Archive for the ‘Habits’ Category

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Are You Lying To Yourself?

July 6, 2026

I picked this bit of research off the Arnold Schwarzenegger Pump Club newsletter:

A few years ago, researchers took a big, nationally representative group of American adults and asked: Are you active enough?  Sixty-two percent said yes. Then they strapped motion trackers to those same people and let the devices ride along for a full week. The verdict? Only 9% were hitting the guidelines. And the raw minutes would be funny if they weren’t so familiar. People reported around 324 minutes of moderate activity a week. The devices caught about 45. The participants didn’t miss by a hair. They overshot their own lives by nearly seven to one. The trackers aren’t perfect. But nothing shrinks a gap that size down to a comfortable size. We believe we’re doing more, and we mean it. Same as the kid with the pegs. Same as me while sleep-deprived. There’s a reason we’re wired this way, and it isn’t stupidity. Psychologists describe something like an immune system for the ego. When a fact threatens the picture we hold of ourselves, the mind mounts a defense as automatic as your body fighting off a bug. It blames the timing. It argues with whoever delivered the news. It hunts for the one flattering number and clamps down on it instead. In the moment, it protects you. Over the years, it walls you off from the exact truth you needed most.

How much physical movement do you really get in a day?

How much Bible study, spiritual reading, other reading do you really do in a day? Wait. Are you reading or just have the book open?

Are you really focused on God and others as you “pray?” Or does your mind drift as a leaf in a stream?

How much service work to you actually do versus what you tell yourself you do?

We are half through this year. Is it time to take a true evaluation of this year? No, really.  Where can I pick up even just one new activity to move forward?

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Walk Your Way to Health

November 18, 2025

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”​— Søren Kierkegaard​.

Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian whose thought I admire.

Need to lose a few pounds and feel more fit?

Trying to solve a vexing problem?

Looking for ideas for that essay or meditation you’re writing?

Feeling anxious?

Need to connect with God?

Take a walk.

No air pods. No headset. No music. No podcast. Just nature…or life. Maybe a small notebook and pen in your pocket with which to record ideas. OK, I cheat. I use the Notes app on my phone with the microphone and dictate thoughts.

It’s great for physical health, mental health, spiritual health. Get outside and go.

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Posted in Attitude, Habits, Physical | Leave a Comment »

How To Be A Good Person

October 15, 2025

Do something good.

Repeat.

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Posted in Doing, Ethics, Habits, Service | Leave a Comment »

Sleep—The Long Game

October 13, 2025

What stories do you tell yourself when trying to find better sleep. We’ve been told way too often about how beneficial good sleep is. And to get 6-8 good hours of sleep every night.

I’ve been a fan of Kevin Meyer, who writes at Evolving Excellence, for years through his honest and insightful manufacturing and Lean Thinking writing. He’s retired and pursuing new avenues of thinking.

He had told himself the story that a glass of wine before bed would be relaxing and slide him into deep sleep.

Not so.

He eliminated alcohol for 3-4 hours before bedtime immediately realizing a sleep improvement.

My wife needs almost total darkness for optimum sleep. I don’t think that I notice. Meyer invested in a quality sleep mask creating a dark environment. It helped him.

I am a creature of routine. Intentionally. I am in bed plus/minus 15 minutes of 10 pm and up at 5:30 am unless we’re at a concert or traveling. Consistent timing helps the body prepare for both sleep and wake. The only times I use an alarm are when I have an early car to the airport.

We sometimes have a light snack about 2 hours prior to bed time. Meyer also found ceasing eating 2 hours or more prior to bed to be helpful.

I have taken a number of supplements for years. I have not yet taken magnesium l-threonate for relaxation and sleep. Meyer finds the research is compelling with his personal results aligning with the clinical findings.

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Four Useful Tips For Living a Full Life

October 8, 2025

I’ve written about these tips for a few years. Axios Finish Line recently published these in a succinct format. Check them out. Where are you on top of it? Where can you improve?

These four steps — all available for free — will help you thrive, personally and professionally:

🤖 AI yourself. Starting today, learn how to use ChatGPT, Grok or any free or premium LLM to optimize your personal obligations and professional work. AI will make you exponentially more efficient and more capable. Soon, AI inequality — the gap between proficient AI users and the rest — will be the defining characteristic of success vs. struggle at work, especially for those newly entering the workforce. Replace social media or gaming time with AI practice. It’s more fun and useful.

🧠 Bionicize your brain. Social media algorithms are controlling more and more of our brains, often pumping nonsense or anxiety into them. Few of us are powerful enough to resist the algorithmic addictiveness. But, if you unplug your brain from social media and fill it instead with high-quality information — available via podcasts, books, YouTube, Axios, Substack and more — you’ll flourish.

🥦 Optimize you. Almost every expert who studies any dimension of mental and physical health comes to the exact same conclusions. So listen to them. Eat real, healthy, protein-packed foods. Purge fake and ultra-processed garbage. Exercise daily, even if it’s just a walk. Lift some weights. Sleep 7+ hours. Make and keep real, human friendships. Minimize booze and screen time. Do all of this, all free, and you’ll be in the top 5% for setting yourself up to lengthen your healthspan.

😇 Be moral. Another free, easy, life-changing hack: Take the time to read, listen to, and think about values you want to live by. What are your personal red lines about how you treat yourself and others? That is your compass, your morality. Set it, or you’ll get lost. Read, pray, meditate, study those you admire. Form your own personal moral structure — then reinforce it, and lean on it when tough times hit.

Posted in Disciplines, Habits, Living | Leave a Comment »

Chasing The Wrong Thing

August 19, 2025

A study found in The Pump Club newsletter, Researchers examined 105 studies, including more than 70,000 people. Their goal was to test whether the psychological and physical wellness costs of chasing external rewards were universal, and the results were surprisingly consistent. Individuals who strongly pursued extrinsic aspirations (such as financial success or popularity) reported lower subjective well-being, less vitality, and more symptoms of anxiety and depression. The effects weren’t minor, either. Across the board, extrinsic goal orientation resulted in reduced well-being. In fact, the effect size was similar regardless of nationality, age, or gender, suggesting this isn’t a culture-specific issue — it’s a human one. On the flip side, people who prioritized intrinsic goals — like personal growth, relationships, and community — consistently showed higher life satisfaction, fewer depressive symptoms, and better overall health behaviors.

It’s like Jesus told us over and over—trying to be successful trying to chase after stuff or trying to simply follow the religious law was a journey to death. The journey to life led through getting right with God and serving others by becoming aware of their needs. Be others-focused. Chasing stuff is like a dog chasing its tail.

Posted in Habits, Relationship, Service | Leave a Comment »

A Collection of Reading

July 14, 2025

This sampling of books from my library. I am an eclectic reader, infinitely curious about way too many things. My links are to Bookshop.org. Buying from this site supports your local independent bookstore. I do not have an affiliate link.

Influences

Simple Leader, Kevin Meyer

Bible, esp. Matt 5-7, James, Galatians, Romans as a spiritual formation guide

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance An Inquiry into Values, Robert Pirsig (it’s not about Zen or about motorcycle maintenance—the motorcycle you’re working on is you)

Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic—probably never heard of Jesus but his thinking is so close to Paul’s that some early Church leaders thought he was a Christian (There are other Stoics including Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus)

Bird by Bird Anne Lamott

Stephen King—On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Recent books

Breath, James Nestor (about breathing, and more)

The One, Heinrich Päs, not for everyone, latest thinking about quantum physics and philosophy

Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation, Dannagal Goldthwaite Young (one of several research studies about how we can be so easily sucked into a vortex of misinformation on social media and the web)

Misbelief:What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things—Dan Ariely

For the introverts: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Susan Cain

Religion: Red Letter Christians—Tony Campolo

Spiritual writing

John O’Donohue, Anam Cara and To Bless The Space Between Us (Irish writer, brings Celtic sensibility to his thinking)

The Way of the Pilgrim—How to live praying without ceasing

The Cloud of Unknowing—on contemplation

Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Jonathan Sacks (former chief Rabbi of England)

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude or New Seeds of Contemplation

Richard, J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

Practical Advice

Adam Grant, Think Again

Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

Cal Newport—World Without Email, Deep Work, Slow Productivity

You Can’t Screw This Up, Adam Bornstein (nutrition)

Food Rules, Michael Pollen

James Clear—Atomic Habits

Charles Duhigg—The Power of Habit

Gregg McKeown—Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and Effortless

Psychology

The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt

The Narcissism Epidemic, Twenge and Campbell

Antonio Damasio, Decartes’ Error, The Feeling of What Happens, Feeling & Knowing

How to Know a Person, David Brooks

Facing the Fracture, Tania Israel, especially this flowchart about having conversations with those of different views. This is a very important book to digest.

For math Geeks, Eugenia Cheng, How to Bake π, The Joy of Abstraction

Creativity and Design

Design for a Better World, Don Norman

Creativity, Inc. By Ed Catmull (story of Pixar)

Fiction

Novels of Umberto Eco—The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, The Island of the Day Before, and others

The Chinese murder mystery novels of Robert van Gulik (brings 7th Century China to life…and death)

The Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout

Hermann Hesse novels

Colin Dexter—Inspector Morse series

Douglass Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series

JRR Tolkein, Lord of the Rings series

Earle Stanley Gardner, The Perry Mason series (contemporary with Rex Stout, interesting comparison of Southern California with Stout’s New York City)

And, if you want to tackle something really difficult, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Four books of aphorisms, return to them often

Posted in Habits, Study | 14 Comments »

Kindness Is a Gift

May 19, 2025

It makes every interaction easier.

Practice giving it generously.

To yourself, as well as to others.

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Visualize the Process

April 28, 2025

Have a goal they tell us. Write it on a Post-It note and stick it on your bathroom mirror. Visualize attaining it. Dream it, and it will come true.

In business or organization life, they also tell us to have a mission statement. Although most people write a paragraph, wisdom says it should be brief enough to print on a T-shirt.

But maybe this isn’t the best advice.

Professor of Happiness Arthur Brooks says, “No evidence exists for a mystical force that gives you what you imagine, and acting as though such a force does exist can even demotivate you and set you back. However, considered reflection on the process of achieving a desired outcome can change your behavior in productive ways. If you want a big balance in your bank account, thinking of a large number won’t help. But thinking about how you’re going to make financial progress and anticipating possible setbacks can encourage you to adopt useful habits of thrift and responsibility—and that becomes how you manifest a chosen goal.”

Did I mention he was a professor? At Harvard, no less. So he writes a paragraph. Try this…

Visualize the process. 

See yourself eating less in order to lose weight. See the team working on your ministry.

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Small Changes You Can Keep

December 19, 2024

We’ve all seen diets come and go, but the truth about weight loss is simple: it’s not about finding the “perfect” plan; it’s about making small changes you can keep — and eating foods that keep you fuller for longer.

The same is true in our spiritual life. Some people wait for a Great Spiritual Awakening to spring suddenly upon them. Others slide through life wonder if there is a better way.

But, small changes that you can keep—five minutes daily reading from the gospels, five minutes daily in meditation. These add up to a richer spiritual life.

Posted in Attitude, Habits, Living | Leave a Comment »

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