] the common objects of life.”) is one of the biggest and most often ignored drivers of individual happiness.
  2. We can take steps in our own lives to enhance/build our sense of enthusiasm. Overall, they involve a conscious decision to resist the urge to withdraw from the minutiae of life.
  3. One tactic to enhance your enthusiasm is to use the “As If Principle“: This is a “fake it till you make it” approach– research shows that intentionally faking enthusiasm for things can actually result in increased enthusiasm for them.
  4. One can also reframe challenges as chances. This is a common strategy in creativity and innovation, and a successful technique in business leadership. When presented with a challenge or problem, look at it as a chance to improve, learn, or build.
  5. It is also important to Curate Your Friends. If you notice a tendency to withdraw, try to hang out with people you find infectiously enthusiastic- the active, the extroverted. Their habits can rub off on you!
  6. Overall, some level of withdrawal can be healthy; it is also not sustainable to force enthusiasm on oneself- but being intentional about elevating enthusiasm’s role in your life can lead to a healthier, happier existence.

From Arthur C Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

What Is the Ideal Retirement Age for Your Health?

Five takeaways:

  1. Several countries are considering raising their retirement age to offset the economic pressures of aging population. While a later retirement age may have clear overall economic benefits, the physical and mental implications of making such a drastic collective change must be considered.
  2. While life expectancies have gone up over the last hundred years, the type of work people are doing has also changed. In 2020, roughly 45 percent of the American labor force worked in a knowledge-based field, such as management, business and finance, education, and health care. In 1935, these types of professions accounted for just 6 percent of the workforce.
  3. Experts think that the collective rise of knowledge-based jobs makes a higher retirement age a bit more reasonable, as cognitive properties stay sharp into one’s 70s. Staying at work in some capacity has shown to have health benefits for people in their 70s as well, as long as the work is not physically laborious.
  4. This is not to say that a raised retirement age should be instituted across the board. Jobs that are more hands-on, active, and laborious, might in fact require a slightly younger retirement age. There is research that shows retirement around the mid-sixties from physically challenging work can lead to stronger cognitive output.
  5. Overall, the article shows that a single, uniform retirement age is always going to be imperfect. There are too many factors– the type of work, a worker’s ethnic background or socioeconomic status– to find a perfect number. On an individual level, we should take every step we can to ensure that our retirements are healthy, physically, mentally, and financially.

From Dana G. Smith at The New York Times:
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Note: You will need a free account with The New York Times to view this article. At the time of this posting The Times offers 10 free free article views per month.

This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

You Can’t Simply Decide to Be a Different Person

Five takeaways:

  1. For generations, the agreed-upon scientific understanding of human habit forming (for instance: becoming a habitual runner) was that it was all about attitude. If you wanted to be a runner badly enough, you would simply become one. New research says it is more complicated than that– that habit forming is affected “by some combination of heredity, culture, and environment.”
  2. That combination of heredity, culture, and environment is boiled down in the article to a phrase: “Trait self-control” – and everyone’s trait self-control is different. Someone who can wake up at 4:30am to run every morning has higher trait self-control and is not going to be as easily distracted by common factors, be they leisurely, work-related, or otherwise, that keep them from that habit.
  3. Research shows that forming new habits as an adult, while difficult, is possible– and very much a measure of altering life conditions to enable a habit to become second nature.
  4. Studies prove that people who live closer to gyms tend to work out more, just as people who live closer to good grocery stores tend to eat more vegetables. If you want to make a habit second nature, you should do as best you can to eliminate the conditions in your life that form barriers to performing that goal on a daily basis.
  5. Obviously eliminating certain conditions in one’s life is not an easy thing to do- this is why it is important to be realistic in forming new habits, and to be forgiving of yourself when the pickup is slower than desired. Those who demonize themselves for not picking up a habit are more likely to drop the pursuit entirely, whereas people who make slower, incremental progress are more likely to stick to habits until they are indeed second nature.

From Amanda Mull at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.

The Procrastination Doom Loop– and How to Break It

Six takeaways:

  1. It is easy for productive people to confuse “reasonable delay” (“I’ll respond to this email when I have more time to write it”), which is reasonable and can be useful– vs actual procrastination (“I have time to do this but don’t feel like doing this right now.. I’ll do it later”) which can be an avoidable act of self-sabotage.
  2. New research on procrastination says that it happens for two basic reasons: 1) we delay action because we feel we are in the wrong mood to complete a task, and 2) We assume that that mood or condition will change in the near future. That a better, more fitting time to complete the task will soon arrive: “If I take a nap now, I’ll have more focus later.”
  3. This is where “The Procrastination Doom Loop” begins. Putting off an important task makes us feel anxious, guilty, and even ashamed. This anxiety, guilt, and shame make us less likely to have the emotional and cognitive energy to be productive. That makes us even less likely to begin the task, which in turn creates more guilt. The loop continues from there.
  4. One common procrastination cure is the use of deadlines, but studies show that self-imposed deadlines are incredibly weak barriers to procrastination and can only worsen the Doom Loop. Deadlines imposed by others (work, friends) are far more powerful.
  5. Procrastinators are more likely to complete a piece of work if they’re persuaded that it’s not actually work. In one study, students were asked to complete a puzzle, but first given a few minutes to play Tetris. To Group A, the researchers described the puzzle as a ‘cognitive evaluation.’ To Group B, they referred to the puzzle as a game. Procrastinators took far longer with their Tetris Games when the puzzle was referred to as an evaluation, rather than a game.
  6. See this graphic for a visual of the “Procrastination Doom Loop”:

From Derek Thompson at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC and MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors are not responsible for and do not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website. The information and material contained in linked articles is of a general nature and is intended for educational purposes only. Links to articles do not constitute a recommendation or a solicitation or offer of the purchase or sale of securities.
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