We can't do big things if we are distracted by small things.

On my morning run, my right knee began to ache. At the end of my run, my iPods, in their case, went into my sweatpants. Focused on the ache and not my routine, I automatically peeled my wet clothes off, chunking them into the washer. Distracted by discomfort, I was sleepwalking through the morning. I would never knowingly throw technology into a washer. My iPod debacle illustrates how quickly and easily we can be nudged out of our routines, resulting in degrees of chaos.

How many of us have done something without really thinking? Remember brushing our teeth or driving to work this morning? For many of us, everyday rituals are things we can do almost automatically. Often referred to as acting or being "zoned out" or on "autopilot." The ability to do tasks, rituals, and routines without thinking is an example of a phenomenon psychologists call automaticity. No matter the label, we are only partially present.

Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice.

Every morning, we have two choices: continue to sleep with our dreams or wake up and chase them.

Encouragement is hope or promise, whereas discouragement tricks us into mentally or emotionally dwelling in the very place we want to leave.

A group of economists led by the former US Treasury Secretary and World Bank Chief Economist Larry Summers noticed that traditional gauges of consumer optimism, such as unemployment and inflation, were low and falling. Still, consumer pessimism persisted, departing from decade-old norms.4 In the 1970s, economist Arthur Okun combined the unemployment rate and inflation rate (CPI) to form the Economic Discomfort Index, a devilishly simple way to gauge the economy's vibrance and, potentially, consumer sentiment. Ever the grand narrator to the masses, Ronald Reagan, rebranded Okun’s measure as the Misery Index.

We must push ourselves because no one else will do it for us.

Life is filled with imperfections. And we are not in control. But what we can control, we must control by daring to know failure to find success.
Life is a process of trial and error, eliminating what does not work and keeping what does. We diligently study the results of others to avoid their mistakes and learn from their failures to find success. I am licensed or certified to fly planes, scuba dive in the ocean, and defend myself with my hands and small weapons. In each case, I have studied failure maturely and meticulously. My mind is laser-focused on overcoming life’s imperfections while understanding that I have no control over my circumstances. Because failures in flying, scuba-diving, defending myself, or skydiving are potentially life-ending events, I have become exceptionally well-versed in getting myself beyond failures. Or else.

To be responsible, we keep our promises to others. To be successful, we keep our promises to ourselves.

Are we making a lot of promises we cannot possibly keep? Everyone has broken a promise or two at some point in their lives. But some people do it more than others. Why do people break their promises? Why commit to something that they can’t do? What is the impact of a broken promise?

Promises are the fabric of humans’ ability to cooperate. They are one of the oldest human-specific psychological mechanisms fostering cooperation and trust. Additionally, promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent possible.

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire.

In 1974, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann offered “the spiral of silence” to understand the growth and spread of public opinion. For any morally loaded topics that are intensely controversial, Noelle-Neumann defined public opinion as “attitudes one can express without running the danger of isolating oneself.” The term spiral of silence refers to the increasing pressure people feel to conceal their views when they think they are in the minority. Today, the term political correctness fits the same bill. Noelle-Neumann believed that television accelerates the spiral, but to grasp the role of the mass media in the process, we first must understand people’s extraordinary sensitivity to the ever-changing standard of what society will tolerate.

Generally, “overthinking” refers to the process of repetitive, unproductive thoughts about the past and present and “worry” about the future.

Overthinking is the art of creating problems that aren’t even real.
Humans are wired to worry. You are not alone in your cycle of repetitive thoughts. Our brains continually imagine futures that will meet our needs and things that could stand in our way. And often, those needs may be in direct conflict with each other. That’s when our overthinking shifts into devilish spins to nowhere. However, our headspace can also become crystal clear, free of distraction.

There are not a lot of straight lines in life. Instead, life is filled with rhythms day and night, hot and cold, summer and winter, up and down.

In the bible's Old Testament book of wisdom, Ecclesiastes, we are introduced to divine cycles. "There is an appointed time for everything and every affair under the heavens. A time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down, and a time to build." Our world is filled with ebbs and flows.

Everything is energy; therefore, cycles of power are all around us. And within us. In nature’s seasonal cycles, trees blossom in springtime and bear fruit in late summer. In autumn, their leaves fall to the ground. Slowly disintegrating, the fallen leaves enrich the soil, bringing new energy to the trees in spring. The cycle repeats again and again.