“The most accomplished people in the world have all experienced failure at some point.” —Kevin Cokely
BRAIN WAVES
The couple who squat together. The stress of the holidays can take a toll on relationships. One way to cope? Exercise with your partner. A recent study finds that people who work out with their romantic partner reported happier moods and greater relationship satisfaction. “On days when people exercised with their romantic partner, they experienced higher positive affect during exercise, higher daily positive affect, and were more satisfied with their relationship compared to days when they exercised without their partner,” the researchers reported. Engaging in a shared activity that’s attached to a goal might help you and your partner bond. As a bonus, it might also make you more likely to stick to an exercise routine. “This study illustrates how exercising with a romantic partner may improve people’s experience of both exercising and their daily experiences,” the study concluded. Just don’t be this couple.
Don’t fall off the (creative) cliff. The creative process can be tricky. We often think of creativity as a process that starts out strong and loses steam over time. But coming up with great, innovative ideas usually involves much more brainstorming than people think, says former Hidden Brain guest Loren Nordgren, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management. “Most people consistently underestimate the value of persistence in the creative process,” write Nordgren and his colleague Brian Lucas in Harvard Business Review. In their research, Nordgren and Lucas talk about a fallacy called the “creative cliff illusion,” which is the belief that creativity drops off over time. In one study, they worked with amateur comedians for a caption-writing contest. They surveyed them about how creative they felt over time. “We found that the comedians who were more certain that their early ideas would be their best ideas stopped ideating sooner,” the researchers reported. “These comedians ended up submitting fewer jokes and, importantly, fewer of the jokes that these comedians did submit were rated as being highly creative.” This suggests that if you think your first ideas will be your best, you’re more likely to stop coming up with ideas before your actual best ideas are uncovered. Nordgren and Lucas explain, “it’s only by digging more deeply that more novel, creative ideas finally emerge.”
What do the things you own say about who you are? From beloved childhood objects to the everyday items we leave behind, what can we learn from our relationship to our possessions? Listen to learn more.
ON THE HIDDEN BRAIN PODCAST
Dec 13: It's hard to see ourselves clearly. This can be especially true when we are confronting a challenge. At such moments, we can start to doubt ourselves. In this episode, the strange psychology of the voice inside our heads that says, "the world may think you are amazing, but you are really just a fraud."
Dec 20: When we think about raising a human, it's natural that most of us think about the role that adults play in shaping their children. But when should we step back and just let our children be?
ON THE MY UNSUNG HERO PODCAST
Dec 16: Justin Horner was driving down a busy freeway in Portland when his tire blew out. When a family stopped to offer help, they shared four words that changed Justin’s life forever.
MIND GAMES
What lives in winter, dies in summer, and grows with its roots upward?
LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE
You’re running a race and pass the runner who was in second place. What place are you coming in now?
The answer: Second place (many people think it’s first).
FROM THE TWITTERATI…
A MOMENT OF JOY
A gentle giant…
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