Eric Barker's Blog, page 7

5 Rituals To Keep You Happy All The Time

Let’s begin with a cruel little fact…

Iris Mauss, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, found that those who worked the hardest to be happier ended up being unhappier on every measure she studied.

Huh? Trying to live a better life fails miserably? Might be time to close up shop on this blog. Well, we had a good run. It’s been fun. Bye…

Seriously though, let’s put a pin in that one for now. We’ll get to it later. (Trust me, there’s a reason.)

More importantly, why can’t we j...

This Is How To Get Unstuck: 5 Secrets From Research

There are moments in life that make you say, “And just how did I end up here?”

You feel neck-deep in a quagmire of “stuck.” Not only has your desired future not arrived, it might not even seem possible anymore. You wish deus ex machina was really a thing. And feeling stuck isn’t even the scariest part. What’s scary is getting used to it.

Whether it’s career, relationships or big picture life goals, we all get to a point where we no longer feel we’re on our way to our dreams. You’re not alone. ...

How To Be Resilient: 5 Steps To Success When Life Gets Hard

We all have to deal with frazzled, harried, extremely stressed-out people… some of whom are unfortunately ourselves. There are days where it feels like life is going to grab you by one ankle and one wrist and just wishbone you. These are the moments in any job, project, or career where you want to quit.

I discussed the issue of quitting in my first book but today we’re gonna focus on the not-quitting option: resilience. We hear this issue get discussed a great deal but that’s usually balderdas...

This Is How To Overcome Burnout: 6 Secrets From Research

It feels like just one more minor inconvenience could tip you over into the abyss.

Not so much bad emotions but an erosion of emotions. Reduced energy, enthusiasm and confidence. An incessant buzzing of stress only restrained by exhaustion. Perpetually a half inch from overwhelmed. Life is less meaningful. A negative spiral of not feeling like you can do it, so you do less, which causes more problems that you can’t handle, so you do less. Repeat.

YEESH, that’s dark. Your high school guidance c...

This Is How To Deal With Pain: 4 Powerful Secrets From Research

There’s a case in the medical literature of a butcher who slipped while working and got his arm caught on a meat hook. Yeah, ouch. The pain was bright, attention-grabbing, impressive, and very good at what it does – it was the Beyoncé of pain. He was in agony.

Then he realized the hook only caught his sleeve. Didn’t even penetrate the skin. And the pain went away. Weird, right?

Here’s another one — and at the risk of sounding less Eric Barker and more Clive Barker, I’ll warn you it’s a bit dar...

New Neuroscience Reveals 6 Secrets That Will Increase Your Attention Span

We’ve all wondered about it. You’re not crazy: yes, our attention spans really are declining.

In 2004, people averaged 150 seconds on a computer screen before switching to a different screen. In 2012, that dropped to 75 seconds. Studies from 2016 to 2021 showed it had dropped again to somewhere between 44 to 50 seconds.

And that’s an average. So half the time it’s shorter than that.

Yes, I know, now you want a t-shirt that says, “I Read Eric’s Blog And All I Got Was A Greater Sense Of My Own I...

New Neuroscience Reveals 8 Secrets That Will Make Your Memory Stronger

My memory consists of 70 percent lines from Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes and 30 percent embarrassing moments. Why? I have no idea. Often, memory seems to make no sense.

But here’s the thing: a lot of what we think we know about how memory works is wrong. First off, it’s not a perfect video recording of what happened. Memories are a lot more like Legos, assembled and reassembled each time, and rarely in the same way twice.

And memory isn’t even one system. It’s a collection of different system...

This Is The Most Fun Way To Make Your Life Awesome

I’m always writing blog posts on how to improve your skills and do more of what you enjoy. But there’s a type of response I’ve gotten used to receiving:

“But what are my skills?”

“But what do I enjoy?”

This is distressing to me. It’s a spiritual catastrophe. Figuring out what you’re good at and what you really enjoy doing are so critical to life. And a lot of people struggle with finding those answers. Well, time to do a post that addresses this issue…

Whether you’re starting out in life or st...

6 Things The Most Productive People Do Every Day

Sometimes “productivity” feels like a country you’ve heard a lot about but never thought you’d get a chance to visit. Articles, Twitter threads and YouTube Vox Pops all claim to have answers – which never seem to hold up when subjected to real life. It’s amazing you’re still sitting at a desk instead of shrieking on a ledge.

Well, distractedness is nothing new. And we can get some answers from people who struggled valiantly with the issue a long time ago. On this blog we’ve gotten insights on ...

This Is The Most Fun Way To Make Your Life Awesome

We just don’t take humor that seriously.

Yeah, it makes us happier, but its effects are much, much more profound than you might guess.

People who use humor to cope with stress have better immune systems, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, experience less pain during dental work and live longer. Surgery patients who watched comedies needed 60% less pain medication. Heck, even anticipating humor has been shown to reduce stress.

Humor improves your relationships. Surveys say it’s the second...