Key Takeaways Working in a state of flow means being able to effortlessly concentrate without distraction. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first coined the term “state of flow” in the 1970s. According to Dr. Csikszentmihalyi, there are five steps to cultivate this state of flow. If you find yourself easily distracted when you’re trying to work, you’re not alone. With the advent of email, texts, and social media, it’s become more difficult than ever to focus our attention on one thing for any real length of time. Combating this state of distraction is the topic of the book Deep Work by author and pr ..read more

Key Takeaways Losing a spouse is one of the most difficult transitions a person goes through in life. There are some commonalities that widows share when it comes to money concerns. We asked six questions of widows to find out what thoughts, concerns, and difficulties they experienced as they went through this transition. Widowhood is an incredibly difficult and stressful time of life that many women experience. The tragedy and misfortune that comes with losing a spouse makes it one of the hardest things a person can go through in life. We wanted to better understand how to help widows. Ove ..read more

Key Takeaways Retirement is supposed to be fun and relaxing, but it’s important to feel a sense of purpose as well. Every day can feel like the weekend when you’re retired, making days blur together. Here are five strategies to help give your week structure. When you retire, the work week disappears, making every day feel like a Saturday or Sunday. While this may be enjoyable at first, after a while the days might just feel like they’re blurring together. And for many people, this can be frustrating, as it’s important to feel a sense of growth, of moving forward, and of having a purpose in ..read more

Key Takeaways Making good decisions about money isn’t something that just comes naturally. Children can be taught good money habits from a young age. If you have grandchildren, these are five things you can do to help them make smart decisions when it comes to their money. With graduation season upon us, you may have grandchildren who are about to embark on their college educations or start their first “real” jobs. Their lives are changing and they’re likely going to have more responsibility than ever for their money. As a grandparent, you’d surely love to see them make really smart decisio ..read more

Key Takeaways Failure tends to have a negative connotation, but it’s an important aspect of life. We don’t learn without making mistakes and failing along the way. By rewarding children for their mistakes, we can help them learn when the stakes are still relatively low. Business owners and entrepreneurs learn something very early on about failure: it’s important to fail quickly, fail fast, and fail forward. It’s crucial in the process of learning and growing. But this is not what we’re taught in school. It’s quite the opposite – failure is viewed as a bad thing when it comes to schoolwork a ..read more

“If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one-hundred years of prosperity, grow people.” – Chinese Proverb   In this second installment of our series on capitalism, we attempt to tackle one of the most frequently heard objections to the free-enterprise system, that an ever-growing world population will eventually deplete all our natural resources. Economic growth is therefore unsustainable, as we rob future generations by using up all of Earth’s natural resources. Let’s look at some facts. A recent Barron’s article on Ch ..read more

Key Takeaways Having some structure to your days can be highly beneficial. Not only are we more productive when we manage our time, we’re happier. There are five steps you can follow to help you get the most out of your day. Aristotle said “Well begun is half done,” and that brings to mind a book by Robert Cialdini called Pre-Suasion. In the book, he explains that when we’re influenced by others, it’s really the things the person says to us before the main pitch that affect us. The “pre” is what makes all the difference in the results. Similarly, the way we set the stage for our day plays a ..read more

Key Takeaways Whether we like it or not, we’re expected to attend school for a certain number of years. There’s a lot more learning to be done outside of the classroom. Get on the hundred-year curriculum and you’ll be a lifelong learner. When you were growing up, did you ever have an adult tell you “Just wait until you get out into the REAL world” or “The school of hard knocks will teach you what you won’t learn in school”? For some, these might’ve been terrifying thoughts, but for others, it may have been exciting to think about leaving the confines of school and learning from the “real wo ..read more

Key Takeaways Steve Jobs offered some words to live by a few years back. The wisdom he offered is something you can repeat to yourself every day. In doing so, you might just find some positive changes in your own life. There’s an Inc. Magazine article that discusses seven things late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said a person should say to themselves every day. These are some great words of wisdom to consider, especially if you’re working towards a more positive mindset and are setting goals to achieve in life. First is that innovation is what distinguishes leaders from followers. If you’ve ..read more

Key Takeaways Sometimes our emotions get the best of us when we’re making important decisions in life. When faced with emotionally driven decisions, a process of elimination is preferable to a process of selection. Keeping logic and principles in place as you make your decisions will serve you well. Live long and prosper. For the non-Star Trek fans, that’s something you’d hear from Spock, a very reasoned individual whose character was all logic and no emotion. Very few of us in life are like Spock, though this aspect of his personality might come in handy when we’re making important decisio ..read more