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    Sharing – The Fun Is Why

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 3 minutes

    I feel like this is something that has gotten continuously worse over the years too. Kids who never get to just play, but are fully booked with one after-school activity after another. Teens are under constant pressure to spend their time doing things that look good on college applications. College-aged young adults are about filling out the resume or getting into the best graduate school programs, only to graduate into jobs that expect them to always be on call, to learn and grow themselves on their own time, all while social media culture tells them they should also have a side-hustle or three.

    Having fun is time that could be spent on any of these accomplishments.

    I’d flip that around. What’s the point of all of those accomplishments if you never have any fun?

  • Sharing – When the world stops

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We all need people who will stop and be with us. I’ve been lucky enough to have that, and I’ve had the privilege to be there for others during difficult times. I have also probably missed many an opportunity to stop and be with someone because of the hectic pace of life, and I’m not proud of that.

    The question is, what do we do as a society to allow people’s worlds to stop? How do we reach a point where it’s acceptable and the expectation that we will stop when necessary?

    We’ve seen the alternative. We’re living in it. A world where we rarely stop and listen to ourselves, let alone each other. Where people are hurting all around us yet afraid to talk about it. Afraid of what happens if we stop while the world moves on.

  • Sharing – 5 New Books on the Science of Making and Keeping Friends

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    Last week, I wrote about how important friendship is to our well-being and how terrible most of us are about making and keeping friends. Given that, I thought I would also share this list of recommended books. If you have other recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments!

  • Sharing – Why Do We Downplay Our Accomplishments?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We all have different reasons for downplaying our accomplishments. Many people don’t take the time to recognize their wins, whether due to imposter syndrome, a well-intentioned but overly focused attempt at humility, a lack of self-worth, or perfectionism. 

    This is a problem. When we can’t see our accomplishments, the only thing left is seeing our failures. We get a warped sense of ourselves when we only see our failures. We carry that warped sense of ourselves into the world and interact with others based on a mindset that sees only failure. That impacts our relationships and work, becoming just another failure point.