'Tis the season for students to graduate and wonder what they're going to do with the rest of their limited Mondays on the planet! I decided to ask my business partner—the Grim Reaper—for his “words of wisdom” for the graduating Master of Applied Positive Psychology class at the University of Pennsylvania (i.e., my alma mater)....

What’s the worst thing your parents could’ve said to you while you were growing up? A) “I’m so angry at you!!” (👈Said with the emphasis of two exclamation points.) B) “I’m just so… disappointed in you.” (👈The word ‘disappointed’ pronounced with the inflection of italics.) C) “Your father and I are going to have a...

What thought goes through your head when you arrive at a social event/ concert/ networking happy hour/ fundraiser/ baby shower/ spoken word poetry night/ pretty much any outing at all: A) “I’m going to savor this event and loiter linger as long as I can… I’ll probably be the last one here. It won’t be...

I’ve coined a phrase—and while it’s not as good as procrastibaking (baking when you should be doing a way more important thing OH LIKE WRITING YOUR MONDAY MORNING BLOG POST), it’s pretty good. Ready for it? Vicarious vitality: living vicariously through people who are living decidedly livelier lives than yours. Was that an audible wince I just...

Admit it: you have a list of things you like, and things you don’t like, thank you very much. “I love murder mysteries!” you might proclaim with confidence—with just as much surety as “don’t even let cilantro touch my plate.” You’ve been around the block by your age, and you know what makes you tick…...

In an ongoing effort to remind you to live like you mean it before your eventual and inevitable demise (hi! I splash existential cold water in your face because I care!), I wanted to open up a whole new can of psychological worms with you today. Are you psychologically safe with yourself? I’ll back up...

Freud. For a while I just thought he was good for a bunch of oral fixation and penis envy jokes—but I stumbled upon this gem of a quote from the mommy-blamer when I was writing You Only Die Once, and now he’s back in my provisional good books: “This attitude of ours towards death has...

‘Tis the “get lucky” season… so how lucky would you say you are? A) “I’m permalucky—four leaf clovers are everywhere I look! I whirl them in my smoothies! I use them as toilet paper!” (So, you’re a lucky ass?) B) “I eat Lucky Charms for breakfast sometimes, so I guess that makes me kinda average...

Hey, so surely you’ve heard—unless you’ve been living under a rock—about the asteroid approaching our planet? The possibly perilous one? On December 22, 2032? Yes, that one. We might be living under a 2.2e+8 kg (i.e., size XXL) rock with you by the time that day’s done! (Nothing like a little asteroid-annihilation joke to break...

This article has your name written all over it if you find yourself in one of these camps: A) You’re feeling a little bedraggled in the life department. You’ve lost that lively feeling (one might say your life is on life support?) and now find yourself bored, humdrum, and spiritless, just going through the motions...

Are you “acting your age”? Please realize that you cannot win at this question if you’re over the age of 25 and you answered “yes.” Acting your age might be a euphemism for “waiting to die,” and I know we’re not getting off on the right foot here, you and me, but I challenge you...

Hey there, sexy! Look at you over there, you slowly rotting corpse. You are absolutely fabulous and also absolutely dying, my friend. Slowly—but surely. It’s the only thing we can be sure of, that we’re all going to POOF! be gone one day. In light of this supremely dispiriting notion (THANKS FOR THE MONDAY BUZZKILL, JODI),...