Author: Rick

I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard about burnout – right? I recently ran across a new term describing a condition similar to burnout called boreout. I was surprised to discover that this under-recognized condition is caused by a lack of challenging work. My initial thought was to laugh until I realized that being bored out…

Have you ever wondered why some animals seem to be in charge while others are at the bottom of the pecking order? Have you ever wondered who’s the boss? Social hierarchies, or how animals organize themselves into social groups with different levels of status, are often determined by who’s the most dominant. Humans, on the…

“No matter how active we are, our muscle mass and strength decline as we age. In fact, muscle mass and strength peak at 30 to 35 years old. After that, they slowly but steadily decline. At age 65 for women and 70 for men, the pace of these declines increases,” according to the National Institutes of…

My fascination with altered states of consciousness began at university, where I was studying cultural anthropology. I became captivated by the practices of Native Americans in Arizona and New Mexico, who utilized various natural substances to induce trances, experience visions and interpret them for others. Recently, my curiosity has been piqued by the relentless pursuit…

Weed, pot, reefer, grass, dope, ganja, Mary Jane. “A rose by any other name…” Anyway, you get the picture. And I’m not talking about CBD oil, either, although it certainly relieves the pain in my joints! Marijuana’s historical association with the youth counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s has given way to a new reality.…

My blog is a 360-degree blog that covers everything from mindset, mental toughness, motivation, grit and resilience to lifestyle, human performance, peak-performance aging, social, philosophical and geopolitical issues. And pretty much whatever else comes into my insatiably curious mind: life, death, family and health, but not necessarily in that order. As an amateur opinion-slinger (as hard as…

What’s your go-to when you feel stressed out? Do you like a few glasses of wine, an hours-long vent session or a creative excuse to get out of a social engagement? These are all examples of experiential avoidance—an unwillingness to experience uncomfortable internal emotions or sensations and active efforts to change, reduce, or eliminate them…

This post is about how you can stop the limiting beliefs you picked up somewhere on your journey through life. We’ve all had things happen to us that make us believe certain stories about ourselves. They might be things in your subconscious memory from your very early years or things you were told as a…

Life, according to French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, is the realm of Choices, denoted as “C,” situated between Birth (“B”) and Death (“D”). These choices form a crucial aspect of our self-development, shaping our experiences and determining our life’s trajectory. The remarkable aspect of this power lies in the fact that if you’re dissatisfied with your…

Once upon a time, in a world teetering on the edge of secrecy and surveillance, a clandestine gathering took place at the heart of the National Security Agency (NSA). It was a crisp April day in 2013 when the head of the NSA welcomed a group of Swedish intelligence officials to the hallowed grounds of…