"I Have Too Many Ideas and Analysis Paralysis. Help!"

Although we live longer today and have more material wealth than ever, many people feel anxious rather than happy. In Flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi offers an antidote. People are happiest when they feel in control of their inner thoughts and feelings and experience a “flow state”: a sense of enjoyment, purpose, and meaning.

Csikszentmihalyi explains: how controlling and ordering your consciousness brings flow and enjoyment, which personality characteristics produce flow, and how to find flow in your work and relationships.

Many successful leaders and businesspeople are lauded as “great geniuses,” but psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that talent and intelligence matter less to success than grit: the personality trait behind perseverance, hard work, and goal-setting. In Grit, she explores what grit is, where it comes from, how it drives success, and how you can develop it.

Duckworth is primarily interested in how to raise gritty kids, and her insights have inspired parents and educators around the globe since the book’s publication in 2016. However, she believes that adults, too, can develop grit, and she lays out specific, measurable ways to do so.

Her work has fueled debates about which matters more—talent or effort. In this guide, we examine these controversies and consider insights from other psychologists who either support Duckworth’s ideas or reveal nuances of them.

Like most people, Paul Millerd was taught to place conventional, full-time work at the center of his life—but it made him miserable. Now, he’s a freelance blogger, consultant, career coach, and online course creator—and he’s much more satisfied with his life. In The Pathless Path, Millerd encapsulates his non-traditional approach to career success and lifelong happiness: deprioritizing work and pursuing a more meaningful, creative life through freelancing instead.

In this guide, you’ll learn about the historical trends that have led most Americans to prioritize work, the disadvantages of prioritizing work, and an alternative to this way of life—freelancing. You’ll also learn how and why Millerd shifted from the traditional workforce to the world of freelancing and his advice for making the transition yourself. In our commentary, we’ll talk about other perspectives on work and what makes life meaningful, and we’ll provide additional tips for those interested in freelancing.

Like most people, Paul Millerd was taught to place conventional, full-time work at the center of his life—but it made him miserable. Now, he’s a freelance blogger, consultant, career coach, and online course creator—and he’s much more satisfied with his life. In The Pathless Path, Millerd encapsulates his non-traditional approach to career success and lifelong happiness: deprioritizing work and pursuing a more meaningful, creative life through freelancing instead.

In this guide, you’ll learn about the historical trends that have led most Americans to prioritize work, the disadvantages of prioritizing work, and an alternative to this way of life—freelancing. You’ll also learn how and why Millerd shifted from the traditional workforce to the world of freelancing and his advice for making the transition yourself. In our commentary, we’ll talk about other perspectives on work and what makes life meaningful, and we’ll provide additional tips for those interested in freelancing.

People often dream of switching careers, but few actually take the leap. However, you don’t have to give up what you’re doing—you can, and should, have more than one career. You’ll be more productive at both jobs because you’ll feel more energized.

Career expert Richard Bolles shares his revolutionary “parachute approach” to finding a job. This approach is twelve times more effective than sending out traditional resumes and doesn’t simply get you a job, it gets you a job you’ll love.

The parachute approach starts with self-reflection⁠—who are you, what do you like, what are you good at, and what do you value most? By figuring out what you want, instead of what the job market wants, you’ll set yourself on a path to career satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

Do you ever feel like you don’t know who you really are or like you’re not living up to your full potential? This may be because you’ve repressed your true self—the authentic, original, and creative version of yourself that emerges when you strip away outside influences. In Awaken Your Genius, former rocket scientist and lawyer Ozan Varol explains how to embody your true self—and he argues that once you do, you’ll open doors to creative fulfillment and personal growth.

In our guide, we’ll explore what it means to be your true self and the reasons you’ve abandoned your true self so far in life. Then, we’ll discuss Varol’s tips for becoming your true self and explain how this can help you achieve a more meaningful, successful life. In our commentary, we’ll discuss psychological and philosophical principles related to Varol’s ideas and explore other experts’ tips for becoming more authentic, creative, and fulfilled.

Everyone wants to make a living doing meaningful work that aligns with their values and makes them happy. However, many people feel stuck in the wrong life doing unfulfilling work. They hope that once they find their “passion,” everything will magically fall into place. According to Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, this attitude hinges on the belief that there’s only one path to a meaningful life and limits your ability to experience joy and satisfaction.

In Designing Your Life, Burnett and Evans argue there are multiple paths to career and life happiness—learning how to recognize and evaluate these paths increases your chances of experiencing satisfaction. They share principles from their popular life design courses to help you explore multiple paths and purposefully plan a balanced life in which you can truly thrive.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the authors’ methods for purposefully planning a happy and meaningful life. We’ll also expand on their ideas with research and practical advice from other self-help practitioners.

We’ve all felt trapped at some point in our lives, when our motivation falters and all our hard work grinds to a halt. In Anatomy of a Breakthrough, Adam Alter argues that everybody hits roadblocks in life, and because we hide our frustration, we’re unaware that everyone else goes through the same thing. However, there’s hope even when you feel trapped, and Alter proposes a range of solutions that might help you find your way out of the woods.

In this guide, we’ll explain what it means to be “stuck,” the barriers that often cause this, and how reacting poorly to a perceived lack of progress can only dig you in deeper. We’ll then describe Alter’s remedy—slowing down, exploring new perspectives, and making your own luck through persistence. We’ll also connect Alter’s ideas with those of other motivation experts, what other writers say about perseverance, and how exploring uncharted terrain can turn failures into opportunities.