Unearthing Your Foundational You: How to develop a nuanced set of core principles

Previously, I offered a simple approach to identifying your core principles. My PsychologyToday.com article today is for readers willing to take a bit more time in the service of developing a more comprehensive and nuanced set of life pillars as well as juxtaposing your current ones against your aspired-to ones.

Wisdom in Fortune Cookies

The fortune cookie may contain a prediction based on nothing, for example, “You have a bright future." Or it may be cheeky, for example, “Help, I’m trapped in a fortune cookie factory!”

But occasionally, a fortune cookie contains surprising wisdom. Having reviewed over 1,000 fortune cookie aphorisms, my PsychologyToday.com article today offers 13 that seem worthy at least of the moment it takes to consider them.

Developing Discipline

The holiday season has come and gone and, as I welcomed clients in the New Year, my pre-session small talk sometimes began, “Did you get any good holiday gifts?” They’ll say the usual: some piece of clothing, jewelry, or money donated to charity on their behalf. But alas, they didn’t get the gift of what many of them badly need: more discipline.

Many of my clients are bright, healthy, and had a good upbringing yet flounder, mainly for lack of discipline. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers three tips that have helped.

“My World is Getting Smaller and That’s Okay”

I've had clients who say that, as they’ve aged, their world has gotten smaller. In earlier years, I used to mention the research that touts benefits of getting out there but, more recently, my clients have convinced me that they’re fine with their world getting smaller. Their argument generally goes something like, “I’ve grown self-conscious about my physical and mental aging. So, both to avoid embarrassment and so I can focus my life on the things I still can do well, I restrict the amount of social and other outside activities.”
 
Instead of pushing such clients outward,  most of such clients have benefited more from my asking them questions and, if needed, making suggestions that lead them not to expand their world but to make more of their smaller world. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers some of those suggestions.

Searching for Someone Who Embraces Your Authentic Self: Six sources of hope

You’ve tried it all: online dating, set-ups, flirting as the spirit moves you. All in hopes of meeting that very special someone, that person who not only accepts you for your individuality but embraces you for it.
But it’s been years and you still haven't found someone truly right. 

Of course, life ain’t the movies and it’s far from certain that your magically perfect person will ever be yours, let alone be yours forever. But as a break from my usual incessant practicality, my PsychologyToday.com article today offers my best shots at finding the key to your lock.

On One Hand, But on the Other Hand....

From Plato to Stephen Covey, it’s long been argued that a life is more meaningful if guided by a foundational personal philosophy.

To that end, My PsychologyToday.com article today  describes six tensions the resolutions of which can be core to developing your personal philosophy.

Options for Substance Abusers

Substance abusers have a hard time resisting substances' easy short-term feel-good, no matter their long-term liabilities. Perhaps one or more of the ideas in my PsychologyToday.com article today will help.