-
The meaning of life (REALLY!) and the most important factor for a happy life
When my oldest daughter Julia was 6 years old, she once asked my then boyfriend what the book he was reading was about. “It’s about a man trying to figure out what the meaning of life is” he tried to explain. “Oh”. my daughter answered, in a tone revealing she found the subject highly uninteresting. “So, what do you think is the meaning of life?” my boyfriend asked her. “Att leva och ha det bra” * (literally translated: To live and to have it good, which sort of means “to live happily” ) she answered in an obvious tone, without hesitating for one second. At the time, I think…
-
Not enough willpower? This seemingly crazy thing could fix it!
Willpower is often considered the magic quality that separates winners from losers – the thing that makes you stick to your goals and help you say yes to hard work and no to those cookies. In order to succeed we “just” need willpower. But what is it really, and how can we get more of it? I’ve recently discovered that willpower seems to have little to do with character or mental training – and a LOT to do with what we eat. But the solution is not about following a calorie depraved, supposedly “healthy” diet, as you might expect. The depressing cycle It’s funny, isn’t it, how those goals…
-
What to do when life sucks
Sometimes, everything is just crap. Plain and simple. You don’t get the results you want at work – or you can’t seem to find a job no matter how hard you try, you feel stuck in your relationship – or every date you go on turns out to be a disaster, everybody wants something from you and there’s no time to do what you really want, your home looks like a mess, the kids are screaming, and on top of that, you’re out of toilet paper. When you feel like this, it doesn’t help much that the sun is shining and the birds are twittering. All you want to do…
-
Why having fun could literally save your life
It’s funny, isn’t it, how hard it can be to cut out time for having fun. While looking at that overwhelming to-do list, spending time on a hobby, or even meeting up with a friend, can feel like a total waste of time. For sure you should be doing something more important, something more URGENT, right? In one of the lovely children’s books about the little boy Alfie Atkins (Swedish: Alfons Åberg) Alfie’s father keeps asking his son why he “always has to act so childish”. Alfie, in return, ask his father why he always has to act so “grown-uppish”. In this particular story, Alfie manages to persuade his father to forget about…
-
No energy to do all those things that really should be fun? Here’s what might be missing.
You have so many ideas about things you would like to do – but when the daily duties are done, you’re too tired to even think about getting creative by picking up that instrument, working on your website, doing a bit of crafting, or whatever it is you’re planning and dreaming about. For anyone having to handle the challenges of everyday life – caring for a family, earning a living, commuting…. it can feel impossible to fit in those OTHER things we also want to do. And for multi-passionate scanners it’s even more difficult – since we want to do SO MUCH! It’s easy to feel frustrated & disappointed. But…
-
Are you having problems prioritizing your creative projects? Try this!
So you have a secret. A love affair. Or maybe it’s not SUPER secret – your closest friends probably know about it, maybe even your partner. But it’s nothing you would brag about at work, or tell someone you meet for the first time. In fact it’s something you hardly admit to yourself. It is, after all, a bit embarrassing to say that you have a crush on Art. No, not Garfunkel, we’re talking about the REAL Art here – painting, or making music, or acting… you know what I mean. When you where younger, you sometimes believed you could make it work. But these days you don’t get together…
