This post is intended for a certain segment of the population, and after a few paragraphs you’ll know if it’s you (or someone you know).| www.raptitude.com
“Someone who is in a good mood in the morning might love his wife, his job, and his car. He is probably optimistic about his future and grateful for his past. But by late afternoon, he claims he hates his job, thinks of his wife as a nuisance, thinks his car is a junker, and believes his career is going nowhere. If you ask him about his childhood while he’s in a low mood, he’ll probably tell you it was difficult. He will probably blame his parents for his current plight.”| www.raptitude.com
Essential to Raptitude is the idea of experimentation. Concepts and insights can be useful and encouraging, but it is the application of those ideas that effect big improvements in one’s life. It can be very revealing (and fun) to try on a new habit or technique for a week or two (or four), and observe the results. I will conduct| Raptitude.com
Just as it’s still possible (though seldom necessary) to ride a horse, it is still possible to surf the internet. It’s a thrill not yet lost to time.| www.raptitude.com
A history buff friend of mine said that the art of medieval fencing was lost completely. At some point, the last person who really knew how to do it had died.| www.raptitude.com
By the time you’re three or four years old, you’ve already learned the tremendous value of dishonesty.| www.raptitude.com
I’ve been taking cold showers for a few weeks now, and I’m surprised how quickly I’ve adapted. Now I can stand there, with almost no discomfort, in water that would make me shiver involuntarily just eight or ten showers ago.| www.raptitude.com
There’s a particular scene in an early episode of the Simpsons that I found especially relatable, as a ten-year-old whose main interest was candy. Bart and Lisa wake up the morning after Halloween, so miserable from eating sweets that they can’t even look at their candy pile. When Marge suggests giving the rest of it to needy children, they protest, flop onto the candy pile to protect it, and begin miserably eating more.| www.raptitude.com
Last year I bought a strength training program from a Canadian bodybuilder named Jeff, and it kind of made me better at everything.| www.raptitude.com
You spend your life doing things. Some of the things you do make themselves happen, and some don’t.| www.raptitude.com
Your mind is always pointed at something, and it matters what it is. If you spent most of your day preoccupied with thoughts about a past failed relationship, for example, that makes for a different kind of day than one in which you’re preoccupied with solving a computer programming problem. Your mood, your actions, and the tone and feel of| Raptitude.com
Sometimes doing a small thing can be extremely satisfying, out of all proportion to how easy it is: placing a jigsaw puzzle piece into the right slot, wiping your phone screen spotless, returning a tool to its designated hook, or making a nice diagonal cut across a lovingly-made sandwich.| www.raptitude.com
Sometimes doing a small thing can be extremely satisfying, out of all proportion to how easy it is: placing a jigsaw puzzle piece into the right slot, wiping your phone screen spotless, returning a tool to its designated hook, or making a nice diagonal cut across a lovingly-made sandwich. This simple kind of satisfaction seems to come haphazardly. Much of| Raptitude.com
I keep imagining a tradition I’d like to invent. After you’re established in your career, and you have some neat stuff in your house, you take a whole year in which you don’t start anything new or acquire any new possessions you don’t need. No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to| Raptitude.com
In the Truman Show, Jim Carrey’s character is a reality TV star but doesn’t know it. Every person he interacts with is an actor. His hometown is a set. Truman nearly reaches middle age without finding out, despite many indications that something is going on. A stage light falls from the sky onto the street beside him. His wife excitedly| Raptitude.com
South Island, New Zealand, a.k.a. Middle-Earth If you were to make a list of what you want to get done this week, it would mostly consist of things you have to do. Get groceries. Book a hair appointment. Get back to so-and-so. Read that health and safety thing for work. If you were to make a list of things you| Raptitude.com
A major online publication once reported in a profile on me that I had retired at 33. A few old friends and acquaintances reached out to congratulate me on my financial independence. I think it was an honest mistake on the part of the reporter. I told her I had quit my job to write full time, and I guess| Raptitude.com
Well I'm in the working world again. I've found myself a well-paying gig in the engineering industry, and life finally feels like it's returning to normal after my nine months of traveling. Because I had been living quite a different lifestyle while I was away, this sudden transition to 9-to-5 existence has exposed something about it that I overlooked before.| Raptitude.com
