Marty Nemko's Blog, page 235

Nuggets from Psychology Today's "Essential Reads"

Psychology Today's editors select a small percentage of its articles as Essential Reads. Five years ago, I reviewed many to identify some particularly useful nuggets. 

It seems time for a current version. So, from among the latest 200 Essential Reads, My PsychologyToday.com article today offers excerpts with particularly useful takeaways. For most, I add a comment.

Your Child's Education

Some of the ideas in my PsychologyToday.com article today are contrary to conventional wisdom, but I feel confident that they're worth considering because they're informed by my three decades as an education and career advisor plus my Berkeley Ph.D. specializing in the evaluation of education.

Learning to Enhance Your Career

Most readers of my work have at least one degree and if they want more education it's to enhance their career. 

My PsychologyToday.com article today proceeds on those assumptions.

Sometimes, going back to a college or university is necessary. For example, you can’t be a psychotherapist without at least a master's. And in some fields, even if not required, employers tend to prefer advanced degree holders.

But more often than you might think, you can learn more, especially more of practical value to you, at dramatically less cost and far more quickly, through one or more of the following: self-study, just-in-time help at work, tutoring, one-shot classes, longer courses, and conferences.

Of course, if you’re pursuing education to enhance your career, you’ll need to convince the employer that you’ll be at least as good an employee for having attended “You U” than State U. Later in the article, I show you how to do that, indeed that you’re a better candidate.

If you decide you do need a degree, at the end, I discuss how to maximize your chances of admission to that small percentage of schools that actually are highly selective.

Adulting: What they should have taught you in school

UC Berkeley is among the growing number of colleges offering a student-run course in adulting. If I were teaching a course on adulting, My PsychologyToday.com article today offers what I’d hope would be the main takeaways.

Losing Weight: Tiny tweaks may be the best approach

It’s well established that diets don’t work. Fellow Psychology Today blogger, Meg Selig reviews the literature.  Nor will exercise work—Whatever calories expended are at least as compensated by increased hunger and entitlement

If you’re obese (BMI of 30+), medically supervised diet and/or surgery may be indicated but for the more typical overweight person (BMI-25-29), tiny tweaks may be the wisest approach. You’re more likely to stay with tweaks, avoiding the dangerous yo-yoing. Plus, tweaks are less likely to trigger your set point: your body resisting effort to losing weight.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers ideas on how to make it work 

Reviewing Your 2019: Toward a good 2020

There’s a simple reason why many people have a hard time identifying the year’s lessons learned: They don’t remember even all the important things that happened.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers ways to help you remember the events, identify lessons learned and, in turn, a goal or three for 2020.

What Works in Time Management and Procrastination

My PsychologyToday.com article today distills what has worked best for my clients who have a problem with time management and procrastination.

Identifying Your Secret Desires. . . and using them to make plans for 2020

We may have desires that we won’t even let ourselves think about, let alone try to achieve. Does one of your unspoken desires appear on the list I offer in my PsychologyToday.com article today?

Family Dinner: An old-fashioned idea worth revisiting

“Dinner’s on the table!”“Come on mom, just five more minutes!”
“So, what did you do in school today?”“Nothing.”
“Eat your vegetables”“I HATE vegetables.”
While troubling, such exchanges are more from an earlier era in which family dinner was virtually inviolate. Today, that glue of familial connection and problem solving is often but a memory from ancient Ozzie and Harriet TV shows. Families often graze individually, with one parent still at work, if only in the home-office. The exhortation to "eat your vegetables" is moot because the parent ordered in pizza, both because it’s easy and the kids prefer it to broiled chicken, broccoli, and quinoa. The kids pop open the pizza box (assuming they hadn’t earlier raided the fridge and are no longer hungry), grab their favorite slices, and abscond to their room so they can eat while chatting or texting on the phone, watching TV, playing video games, or just maybe doing their homework.
While there’s humor in all that, at the risk of being atavistic, I think individuals and families would be wise to try to make family dinner the norm. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers some thoughts on how to make family dinner work.

Is Luxury Worth It? A self-assessment: For you? For your holiday gift giving?

Some of my clients wonder whether the American Dream game is the game they should be playing. If you're asking that of yourself, perhaps a look at luxury life’s benefits and liabilities may help you assess. 
In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I've done my best to make the best case both for and against the luxury lifestyle.