Eric Barker's Blog, page 9

This Is How To Have A Long Awesome Life

What happens when people eat right, maintain a healthy weight, exercise, and don’t smoke? They prevent 80% of heart attacks, 90% of type 2 diabetes, and significantly reduce the chance of cancer, dementia and pretty much every other bad thing you can think of.

But we’re, uh, not very good at eating right. When Harvard researchers analyzed the average American diet, it scored a 48 out of a possible 110 in terms of health. Yeesh.

Unfortunately, what we call “living life to the fullest” might als...

The Lazy Way To An Awesome Life: 4 Secrets Backed By Research

A lot of men were dying and nobody knew why.

In the late 70’s, the CDC realized that a shocking number of Hmong immigrants, ages 25-45, were dying in their sleep. They would gasp for breath but before help could arrive, they were gone. Autopsies revealed nothing. Perplexed, epidemiologists started calling it “Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome.” SUNDS was killing more Hmong men than the top five causes of death combined.

But someone had an idea. Oddly enough, she wasn’t a doctor; she w...

The *Secret* Way To An Awesome Life: 4 Insights Backed By Research

I’ve got a secret.

In fact, I’ve got 13 of them. So do you. That’s the average number of secrets people say they have when surveyed. Five of them are “complete secrets” – you’ve never told anybody. And eight more are “confided secrets” – you’ve told at least one other person but won’t be going public with it anytime soon.

A study of 2000 people in the US revealed the most common types of secrets. 92% of the time secrets fit into these categories:

Hurt another person (emotionally or physically...

This Is The #1 Ritual You Need To Do Every Day

Before the match, you have to take a freezing-cold shower. Every time. When you walk on the tennis court, never step on the lines. Oh, and always cross the lines with your right foot first.

Your tournament ID has to be face up. Always. Consume an energy gel during your warm-up and make sure to squeeze it four times. Not three times. Not five times. Four.

Hop up and down as the ref does the coin toss. Then run to the baseline and drag your foot across the length of it. Then hit your shoe with y...

This Is The Best Way To Handle Big Transitions In Life: 6 Secrets From Research

You can reach a point where your job makes you feel completely embalmed. Your favorite horror movie is everyday life. It would be an interesting dilemma if there wasn’t so much to be uninterested in. You need a career transition.

If it’s any consolation, a lot of people are dealing with this right now. There’s been a lot of discussion lately about “quiet quitting.” (Plenty of loud quitting too.) After the two most collectively stressful years in modern history, people are starting to reconside...

This Is How To Have Emotionally Intelligent Arguments: 4 Secrets

Mark didn’t mean to cut the guy off. The man in the pickup truck honked repeatedly. Mark nodded at him: Sorry. But a few minutes later Mark accidentally cut the guy off again. And that’s when things went sideways…

The man raced his truck forward and blocked Mark’s car. With both vehicles now stopped, the guy got out. All six-foot-five and three hundred pounds of him. (If I was Mark I would have considered calling ahead to reserve one of the nicer rooms in the ICU.)

The guy started banging his ...

How To Stop Feeling Anxious And Live A Happy Life – 3 Expert Tips

Some days everything seems to be outside your comfort zone. A bit of anxiety is part of the modern world. Worry about that presentation at work, worry about the kids at home, worry about what’s on the news… worry, worry worry.

Worst-case scenarios ping pong around in the echo chamber of your skull. Your brain is like a close friend who keeps trying to kill you. You can try to think your way out of this but, if you’re an anxious person, well, thinking probably hasn’t worked out all that well fo...

Ancient Traditions Reveal 2 Rituals That Will Make You An Awesome Parent

We’re often presented with an image of parenting that is a bit too perfect. Like a Norman Rockwell scene preserved in a snowglobe.

But all too often parents wake up to realize they were cast in a reality show without their permission. The kids cause more problems in 4 minutes than I could get into in 4 years. You wonder if your genetics have spawned an unholy chimera of you and you partner’s worst traits. It gets to a point where you wake up to the sounds of screams. Not the kid’s screams. You...

How To Be Resilient: 5 Secrets To Success When Life Gets Impossible

You’re dropped off in the middle of a forest with nothing but the clothes on your back. You’re going to need to live off the land to survive. (Hope you paid attention during all those Bear Grylls episodes.)

Oh, and you’re being hunted. Dangerous people are trying to capture you. You know: your average Sunday.

And even if you do manage to survive this, the next phase is even worse. You’re caught, blindfolded, and locked in a cell. Music blasts 24-7 to disorient you. You’re deprived of sleep. Re...

New Neuroscience Reveals 5 Secrets That Will Make You Lose Weight

Sometimes it feels like all you do during adulthood is accumulate pounds and passwords. Inflation is so bad right now that quarters cost 50 cents but that’s not the only thing that’s inflating. Many of us have gained the COVID-19 pounds.

In 1960, one in seven US adults was obese. By 2010, that reached one in three. And childhood obesity has quintupled. We can contrive all sorts of unscientific voluptuous rationalizations for why this has occurred but the science is very simple and very clear: ...