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October 29 - December 8, 2020
Teams that were behind by just one point were more likely to win. Indeed, being down by one at halftime was more advantageous than being up by one. Home teams with a one-point deficit at halftime won more than 58 percent of the time. Indeed, trailing by one point at halftime, weirdly, was equivalent to being ahead by two points.20
inexorable. The
FIVE WAYS TO REAWAKEN YOUR MOTIVATION DURING A MIDPOINT SLUMP
Set interim goals.
break large projects into smaller steps.
Publicly commit to those interim goals.
Stop your sentence midway through.
Don’t break the chain (the Seinfeld technique).
Picture one person your work will help.
ORGANIZE YOUR NEXT PROJECT WITH THE FORM-STORM-PERFORM METHOD
Phase 1: Form and Storm.
develop a shared vision, establish group values, and generate ideas.
As time passes, make sure all participants have a voice, that expectations are clear, and that all members can contribute.
Phase Two: The Midpoint.
channel your inner Dean Smith, explain that you’re a little behind, and galvanize action.
Phase Three: Perform.
Be willing to shift tactics, but in this stage, direct your focus squarely on execution.
FIVE WAYS TO COMBAT A MIDLIFE SLUMP
Prioritize your top goals (the Buffett technique).
Develop midcareer mentoring within your organization.
Mentally subtract positive events.
Imagine your life without that chain of events and, more important, without that huge positive in your life. Now return to the present and remind yourself that life did go your way.
Write yourself a few paragraphs of self-compassion.
Wait.
Sometimes the best course of action is . . . inaction.
ENDINGS
Like beginnings and midpoints, endings quietly steer what we do and how we do it. Indeed, endings of all kinds—of experiences, projects, semesters, negotiations, stages of life—shape our behavior in four predictable ways. They help us energize. They help us encode. They help us edit. And they help us elevate.
ENERGIZE: WHY WE KICK HARDER NEAR (SOME) FINISH LINES
ENCODE: JIMMY, JIM, AND THE GOOD LIFE
In a blink, at an impossibly young age, he became an impossibly huge Hollywood star. Then, about four months shy of his twenty-fifth birthday, Jimmy, whose full name was James Byron Dean, died in an auto accident.
People tend to rate lives like the first scenario (a short life that ends on an upswing) more highly than those like the second (a longer life that ends on a downswing).
“The suggestion that adding mildly pleasant years to a very positive life does not enhance, but decreases, perceptions of the quality of life is counterintuitive,”
“We label this the James Dean Effect because a life that is short but intensely exciting, such as the storied life led by the actor James Dean, is seen as most positive.”15
“[P]eople are willing to override a relatively long period of one kind of behavior with a relatively short period of another kind just because it occurred at the end of one’s life.”22 This “end of life bias,” as the researchers call it, suggests that we believe people’s true selves are revealed at the end—even if their death is unexpected and the bulk of their lives evinced a far different self.
Of the four ways that endings influence our behavior, encoding is the one that should make us most wary.
EDIT: WHY LESS IS MORE—ESPECIALLY NEAR THE END
Yes, older people have much smaller social networks than when they were younger. But the reason isn’t loneliness or isolation. The reason is both more surprising and more affirming. It’s what we choose. As we get older, when we become conscious of the ultimate ending, we edit our friends.
Older people have fewer total friends not because of circumstance but because they’ve begun a process of “active pruning, that is, removing peripheral partners with whom interactions are less emotionally meaningful.”
when she compared college seniors with new college students, students in their final year displayed the same kind of social-network pruning as their seventy-something grandparents.
ELEVATE: GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, AND HAPPY ENDINGS
Our preference, whether we’re a patient getting test results or a student awaiting a midsemester evaluation, is clear: bad news first, good news last.
Given a choice, human beings prefer endings that elevate.
WHEN TO QUIT A JOB: A GUIDE
Do you want to be in this job on your next work anniversary?
Is your current job both demanding and in your control?
Does your boss allow you to do your best work?
Are you outside the three- to five-year salary bump window?
Does your daily work align with your long-term goals?
WHEN TO QUIT A MARRIAGE: A HEDGE
Julie Brines and Brian Serafini analyzed fourteen years of divorce filings in the state of Washington and detected a distinct seasonal rhythm.
