In the early pages of The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes, “We don’t tell ourselves, ‘I’m never going to write my symphony.’ Instead, we say, ‘I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.’” This is why so many dreams are left unrealized. This is…

Writer’s block doesn’t exist. When you sit down and brainlessly stare at the blank screen of a word processor, unable to type a single phrase, the problem is not that you’re not incapable of writing. It’s that you think you’re incapable of writing well. It would be easy to hammer…

I’ve spent twelve years in an institution being taught how to play it safe. Minimize risk. Just go with the crowd and you’ll be fine. School teaches kids to exchange individuality and passion for tradition and convention. Follow the rubric and you’ll get an A+. Any quiz or test or…

The first thing I do each morning is try to make myself as happy as possible. It’s the first item on my agenda, preceding even opening my eyes. I tell myself today is going to be amazing and run through the list of people and experiences and items that I…

Gratitude is the delta between reality and our individual conceivable worst-case scenarios. Key: conceivable. “People are starving and you’re upset about doing your homework,” is not an effective approach because your kid cannot conceptualize starvation. In order to gain feel gratitude by comparing your situation to an objectively worse scenario…

Scenario #1 January 1st. You, like many of your fellow New Year’s resolution-makers, are attempting to clean up your diet. Every year, 40% of Americans pledge to leave their unbalanced diets, unused gym memberships, and unproductive lifestyles behind in December. The first days go well. You resist temptations. You don’t…

As a member of the high school class of 2020, I’ve spent the past year being groomed by teachers and counsellors and mentors on university applications. I can navigate university portals with my eyes closed. I have my answers to supplementary prompts memorized. My admission sites are bookmarked so I…