From the category archives:

Happiness

The Key to Personal Effectiveness

by Stephen Mills July 20, 2011

What if there was one thing you could do to dramatically increase your effectiveness both personally and professionally? I believe there is. It’s an extremely simple concept, but not so easy to implement, because it is simply not ingrained in our habitual behavior. Our modern culture has mostly eliminated it from our mindset. Implementing it on a consistent basis requires some audacity and commitment that most people simply will not choose to develop. Regardless, I believe virtually everyone can improve their personal effectiveness if they are willing to develop this one habit to a much greater degree.

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Has Leo Babauta Lost His Freaking Mind?

by Stephen Mills July 13, 2011

I have been a big fan of Leo Babauta for several years now and have said so on this blog. I think his book THE POWER OF LESS is fantastic. He was a big inspiration to me and I think he was a very wise man. He probably still is, but I am beginning to wonder. Lately he has been saying some things that make me go “huh?”.

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Declare Your Personal Independence

by Stephen Mills July 5, 2011

On July 4th in the U.S. we celebrate our country’s independence. While I personally believe we have lost much of that spirit of independence with the explosive growth of government encroachment in our lives, we retain at least in theory a basic level of political freedom.

On the other hand, I believe the vast majority of us have voluntarily, if unknowingly, enslaved ourselves in other ways that are just as harmful to the stated values of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”.

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The Benefits of Green Space

by Stephen Mills May 24, 2011

I find nature and natural settings extremely restorative and I head for them often when I’m feeling stressed or need a break. I would recommend that everyone give it a try. Of course this is just anecdotal evidence from my personal experience and doesn’t prove anything. However a number of studies and probably many which I’m unaware of are showing that there probably is indeed real beneficial physiological effects from being exposed to natural environments (even artificially created natural environments like urban parks and green spaces).

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How To Deal With An Uncertain Future

by Stephen Mills April 10, 2011

You need to develop general skills like people skills that can be useful no matter what you are doing. Develop the growth mindsets and the attitudes that lend themselves to peaceful well being, detachment from outcomes, and resilience. People who are resilient and resourceful are able to deal effectively anything that may arise in their lives down the road.

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Should You Become an Expert?

by Stephen Mills March 1, 2011

My gut instinct and personal experience says that to achieve the best life satisfaction, maybe being an expert isn’t the right choice. This is something everyone has to decide for themselves, but societal pressure seems to be on becoming an expert; being the best you can be and all that. I’m pretty sure that’s the way to high achievement in anything.

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Choose Engagement Over Comfort

by Stephen Mills January 15, 2011

We have our faces glued to some kind of screen instead of actually participating in joyful activities with other people. Incredibly in the U.S. where TV watching is the highest in the world, the last decade of TV technology improvement has resulted in a further increase of 15% in average daily TV time. In that same decade the amount of time spent staring at other, usually small screens, has exploded. That time comes from somewhere and it doesn’t come from school or work. It is being taken from time we could use to actually participate in something that would include being engaged with other people.

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How to Have a Wonderful Day

by Stephen Mills December 24, 2010

Yeah, I know this stuff is obvious, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the obvious. We need to be hit in the face with it so we will do something about it. Cut the rest of the world some slack. I put this number one because I can think of no better way [...]

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A Few Thoughts About Christmas

by Stephen Mills December 18, 2010

I have many memories of Christmas dinners and endless games. My mother’s family loved games and we played them all the time. Not purchased games, but the standard card and domino games. I remember playing tennis with my cousin who was the same age. I remember my aunt always kissing me because she knew I hated it. I remember endless hours of those experiences, but I don’t remember what Santa brought.

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