“Your motivations--get that promotion, throw the best parties, run for public office--aren't impersonal abstractions but powerfully reflect who you are and what you focus on. An individual's goals figure prominently in the theories of personality first developed by the Harvard… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Where visual artists are concerned, the Baroque sculptor and architect Bernini and the painter and sculptor Picasso were clearly adept at both experiential and instrumental attending, says Tellegen, as is the modern architect Frank Gehry. Choosing a literary example, he says that F. Scott Fitzgerald once admitted to "wrapping one of his romantic flings in cellophane" for later artistic use… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share
“Because you actually might not know what activities truly engage your attention and satisfy you, he says, it can be helpful to keep a… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Over time, a commitment to challenging, focused work and leisure produces not only better daily experience, but also a more complex, interesting person: the… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Research shows that when they confront a potentially unpleasant situation, such as some unfriendly faces at a gathering, these extraverts are apt to shift… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Yet he argued that even a tedious topic can take on a certain fascination if you make an effort to look at it afresh:… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Once out of your cradle, you don't focus on the world in the abstract, perceiving things for the first time, but in synchrony with… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Temperamentally anxious people can have a hard time staying motivated, period, because their intense focus on their worries distracts them from their goals.” — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Einstein didn't invent the theory of relativity while he was multitasking at the Swiss patent office." quoting, David Meyer, a cognitive scientist at the… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“However, by Sunday noon--not coincidentally, the unhappiest hour in America--you may have run through your options and wind up slumped on a couch, suffering… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“In a variation on James's recipe for interesting experience--the familiar leavened by the novel--Hobbs's "art of choosing difficulties" requires selecting projects that are "just… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“I'll live the focused life, because it's the best kind there is.” — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
“Whenever you squander attention on something that doesn’t put your brain through its paces and stimulate change, your mind stagnates a little and life… — Winifred Gallagher Copy Share Image
