There is a famous research study originally performed by Walter Mischel at Stanford University commonly known as “The Marshmallow Experiment”. Essentially, children aged 4 – 6 were put in a room with a research assistant and offered a marshmallow. However, they were also told that if they waited until the research assistant came back 15 minutes later, they would be given two marshmallows…
A few years ago, I had a client who felt he was being held back in his career by his worry about dying prematurely. It obsessed his thinking and stopped him from making clean decisions about what direction to take his company in case he wasn’t around to see things through…
On a recent trip to the UK, I gave a talk on peace of mind at the Tikun center in North London. During the talk, I outlined four levels of understanding of what peace of mind actually is and how we go about getting it….
The other week, I was sitting in a cafe looking out over the rooftops of London when a question came to mind:
“What’s your biggest fear?”
The thing I found so interesting is that my thoughts didn’t follow the expected path of scanning through my past and future memories looking for a specific fear to call their own. Instead, they went to the practical implications of the question and an exploration of the nature of fear itself…
This Friday, I’m going to be recording the audio book version of The Inside-Out Revolution. In reviewing the manuscript in some detail for the first time since it came out, I came across a section where I quote the late great movie star Spencer Tracy, whose unpretentious advice for wannabe actors was simply this:
“Know your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.”…
