Afford Anything

Category: Self-Improvement, Psychology and Mindset

Written By Paula Pant

What Most People Don’t Know About Pavlov’s Dogs

Disclaimer: This article contains a description of animal suffering. Reader discretion advised.

Most of us have heard about Pavlov’s dogs.

It’s a famous tale in the fields of physiology and psychology: Pavlov rang a buzzer, then fed his dogs; eventually his dogs began salivating at the sound of the buzzer. Most people think the story ends there.

Most of us don’t know what happened next.

The lesser-known epilogue to the saga of Pavlov’s dogs tells us that life isn’t as simple as it seems. Tragedy, stress, and grief can disrupt any training, thwart any plans, re-shape any personalities.

But human connection can repair the wound.

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Written By Paula Pant

The Diderot Effect: How Buying Fuels Itself

In mid-1700’s France, there lived an artist and writer on the brink of poverty.

His name was Denis Diderot.He had been born into an established family, the son of a successful craftsman, and he had obliged the social standing of his birth by pursuing a formal education. He obtained a Master of Arts in philosophy, and seemed bound for a respectable profession in clergy or law.

But Diderot dreamed of becoming a writer.

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By Paula Pant

#194: The 7 Faces of Fear — with Ruth Soukup

Fear shows up in our lives in countless ways.

Sometimes, fear takes the form of procrastination. We’re afraid of botching something, or we don’t like the feeling of anxiety that a project gives us, so we avoid it, dodge it, and indefinitely put it off.

Other times, fear takes the form of perfectionism through endless iterating and tweaking. We want to keep tinkering with a project, to get it “just right.” We applaud ourselves for our attention to detail.

Fear takes the form of making excuses and rationalizations for why we can’t pursue a goal or dream. We tell ourselves that some outside factor is to blame.

Fear takes the form of throwing ourselves pity parties and locking ourselves into a negative self-talk spiral. We get easily discouraged.

Fear takes the form of thinking others can’t be trusted, and pushing people away.

Fear has many faces.

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By Paula Pant

#188: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, with Daniel Pink

In May 1915, a renowned 58-year-old sea captain, Captain William Thomas Turner, made a series of questionable decisions.

He was the captain of the Lusitania, a ship with 1,959 passangers, sailing from Manhattan to London. The first World War was taking place around them, and Captain Turner knew he needed to move swiftly to evade German submarines.

His ship approached England; land was in sight. They had almost made it. Yet for reasons that will always remain a mystery, around 1 pm on May 7th, Captain Turner slowed the speed of the vessel to around 18 knots, slower than the 21 knots that they needed to outpace the threat of submarines. Around 45 minutes later, he executed what’s called a “four-point bearing,” which forced him to pilot the ship in a straight line rather than a zigzag course, which would be better for outmaneuvering torpedos.

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By Paula Pant

#184: The Alter Ego Effect, with Todd Herman

In 2003, Beyonce Knowles-Carter felt shy about performing sultry lyrics and dance routines on stage. She needed a tactic to overcome her nerves and stage fright. So she created an alter ego, Sasha Fierce, to bring out her more assertive side.

Beyonce is one of many top performers — along with other top artists, athletes, executives, speakers, investors, bankers, lawyers, negotiators, and more — who use alter egos as a tactic to overcome their insecurities and become better versions of themselves.

Today’s podcast guest, Todd Herman, is an expert at the practice of creating alter egos to improve your performance in any arena of life. He says that crafting an alter ego can help you become a better worker, leader, manager, investor, and even a better parent.

Todd joins us on today’s podcast to describe the “why” and “how” of creating an alter ego at work, at home, and in social settings.

Here are six takeaways from our conversation:

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By Paula Pant

#176: Digital Minimalism – with Dr. Cal Newport

Cal Newport created a philosophy called digital minimalism, which is the idea of reducing your digital life down to only the most important core essentials. Remove the apps from your phone, then slowly re-introduce only the ones that are the most useful and beneficial. Take control of your smartphone, rather than letting it control you.

Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use. This philosophy pulls from the concepts of minimalism, essentialism, the slow movement, and the 80/20 principle, applying these ideas towards your digital life.

Cal discusses the digital minimalist philosophy on today’s episode.

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Written By Paula Pant

28 Important Lessons from 2018

Here are a handful of lessons from 2018 (although many of these ideas originated during a lifetime preceding that). I’ve shared most, but not all, of these lessons on Instagram in the past year.

1: Your net worth is not your self worth. That’s true regardless of whether your net worth is low or […]

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By Paula Pant

#168: How to Optimize Your Time and Energy — with Mike Vardy, The Productivityist

You can do anything, but not everything … and definitely not everything at the same time.

How can you optimize your time and energy? How do you choose what’s worthwhile and what’s a waste of time?

How can you eliminate small decisions so that your mind is free to focus on the few choices that make a massive 10x impact?

How can you spend less time struggling with your Inbox, and more time on long-term projects that can boost your income?

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Written By Paula Pant

Maybe you don’t need to figure out what’s wrong

A few months ago, I interviewed a behavioral economist named Dr. Stephen Wendel on my podcast. He suggested an idea that’s so crazy it might work.

We were discussing the fact that people often stand in their own way; there’s a gap between intention and action. We know what we “should” do, but we don’t follow through. We procrastinate. We make excuses. We act against our own self-interests.

We have an image of our ideal self, we have the reality of our current self, and it’s harder than expected to bridge that divide. Why?

Most people try to figure out the problem. “Why can’t I stick to my goals?” But during our interview, Stephen turns this conventional wisdom on its head.

Maybe we should approach this as treatment first, diagnosis second.

He suggests that you try a handful of solutions. When you find the one that works, you’ll know the problem.

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Written By Paula Pant

17 Lessons to Improve Your Money & Life

I’ve learned a ton during the past decade, thanks to reading, interviewing, and massive trial-and-error. I’ve distilled many of these lessons into today’s blog post.

Here are 17 lessons that can improve your money and life.

#1: Money Can’t Make You Happy, But Lack of Money Can Make You Unhappy
They say, “money can’t make you happy.” But that’s false.

Researchers have examined the link between money and happiness — and guess what? Money can make you happy, to an extent. Multiple studies found a significant correlation between money and happiness among people in low-to-middle income brackets.

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