2751. Common sense is not common action;
2752. In life, knowledge is only part of the
battle. Without action, knowledge is
often meaningless;
2753. As Aristotle put it, to be excellent we
cannot simply think or feel excellent, we must act excellently;
2754. The action required to follow through on
what we know is often the hardest part.
That’s why even though doctors know better than anyone the importance of
exercise and diet, 44 percent of them are overweight. It’s also why organizational gurus are often messy, religious
leaders can be blasphemous, and why even some positive psychologists aren’t
happy all of the time;
2755. Positive habits are hard to keep, no matter
how commonsensical they might be;
2756. The New York Times reports that a
whopping 80 percent of us break our New Year’s resolutions;
2757. Even when we feel committed to positive
change, sustaining it for any length of time can seem nearly impossible;
2758. Thomas Jefferson introduced French fries to
the U.S. when he served “potatoes served in the French manner” at the White
House in 1802;
2759. There is a biological reason why men and
women move at different speeds in relationships. Sexual contact causes both men and women to secrete a hormone
called oxytocin, which intensifies feelings of love and the desire to
nest. But in men, testosterone counteracts
its effects;
2760. Pass on spicy or crunchy tuna rolls because
the spice masks the fish’s flavor;
2761. People can be very self-centered when it
comes to their love life. They only
think about themselves and they don’t even consider other people’s feelings,
not even their (supposed) friends’;
2762. Sometimes you have to give up on people, not
because you don’t care, but because they don’t;
2763. If you have anything in your heart other
than love, you’ve got to get it out;
2764. Remind yourself that you will have to incur
the misunderstanding and perhaps even the wrath of those around you for having
the temerity to march to your own drumbeat.
Don’t take it personally even for one moment;
2765. There are only two ways to live your
life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle;
2766. Kristin’s favorite color is (probably) red;
2767. Some orchestras (actually) have a dedicated
person to play the triangle;
2768. There’s (some) acting in opera;
2769. Being rich is the fruition of ambition;
2770. On Thursday nights, it’s “Mug Night” at
Whitlow’s on Wilson (Whitlows.com) in Clarendon. Starting at 4 o’clock, you can buy a mug (and a beer) for $5.00
and (select beer) refills are $2.00 thereafter until 9 o’clock. You can bring back your mug on another “Mug
Night” for the $2.00 refills;
2771. A tendency to act only becomes effectively
ingrained in us in proportion to the uninterrupted frequency with which the
actions actually occur, and the brain “grows” to their use;
2772. Habits form because our brain actually
changes in response to frequent practice;
2773. As we progress through our days learning new
facts, completing new tasks, and having new conversations, our brains are
constantly changing and rewiring to reflect these experiences;
2774. Scientists now know that the brain remains
plastic and malleable well past the age of 20, through even our most senior
years. That means that we have the
power to create new habits and then reap the benefits whether we’re 22 or 72;
2775. The reason so many of us have trouble
sustaining change is because we try to rely on willpower;
2776. The reason willpower is so ineffective at
sustaining change is that the more we use it, the more worn-out it gets;
2777. In general, Americans actually find free
time more difficult to enjoy than work;
2778. For the most part, our jobs require us to
use our skills, engage our minds, and pursue our goals – all things that have
been shown to contribute to happiness;
2779. Because there is no “leisure boss” leaning
over our shoulder on Sunday mornings telling us we’d better be at the art
museum by 9 AM sharp – we often find it difficult to muster the energy
necessary to kick-start them. So we
follow the path of least resistance, and that path inevitably leads us to the
couch and television. And because we
are “mere bundles of habit,” the more often we succumb to this path, the more
difficult it becomes to change directions;
2780. Studies show that “passive leisure” activities
(i.e., watching TV and trolling around on Facebook) are enjoyable and engaging
for only about 30 minutes, then they start sapping our energy, creating what
psychologists call “psychic entropy” – that listless, apathetic feeling;
2781. “Active leisure” like hobbies, games, and
sports enhance our concentration, engagement, motivation, and sense of
enjoyment;
2782. Studies have found that American teenagers
are two and half times more likely to experience elevated enjoyment when
engaged in a hobby than when watching TV, and three times more likely when
playing a sport;
2783. Teenagers spend four times as many
hours watching TV as they do engaging in sports or hobbies;
2784. We are drawn – powerfully, magnetically – to
those things that are easy, convenient, and habitual, and it is incredibly
difficult to overcome this inertia;
2785. Active leisure is more enjoyable, but it
almost always requires more initial effort (i.e., “activation energy”);
2786. Advertisers and marketers make their living
on the path of least resistance. Ever
bought something with a mail-in rebate?
Did you actually mail it in?
Didn’t think so. That’s why
companies offer them. This is also why
magazines send us a free five-week subscription, then automatically start
deducting money from our account in the sixth week;
2787. In the world of marketing, “opt-out” is a
genius invention that takes supreme advantage of human psychology. To “unsubscribe” requires finding the tiny
link at the bottom of an e-mail, then clicking through one or two more websites
before finally arriving at the desired destination. The company is betting, often successfully, that this process
involves far more energy and effort than most people are willing to expend;
2788. Whether we’re aware of it or not, default
options are everywhere, shaping our choices and our behavior in all areas of
our lives;
2789. At the grocery store, we buy more food off
shelves that directly meet our eye and less off those that require us to look
up or kneel down. Every retailer knows
this, and you can be sure they exploit it by putting the most expensive brands
at eye level;
2790. Online advertisers now conduct market
research with sophisticated eye-tracking machines, determined to develop the
perfect place for a banner ad on a website, the place that we will see without
expending any additional energy;
2791. We’re more likely to buy an item of clothing
if we can give it a “sensory test run” by touching the fabric, so the most
expensive clothes are set at the perfect height for such an experience;
2792. When your hands are at your side, each table
of clothes sits almost exactly at your fingertips, begging to be grabbed;
2793. The American Management Association reports
that employees spend an average of 107 minutes on e-mail a day;
2794. Research shows that the average employee
gets interrupted from their work every 11 minutes, and on each occasion
experiences a loss of concentration and flow that takes almost as many minutes
to recover from;
2795. It’s not the sheer number and volume of
distractions that gets us into trouble; it’s the ease of access to them;
2796. The average American watches five to seven
hours of television a day;
2797. Researchers have found that they can cut
cafeteria ice cream consumption in half by simply closing the lid of an ice
cream cooler. And that when people are
required to wait in another, separate line to purchase chips and candy, far
fewer will do so. In essence, the more
effort it takes us to obtain unhealthy food, the less we’ll eat of it, and vice
versa;
2798. Nutritionists recommend that we prepare
healthy snacks in advance so that we can simply pull them out of the
refrigerator, and why they recommend that when we do eat junk foods, we take
out a small portion, then put the rest of the bag away, well out of our reach;
2799. Our best weapon in the battle against bad
habits is simply to make it harder for ourselves to succumb to them;
2800. Polls
show that the number of people willing to be organ donors is quite high, but
that most are deterred by the long process of filling out the right forms to do
so. In response, some countries have
switched to an opt-out program, which automatically enrolls all citizens as
donors. Anyone is free to withdraw
their name, but when staying on the list becomes the default option, most
people will do so. When Spain switched
to opt-out, the number of donated organs immediately doubled;