What It Takes to Form a Good Habits from LifeHacker.com
It's that time of year when we all start to make "New Year's resolutions", which is a fancy way of saying we'll try forming better habits. Here are a few tips to make sure they stay habits beyond the month of January.
Often, our New Year's resolutions are us promising ourselves we'll form good habits this year: whether it's something big like "I'm going to eat better" or "I'm going to keep my computer backed up" to "I'm going to actually start flossing every day". So often, though, these habits end up dying off pretty quickly. Here are a few ways to make sure your resolutions become habits and don't become another resolution in the garbage.
Make Sure Your Life is In Order
While there's a certain charm to the "no better time than now" idea behind forming good habits, the fact of the matter is that your willpower is limited. Psychology Today recommends waiting until your life is in order (at least somewhat) before forming a new habit. If stressed, working on some other form of personal growth, or otherwise not in a normal daily routine, you'll find it much harder to keep up with a good habit.
Focus on One Good Habit
We won't sugarcoat it for you: forming good habits can be tough. Habits are something that are deeply ingrained in our behavior, which is why quitting a bad habit is so hard. Similarly, starting up a good habit is going to take a lot of work and conditioning before it becomes something automatic. If you try to take on too much at once, you are probably setting yourself up for failure. So focus on just one good habit for now—even if it's a small one—and move on to the others later.
Work Yourself Into it Gradually
While your goal may be to end up doing something every day (like, say, exercising), it's unlikely that you're going to be able to reach that goal right out of the gate. It's going to take time and willpower to condition yourself, so don't beat yourself up if you miss days at the beginning. Start ramping up that good habit gradually for a more successful habit forming.
Part of this is setting goals for yourself. If you can set a different goal, say, each week, you can motivate yourself without getting overwhelmed. Try exercising just two or three days the first week, then set a slightly higher goal for the next week, and so on. As you get more used to the act of exercising during the day, it'll become easier for you to work toward your end goal of working out every day.
Piggyback it With Other, Already-Formed Habits or Routines
eHow notes that a really great way to help yourself remember to do certain things is to "piggyback" them with other habits or routines you already have. Say you want to start flossing daily. Flossing is one of those habits that we neglect more often because we forget, rather than us just being lazy. Put the floss in a conspicuous place by your toothbrush, and every time you brush your teeth, grab the floss and do a quick run-through. Similarly, if you want to start taking vitamins, stick the bottle in your coffee mug so every time you go to make your coffee in the morning, you can pop your multivitamin for the day.
Get an Accountability Buddy
We've talked about this before, and it's an oldie but a goodie: get a buddy to help you stay accountable. Motivating yourself to go to the gym every day or start eating better can be difficult when you're on your own, but if you have someone else around with whom you can exercise or eat with often, you're more likely to keep up with those activities.
Stick With It for 21 Days
When you decide on that final goal, it can seem a bit overwhelming ("I want to exercise every day...for the rest of my life"). Once you turn a resolution into a habit, though, things are going to get a lot easier, and research shows it shouldn't take that long. It takes about 21 days for a habit to form, so as long as you keep up your motivation, set your gradual goals, and kept up that resolution for three or four weeks, the hard part's probably over. That habit's now ingrained in your brain to the point where remembering it and being motivated to do it has become automatic instead of something you need to force yourself to do. This doesn't mean quit trying after 21 days, of course—it'll still probably take a bit of work—but if you're feeling discouraged at any point in the process, it's a good thing to aim for, knowing that in just a few weeks it'll be a bit less difficult.
We've all tried to form good habits in the past, and while these are some great tips for starting out, they certainly aren't the only strategies in the habit-former's arsenal. If you've successfully formed a good habit in the past, share with us what worked for you (and what didn't) in the comments.
By Whitson Gordon
19.1.11
Love that I "act white"....
NiLo117 sent you this page: I Don't "Act White" - The Detroit Blog - TIME.com
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5
17.1.11
A P P E A R A N C E I S E V E R Y T H I N G
by Geraldo Fuentes
A friend of mine saw a feature on the news that amused him. He told me that, at five foot eight, he was considered "average" height for a man. He said that the story on the news stated that for every inch over the "average height," a male in the workplace could expect to earn an extra $600 each month. Considering that my friend was unemployed, he was happy to hear the good news and reported that he would immediately begin wearing elevated shoes. "Heck, until I find work, I am sure that I can live on $600 a month."
This bit of humor betrays a very real and serious problem that effects men and women in the workplace. It's a common problem, but one that is likely to be extremely difficult to eradicate.
Much public attention has been given to discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin and age. But there is a form of discrimination that is still a taboo in the workplace. It is seldom ever addressed, yet it is perhaps the most obvious form of favoritism when it comes to job hiring, promotions and social acceptance -- both on the job and in society in general.
Consider the following:
* Attractive people are 2-5 times more likely to be hired
* Attractive people earn 12 to 16 percent more
* Attractive people are 2 to 7 times more likely to date and make friends
* Attractive people are significantly more likely to attain elected office.
Consider the following:
* Unattractive people are 2 to 6 times more likely to be laid off
* Unattractive people are 2 to 5 times more likely to be convicted of a crime
* Unattractive people are 2 to 3 times more likely to commit a crime
* Unattractive people are significantly more likely to be abused as children
* Unattractive people are extremely likely to be passed over for promotions.
These and other startling facts are outlined in Steven M. Jeffes new book, Appearance Is Everything. In it, Jeffes takes a close look at some of the reasons behind appearance discrimination, citing tests and demographic surveys that prove his points with convincing and comprehensive data. In Jeffes book we learn that it is not enough to be "average" looking. In fact, in many instances this is just as bad as being "unattractive."
Much of the criteria that people use to judge another's health and abilities appears to be a combination of learned behavior and, as the ViewZone's "What Is Beauty" shows, innate preferences. Appearance Is Everything takes a look at the cover stories and features of popular magazines and shows how the themes of "beauty" are strongly reinforced as cultural facts. Jeffes also shows how our concepts of beauty have changed dramatically over the past 100 years, lending fuel to the evidence that culture and media are strong influential factors on what we "see" and what we infer about character from each other's appearance.
But hope springs eternal. Jeffes goes one step further. Several chapters in Appearance Is Everything are devoted to strategies that will help you compete in the world of the beautiful, even if you are not. Wearing certain clothes, using certain words and even walking with better posture can improve your chances of being perceived in a more positive light. With Jeffes 45 Appearance Rules you could get a better job or even score a date. But the real importance of his book lies in the revelations of our thin-skinned concept of beauty, which can be of value whether looking at yourself or at other people.
Steve Jeffes is currently gathering data in an attempt to seek a revision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to include laws against appearance discrimination. Appearance Is Everything is a "must read" for anyone who has experienced this form of injustice -- and really for everyone who has been exposed to this subtle but powerful form of prejudice.
Appearance Is Everything ISBN 1-56315-088-3, Sterling House, is available everywhere.
UPDATE: April 2009
Do Good Looks Get High School Students Good Grades?
ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) ó Do personal traits predict success in school? If so, which dimension of one's outward appearance can tell the most about academic achievement?
The answers to these questions are found in a new study by researchers from the University of Miami Health Economics Research Group. The study is the first to demonstrate that non-cognitive traits play an important role in the assignment of grades in high school.
Economists have examined the role that beauty plays on the type of employment, earnings, productivity and the likelihood of politicians being elected to office, and have wondered if "beauty premiums" and "plainness penalties" in the labor market come from an accumulation of differences in attention and rewards received from teachers throughout the school years. Findings from this peer-reviewed study titled: "Effects of Physical Attractiveness, Personality and Grooming on Academic Performance in High School" will be published in the next issue of Labour Economics.
The study offers a new perspective in an area of research that until now was almost exclusively focused on adults. It examines the effect of three personal characteristics--physical attractiveness, personality and grooming--on students' grade point averages (GPA) in high school. The primary objective is to determine which aspects of these non-cognitive personal traits are more strongly linked to academic achievement, said Michael T. French, professor of health economics in the UM College of Arts and Sciences and one of the authors of the study.
"Several studies in the literature have found that physical attractiveness is significantly related to labor market earnings for men and women. Thus, we were somewhat surprised to find that physical attractiveness was not the most important non-cognitive predictor of grades," French said. "Instead grooming and personality were stronger predictors of academic success in high school for boys and girls, respectively."
Looking at GPA as a function of a long list of individual, familial, school, and environmental characteristics that are likely to affect academic performance, the researchers were able to make several significant observations, including:
Physical attractiveness has a positive effect on GPA for both genders, but only when considered alone. When physical attractiveness is considered along with grooming and personality, the positive effect of physical attractiveness on high school GPA turns negative for both genders. For male students, grooming delivers the biggest overall effect on GPA. For female students, personality is positively related to GPA. Physical appearance can be a way for adolescents to either rebel or accept adult's standards. However, whether the student is a "rebel" or a "conformist" does not have a significant independent effect on GPA. The findings suggest that some degree of teacher bias is present in favor of, or against certain types of students.
All else equal, Hispanics and African Americans have lower GPAs than whites and girls have higher GPAs than males.
Students living with a mother who attended college, those that live in a two-parent household and those attending a small school have higher GPAs than those in different circumstances. Receiving public assistance is negatively associated with GPA. In conclusion, the study posits that students may be able to "trade-off" different personal characteristics to improve academic achievement and that this trend may affect future success in college, the labor market and family formation.
Journal reference:
French et al. Effects of physical attractiveness, personality, and grooming on academic performance in high school. Labour Economics, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2009.01.001
A friend of mine saw a feature on the news that amused him. He told me that, at five foot eight, he was considered "average" height for a man. He said that the story on the news stated that for every inch over the "average height," a male in the workplace could expect to earn an extra $600 each month. Considering that my friend was unemployed, he was happy to hear the good news and reported that he would immediately begin wearing elevated shoes. "Heck, until I find work, I am sure that I can live on $600 a month."
This bit of humor betrays a very real and serious problem that effects men and women in the workplace. It's a common problem, but one that is likely to be extremely difficult to eradicate.
Much public attention has been given to discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin and age. But there is a form of discrimination that is still a taboo in the workplace. It is seldom ever addressed, yet it is perhaps the most obvious form of favoritism when it comes to job hiring, promotions and social acceptance -- both on the job and in society in general.
Consider the following:
* Attractive people are 2-5 times more likely to be hired
* Attractive people earn 12 to 16 percent more
* Attractive people are 2 to 7 times more likely to date and make friends
* Attractive people are significantly more likely to attain elected office.
Consider the following:
* Unattractive people are 2 to 6 times more likely to be laid off
* Unattractive people are 2 to 5 times more likely to be convicted of a crime
* Unattractive people are 2 to 3 times more likely to commit a crime
* Unattractive people are significantly more likely to be abused as children
* Unattractive people are extremely likely to be passed over for promotions.
These and other startling facts are outlined in Steven M. Jeffes new book, Appearance Is Everything. In it, Jeffes takes a close look at some of the reasons behind appearance discrimination, citing tests and demographic surveys that prove his points with convincing and comprehensive data. In Jeffes book we learn that it is not enough to be "average" looking. In fact, in many instances this is just as bad as being "unattractive."
Much of the criteria that people use to judge another's health and abilities appears to be a combination of learned behavior and, as the ViewZone's "What Is Beauty" shows, innate preferences. Appearance Is Everything takes a look at the cover stories and features of popular magazines and shows how the themes of "beauty" are strongly reinforced as cultural facts. Jeffes also shows how our concepts of beauty have changed dramatically over the past 100 years, lending fuel to the evidence that culture and media are strong influential factors on what we "see" and what we infer about character from each other's appearance.
But hope springs eternal. Jeffes goes one step further. Several chapters in Appearance Is Everything are devoted to strategies that will help you compete in the world of the beautiful, even if you are not. Wearing certain clothes, using certain words and even walking with better posture can improve your chances of being perceived in a more positive light. With Jeffes 45 Appearance Rules you could get a better job or even score a date. But the real importance of his book lies in the revelations of our thin-skinned concept of beauty, which can be of value whether looking at yourself or at other people.
Steve Jeffes is currently gathering data in an attempt to seek a revision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to include laws against appearance discrimination. Appearance Is Everything is a "must read" for anyone who has experienced this form of injustice -- and really for everyone who has been exposed to this subtle but powerful form of prejudice.
Appearance Is Everything ISBN 1-56315-088-3, Sterling House, is available everywhere.
UPDATE: April 2009
Do Good Looks Get High School Students Good Grades?
ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) ó Do personal traits predict success in school? If so, which dimension of one's outward appearance can tell the most about academic achievement?
The answers to these questions are found in a new study by researchers from the University of Miami Health Economics Research Group. The study is the first to demonstrate that non-cognitive traits play an important role in the assignment of grades in high school.
Economists have examined the role that beauty plays on the type of employment, earnings, productivity and the likelihood of politicians being elected to office, and have wondered if "beauty premiums" and "plainness penalties" in the labor market come from an accumulation of differences in attention and rewards received from teachers throughout the school years. Findings from this peer-reviewed study titled: "Effects of Physical Attractiveness, Personality and Grooming on Academic Performance in High School" will be published in the next issue of Labour Economics.
The study offers a new perspective in an area of research that until now was almost exclusively focused on adults. It examines the effect of three personal characteristics--physical attractiveness, personality and grooming--on students' grade point averages (GPA) in high school. The primary objective is to determine which aspects of these non-cognitive personal traits are more strongly linked to academic achievement, said Michael T. French, professor of health economics in the UM College of Arts and Sciences and one of the authors of the study.
"Several studies in the literature have found that physical attractiveness is significantly related to labor market earnings for men and women. Thus, we were somewhat surprised to find that physical attractiveness was not the most important non-cognitive predictor of grades," French said. "Instead grooming and personality were stronger predictors of academic success in high school for boys and girls, respectively."
Looking at GPA as a function of a long list of individual, familial, school, and environmental characteristics that are likely to affect academic performance, the researchers were able to make several significant observations, including:
Physical attractiveness has a positive effect on GPA for both genders, but only when considered alone. When physical attractiveness is considered along with grooming and personality, the positive effect of physical attractiveness on high school GPA turns negative for both genders. For male students, grooming delivers the biggest overall effect on GPA. For female students, personality is positively related to GPA. Physical appearance can be a way for adolescents to either rebel or accept adult's standards. However, whether the student is a "rebel" or a "conformist" does not have a significant independent effect on GPA. The findings suggest that some degree of teacher bias is present in favor of, or against certain types of students.
All else equal, Hispanics and African Americans have lower GPAs than whites and girls have higher GPAs than males.
Students living with a mother who attended college, those that live in a two-parent household and those attending a small school have higher GPAs than those in different circumstances. Receiving public assistance is negatively associated with GPA. In conclusion, the study posits that students may be able to "trade-off" different personal characteristics to improve academic achievement and that this trend may affect future success in college, the labor market and family formation.
Journal reference:
French et al. Effects of physical attractiveness, personality, and grooming on academic performance in high school. Labour Economics, 2009; DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2009.01.001
Study: Native Americans Can Trace DNA to 6 Women
A new study of DNA suggests nearly all Native Americans can trace part of their ancestry to just six women, whose descendants immigrated to North, Central and South America as much as 20,000 years ago.
According to the study published this week by the scientific journal PLoS One, researchers believe the women left a DNA legacy that can be found in about 95 percent of native people throughout the Americas.
The study said the finding does not mean those six women were the only ancestors of the migrants who populated the Americas from Asia.
Researchers said the women probably did not live in Asia because the DNA signatures they left behind are not found there. They likely lived on Beringia, a now-submerged land bridge that once connected Asia and North America.
The "founding mothers" are believed to have lived between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at the same time, said study co-author Ugo Perego.
Perego is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City and the University of Pavia in Italy. He said the study confirms previous indications of six founding mothers.
Perego and his colleagues traced the history of a particular kind of DNA that represents just a tiny fraction of the human genetic material and reflects only a piece of a person's ancestry.
This DNA is found in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. Unlike the DNA found in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed along only by the mother. It follows a lineage that connects a person to his or her mother, the mother's mother, and so on.
The researchers created a family tree that traces the different mitochondrial DNA lineages found in today's Native Americans. By noting mutations in each branch and applying a formula for how often such mutations arise, they calculated how old each branch was. That indicated when each branch arose in a single woman.
However, an expert unconnected with the study said the findings left some questions unanswered.
University of Florida anthropologist Connie Mulligan, who studies the colonization of the Americas but didn't participate in the new work, said it is not surprising to trace the mitochondrial DNA to six women. But Mulligan said the bigger questions of where those women lived and of how many people left Beringia to colonize the Americas remain unanswered.
The estimate for when the women lived is open to question because it is unclear if the researchers properly accounted for differing mutation rates in mitochondrial DNA, she said. Further work could change the estimate, she said.
From NPR and wire reports
According to the study published this week by the scientific journal PLoS One, researchers believe the women left a DNA legacy that can be found in about 95 percent of native people throughout the Americas.
The study said the finding does not mean those six women were the only ancestors of the migrants who populated the Americas from Asia.
Researchers said the women probably did not live in Asia because the DNA signatures they left behind are not found there. They likely lived on Beringia, a now-submerged land bridge that once connected Asia and North America.
The "founding mothers" are believed to have lived between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at the same time, said study co-author Ugo Perego.
Perego is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City and the University of Pavia in Italy. He said the study confirms previous indications of six founding mothers.
Perego and his colleagues traced the history of a particular kind of DNA that represents just a tiny fraction of the human genetic material and reflects only a piece of a person's ancestry.
This DNA is found in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. Unlike the DNA found in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed along only by the mother. It follows a lineage that connects a person to his or her mother, the mother's mother, and so on.
The researchers created a family tree that traces the different mitochondrial DNA lineages found in today's Native Americans. By noting mutations in each branch and applying a formula for how often such mutations arise, they calculated how old each branch was. That indicated when each branch arose in a single woman.
However, an expert unconnected with the study said the findings left some questions unanswered.
University of Florida anthropologist Connie Mulligan, who studies the colonization of the Americas but didn't participate in the new work, said it is not surprising to trace the mitochondrial DNA to six women. But Mulligan said the bigger questions of where those women lived and of how many people left Beringia to colonize the Americas remain unanswered.
The estimate for when the women lived is open to question because it is unclear if the researchers properly accounted for differing mutation rates in mitochondrial DNA, she said. Further work could change the estimate, she said.
From NPR and wire reports
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