Resilience
What a Soccer Shoot Out Can Teach Us About Pressure and Life
This past weekend, England fell short in capturing the European Championship with a heartbreaking loss against Italy. England has never won the European Championship. After 120 minutes of soccer, the game remained deadlocked at 1-1. That meant turning to the most anxiety-inducing invention of modern sports: the penalty kick shootout. A brutal mano-a-mano, shooter vs.…
Read MoreLanguishing and the Art of Showing Up
I recently wrote that if I had to feel motivated to start a workout I would have done 23 workouts last year, not 230. If I had to feel inspired to start writing, well, there’d be hardly any writing. If you want to stop 20 minutes in, fine. But give yourself a chance. You often hear platitudes like…
Read MoreThe Science of Freaking Out
Acute stress can be debilitating. It can cause professional baseball players to lose the ability to throw a ball 30 feet, something they’ve been doing since elementary school. In theater, it can cause stage fright, freezing, and forgetting lines that you’ve spent hours memorizing. The impact of stress isn’t just on our behavior, it can…
Read MoreThe Importance of Hardiness
Hardiness is a psychological trait that motivates you to respond to stressful circumstances in ways that produce resiliency. It is a key to cultivating the existential courage that facilitates the ongoing search for meaning in life. Hardiness has three major components. 1) Commitment Accept situation you are in and move forward anyway. Resist temptation to turn…
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