The way you describe your goals to yourself is going to make a big difference in how successful you are when pursuing those goals. One recent study published in PLOS One found that depressed individuals describe their goals in more general and abstract terms, which may contribute to their lack of motivation and goal attainment. [...]

Motivation is a psychological process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behavior. It begins with a particular goal in mind that we want to fulfill, then follows with the actions needed to make that goal into a tangible reality. A goal can be anything we want to achieve: happiness, relationships, money, health, education, or whatever. [...]

Psychology research shows that we are much more likely to take risks and invest time and energy to avoid losses, rather than to seek gains. This tendency has been coined loss aversion and it’s a peculiar quirk of human behavior and decision-making. The basic idea is that humans will go leaps and bounds to avoid [...]

Our ability to change habits is an important part of cultivating a healthy and happy life, but there are many different factors to consider when trying to change a habit. One of the best things to do is identify your habit loops. This means finding the “cue-routine-reward” that fuels your habits, and then trying to [...]

Emotions can be very useful when they guide us to act in helpful and constructive ways, but sometimes emotions can be misleading and dangerous. At times, it’s better to disengage from our emotional instincts rather than act on them impulsively without questioning them or challenging them. One technique used to challenge these destructive emotions is [...]