Doing What Works Doing What Works

You’re friends with people whose lives, while different, are on par with yours. You drift out of touch. Decades later and after only a few clicks, you learn they’ve eclipsed you in almost every way. Now what? We tackle that juicy proposition in this edition of Doing What Works.

Here are your show notes…

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Jealousy is “hostility toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage,” while envy is “painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.”

If you’re anything like Katie and me you have a low-grade, background anxiety about death. In this edition of Doing What Works we share what helps us in case it helps you. Bonus feature? Never, ever do what Darrell did as a kid. You’ll be sorry!

Here are your show notes…

Jerry Weintraub said death keeps the rope taut.

In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie suggested asking a little bird on your shoulder if today is the day you will die.

Barbara Sher said the passage of time drives you crazy when you know you aren’t using it right.  

Elizabeth Gilbert says you can tell who’s living for others by the anguished look on the faces of the others.

It might be helpful when you’re struggling to think, “This is the curriculum.”

Betty White wasn’t afraid to die.

An alarm I carry to scare off dogs didn’t scare a dog that terrorized me recently, but it accidentally kept me safe in a different way. That’s why I was eager to talk about utility in this edition of Doing What Works.

Here are your show notes…

A util is “a hypothetical unit measuring satisfaction.”

Nibbles & Bits are worth it!

Marginal utility is “the amount of additional utility provided by an additional unit of an economic good or service.”

How would you know what happiness feels like if you never felt the opposite? We’re happy to give sadness its due in this edition of Doing What Works.

Here are your show notes…

“It is such a secret place, the land of tears.”

Make sure you have something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.

You don’t know what’s going to make you happy until you try it. The job or the relationship that looks good on paper may not feel so great at, say, ten o’clock on a Tuesday. That’s one reason to say yes to more things, so you can get a better feel for more things. Saying yes is a habit and a mindset. If you practice saying yes to smaller things with low stakes, you might find yourself more willing to take bigger risks. That’s what we hope to inspire in this edition of Doing What Works.

Here are your show notes…

Irresistible author Adam Alter [http://adamalterauthor.com/] was one of Katie’s professors at NYU Stern and “say yes” was his advice.

“I wish I might go back and do the little things you asked me to” is from a poem by Alice E. Chase [https://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/860.html] entitled “To My Grown-Up Son.”

Saying “yes” (and “yes, and”) is a rule of improv [https://medium.com/the-improv-blog/the-first-rule-of-improv-is-yes-and-30e5954240d6].

“If you can’t imagine any other explanation for a set of facts, it might be because you are bad at imagining things.” That’s from Dilbert creator Scott Adams [https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays].

“Marriage is a big bet. It’s the only bet of its kind, one in which you say, ‘This feels right; I think I’ll change everything.’” That’s from Jerry Seinfeld [https://www.today.com/popculture/seinfeld-turns-25-read-jerrys-best-real-life-lines-1D79884423].