Multitasking slows down our ability to process creativity. Listening to music while trying to come up with characters, f

Are you afraid of failure? If so, you’re not the only one. Fear of failure prevents many people from taking action, and as a result, reduces their potential success in life.,You spend 10 minutes filling data in a web form and finally click the ‘Submit’ button. The web page reloads, and you see the same web form but without your data. The only new thing on this page is a message colored in red that says “Error.” Your level of frustration maximizes.,My head was telling me to get a normal job, but my heart was screaming at me to follow your passion. That was nearly 7 years ago. I’ve just published my memoir, and in less than 12-months time, I’ll have completed my Ph.D.,But humanism is also why Europeans grant one another great public goods, like healthcare and education, and mostly look at Americans like they’re crazy when they ask “why?” The reason isn’t just economic — it’s about how they see life, too. We are all bound together as genuine equals in an existential sense. To deny you the basics of life is also to deny the truest thing of all: your nature. It is tragic enough that you will age, decay, cling, grieve, mourn, fall, die. Why would I want to take away even the things that give you what little support and consolation you have, for the sorrow of living, then? Aren’t we equals in this strange tragedy called life?,Humanism isn’t just the little, easy belief that “we’re all human beings!” It cuts sharper and deeper. It says that we are all human in an inescapable, terrible, beautiful, tragic sense. We are all facing the spectres of death, decay, mortality, and fragility, in every moment. We will all grieve exactly as much as we love, and ache exactly as much as we hold. To know one’s self in this sense as a limited, frail thing, full of angst, despair, anxiety, and grief, is to understand, instantly, one’s great social and moral obligations. If I am this thing made of dust and moonlight, so delicate even waving a hand through it can break it — then so are you. Therefore, I must lift you up when you fall, and prevent you from falling at all. That is the only redemption I have. And so from humanism comes an inalienable intrinsic worth in each life, radiating not just outwards, but upwards.,One of the first tasks Quentin does before ever sitting down to write a single word in a new script is finding the exact piece of music that fits what he wants the movie to be about.,Hence, Europeans, for whom humanism became a cultural cornerstone, grant each other a kind of deep, fundamental dignity, respect, and gentleness. (No, not every single one, etc, let’s think like grown ups please, OK?) They look at how Americans treat one another and are aghast. To them, it is immoral to be not just so cruel but so indifferent to cruelty, because it violates the morality implied by the condition of existential despair. Why would I add to your despair and grief at just being alive by being cruel to you — isn’t it also my despair? If that’s the Golden Rule we live by, then doesn’t the whole point and purpose of living a decent life fall apart?,Do you listen to music when you write? It seems that the majority of writers do. But the science behind you blasting Metallica while writing (as Stephen King used to do) is starting to say maybe you shouldn’t.,“One of the things I do when I am starting a movie, when I’m writing a movie or when I have an idea for a film; is, I go through my record collection and just start playing songs, trying to find the personality of the movie, find the spirit of the movie. Then ‘boom’, eventually I’ll hit one, two or three songs or one song in particular, oh this will be a great opening credit song.” — Quentin Tarantino,In challenging situations, you should also track the questions you ask yourself. For instance, replacing “why me?” with “what can I do about this?” will instill a sense of strength, directing you towards corrective action, rather than blaming the world for your problems.,“Tasks that involve language processing or decision making need your attentional focus, and when you try to do two such tasks at the same time, you end up switching your attention back and forth.”,The question is, can you succeed without failing? No, not unless mediocrity fulfills you. The best way to learn is through failure. When you fail, you learn. And when you fail big, you learn big.,J.K. Rowling, the famous author behind the Harry Potter series, finds music “too distracting” while writing. When younger, she used to listen to Tchaikovksy when writing the first book.,If you’re following your heart, and you’re not breaking the law, don’t be afraid to challenge societal norms. Follow your passion when people think you should play it safe. When the crowd goes one way, you go the other. If it feels right, go with your gut.,It takes practice for habitual worriers to recognize when their mind has gotten stuck in a whirlpool of unhelpful words or self-talk. (Here again, mindfulness techniques can help.) But with time and training, people can escape from that whirlpool or avoid it in the first place. By activating different areas of the brain, pleasant mental imagery seems to help them do that.