The Art of Self-Development; Create Your Life with PD

As the saying goes: "When everybody around you is freaking out, you become calmer." A crisis is a trial by fire, a time to show what we are made of, and a hidden opportunity to make progress in various areas of our lives.

Some things we don't think about much before they happen to us. And when they do, it pays more than anything else to stay cool, positive and prepared.

Most failure is not what we feel it in our gut to be. Let's explore the concept and reality of failure and why failure is very often the best thing that can happen to us.

Being the stronger one in a fight is about something different than what most people think. This concept can be easier understood than done in practice, but when mastered will make you invincible.

We are perfect, each one of us - and yet we can do better. On habits, triggers and how to create the best version of your life.

There is a tug of war in our minds between forces that encourage us go out and do things, or lay low and try to stay safe. The paradox is, while playing it safe used to be the reasonable thing to do in the past, it doesn't really make us safe anymore, let alone successful or happy. 

Who doesn't like to be right, and to show people? Unfortunately, the way many people relate to others has very little to do with communication. True communication is more about being responsible and genuinely interested in your audience than in swaying people's opinions. In this episode you will find some ideas to help you on your way to becoming an expert communicator.

Fiction is a fascinating thing. It allows us to experience things we often cannot experience in real life. The main point of any good fiction is change and evolution - to get us and the protagonist closer to who we really are and who we want to be. Let's explore the paradigms that lead to change in the act of creating fiction, using here as a template a well-received piece of fiction I wrote almos...

Game Theory is a study of interpersonal strategy for individual achievement. Something, you might think, that really pays to play well.

There are different ways in which we communicate, mostly nonverbally, with the people who are special to us; specific "love languages" that we can learn to speak to truly make a difference in relationships with our significant others.

Like with any other bias, believing is seeing with the Cultural Bias - causing us to see other cultures as underdeveloped, primitive, or just plain weird. Let's take a step back to get a perspective in our dealings with people and cultures.

The Scientific Method is a way to go out of your way to eliminate biases and pre-conceived notions which so easily lead us astray. In this day and age - of social media celebrities giving us their opinions about anything and everything - we can benefit greatly from learning how to think in a way that is unbiased, informed and objective.

There's no clear, cookie-cutter recipe to being our best selves. Sometimes we can take bits and pieces from the people we like and respect the most, but how we mold our experience, our values and our idea of self is truly where the magic happens. 

Have you ever learned about something and thought you made the change you wanted to make but you didn't? You got hyped up, excited, and then nothing happened? There are tons of self-help  workshops and seminars which use this tactic as a marketing model to make profit. This is not the way to learn. True change only comes with true learning.

There have been special people - artists and scientists - who left a mark on our civilization over millennia. Can you become one of them? Understanding their life stories can give you the clues.

The "Peter Pan (or Eternal Boy) Syndrome" is a curious condition that afflicts adult men in their relationships with women and with themselves. Looking into it can answer questions about one's priorities and preferences in life partner, and help integrate your source of inner strength.

Do you believe that making money and fun don't go together? That working for money has to be hard? Think about why. Reflect and change. Work smart.

Sometimes we think we really want something, but strangely, no matter what we do, we can't get it - and we can't see why. To get the real answers, we need to look beneath the surface.

Psychology can be a strange field indeed; vague, and sometimes cold and clinical. Fortunately, there's also the branch of Positive Psychology, which aims for us not only to not be sick, but to live at your best - to make your life worth living.

The human mind is subject to many biases that affect our perception without us knowing it. Some of these biases are useful, others can literally ruin our chances to make positive changes and become our best selves. 

Emotions are our biggest ally. They have been here for millions of years to help us survive, and now they can help us achieve our goals. In business or in personal life, it is the emotionally smart person who gets the farthest.

Have you ever had someone tell you: "You’re projecting"? Have you said this to another person? Let's look into a powerful psychological defense mechanism and what it does for us and to us on a daily basis.

The Nice Guy Syndrome, or the "If only I were nicer to people" syndrome, is caused by an inability to achieve one's own goals. It has to do with boundaries and agendas; and getting rid of it is the best thing any man can do for himself. 

The places where we spend most of our time have a powerful influence on how we feel and how we think about ourselves. Often times a small change can have a profound influence on reaching our goals.

Nobody likes a toxic person - they are obnoxious and tend to be notoriously hard to deal with. This episode comes as a comprehensive way to identify a toxic person, how to understand where they are at and how to deal with them. A pro tip: take it with a grain of salt, or even, see if you can identify a "toxic" trait in yourself that you can work on getting rid of.