I like the philosophy of choice the school of our kids lives by. Kids are working around projects. From as early as 2,5-3 years they are encouraged to pick the theme which interests them and then explore it, learning a whole bunch of things along the way. That all sounds nice in theory, however then the reality strikes: I am hearing the same songs about exactly the same themes for the second round already. It is surely possible that the interests of the group where our daughter was perfectly coincide with those of our son’s group two years later, but let’s be realistic — what’s the chance of such a coincidence?
Continue reading Spotting an illusion of choiceTag Archives: Self-development
Traps on the way to solutions
We encounter problems of a different scale on an everyday basis. Sometimes we succeed at finding desirable solutions, yet more than often the road to them turns out to be bumpy. In this short article, I would like to explore three common traps that make a problem-solving exercise very complicated at best.
To begin with, the trap number one is overthinking a problem. Continue reading Traps on the way to solutions
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5 winners of 2017: most read posts of the year
The end of the year is a traditional time for some reviews and conclusions. Although it is actually always a good moment to revise and draw conclusions… Just that on other occasions there seem to be more excuses not to – LOL. Anyways, let me follow the trend and give you my top 5 articles of the year – the ones read close to 2K times and which triggered some truly interesting conversations with my readers (whom I am sincerely grateful for, as I always love exchanging opinions!).
Et voila! Here are the “winners”:
- The most read article of the year on the blog is “How to boil a frog?” — a story of how I managed to persuade my mother to allow me to buy a car despite her categorical “no” (and how to get those “mission impossible” type of outcomes in general)
- The “silver” medal goes to the article, which talks about the dangers of goals, or more precisely “Why achieving goals could screw up your life?“
- Two completely opposite reasons of our procrastination with introducing change in our lives is discussed in the third most read of 2017 — “Why are we so afraid to try?“
- To read about some of my sweet African memories and how elephants made me understand how much more enriching a life can be if you never lose excitement and never cease to be grateful — have a look at “The elephant effect“.
- And finally — the article published in 2016 which remains to be one of the most read also this year is “Getting to know yourself” — a collection of links to free online resources for psychological tests, which I believe are truly good to know, especially if you are interested in self-development and in self-awareness in general.
Continue reading 5 winners of 2017: most read posts of the year
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Brain fitness: your super-power activator
Healthy lifestyle includes doing some sort of regular physical exercises. That part is known. However, there is one part of your body, which is frequently overlooked, yet also requires regular training. Brain.
If you think that by solving a crossword puzzle or playing Sudoku now and then you are good, think again. All the stuff you do for fun, which does not truly challenge you or make you do something completely new, doesn’t qualify as exercising, or brain fitness as they call it. In a nutshell, brain fitness is a system which focuses on improving various aspects of your cognition, such as attention, memory, focus and even brain speed. Brain fitness is also about your diet, as there are certain foods which benefit your brain.
Let me start with the last point — food and then share some brain fitness exercises I consider useful.
Continue reading Brain fitness: your super-power activator
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Getting to know yourself: some worthy (yet free) online psychological tests
My first thorough acquaintance with psychology dates back to early 2000s, when we had a special in-depth course on psychology in the lyceum. Back then, while doing all these lengthy tests, I was annoyed and seriously wondering what would they bring me. They seemed to be so boring, complicated, yet the results, in my opinion, were so obvious. With time I learned to value these insights and work further with them. If they seem obvious – that’s great! That means that my self-awareness is at its high. Nevertheless, in many cases they bring interesting insights which I might have never reflected upon before. All that in its turn significantly contributes to further identifying values, wishes, goals and the best way further.
In this short article I would like to share with you couple of free online resources for psychological tests, which I believe are truly good to know, especially if you are interested in self-development and in self-awareness in general. Thus, let’s begin: Continue reading Getting to know yourself: some worthy (yet free) online psychological tests
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