Burnout: The secret to solving the stress cycle

When you redefine winning, you set goals that are achievements in themselves—and success is its own reward.

A third caveat: Science is often expensive, and who pays for it can influence the outcome and whether or not the results are published.

Nor is it about not feeling frustrated by the persistent gap between what is and what could or should be.

Novices who are thoroughly incompetent rate themselves as very confident in their ability to do a thing they’ve just learned to do. By contrast, genuine experts know how difficult their work is, so they are realistic about their competence and thus rate their confidence in their own abilities as moderate, even as their performance is, of course, ex

“positive reappraisal.”2 Positive reappraisal involves recognizing that sitting in traffic is worth it. It means deciding that the effort, the discomfort, the frustration, the unanticipated obstacles, and even the repeated failure have value—not just because they are steps toward a worthwhile goal, but because you reframe difficulties as opportunit

and so we’re trapped in our own longing.

not the same as giving yourself rewards for making progress—such rewards are counterintuitively ineffective and may even be detrimental.

Perhaps the most reliably maladaptive response to distress is “rumination.” Like a cow chewing its cud, we regurgitate our suffering over and over, gnawing on it to extract every last bit of pain. If you find your thoughts and feelings go back again and again to your suffering, ask for help.

story goes where science can’t.