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

Can you easily learn to see every lie coming every single time? Or lie while being interrogated by an FBI agent and get away with it? Probably not, but you can get some of their much prized skills to your advantage - to understand people much better.

On the nature and purpose of humanity, why having a big ego and learning don't match, and what really matters in life.

Believing you deserve - and giving yourself permission - to create the best life for yourself is at the very core of individual and collective achievement. This simple truth is so subtle, so insidious, it is easy to miss or ignore altogether. Yet, it is what allows for your biggest success to come.

There are people who see winning as a zero-sum game. In order for them to win - or feel good about themselves - somebody else has to lose (or at least feel bad). This approach to life is not only unhealthy and immature, it also undermines social relationships and the social structure itself. There are things that can be done, however, to keep growing in almost any social environment.

Covid-19 will be here for awhile. While this is not an encouraging outlook in and of itself, there are important challenges and lessons to be learned. These can lead to individual and society-wide changes that, in the end, can make us stronger.

People love games. This is why various aspects of games are used in all walks of life - especially to get into our purses and wallets. There are some principles of gamification that we can use in our day to day life to achieve goals we otherwise wouldn't even dream of accomplishing.

Communication can be enhanced not only by the right words and the right body language. People process information and communicate in different ways. Understanding the three basic communication types can give you an edge in any situation.

Politics is a part of our lives, for better and for worse. We joke about it, we love it and we hate it. Let's take a closer look at some of the most powerful tricks politicians use to sway our opinions and achieve their goals.

How do you choose your political representative? Do you pick the most interesting political candidate or the boring one? The one who self-confidently tells you all he will do for you, or the one who will present his ideas factually and with humility? Is politics a show for the masses or is it - or should it be - in fact, less than exciting?

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Do you sometimes feel drained and don't know why? There are natural rhythms that influence our activities and performance throughout the day. Learn more about how to make the most of each part of your day, every day.

Memory is just like any other muscle - you either use it or you lose it. Here are some tips and ideas on how memory works and how to remember better.

Our clothes and style have a lot to do with leadership and social status. Let's see how we can use the knowledge of how this works to positively influence others as well as ourselves.

Paradigms have a way of staying put. In society, new ideas typically get ridiculed, then violently opposed, to be finally accepted as self-evident. We have similar mechanisms to protect our own ideas and beliefs from being challenged - even if that challenge can be the best thing that ever happens to us.

Conspiracy theories are a fascinating phenomenon. They touch and exploit something primal inside of us - something that was originally meant to keep us safe through intelligent reading of social cues in small groups where we know people in person and can get objective information to see who's with us and who's against us. The same thing that saved the lives of our ancestors now gets hijacked by so...

On the complexity of real world experience, and why taking personal responsibility and having a balanced perspective go hand in hand.

Try to remember something that happened in your life when you didn't feel any emotion, you'll find it impossible. Learning comes hand in hand with feeling, and it fits right into the structures we already have in our minds to receive it. Knowing this gives you the tools to skyrocket your ability to learn and make it a lot more fun. 

When did you last see you nose? Yes, this is a trick question; your nose takes up a large part of your field of vision all the time, but your brain edits it out - just as it does with anything else it deems static or unimportant. Understanding how our perception of reality is formed can give us answers as to how to live more fully and more meaningfully in this ever faster changing world.

While we know it is very important to choose our field of expertise based on the unique mix of our specific talents and abilities, there is a key element that many entrepreneurs miss that is necessary to create a business that actually succeeds.

Mastering your habits is one of the more challenging things you can do in life, and possibly the most useful. There are two sides to this coin; getting to know yourself better and clarifying your goals, and making plans for positive (preferably enjoyable) changes. Whatever crafty little tweak you make can, over time, bring back some serious compound interest.

On being present, on our relationship with the universe, and how being mindful can change our daily lives.

Would you like to live to be 100; or perhaps be immortal? Does longevity matter to you as much as your quality of life? These questions will become increasingly more important as one or both will become real for everyone. Until then, let's see how we can make our 21st century lives the best we can make them with any or all of these life quality tips.

Many of us fear procrastination like the devil himself. Companies and entrepreneurs alike spend tons of money fighting it on a daily basis. But the truth is, procrastination is not nearly the enemy of productivity it is seen to be. In fact, if we understand procrastination for what it is and how it works we can often use it as a worthy ally.

On questions and answers, on the way social media shape our worldviews, and on how a clear, objective way of thinking can benefit us all.

Motivation is at the core of success, happiness and enjoyment. It is what makes all of these possible. This episode is on how to build intrinsic motivation, which you can maintain whether or not outer conditions favor you.

I recorded this episode on the first day of my country's official coronavirus quarantine.  This one is on how to reach out and socialize - and make the best of things, even when you are legally barred from physically meeting people.