Principles

Here's something that I thought was very profound, and surprised Wharton MBA's when they completed the task.  Shouldn't take longer than 10-15 min.  Click the bottom link and scroll to Chapter 1 and do the Six Lives Exercise (maybe 5-10 pages into chapter 1).  Basically you read 6 different lives of people and you rank them in order of your own definition of success.  You'll find out a little bit about your own values if you continue reading a couple pages after the exercise.  The book is called Springboard: Launching your Personal Search for Success by Shell.  The read was alright, I think this exercise is the best part of the book.

 http://books.google.com/books?id=3wcGUDQo3V4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=springboard+shell&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LBRKUuufM4nc4AOl7IH4Aw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

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I realize most people won't do this, so here's the part I thought was most interesting.  A majority of Wharton MBA's pick a stone mason's life.  He likes his job, has a small house in Iceland or something.  He gets to use his creativity and has a few children.  Don't remember details of the children, but I think one of them is successful, one is not.  And basically, if that's their definition of success, why are they leading such different lives?  Why are they on paths to become hedge fund managers, CEO's and consultants?

Flow

Csikszentmihalyi is praised as the founder of a concept called Flow.  We've all experience this before.  It's when you're playing basketball, a video game, working intensely on a project or practicing a technique. The task is challenging, and the task is of your choice.  Time flies by, you're completely focused in the present moment.  That's when you're in flow.  Flow is commonly mentioned as a source of happiness and I think ideally, we should all hope to be engaged in flow in our career of choice.  

From wikipedia:

Flow theory postulates three conditions that have to be met to achieve a flow state:

1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. This adds direction and structure to the task.^[12]
2. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.^[12]
3. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.

In positive psychology, an occupation can be described as "work", "career" or a "calling."  Work is associated with a means to an end.  Work is a way to pay the bills and keep food on the table.  A career is associated with a means of obtaining wealth and status.  A calling is something you do because it gives meaning to your life.  I think it's worth considering what our occupation is to us, and whether or not we feel we're on a path to finding work that we love.  And whether or not we experience flow in our occupations and our hobbies.   

Priming

If you've taken any basic psychology course, you've probably heard of priming.  Basically, if a group of people see a flashcard with "SO_P" and recently heard the word "wash" and "clean", they would fill the blank with A to make the word SOAP.  If they had recently heard the words like "stew" or "carrots", they would be more likely to make the word SOUP.

But priming affects us much more than that.  Through introspection, I've found myself to be a money-centered person.  This may have to do with my upbringing with parents emphasizing a great education and a great high-paying job, constant awareness of how much things cost, etc.  In addition, my job as a trader can't help either.  I constantly think in terms of profits and losses, expected values, probability/stats.  CNBC is constantly on TV at work and instead of hearing the words like WASH, CLEAN, STEW, or CARROTS, I'm primed with money related ideas.

Everyone is primed in a certain way.  A priest would view an event through a religious lens, and a scientist would view the same event in a completely different way.  And once we're primed, we develop actions and actions become habits.  And once we keep habits for a long time, our actions become part of our character.  A little priming can go along way.  Recently, I've decided to wear these Buddhist mala beads to prime myself towards Buddhist ideas of compassion, nature, calm and inner peace to contrast my everyday surroundings of the new smartphones on commercials, the latest styles on GQ and all the fine dining pictures on Facebook/Instagram.  One little thing could change behavior in the long run.