My eyes are closed. Both arms are in a loose X across my chest. I feel my heartbeat quicken as I lean back. I fall. For a moment in time, I am afraid. But before fear takes over, a dozen hands cradle me instead.

A trust fall.

This team-building exercise, in which a person deliberately falls and trusts members of a group to catch them, was done during a three-day workshop. Self-discovery and self-improvement involved relinquishing control. The fear of hitting the ground was eclipsed only by the rush of being caught. I let go and my team had me.

That was two decades ago. One decade before my diagnosis with multiple sclerosis (MS). So much has changed. Can anyone trust fall with a disease like MS? I could say the right thing and offer platitudes. Yet I am left to wonder. I have a loving husband and family who are very much there for me. They are caring and involved. They are supportive.

But this is MS.

I cannot trust fall. This disease is unwieldy. I am afraid to let go. I am unable to close my eyes. I am unwilling to trust. I refuse to fall. I am scared to fall. But that does not preclude me from doing so. It only creates a fear-based reality. My God calls for more. He calls for faith. That faith leads me from fear into acceptance.

This is my MS.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease. It has zero emotional context until we apply such. If we apply fear, we create that association. Similarly, if we hope, we create that. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can experience fear without creating a narrative. I am often uplifted by this reminder. I choose to live with my disease rather than fear it. This cognitive choice has saved me from me.

It is easy to fear, and far more difficult to hope. So much about our symptoms elicits fear. Foot drop, pain, numbness, cog-fog, and relapses are scary stuff. We wonder if they mean progression or further disability. That association is propagated hearsay and selective literature. Take those same symptoms and admit fear, yet allow hope. Go bigger and allow faith. Hope and faith are more difficult to substantiate. Each is intrinsic and infinite. Each slays fear and accelerates well-being.

We did not choose MS, but we can choose how we coexist. This does not necessitate a trust fall. It requires a leap of faith.

***

Note: Multiple Sclerosis News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Multiple Sclerosis News Today or its parent company, BioNews Services, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to multiple sclerosis.

Jennifer Powell is a health writer and weekly columnist on Multiple Sclerosis. Jennifer imparts her hopeful optimism into real-life challenges facing the MS community. Prior to writing her column, Jennifer freelanced for several online periodicals including WebMD.When not writing, Jennifer enjoys volunteering with animal rescue, traveling and spending time with her Golden Retriever.

Read the original post:
Leaving Fear Behind and Learning to Trust - Multiple Sclerosis News Today

How close are you to knocking the door down? One play in Seattle and Buffalo.

Were close. We just have to create our own opportunities there. Other teams have done that against us and we just have to make sure we do it against the other teams going forward.

What are your priorities in Pittsburgh?

All the fundamental things that we talked about the first three weeks that havent been good enough. Have to be better on first down. On defense we have to make sure were sure tacklers and cant let anybody out of our grasp. Weve played some tough quarterbacks that like to run around and theyre tough to get down and we just have to make sure that remains our focus.

It looked to me like for the first time in the second half on Sunday you were able to get into a good rhythm calling the game with down and distance.

We have to get that first first down. Really, thats where the rhythm comes from. We feel like we can get in an attack mode and be a little more creative. In the first half, for a myriad of reasons we werent able to get that first first down, so we were on our heels. They were attacking us. Thats not the way we want to play.

I know you dont like the balance (129 passes to 52 runs). Is what you had in the second half Sunday (14 rushes, 23 passes) more what you want?

To be quite honest with you, were going to do whatever we have to do to get a first down and score points. Every game is going to be a different approach. Some games you may run it a lot more than you throw it.Other games you may throw it a lot more than you run it. Sometimes it may be 50-50. Were not going to pigeon hole ourselves into were going to win it a certain way. Were going to make sure were doing whatever we need to do to defeat the team were playing.

I guess you built this offense to be like one of those shirts you can put on both ways.

Thats a good way to put it. Just like a reversible jersey.

You havent been able to score three touchdowns in a game. If you can put your finger on why, what would the reasons be?

We have to be more efficient on first down. We said it after San Francisco, Ill say it again after this one. The first half was a killer because were setting ourselves back. We had a dropped pass on the first play of the game, had a penalty on the first first down of the second drive. It starts with the play calls. We have to make sure were putting ourselves in the best position for guys to make plays.

After your first three games as a play-caller, what grade would you give yourself? How does Zac Taylor the head coach critique Zac Taylor the play caller?

Not good enough. We havent scored enough points. We havent had enough efficiency on early downs and so certainly in there we have to improve. Are we calling the best plays into the best looks? Are we giving ourselves the best chance to be successful? So far it hasnt been good enough through three weeks.

We need to continue to find the best way to use all our players. Every week we evaluate that and the decisions we made as a coaching staff. Continue to be hard on ourselves. We havent won a game yet. So you have to look yourself in the mirror and make sure you make the corrections you need.

Is there one play you want back from last week?

Theres always a couple you want back. Theres more than one.

Any that stick in the head?

Yeah, we threw a screen when we were backed up. Probably around the 10-yard line. Threw a screen on first down trying to get Tyler Boyd the ball and it was a poor play call. They had two guys bumped up there. Tough play call. Put us in bad position.

But you had that screen to running back Joe Mixon for 33 yards.

You remember the ones that didnt work. Thats just the way it works. Constantly striving for self-improvement there.

Andy Dalton and John Ross had an open go ball where they couldnt connect.

Everyone has been accountable for the things he can do better. Plenty of our guys have made lot of plays. Andy put us in position in the second half to move the ball down the field and be in position to win. It didnt go our way. I think everyone points the fingers at themselves right now. Everyone can coach better and play better.

I think he would say hes 0-3. Just the same way I feel. Just the same way (offensive coordinator) Brian Callahan feels. Everyone feels like theyre 0-3. Everyone knows they can improve and do better. Certainly you cannot point the finger to one person. I would say Andy has made some really good plays that have put us in position to do some great things and were going to continue to lean on him, as the season goes.

The most popular guy in town on an 0-3 teams is always the back-up quarterback. Thats foolish at this point, isnt it?

That would be ridiculous.

See the article here:
Taylor-Made Takes: 'Whatever We Have To Do To Get a First Down and Score Points' - Bengals.com

The good news across all industries and business sectors is that leaders increasingly recognize the tremendous value of retraining workers for the digital workplace. As a recent Harvard Business Review article noted, Any business can invest in advanced technologies, but creating a workforce thats ready to use them is much harder.

The bad news, however, is that as companies strive to upskill their workers to keep pace with advanced technologies, they continue to overlook the biggest impediment to learning at all levels. Its a problem that affects people in as much as 20 to 40% of areas critical to their performance.

The problem is unconscious incompetence, which literally means that people are incompetent in some aspects of their job, but completely unaware. In other words, they believe they know something but, in fact, do not. Unconscious incompetence can undermine quality, customer satisfaction, and even safety.

Getty

There are dramatic examples of unconscious incompetence and their tremendous toll. Three decades ago, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred at Chernobyl in the Ukraine due to flawed reactor design and inadequately trained personnel. In January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger was torn apart 73 seconds after liftoff when the O-ring seals on the solid rocket boosters failed, despite assurances that the integrity of the rings would not be affected by the cold weather.

In the medical field, unconscious incompetence has been linked to preventable medical errors.The seminal report To Err Is Human examined the incidence of medical errors, which are a leading cause of death. Among the findings: knowledge of how to prevent some errors existed, but there has been a need for wider dissemination.

The only way to address unconscious incompetence is to systematically practice uncovering and addressing it as part of learning. Otherwise, what people assume to be accurate or appropriate (but, in fact, is the opposite) can keep them from acquiring the new knowledge and skills they need to compete in todays technology-enabled workplace.

The Personalized Approach

The question then becomes how best to address unconscious incompetence and impart new skills. Traditional learning strategies, including static e-learning, are one-size-fits-none approaches that give everyone the same material with no personalization. An analogy I like to use is a person who goes to see a doctor with a health complaint but is told, Ill give you the medications and treatments that I have prescribed for the last 75 people. You go home and try them and see what works for you. Of course, that would be ridiculousand yet, that is essentially what education has traditionally done. Based on the experience of prior learners, assumptions are made about the needs of every learner.

Far better is a personalized approach tailored to each learner, which takes into account their varied backgrounds, experience, levels of technical skills, and unconscious incompetence in different aspects of their jobs. In 20-plus years of research and development of learning solutions, I have found that adaptive learning delivers a truly personalized approach. Adaptive learning is a broad term that means, in essence, a computer-based learning system that automatically adjusts to the needs of each learner. It comes close to emulating the one-to-one student and teacher interaction of a tutoring environment, but at a scale.

Advanced adaptive learning platforms use a short, closed loop communication where the learning is constantly validated or corrected through high frequency questions and tasks that probe the learners proficiency, knowledge gaps, and unconscious incompetence. Most important, these platforms can deliver the targeted support needed to build proficiency, such that every learner becomes competent.

In corporate learning and development (L&D), adaptive learning can completely change both the experience for individual learners and the outcomes they achieve. For too long, corporate L&D focused on course completion: People showed up, took a class, went to a conference, and got a pat on the back or a certificate of completion. But a piece of paper on the wall doesnt mean that the information delivered in a class stays in ones brain. Even more important than what people learn in short-term is how much they retain in the long-term.

What People Learnand What They Forget

There is a problem with retention that has been well documented for more than a century. In the late 19th century, Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, demonstrated what became known as Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: Within the first 24 hours, Ebbinghaus found, 70% of newly acquired information cannot be recalled, and as much as 90% is lost within the first two weeks.

This brings us to another aspect of learning that companies must also address as part of their L&D strategies. Reinforcing knowledge and skills is one of the most impactful aspects of learning. It not only ensures retention but also helps prevent unconscious incompetence.

One area where knowledge refreshment and retention is critical is pilot training because of the obvious impact on safety involving hundreds of people per planeload. Most business environments, though, dont have such life-or-death scenarios. Nonetheless, knowledge retention remains critical to ensuring success for people in all professions who are facing changing demands and escalating requirements for their jobs.

Retention, just like learning, must be individualized.

Engaging Learners in the Process

By viewing learners as individuals with different experiences, knowledge, skills, and approaches to learning, adaptive learning is far more effective in getting the job done. Learning becomes more than a requirementits highly motivating as a process of self-improvement and empowerment for lifelong employment.

As people are exposed to new knowledge and skills, they also become aware of their unconscious incompetence. When their erroneous assumptions about what they know is addressed, a higher baseline of knowledge is established. This becomes a firm foundation on which to build the advanced and higher-level knowledge and skills needed for a more successful future.

Read the original here:
Employers Want To Retrain Workers, But Heres What Theyre Missing - Forbes

Grayson DeJesus (as Jim OConnor) and Carey Cox (as Laura Wingfield) in the Guthrie Theaters production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, now playing at the Guthries Wurtele Thrust Stage in Minneapolis. Photo by T Charles Erickson.

Memories are a tricky thing. As recounted by Tom in the prologue toThe Glass Menagerie, they are sentimental, not realistic. If you look up sentimental in Merriam-Webster, however, youll find that director Joseph Haj has not gone with the common definition of the term. Instead, the Guthries new production of Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie follows the alternate: having an excess of sentiment or sensibility. This excess is expertly mined from opening to ending, yielding much sardonic humor.

This derisive, disdainful quality is the lifeblood and throughline of this production. Jennifer Van Dycks Amanda Wingfield becomes an avatar of Southern vigor and lost causes great and small, constantly grabbing at, poking, and manipulating Remy Auberjonois ever-more-frustrated Tom towards misdirected self-improvement. Its really fun to watch, and laces each scene with ticking time bomb after ticking time bomb ofschadenfreude and dramatic bloodsport.

Effective sardonicism, like satire, requires a commitment to cause and character to truly resound. While the broader motions may be exaggerated by that filter of excess, Hajs talented cast holds back from outright parody, creating a tension that wraps successive layers around action and reaction. Watch Auberjonoiss Tom tremble on the cusp of an apology and see Van Dycks Amanda delight in an old dress and you start to sympathize with the characters, even as you laugh at them.

As splendid as Tennessee Williams writing is, every production ofThe Glass Menagerie hinges on the Gentleman Caller scenes. Hajs design team saves many of its choicest touches for the extended encounter between Laura (Carey Cox) and the Gentleman Caller Jim OConnor (Grayson DeJesus) a scene as poignant and magical in its delivery as it is, ultimately, tragic in the narrative. If Toms quest for his own space and privacy is the overarching narrative, this is the alternate counterpoint. Together, theyre a powerful pair.

The Glass Menagerieruns through October 27 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.

Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017.

Originally posted here:
REVIEW: Sardonic Humor in Glass Menagerie (Guthrie Theater) - Twin Cities Arts Reader

I spent the majority of my degree scared and complacent. I decided that spending two years taking science courses and getting terrible grades was the greater alternative to admitting that I may be better suited for arts. Why? Because everyone makes fun of arts degrees, so I let that stop me from admitting that Im creative a dreamer with skills that are better suited for arts. Now, Im a psychology student and my grades and my soul sleep better.

If I could offer you one piece of advice, something I wish someone had drilled into me when university started is this: be brave. I know, I wish it was something more mind-blowing and complex. But being brave in itself is difficult. Its so general, so let me try and break it down for you.

Be brave and seek out new experiences. Dont be afraid to be uncomfortable, embrace it. Growth and self-discovery are facilitated by stepping outside your comfort zone. So go join clubs, attend parties and first-year events. Be proactive and make the effort to do things that scare you. Dont do what I did and pretend to be too cool for novel experiences. For so long, I wondered why I felt like I hadnt grown since high school. It wasnt until I started getting involved in the community that I started to feel that sense of self-improvement I had longed for. I was and still am so afraid to try new things because I didnt want to fail. Now, Im constantly forcing myself to operate outside of my comfort zone and its scary but great.

Be brave enough to value your own opinion and gut feelings above others. Only you know whats best for you. Dont spend years studying something that a) you werent good at and b) you didnt enjoy. If theres something that feels off, dont let the fear of judgement prevent you from staying true to yourself. I know its clich and I still find myself struggling to adhere to this, but do your best not to care what people think. Doing what you think you should do rather than what you want to do is overrated and not in service of yourself.

So whats the difference between being open and trying new things? To me, the difference is in passivity. When I suggest being open to experiences, I mean going with the flow, letting things happen and sticking around long enough to watch them play out. You never know who you may meet, memories you may make and experiences you may be exposed to. Try not to write things off right away and keep an open mind. I shut out so many experiences because I thought it wasnt something Id be interested in. For example, I had no idea how interesting writing for virtual reality was until I took a creative writing course. Rather than turning my nose at it because Ive never been interested in video games, I kept an open mind and it really sparked an interest in me.

Be brave. Its something I have to tell myself everyday. If youre not pushing yourself, youre not growing. I know its only the first few weeks of school, but time flies. I remember being in first year, I couldnt see the end of my degree it seemed impossibly far away. Now, Im here and its unreal. Truth be told, I wish I had realized and implemented my own advice years ago. So heres me, doing my best to reach out and pass on what I consider to be the greatest thing Ive learned over my years at UBC. Good luck and be brave!

Adry Yap is a fifth-year psychology student.

Go here to see the original:
Letter: From a fifth year to all first years be brave - Ubyssey Online

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Learn Self Improvement | Free Online Courses | Class Central

8 Best Industries for Starting a Business Right Now | Inc.com

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Best Industries 2018

The time is right

Got the entrepreneurial bug? Think about launching in these sectors, based on analyst data and interviews with industry experts, investors, and entrepreneurs.

Disaster relief

A spate of natural disasters andmanmade emergencies has increased the demand for services and boosted startup funding. Revenue for the disaster relief industryis expected to jump to $11.2 billion in 2022 from $10.1 billionin 2017, according to IBISWorld.

Alternative-protein food products

The technology is now available to meet consumer demand for great-tasting foods that use proteins from nontraditonal sources. The market accounted for $4.2 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow 6.8 percent between 2017 and 2022, according to Research and Markets.

eSports

Amazons $970 million acquisition of Twitch and the possibility that the NCAA will support collegiate gaming is driving enormous growth ineSports. The industry is expected to reach $1.7 billion in 2020, upfrom $1.1 billionin 2018, according to SuperData Research.

Influencer agents

These startups represent social-media stars who need help turning Instagram followers into cash. As social medias influence continues to surge, revenue for the industry isexpected to increase to $10.8 billion in 2022, a 2.2 percent jump from 2017, according to IBIS.

Beauty tech

The integration of tech and the beauty businessis resulting in a wave of new,innovativeproducts. It's ahuge opportunity: The overall beauty market is expected to jump to $27.8 billion in 2022 from $22.1 billion last year, according to IBIS.

Womens reproductive health care

Startups are helping women take control of their reproductive health with fertility-tracking apps and other services. A2015Harris Williams study estimatedthe U.S. fertility market's value at between $3billion and $4 billion.

Canned wine

The product inside hasnt changed, but the new packaging is gaining acceptance, especially among Millennials. Total U.S. sales for canned wine jumped to $32.3 million last year--a $29 million increase from 2014, according to Nielsen.

Elderly care

Businesses are findinginnovative ways to care for the large population of aging Baby Boomers. The industry generated more than $50.7 billion in revenue in 2017, a figure IBIS expectsto increase by about42 percent by 2022.

Read more:
8 Best Industries for Starting a Business Right Now | Inc.com

There are enough articles on this site to fill two books, so it can sometimes be daunting to know where to start. Below are what many consider to be my greatest hits, the articles that have been the most popular, the most shared, or had the greatest effect on readers lives.

Ive listed the best 5-6 posts in four different categories below: Self Improvement, Life Choices, Dating and Relationships, and Culture.

You can also sign up for my newsletter below and get a free ebook, 3 Ideas That Can Change Your Life. I send out occasional updates with new articles and stuff Im working on. Your information is protected and I never spam.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck The most popular article on the site. And for good reason.

The Most Important Question of Your Life Best post to start with to understand the underlying philosophy of my work.

Stop Trying to Be Happy Why pursuing happiness just pushes it further away from you and how to get around this problem.

In Defense of Being Average A much-needed defense of the unexceptional which is pretty much all of us.

Screw Finding Your Passion You already know what you love to do. Youve just forgotten how to do it.

The Four Stages of Life The phases of life that we all travel through and how they define who we are.

10 Life Lessons to Excel In Your 30s A crowd-sourced article from my older readers on what they all wish they knew when they were 30-years-old.

10 Life Lessons I Learned From Surviving My 20s A look back right before my 30th birthday on all of the life lessons I learned in my 20s.

7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose A fun, yet serious, look at how we can derive more meaning and importance from our lives.

How to Quit Your Day Job and Travel the World How to leverage your terror of going broke to achieving greater success and autonomy.

No, You Cant Have it All A realistic look at the necessity of choosing what to give up in our lives.

Fuck Yes or No The most important rule of dating and relationships. Everyone must understand this.

Love is Not Enough Why we idealize love, make it something more than it is, and how that ruins many of our relationships.

1,500 People Give All the Relationship Advice Youll Ever Need A crowd-sourced article with advice from people who have been in relationships for a long time.

Maybe You Dont Know What Love Is A sober look at what love often is and what it should be.

6 Toxic Relationship Habits Most People Think Are Normal Find out if what you think is normal romantic behavior is actually harming your relationship.

6 Healthy Relationship Habits Most People Think Are Toxic The follow up to the above article describing what you should be doing, but probably are not doing.

10 Things Americans Dont Know About America Viral internet sensation. My perspectives on the US after spending four years outside of it.

In the Future, Your Attention Will Be Sold My take on new technologies and how theyre not necessarily ruining society, just our attention spans.

The American Dream Is Killing Us Some commentary on why I think the American Dream isnt just dead, its actually being used against us.

A Dust Over India A raw look at some of the more jarring experiences I had on my trip to India.

5 Life Lessons from 5 Years Traveling the World I spent five years traveling around the world to more than 50 countries. This is what I learned.

How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings An article written in response to the UCSB shootings in May 2014, but also covering numerous other shootings throughout North America and what they actually mean about our society and culture.

See original here:
Best Articles: 20 Articles That Can Change Your Life ...

I am lying on a mat, looking up at the bright blue of the skylight above me. I exhale purposefully, then let my lungs reinflate of their own accord. I am trying hard to concentrate on this slightly counterintuitive way of breathing, but the voices in my head are distracting me. They are telling me about business regulation, specifically about the inhibitory effect of hairdresser licensing in Utah.

I do not, as a rule, make New Year resolutions. As an anxious person, the 12 months that lie ahead of New Years Eve do not fill me with excitement or anticipation. I just wonder what else could go wrong. I am as susceptible as the next person to notions of promise, to the idea that, with the right effort, I could become fitter, smarter, happier, better. But each new December, as I coast towards the end of the year on squeaky wheels, I find myself feeling the same way: older, wiser, worse.

Its the time and effort involved that puts me off most kinds of self-improvement. Many years ago, I signed up for an online life-coaching course, and when I complained about the difficulty of one of the exercises Id been sent I was meant to make a list of my qualities, keeping to the strict format I am (quality) the instructor immediately replied by email, saying, Yes, this is REAL WORK, isnt it? I thought: I already have a job, thanks.

I am drawn to the quick fix. Could it be possible to cram a years self-improvement into a few minutes of effort a day?

In recent years, however, a new school of selfimprovement has sprung up, one that seems to recognise that, frankly, most of us are too busy to be better. Books with titles such as The 10-Minute Millionaire, The 5-Minute Healer, 10 Minutes To Better Health and 10 Minutes A Day To A Better Marriage represent, if not a global revolution in self-improvement, at least a reliable publishing trend.

I am ineluctably drawn to the quick fix. Could it be possible to cram a years self-improvement into a few minutes of effort a day, to get the whole business out of the way before the end of January? It cant do any harm to try, can it?

***

My first self-improvement guide is a new book called 15 Minutes To Happiness by Richard Nicholls. My first thought is that 15 minutes sounds a lot, especially when somebody else is promising to make me a millionaire in 10, but Nicholls book is full of quick exercises interspersed with longer explanations of why and how they work. Some of the exercises are designed to fix problems I dont think I have, so Im pretty sure I can skip ahead.

Nicholls posits a model for happiness that I find reassuring. He stresses the value of negative thinking. He says that actively seeking happiness can often end up making people feel less happy. On page 49 he writes: Be open to the possibility that you bought this book and you dont actually need it. This, I think, is my kind of self-help.

Here and there Nicholls inserts a quick happiness boosting idea, designed to give you an injection of contentment as and when you need it. In the chapter on gratitude, for example, he suggests you take a moment or two to send a text message to someone thanking them for being a part of your life. I embarked on a preliminary challenge: trying to find someone anyone in my list of contacts I could send a text like that, without having to send an immediate follow-up apology text: Sorry about that I was only following orders.

Heres another: Put your town name into JustGiving.com and see who is raising money for a good cause in your local area. Even if you dont donate anything to anyone, spending time looking at the good thats going on in your town will dilute any doom and gloom youve picked up from elsewhere.

I tried this one it was incredibly easy, and it did make me feel slightly happier. It ended up costing me 30 (donated anonymously, because thats the kind of person I am now), but the feeling lasted for almost four hours.

A dozen years ago, I had an hour-long session with a yoga instructor, and when I asked what sort of benefits I could expect, he promised that yoga would bring me joy. I hadnt even considered this possibility, but I liked the sound of it. I will try this yoga, I thought. And when I get my joy, everyone else can go to hell.

Then I went to one of his classes in a London studio, full of supple people in leggings, and found the whole experience nerve-racking and humiliating. It wasnt relaxing at all. It was like auditioning for Cats.

So Im done doing yoga in front of people, but a book called The 10 Minute Yoga Solution raises the possibility that I could get my joy in the privacy of my home, quietly and quickly. The author, Ira Trivedi, makes a lot of bold claims: she says that 10 minutes of yoga a day will not just make me calmer and more physically fit, it will improve my eyesight, control unhealthy eating habits and cure a multitude of hair problems (its all about blood flow to the scalp). She also mentions joy, if only in passing.

The book itself has very few words in it. It is simply a collection of illustrated poses or asanas with instructions, grouped into workouts tailored to specific requirements. Again, I find myself in a position to skip bits: yoga for women, for kids, for weight loss, for fasting, for binge-eating. I like the sound of yoga for lazy people and yoga for hangovers, but for the moment I am concentrating on yoga for beginners: eight poses, 10 minutes in all.

I wasnt sure what to expect from a basic, self-administered yoga programme, but I hadnt expected it to hurt quite so much. Sitting cross-legged hurts. The seated spinal twist hurts. Even the shavasana, the so-called corpse pose lying flat on your back, arms and legs spread, palms up, toes pointing out hurts. I am, I discover, a collection of small aches. As instructed, I contract the muscles in my feet and then relax them. My toes refuse to uncurl. Ten minutes begins to seem like an age.

***

There are, of course, a lot of self-improvement podcasts available I found one titled simply You Suck: Be Better. Another, created by a former lawyer, suggested that I think of my time as if it were broken down into billable hours, so I learn to prize it more. Id rather use my headphone time to acquire some actual information. Ive got the happy book and the yoga routine already. What I really require is a little knowledge.

There is a solution: it turns out you can just speed a podcast up. At first I thought: who would do this?

Ive always resisted the idea of learning more about economics. It was a passive resistance I just wasnt that interested in the subject but maybe, armed with the right podcast and a decent set of headphones, I could enter into a new phase of passive learning. By common consent, NPRs Planet Money is one of the best economics podcasts going. I havent listened to many well, any but Planet Money is entertaining, informative and aimed squarely at the layman. Its not a primer, but more of a fun way to engage with what for many remains an off-putting subject. I encounter no mathematics.

But theres a lot of it: two years worth, with a new episode posted every couple of days. Where to begin? Whats more, the average length of each instalment is close to 20 minutes, which, in todays self-improvement environment, is positively leisurely. There is a solution: it turns out you can just speed a podcast up. At first I thought: who would do this? But lots of people do it. My own children, it transpires, routinely listen to sped-up recordings of their university lectures in order to save time. I had to download a new app to acquire the facility, but I can now listen to Planet Money at three times the original speed. Actually, I cant its pretty well unintelligible at that clip but I soon find that if I spend a few minutes trying to keep up with the podcast at double speed, it then sounds perfectly normal at a more relaxed one-and-a-half times. Within a few days, Ive worked my way up to 1.8x. Over the course of a week, I grow increasingly impatient with the pace of actual human conversation. Spit it out, I want to say.

My impersonation of a corpse is so convincing that I worry about my wife walking in and finding me

A week in, I rise (10 minutes) early and run through my yoga positions, beginning with some breathing: inhale the future, exhale the past, as the book says. I move on to the spinal twist and the shoulder stand. The corpse pose no longer hurts; in fact, my impersonation of a corpse is so convincing that I worry about my wife walking in and finding me. He died doing what he loved, she would think. Express yoga.

I listen to a podcast about robots taking over our jobs on my way to and from the shops; about 1.6x makes it the right length for the journey. Back at home, I sit down to settle on my next 15-minute happiness task. Deciding often takes longer than 15 minutes, because I reject a few out of hand. Going through Nicholls book, I come across the following passage: If were grateful for life then we cant be fearful, which means that any anxiety we experience gets processed as excitement instead. If were grateful, then we act out of a sense that we have enough rather than out of a sense of scarcity or envy.

He goes on to suggest spending 15 minutes writing about some positive things that have happened to you. I am extraordinarily resistant to this idea. I only like writing about bad things that have happened to me, in part because I know I will never run out. At first, I cant even think of any recent positive experiences, but after a few minutes, I recall a long and mostly tedious drive to Exeter the previous week.

Time is becoming an issue. It occurs to me that I might double up on some of this improvement

I was thinking about nothing but my destination when I came upon Stonehenge at sunset, the stones glistening in the low, pink light. At that moment, traffic slowed to a crawl, enabling me to get a long look. This is free, I thought. A wondrous thing to marvel at, and I havent driven an inch out of my way. After 10 minutes, the traffic cleared and I was off again, feeling strangely moved. And then I forgot all about it.

The exercise takes 20 minutes from start to finish too long. I recall that email from the life coach This is REAL WORK, isnt it? I begin to think of my time in terms of billable hours.

***

Time is becoming an issue. Ten minutes of yoga is one thing, but when you add in a happiness exercise and the 12 minutes it takes me to listen to a 20-minute podcast, youre talking about nearly a whole hour. It occurs to me that I might double up on some of this improvement.

There is a certain amount of natural overlap. Both 15 Minutes To Happiness and The 10 Minute Yoga Solution stress the importance of breathing, and the exercises are not dissimilar. But focus is the key to both, and the focal points are different. Its harder to mix mindfulness and stillness than it sounds. Add in a podcast explaining what GDP is, and the whole thing becomes an exercise in frustration. I am reminded, to my eternal disappointment, that there are no quick fixes.

After a fortnight of this, I would have to say the improvements have been marginal: some extra flexibility here, a little more gratitude there, a lot more to say when the subject of GDP next comes up at a dinner party. The Nicholls book is worth a read even if you do none of the exercises, if only to come away with the knowledge that the successful pursuit of happiness mainly involves not trying too hard. Its not unrealistic to think that in stopping trying to be happy, you can find that youre happy enough already, he writes. Paradoxically, it could be that the only reason for you being unhappy is your relentless attempt at trying not be.

And Ive learned the lesson I was always going to learn, only faster: stop making New Year resolutions. Again.

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