Brilliant's Blog

Years ago, I used to think the universe was a vast, cold dark, empty place to which my existence mattered not even the tiniest bit. Then I listened to a Radiolab podcast that changed my perspective. The episode explores how we see color. And color, of course, is a function of…

Sometimes I don’t hit deadlines. I greatly admire people who do. David McRaney is one of those people. He’s the host of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast.. Last week David was a guest on the School for Good Living Podcast. During our interview, he told me an incredible story about a time…

A teacher of mine once asked, “If you could travel in time and go forward or backward five thousand years, but couldn’t take anything with you—no books or photographs, no tools or technology—what could you possibly tell the people you’d meet that might help them to live healthier, happier lives?”…

I have not yet encountered a problem in life that I couldn’t solve on a whiteboard. For example: Want a profitable company? Easy—just make sure that your revenues are greater than your expenses. Be fit and healthy? No problem—avoid junk food, eat clean and exercise regularly. Write a book? It’s…

I used to think that desire was binary—that you either have it or you don’t. You either want to write a book or you don’t. You either want to be fit and healthy or you don’t. You either want to be a good parent or manager or you don’t. You…

Happy International Dance Day! A friend of mine once asked me, “What if you were so happy that all that was left was to dance?” Writer Aldous Huxley once said, “After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” Music I’ve been using to help me create…

When I saw my dad after his legs were amputated, he was pretty out of it. The hospital staff wheeled him out of the operating room while he was still under anesthesia. He was in a lot of pain. His diabetes had progressed to a point where it made sense…

The Merton Prayer is a humble and moving expression of prayer.  It’s found in Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude. Merton was an American monk who explored Eastern thought as part of his his study of mystic practice. He was one of the first Western religious thinkers to initiate dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures,…

“What’s life about?” It’s my favorite question for Uber drivers and podcast guests. I’ve opened every one of my School for Good Living Podcast interviews over the last three years with it. That’s because when I meet someone, I want to know how they see the world, how their mind works and…

I’m not a morning person. Believe me I’ve tried. (Sorry Miracle Morning.) For the better part of my life, if I was ever awake to see 5AM, or the sun rise, or to hear the birds begin chirping, it was probably because I’d stayed up all night. In other words,…

Best-selling author Ann Patchett has written a thoughtful essay called “How to Practice” that explores living, dying, and accumulating and letting go of possessions in between. Here are a couple of passages I found particularly insightful: “In any practice, there will be tests. That’s why we call it a practice—so we’ll…

When you’re dealing with a difficult situation or trying to solve a problem—especially one that requires you to think—trying harder or expending more effort can be counterproductive. When I find myself in that situation, I like to do something that puts my brain in neutral—what Barbara Oakley, author of Learning…

Every organism seeks to conserve energy. So if you find yourself judging yourself for procrastinating, simply realize that you’re doing what organisms do… exerting no more energy than you absolutely must. And then, with that bit of self-compassion, see if it helps to try the following: Flip the statement “I’ll…

Everything You Know about Obesity Is Wrong In the article linked above, Huffington Post journalist Michael Hobbes, co-host of the You’re Wrong About podcast writes, “Since 1980, the obesity rate has doubled in 73 countries and increased in 113 others. And in all that time, no nation has reduced its obesity rate….

Do you stay up late and regret it the next day? If so, you’re not alone. In recent years, the term “revenge bedtime procrastination” has come to describe a phenomenon where overworked people stay up late in order to reclaim time for themselves. The downside, of course, is that they’re…

For many people, “What is your favorite book?” stands alongside questions like “Who are you?” and “What do you want on your tombstone?” as difficult questions to answer. Without exception, whenever I’ve read a book that someone has told me is their absolute, all-time favorite book, I too have enjoyed…

I just finished Roman Krznaric’s excellent book The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking. In this book I learned about the Long Now Foundation, an organization whose website explains, “[We hope] to provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. We hope to…

Tools to Help You Tend the Garden of Your Mind “Your mind is like a garden: whatever you plant will grow.” – Charles David Heineke Once you’ve seen something, you can’t unsee it. That’s why it’s important to be careful about what you see in the first place. To help…

Safi Bahcall is a second-generation physicist (the son of two astrophysicists) who sees and thinks about the world very differently from most people. Safi coined the term “loonshot,” “A neglected project, widely dismissed, its champion written off as unhinged.” His book, Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars,…

About five years ago I made the life-changing decision to attend Tony Robbins’ six-day flagship seminar Date with Destiny. You might have seen the documentary Netflix released about Tony—shot at that same seminar—called I am Not Your Guru. Prior to signing up, I’d never done any of Tony’s programs, hadn’t…

As I write this, Wednesday afternoon, the top headline on Washington Post’s site is “Pro-Trump mob storms Capitol building.” You, like me, might have naively thought that we’d left the tumult and uncertainty of 2020 behind simply because the calendar rolled forward to “2021.” But this is clearly not the…

A balance board, says Wikipedia, is a device used as a circus skill, for recreation, balance training, athletic training, brain development, therapy, musical training and other kinds of personal development. I recently began using an Indo Board after reading about the benefits that flow researcher Steven Kotler has found from…

Great questions and great listening make for great conversations, especially when we’re talking to friends and family—people we think we know. To help you ask great questions, check out this list created by StoryCorps. StoryCorps is a non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from…

Have you discovered the great work of your life? Are you doing it? Do you have a big goal you want to realize? Maybe you want to do something like publish a book, launch a startup or charitable foundation, or become a doctor, a farmer, astronaut or coach. If so,…

Nearly ten years ago, I attended an event produced by Summit, a global community of entrepreneurs, academics, athletes, artists, astronauts, authors, chefs, engineers, explorers, philanthropists, spiritual leaders, scientists and beyond. At the time, I was none of those things. In fact, I didn’t really know who I was, what I…

Middle school health class opened my eyes about so many things. And although the lessons about puberty, maturation and the human reproductive system permanently expanded my mind, it was a lesson about nutrition that truly changed the way I look at the world. In one class, our teacher pointed out…

In 2010, I drove with four friends from London to Ulaanbaatar as part of the Mongol Rally. The event’s organizers describe it as “Motoring stupidity on a global scale.” For this rally, there’s no support team, no set route and no guarantee you’ll arrive safely (or at all). Our journey…

As we go through life, sometimes we get stuck and need a little help. Other times we get lost and need a bit of direction. And occasionally we even find ourselves wishing we could blow up everything about our lives (or maybe just one thing) and start over entirely. That…

You have gifts and talents. To a large degree, your happiness—and the contribution you make to others—is determined by whether or not you share your gifts and talents. And believe it or not, your happiness does not depend on making a living or becoming famous or even widely recognized by…