I’ve always been fascinated by articles online. Blogs. News articles. I love finding digestible pieces of information. I’m all about finding a piece of information and moving on. It’s a nice balance to my book reading which will probably shared at least 5-10 ideas. Just one article gives me plenty to think about and consider. Plus, I can then share it so easily. More people are willing to read an article than a book.
Here are a few of my favorite articles that I’ve read that I think you might enjoy too.
Make Learning a Lifelong Habit by John Coleman
We’re all born with a natural curiosity. We want to learn. But the demands of work and personal life often diminish our time and will to engage that natural curiosity. Developing specific learning habits — consciously established and conscientiously cultivated — can be a route to both continued professional relevance and deep personal happiness. Maybe Roosevelt had it right: a lifetime of learning can be a success in itself.
I certainly struggle with this. When I read or want to learn anything, I want to figure out how to implement it. As with everything, though, I usually fail with follow through. But recently, I’ve started to read books that can give me some insight and then I work to implement it as quickly a possible. Isn’t that what we did in school? You learn something and then you start doing. You learned how to multiply and the teacher gave you a worksheet to start working on it. So why shouldn’t we start doing that in real life.
Book Club is the MVP of Patriot Wide Receiver Malcolm Mitchell’s Career
A football player who joined a Women’s Book Club?
True story. And it changed him.
Also, is he single? Asking for a friend.
Science Says Book Readers Live Longer
If you’ve ever wanted a good justification for staying in on a weekend night and reading, instead of going out, how about you can live up to 23 months longer (1 year and 11 months). And guess what? Science gives us this data!
Surveying some 3,635 people — all aged 50 or older — the study found book readers live 23 months (nearly two years) longer than non-readers. The study also found that readers of 3.5 hours or more/week were 23% less likely to die than non-readers. Almost a fourth! However, what really sets this study apart is its distinction in reading material. As the paper’s introduction states:
“While most sedentary behaviors are well-established risk factors for mortality in older individuals, previous studies of a behavior that is often sedentary, reading… have not compared the health benefits of reading-material type.”
I don’t feel guilty now about my reading goals for this year.
3 Reasons Writing is Great For Your Mental Health by Jessica Stillman
In 2014, I spent the entire year journaling every day. I got to a point where it was a bulleted list. I’d write a point like “my job sucked today” and then I’d jot down a few reasons why it was awful. Then I’d write another bullet “I’m so stressed” and then I’d proceed to talk about why (i.e. I’m feeling so sick, I’m tired, Guy doesn’t like me”). But I found that I was more in touch with my feelings when I wrote things down. So this year, I’ve started to do that again. Except in the last week, I’ve noticed that if I START my day with writing in my journal, I’m actually much more inclined to share the things I’m feeling.
All this to say, you should probably start doing some expressive writing (journaling) if you want to be happier, more resilient, and want a clearer head (find out all the research for these three benefits in the article!).
Happy week! Leave your favorite articles or videos that you’ve watched/read this week in the comments below!
