Good intentions: we all know a thing or two about those little buggers, don’t we? Something about a road to hell? Yes (*heavy sigh*). We’ve all paved a few miles on the road to our fiery futures. I’m less concerned about our well-paved roads to hell than I am about the emotional cost of our...

Once upon a very long time, well-being scientists agreed that “the good life” was comprised of both a happy life and a meaningful life. And then a few of those psychologists went off and did psilocybin or something, and came back from their trip with Revolutionary and Important Insights About Life (God I love it...

We all know about the Bucket List—the wish list of things we long to do before we kick the bucket. It’s the considerably more fun version of the will, which is our to-do list after the bucket has been kicked. Sit down and write a will? That’s distasteful. Sit down and write a Bucket List?...

Did you feel a tremble in the earth the other day? Sort of like an earthquake but way less ominous? That was probably from me, gawkily jumping up and down and making the high-pitched “squeeee” sound . . . because HOLY SHIT! I got a book deal! I did it! I’m going to have a...

Should we talk about you and your heyday? Those years or activities you look back on with fondness or pride? Those years that are (*insert audible wince*) . . . behind you? In workshops I often ask participants to play the Time Machine game with me, where I ask them to transport themselves back to...

Most research papers are soul-stabbingly boring, so when I came across one called, “How Fast Does the Grim Reaper Walk*,” I perked up. I love that guy! Grim’s motives are sinister, to be sure, but I’ve never met a more effective guru to crack the motivational whip of GETTING ON WITH THE BUSINESS OF LIVING...

There is such a thing as an existential vacuum, and if you’re like most people, you’re already feeling nervous that you might be getting sucked into one. Our fine friend Viktor Frankl (yes, the psychologist who wrote the exquisite Man’s Search for Meaning) coined the phrase, and if that sounds too soul-sucking for you, how...

Does the idea of completing a “life significance” scale sound . . . significantly intimidating? A life satisfaction scale—no problem! A life significance scale? Many of us just swallowed hard and wiped beads of sweat off our temples. Will the scale involve a panel of white-coated experts, meticulously assessing the lives we’ve been living, solemnly...

Today we’re going to stir two fabulous things together into a cocktail: Happiness A game (assuming you consider a quiz a game) I can’t think right now of what this delicious elixir should be called, but I’m open to suggestions, so if your idea isn’t hideous, reach out and I’ll give you credit. Back to...

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive—the risk to be alive and express what we really are.” —Miguel Angel Ruiz I have a tendency to let fear win the tug of war in my life, so much so that I created an Anti Chicken-Shit...

I know I’m not the only one. You do it, too, right? You carefully craft that last bite of your dinner to be the best one—the one that has the crispy bit of skin, the right dollop of sauce, the right amount of potato. It’s an artform, really. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the...

I’ve been known to go on and on about living a “squander-free life”; it’s kind of what Four Thousand Mondays is built on, this notion of not wasting our precious 4,000 Mondays, of not getting to the end of it all and thinking, “I really half-assed that one life of mine.” (For the record: we...