What would you say is the most clear-cut predictor of how someone will behave in the future? If you said "past behavior," you've hit the nail on the head.  Sure, people can surprise us by radically deviating from prior behavior, but this tends to be the exception rather than the rule. For example, if your friend routinely exhibits a noticeable aversion toward silly comedies, chances are he will continue to loathe such movies. If your sister displays an acute dislike of seafood, she's bound to avoid lobster, crab, and all manner of sea creatures for the foreseeable future. When it's hard to decode a person's true intentions, you have only two tools you can leverage: your gut and, you guessed it, the person's track record. If you lure someone away from a competing firm to come work for you, rest assured they can be coaxed into bolting from yours. If someone cheats on their spouse with you, who's to say they won't cheat on you with som...

Have you shrunk yourself out of fear of change, failure, or the unknown? Have you carved out big plans for yourself, only to continue putting them off year after year? We've all been there. Ah, yes, that nagging self-doubt that all but paralyzes us from working toward goals big and small -- and induces us to give up prematurely. No one says you have to give in to those pesky negative thoughts. When they resurface, stop and ask yourself this question: "Who says I can't succeed?" If it's you, it's time to reframe your thinking. And if it's others who are attempting to demotivate you, you're certainly in the wrong company. As a matter of fact, if you're willing to invest the time, energy, and resources into making your dreams a reality, you can achieve anything! Rather than harp on what may go wrong, why not envisage things going well for you? If you always fear failure -- keeping you ensconced in your cozy comfort zone -- you ma...

You will never be good enough for everyone, but here's good news: You'll always be good enough for those people who deserve you. It's a certainty that you will come across people who have something to complain about. You're too quiet or too loud, too clean or too messy, too skinny or too fat, too lazy or too ambitious. It's nearly impossible to meet some individuals' exacting standards. But who says we have to meet such standards to begin with? The right people -- those who accept you for who you are -- will never press you to change. They'll appreciate you whether or not you drink, whether you gravitate toward books or sports, or whether you're bold or docile. (Of course, if you're engaging in dangerous behaviors -- like abusing alcohol or drugs -- they have every reason to goad you to change in that regard.) The right people will acknowledge whatever it is that makes you unique -- whether it's your passion for learning, quirky sen...

Today's quote is quite empowering -- and it comes from none other than Dr. Seuss himself! "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Essentially, he's saying that the people who ultimately matter in your life are the ones who will value you for who you are. On the other hand, those who try to prod you to change -- most likely out of a deep-seated urge to seek validation for their own thoughts and decisions -- shouldn't have any place in your life. Those who take exception with your interests, beliefs, and values do little to enrich your life, whereas people who embrace what makes you you are true keepers. There's nothing I find more irritating than a person trying to persuade me into thinking or acting more on them, let alone after I tell them I want to stick to my guns. There's a difference between suggesting someone consider something they may initially be opposed to, a...

Thinking, of all things, can make us overeat. Studies show that intellectual activities -- from reading to writing -- can make people eat more than when they're merely resting. Researchers discovered that intellectual work leads to more pronounced fluctuations in glucose levels than rest periods, perhaps because of the stress of thinking. The body reacts to these fluctuations by demanding food to restore glucose, a sugar that serves as the brain's fuel. Glucose is converted by the body from carbohydrates and is delivered to the brain through the bloodstream. Because the brain cannot produce glucose, it needs a constant supply. Moreover, brain cells require twice as much energy as other cells in the body. Interestingly, studies in animals have shown that consuming fewer calories overall leads to sharper brains and longer life, and most researchers concur that the findings generally extend to human beings. Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, coupled wi...