Upworthy and P&G Good Everyday are teaming up to find the people who lead with love everyday. Know someone in your neighborhood who’s known for their optimistic attitude, commitment to bettering their community and always leading with love? Tell us about them for the chance to win a $2,000 grant to keep doing good in…
Upworthy and
P&G Good Everyday are teaming up to find the people who lead with love everyday.
Know someone in your neighborhood who’s known for their optimistic attitude, commitment to bettering their community and always leading with love? Tell us about them for the chance to win a $2,000 grant to keep doing good in their community.
Nomination ends November 22, 2020
Better health, better jobs, and a brighter future all start with access to a safe, affordable home.
A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing.
Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold.
A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen.
Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing.
Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth.
Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.
Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:
Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone.
Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today.
No one’s on the same timeline, and that’s OK.
Turning 40 marks a major milestone for many people. It can be an exciting time when your family, career, hobbies, and sense of self are finally falling into place. Unfortunately, it can also be the decade when your joints start hurting and your hair goes gray.
In other words, your 40s can be a mixed bag. What’s especially fascinating is that everyone’s experience in their early 40s will be different. Some people say that’s exactly what makes it such an interesting season of life.
Ben Eisenhart, a self-described dad and husband who turned 42 earlier this year, recently took stock of his peers and found that there was a wild amount of variety.
He realized that he’d reached a point in time when minor differences in life choices, luck, and genetics that were barely noticeable in his 20s were becoming massively evident.
The post was a hit, racking up nearly two million views and hundreds of comments from people eager to share their own experiences and observations. Here are five things people say make your 40s the weirdest and most interesting decade of your life.
In your early 20s, the vast majority of your peers don’t have kids yet. In your mid-to-late 20s, the process begins, and newborns start crashing group hangouts. Late nights at the bar become lazy afternoons at the brewery as parent friends try to survive the early stages of parenthood. Others either aren’t ready for kids yet or have decided not to have them.
In your 40s, it’s not nearly as simple.
Some folks are still child-free. Others might have grown children who are out of the house. Some are even grandparents by this point. Others are just getting started in parenthood with their first newborn. In fact, the latter is becoming increasingly common, with over 20% of women now having their first child after the age of 35.
Some people look older, and some look younger. That’s just the genetic lottery, and it’s true at almost any age.
But by your 40s, life choices and health issues have piled up and widened this gap. Some 40-year-olds could pass for being in their 20s, while others look 20 years older.
Genetics alone can account for huge differences in how we age, and it’s a topic of great interest to scientists. But a few decades of staying fit, or smoking, or using or not using sunscreen really start to show up around your early 40s.
Similar diversity shows up not just in whether people are partnered up, but in the many different shapes and timelines of romance that appear.
As Eisenhart notes, many people marry relatively young and remain together well into their 40s and beyond. Others are divorced, on their second or third marriage, or have been single the entire time. Even among those who are single, they may be dipping their toe in the dating pool of folks their own age…or, in some cases, much younger.
It can make for some very interesting get-togethers.
There’s a great camaraderie in your 20s when everyone you know is just getting started in their careers. Some are struggling through menial jobs, while others are in more prestigious fields but are grinding their way up from the bottom of the totem pole.
You’re all in it together, in a sense.
In your 40s, those career paths have diverged a great deal over the years. Some folks are executive-level leaders at big companies. Others have been doctors and scientific researchers for over a decade. Some have suffered setbacks or are in the midst of a career change, piecing together work the best they can. More and more people in their 40s are even going back to school.
It can, and should, be a time of deep empathy and leaning on one another.
Ultimately, most people in their 40s who commented on the post agreed on one thing: it’s a pretty cool season of life.
“All these are just lessons that we ain’t competing with anyone, at every age in our life just live your best and do things that makes you happy and always love yourself even more,” one X user wrote.
Another said, “Life really doesn’t follow one timeline. People the same age can be in completely different seasons, and that’s normal.”
“I turn 48 in July, and what ive gathered is wherever you find yourself during these years, as long as you find the joy, its all good,” another user added. “Out of all my decades, 40s have been surprisingly my favorite, mainly because ive learned to only worry about what i can control.”
One person noted that your 40s offer an amazing opportunity for transformation: “Early 40s is the last time of a big ‘potential’ horizon. Where you could totally reinvent yourself and make it if you wanted to.”
And finally, many wisely advised that your 40s are nothing to fear:
It wasn’t just 40-year-olds who were drawn to the viral post, however. More than a handful of people in their 50s and 60s stopped by with just a few choice words: “Just you wait.”
This is next-level dog parenting.
Many dog owners like to commemorate their fur babies’ birthdays with a party. But this doggy birthday party takes things to a whole new level.
Lady, an adorable spaniel turning five, didn’t celebrate her solar return with treats or costumes. Instead, her mom, Kat, arranged for her and her canine friends to go on a backyard “sniffari.”
The sensory adventure featured fresh chicken eggs (the crowd favorite), as well as a small herb garden, old socks and shoes, a pile of sticks, and layers of cardboard with treats hidden between each layer. And of course, participants could refuel themselves at the “pup cup station,” where they’d be served whipped cream, aka “pupaccinos.”
The TikTok video racked up over 500,000 views online, and people couldn’t help but praise Kat for her grade-A dog mom skills.
“What a unique and thoughtful birthday treat for your pup,” one viewer commented.
Another added, “You rock as a dog mom I’m done. I thought my doggo was spoiled.”
As PetMD explains, our dogs “see” the world through scent. They use their powerful noses to understand and interact with the world around them, increasing their mental stimulation while lowering their stress levels in the process.
So sniffing activities are like the upper echelon of enrichment. That’s why experts recommend owners be patient while taking their dogs on walks and even reward sniffing behavior. The olfactory fulfillment they receive from it is crucial to their well-being.
She and her mom also enjoyed some pampering during a beachfront hotel stay in England.
In a heartfelt follow-up video, Kat was in tears as she shared, “I think I just peaked in life. My dog turns five tomorrow, and I’m just so happy.”
We get it, Kat. We really get it.
Inspired by Lady’s celebration, pet parents can easily create their own scent-based party at home. The key is variety and curiosity. Scatter safe, dog-friendly items with different textures and smells around your yard or living space. Hide treats inside boxes, under towels, or within layers of paper so pups can “hunt” for rewards.
You can also create themed scent stations. A garden corner with herbs like rosemary or basil gives dogs new smells to explore. A “laundry pile” of worn clothing offers familiar scents that many dogs love. Even a simple cardboard maze can become an adventure when treats are tucked inside.
For an extra special touch, invite a few canine friends and let them explore together at their own pace. Keep things relaxed and supervised so each dog feels comfortable.
Truly, for birthday celebrations or otherwise, sometimes the best thing we can do for our pups is to let them experience the world as closely to how nature intended as we possibly can.
No one harmonizes quite like family.
On June 22, 1973, the Bee Gees, brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, appeared on the TV show The Midnight Special and, throughout the 90-minute broadcast, showcased their humor, soul, and incredible harmonies. But, by far, the highlight of the night was a performance of their recent hit, “Run to Me,” off their 1972 release, To Whom It May Concern.
The Midnight Special was a late-night music and variety show that ran on NBC for nine years (1972-1981). Along with “Run to Me,” on this episode, the Bee Gees played their 1968 hit “I Gotta Get a Message to You,” sang a duet with Wilson Pickett of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and performed a medley which included, “Morning of My Life,” “Holiday,” “Let There Be Love,” and “My World.”
Their performance of “Run to Me” is incredible because with the stripped-down, acoustic-guitar-only arrangement, you can really hear their amazing harmonies—especially when Robin and Maurice hop in on the chorus.
“‘Run to Me’ was one of those songs that all three of us sang. It was never really written for one person. ‘I’ll sing the verses. You sing the chorus because they are much higher,’ Gibb recalled, as if speaking with his brothers. “Robin’s voice was much higher than mine … See, it wasn’t like a group. It was a family. And so, whoever wanted to sing, sang.”
“We wrote [Run to Me] at our manager Robert Stigwood’s house in Beverly Hills. He was a great visionary and championed our beliefs and chemistry as brothers. Lyrically, this song chronicles the wishes of a man who longs to be noticed by a broken-hearted girl,” Robin recalled.
Even though the Bee Gees appear at the top of their game in the performance, it was a transitional point for the band. “Run to Me” would be their last significant hit for three years, until they transitioned into a more soulful, disco sound, with their 1975 hit “Jive Talkin’.” This would launch the band into superstardom, peaking with 1977’s Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack which featured three number one singles from the album contributed by the Bee Gees—”How Deep Is Your Love”, “Stayin’ Alive,” and “Night Fever.” The brothers also penned “If I Can’t Have You,” which became a number-one hit for Yvonne Elliman.
Sadly, Maurice Gibb would pass away in 2003 and Robin in 2012. But “Run to Me” got a second life in 2021 when Barry re-recorded it with country singer Brandi Carlile for his solo album, Greenfields. Greenfields features reworked versions of his Bee Gees hits, sung with country collaborators, including Dolly Parton, Jason Isbell, and Miranda Lambert.
This new version of “Run to Me” features a similar vocal arrangement to the original, with Carlile filling in for the late Robin.
Earlier this year, Barry spoke with Upworthy about his love for Bob Dylan and his opposition to the Vietnam War. You can read it here.
Here is the entire June 22, 1973, broadcast of The Midnight Special.
Winston doesn’t want Spooky to know when he retreats to his safe space.
It’s commonly understood that extroverts replenish their energy by being around people, and introverts find restoration in being alone. So it’s no wonder that a tabby cat named Winston and his “alone cabinet” have grabbed the attention of introverts everywhere.
Winston lives with his sister, a black cat named Spooky, who can be a little…well, clingy. Spooky loves Winston and wants to be where he is, preferably as close as possible. Winston loves Spooky, too, but sometimes he needs some space. That’s when he surreptitiously slips away to the kitchen and takes respite in a “secret” cabinet where he can be alone for a bit.
There’s just one problem: Spooky seems to be catching on to Winston’s hiding place.
And Winston apparently doesn’t want Spooky to know when he’s retreating to his alone cabinet.
According to their human, Spooky isn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch and doesn’t know that she can open cabinets. But still, Winston appears worried that his sister will follow him into his safe space and ruin the whole purpose of having it.
Thankfully, their human has been paying attention and can see what’s been happening. When Winston goes into the kitchen, he won’t climb into the cabinet if Spooky follows him. He just looks up with pleading eyes, as if to say, “Can you please take her away long enough for me to hop in there without her seeing, pretty please?”
And that’s exactly what their human does, taking Spooky to the bedroom for a few minutes so Winston can secretly escape into his cabinet.
“Spooky is very confused, but Winston’s introverted space cannot be compromised,” the owner shares. Introverts everywhere are feeling seen.
In the comments, people shared how they relate to Winston’s need for alone time and praised the cats’ owner for noticing and respecting it:
“I understand Winston on a molecular level. I too dislike it when people follow me into my cabinet when I’m trying to decompress and recharge. Good on you, Winston, for prioritising self-care.”
“I don’t like when people try to follow me into my cabinet either.”
“As a fellow introvert, I completely understand. Kudos to Winston for caring for Spooky’s feelings.”
“As an introvert myself, I can only say thank you for allowing Winston his refuge.”
“I feel that this is a very very VERY good thing to do. For anyone, not just cats. Letting peeps have their own space to decompress in means they’ll be happier and more able to stay social and happy.”
Cats have traditionally been viewed as solitary animals, and sometimes they are. But most of us who’ve had cats, especially more than one, know them to be social creatures as well.
Cats’ social structure is just different than humans or other social animals. Related females tend to form colonies when left alone, while males do tend to be more solitary. But as with most things “cat,” that’s not a hard and fast rule. Basically, the answer to the solitary vs. social question can be summed up in this one sentence from the Milwaukee Cat Clinic: “Cats choose with whom to be social and when.”
That’s likely why Winston’s desire for alone time in the cabinet seems so deliberate. Humans on the introvert end of the spectrum feel a similar pull to solitude when we’ve had enough socializing. Introverts aren’t altogether unsocial; they just choose with whom to be social and when, like a cat.
Winston is basically living every introvert’s dream: a cabinet of one’s own and a guardian who makes sure that no one, not even our closest loved ones, will follow us into it.
You can follow Winston and Spooky on YouTube.
Your brain is not broken. It’s just built differently.
Those traits you’ve categorized as “undesirable quirks”? They may actually be subtle strengths in disguise.
Taking a thoughtful pause before responding. Wanting to understand the “why” before saying yes. Replaying a conversation in your head so many times, the room starts to spin.
In a culture obsessed with instant reactions, being a person who treads softly, asks pertinent questions, and is genuinely curious is an under-appreciated advantage. It can even feel like a flaw.
However, psychology keeps arriving at the same conclusion: the habits that make us feel awkward and out of place are actually signals of a sharper, more complex mind at work. Let’s walk through what that looks like in real life.
You’re in an all-hands meeting. Someone asks a question, and the rest of the call quickly starts talking at once, voices overlapping. Everyone else seems to fire back instantly, and there you are, taking a visible beat that feels like an eternity. That pause can often be read as hesitation or timidness. Maybe even insecurity.
But here’s what’s actually happening: your brain is doing quality control.
In 2025, researchers found that people who paused briefly before answering were perceived as more confident, trustworthy, and competent than those who responded immediately. Instead of blurting out the first thing that comes to mind, you pause, scan the situation, and test your thinking. Psychologists call this dual-processing reasoning, a slower and more deliberate way of reasoning. Think of it as a strength, not a delay: a built-in review process that helps you catch mistakes, sharpen your judgment, and make more reliable choices. In effect, you are double-checking the math before showing your work.
Maybe this situation feels familiar: someone proposes a plan, and everyone else seems ready to move forward. Yet you still sense that something is off. Perhaps a step has been overlooked, the conclusion came too quickly, or an important risk has not been fully acknowledged. So, it makes sense to start by asking questions. Isn’t it natural to want to understand the why before agreeing to the what?
Suddenly you’re “difficult.” Or “negative.” Or “not a team player.” Underneath the labels lies a simple truth: your brain has a low tolerance for fuzzy reasoning. It can’t stand incomplete information. Psychologists link this to high cognitive complexity; you’re acutely aware of how many things can go wrong when the math doesn’t add up.
In group settings, you tend to hover on the edges first, never leaping headfirst into the conversation. You hang back, tracking carefully who interrupts whom; who laughs at what. You pay attention.
To everyone else, this can look like shyness or disinterest.
In reality, your brain is collecting data. Your working memory is taking in large quantities of information, some verbal, many not: tone, timing, body language, and power dynamics, to name a few. You’re the furthest thing from checked out. You’re loading. And the moment your brain finishes mapping the room, your moment arrives. You’re ready to step into the conversation.
If you’ve read this far, you may know that uneasy feeling when you raise your hand and say, “Sorry, just to make sure I understand—what exactly do you mean?”
This can feel like a declaration of incompetence. But people who are truly competent are very aware of what they know—and what they don’t. Refusing to assume is one of the clearest markers of mental acuity, according to the Dunner-Kruger effect. In psychology, it’s described as a cognitive bias in which people with lower skills or knowledge in a specific domain vastly overestimate their competence. To recognize your own gaps, you need a minimum level of that same knowledge. In simpler terms, you really don’t know what you don’t know.
As we’ve already discussed, you don’t like to feel unprepared. So, you rehearse pretty much everything, like you’re starring in a very meta, very tedious play.
This can feel neurotic or exhausting. But it’s also incredibly sophisticated: you’re predicting how another person might think, feel, and respond before you walk into the moment. This is called predictive social modeling. It’s the mind’s ability to simulate what another person is likely thinking, feeling, or about to do based on what is already known about their traits, current state, and past behavior. In plain English, it means mentally running a social forecast: “If I say this, they’ll probably react that way,” or “They seem stressed, so this joke may not land well.”
The conversation is long over. You left the meeting room an hour ago. You’re literally at your desk, eating rice crackers, and drinking your afternoon coffee. So why does it feel like you’re still in that room?
Although not physically, mentally, you’re stuck there: rewinding a slightly off-color (or was it?) comment you made, wondering how you came off to everyone, and whether you’ll ever be truly understood by another person. ‘Was I too assertive?,’ you may ask yourself. Too soft? Too quiet? Did I take up too much room?
You may not know it, but post-event processing like this is a sign of high-self awareness. Your brain is running a highlight reel in slow motion, replaying what happened and grading it against a complex internal standard most people don’t catch. The upside is that this inventive mental system also helps you learn quickly and improve at a rapid pace. The downside? It’s exhausting, isn’t it? Turns out, that same mental system has a hard time distinguishing between “actual mistake” and “totally fine moment that nobody else noticed.” A good rule of thumb? You’re usually harder on yourself than the situation calls for.
The weather. Weekend plans. “What do you do for work?” The latest in local sports (spoiler alert: they’re doing badly).
These conversations don’t do much for you. Like, you can do it. You know how. But small talk often feels like wading through molasses: a lot of movement, not much meaning. Kind of fake.
But give you a real topic to work with—one with substance—and it’s off to the races. You could talk for hours. This is what happens when your brain is built for depth. Psychologists call this a high need for cognition: you like thinking about big ideas, and shallow exchanges are genuinely under-stimulating. You’re not anti-social. You’re just waiting for substance.
Parties and big groups feel like a sporting event, or something like social juggling:
Whose turn is it to talk? Who hasn’t spoken yet? Why? What did that facial expression mean? Can I change the subject now?
But in one-on-one situations, when you sit across from another person who’s really just there with you, it’s like a new gear unlocks. You become a completely different version of yourself. While group settings demand social multitasking, one-on-one hangouts allow space for depth, nuance, and actual connection. Science says that highly intelligent people prefer this sort of deliberate, high-impact communication, with Jean Granneman, author of The Secret Lives of Introverts, explaining: “Happiness and meaningful interactions go hand-in-hand.”
When you start talking about something you love, you tend to keep going. The excitement is real, and so is the instinct to follow every interesting tangent: right up until you notice the other person’s polite nod and realize you may have gone a bit farther than necessary.
Some may call it overexplaining. Others say that’s what it looks like when a mind genuinely sees how everything connects. Highly intelligent people tend to think in networks, not straight lines, as one idea activates three related ones, which in turn activate three more. In fact, Polish researcher Kazimierz Dabrowski found that intellectual excitability is especially common among gifted individuals, whose thinking and curiosity often operate in an ecstatic overdrive.
Your pen is tapping against the desk. Your foot is bouncing. Doodles in the margins of your notepad.
These aren’t signs of unprofessionalism or restlessness. Those small repetitive movements may actually be your nervous system’s way of helping you stay focused. Studies suggest that gentle, repetitive movement can improve focus while completing mentally demanding tasks, as you burn off just enough extra energy to keep the analytical part of your brain engaged.
Messages are carefully crafted in your notes app, where the other side can’t see your typing bubbles. You read your words back, editing, snipping, and reworking, as if you’re publishing a novel. And this was all for a simple, “You free Thursday?” text.
It’s easy to call this anxiety. And yes, sometimes it is. But underneath that is something else: you care how your words land. You understand that tiny shifts in phrasing can completely change the feeling on the other side of the screen. You want the person receiving your words to feel what you actually meant, not some clumsy, half–translated version of it.
Most people never think that hard about the emotional impact of a casual message. You do.
It’s not a big deal, but you often feel just a little…out of step. Like, there’s a script everyone else got, and you’re left to improvise. You’re not anxious, exactly, nor unfriendly or shy. It’s difficult to explain.
This isn’t a personality problem; it’s about calibration. If your mind works faster, deeper, or differently than the average, most environments are not going to be built at your level of depth by default. The pace will feel strange. The topics will feel light. The expectations will feel sideways. Research suggests that people with high cognitive ability may sometimes feel out of sync with the pace and depth of many social spaces.
All of this—the pausing, the scanning, the rehearsing, the replaying, the extra explaining, the little movements that keep you grounded—is work. Mentally, you’re doing gymnastics, but from the outside, that can read as quiet. Or a bit awkward. Or a bit “too much.”
You’re doing your best to move through the world thoughtfully, carefully, and with compassion. That isn’t a flaw you need to fix. It’s something meaningful to recognize, honor, and, yes, hold on to.
Doing the work can help you get the job.
College students and recent graduates are entering a very difficult job market. For some, getting an interview can feel like an impossible feat, let alone getting a position. It’s not hopeless, though. In fact, career advisor Gorick Ng not only knows young college grads who have landed jobs, but also how they did it.
Ng gave some solid advice and shared the things college students did that helped them successfully land a job shortly after earning their diploma. Here are the ways those grads got their careers started:
The earlier you’re on your career track, the better off you’ll be once you graduate. That said, it’s not too late to start, even if you’re a senior. Including extracurricular activities and volunteer work on your resume can help strengthen your candidacy as a new hire.
While it can be great to include activities and titles relevant to the job itself (such as being president of the coding club for software development positions), other extracurricular activities can also be included if they demonstrate leadership and planning skills (such as being a tutor or leading a party planning committee).
Listing the skills you’ve learned at internships and part-time positions helps you stand out as well. Speaking of which…
While the summer is typically when internships are available, many applications need to be submitted months in advance. Some are even available year-round. It’s best to do your research to understand the recruitment timelines for internships and student jobs. Applying for and getting these positions can boost your resume when you search for full-time work.
Even if you don’t get the internship, the process of applying and interviewing can be good practice when you apply for a full-time position. It’s also an opportunity to become a familiar face and make connections.
While you’ll make connections with other people in your major who could help you, it’s very likely that you and your immediate peers are applying for the same pool of jobs. To get an edge or a job lead, it can be helpful to reach out and develop relationships beyond your current sphere.
Become friends with older students who graduate in your chosen field. This can allow you to stay in touch with someone already in your industry who could get a job and possibly recommend you for a role once you’ve graduated. Creating and maintaining relationships with college professors or speakers in your field can also create opportunities later. Even approaching those who interviewed you for a position or internship you didn’t get can be a good connection, depending on how well the process went.
While these relationships are professional in nature, it’s important to nurture them as genuine relationships, not transactions. Leading with curiosity about them, their professional lives, and the like will help you create long-lasting allies who have a connection to the field you want to be part of. They may also be willing to act as a reference on your behalf.
Applying for a job is easier, which is a wonderful problem to have. With AI-based applications and one-button resume submissions, it has become more difficult for qualified applicants to be seen by recruiters. There is also the problem of ghost jobs clogging up job searches with positions that are either already filled or don’t exist.
With this in mind, it’s best to submit a job application within 24 hours of a posting. This can ensure your resume is near the top of the stack. You can also ask your network if there are email newsletters to subscribe to within your chosen industry. This could alert you to positions before they’re posted online.
If there is a specific company you wish to work for, check its website regularly. Applying through its official website usually gets your resume seen before applications through third-party postings.
There are also some hacks for job search websites like LinkedIn. They can help you winnow down your search to job postings listed within an hour of posting.
Ng says that whether it’s a networking contact, recruiter, or potential employer, people want three “yeses” to the following questions:
Ng sums this up by saying a college student needs to demonstrate the “3 Cs”: competence, commitment, and compatibility.
By showing competence through a resume, commitment through conversation, and compatibility through the professional contacts you retain, you can show an employer that you know what you’re doing, are eager to demonstrate your abilities, and can be molded into what they need.
He trusted his gut, and it helped save her life.
A gas station clerk in Detroit is being hailed a hero after he risked his life confronting a suspected kidnapper who came into his store. It all began at around 7:00 a.m. on Monday, April 13, in Hamtramck, Michigan, when a 16-year-old girl was approached by the suspect at a bus stop while waiting for her ride to school. The suspect pointed a gun at her and demanded she get in his car.
Thirty minutes after the abduction, the man took the girl into a gas station in nearby Detroit and forced her to buy him a pack of cigarettes. The gas station cashier thought the situation looked suspicious, a hunch that the girl confirmed. “When he asked her to pay for the cigarette, I said, ‘Stop. There’s something wrong.’ And she mouthed, like talked to me like with no sound, ‘Help,’” Abdulrahman Abohatem told WXYZ.
Abohatem asked the girl to come around the counter and get behind him. He walked outside the bulletproof glass, told the suspect to leave the store, and followed him out just as the police rolled up to the gas station. “I see the police outside. I point to him—’That’s the guy,’” Abohatem recalled.
The police were at the right place at the right time because they had been tracing the girl using her smartphone. After word spread of the abduction, a friend of the girl was able to track her location.
Gas station footage shows Abohatem following the suspect out of the store as the police pulled up to detain him.
“One of her friends opened the location through one of the social media apps. I said, ‘Oh, I could see her location right now,’” Mohammed Alsanai, the principal at the girl’s school, Frontier International Academy, told ABC News. “As we show the police the location, informed the dispatch, and as she walked in and said she had the location, like the whole room froze, and we all look at each other like, ‘Here we go.’”
It’s incredible that the girl was saved just 30 minutes after being abducted by a group of quick-thinking people working together—although some of them didn’t know it). It was a great piece of teamwork from the girls’ friends, school administrators, the police, and a quick-thinking clerk who trusted his gut and took a big risk to do what was right. The suspect was armed, so he could have easily been shot for confronting the man.
The entire situation is a great reminder that people of all ages and walks of life are willing to step up and do what’s right when someone’s life is on the line.
“It is very concerning because we’re talking about a child’s life here,” Hamtramck Police Chief Hussein Farhat said during an April 13 press conference. “It’s scary to [the victim’s family]. It’s scary to every parent who has children. So, we can only imagine what’s going through their head right now. Just want to make sure they know we’re there for them.”
There’s a stack of books somewhere in your home right now, isn’t there?
Reading is hard. It wasn’t always, but now, it is. You know that feeling: you finally sit down with a book you’ve heard great things about—Song of Achilles, for example—and then it hits you. Your brain doesn’t work the same anymore. You’re no longer that wide-eyed child, eagerly tearing through books like they’re a bag of candy. Your brain has been trained to skim, scroll, and hop from one thing to the next.
So, each night ends the same way. You reach for your phone, scroll mindlessly for forty-five minutes, and fall asleep while wondering where your curiosity disappeared off to.
Don’t worry; this isn’t a moral failing. It’s inherently a wiring issue, a flaw in your current design. One that runs on, “What have I been training my brain to do all day?”
The good news is that the same science that explains that smooth-brain instinct to reach for your phone can also help you reach for something more nourishing, like books. In his YouTube video, “How to Read More Books,” user Ali Abdaal outlines ten rules to gently retrain your mind to read again. We’ve outlined them below.
Over the last twenty years, the number of adults who read for pleasure has dwindled. It’s fallen by 40%. It’s reported that today, only about 16% of Americans even pick up a book on any given day.
At the same time, we have never had more content at our fingertips. It’s ironic, isn’t it? We are constantly consuming words: emails, Instagram captions, text messages that are nothing more than veiled scams. Only now, words arrive in bite-sized formats and notifications instead of chapters.
But the research also tells us this: just six minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68%. That’s more than music or a walk around the block. Reading quietly, even for a few minutes, can lower stress, sharpen memory, and improve emotional well-being. In other words, reading builds the kind of cognitive endurance that doomscrolling erodes.
Som why do you keep avoiding it?
Here’s a secret. Most people who “wish they read more” (a.k.a. all of us) do not lack interest. Nor willpower. Our brains have been trained to operate in overstimulation mode, always expecting novelty, speed, and interruptions. It’s a far cry from the stillness, focus, and flow that reading requires, certainly. These ten habits work because they help reduce the mental effort it takes to begin reading. They can feel almost like a gentle kind of magic, slowly making it easier and more comfortable to stay with a text just a little longer. Enjoy.
Place your book or e-reader on your nightstand tonight. Charge your phone in another room.
That’s it! That’s the whole rule.
Behavioral scientists call this micro-shift “choice architecture.” Developed by economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, this theory demonstrates that small, subtle changes to your physical environment can profoundly alter your behavior, with little to no impact on your freedom. It requires little conscious effort. You are making the easiest option also the most nourishing one.
By bedtime, your brain is running on automatic habit mode. It reaches for whatever’s closest, most familiar. Over time, that tiny swap makes reading feel like the natural way to end the day. Your brain begins to associate printed words with rest and comfort, not effort.
The average person picks up their phone dozens, if not hundreds, of times per day.
Phew. Each glance at your screen, every flash of artificial LED light, represents a mental crossroads.
If the first thing your eyes land on is a social app, your fingers will go there before your conscious mind even checks in. However, if the first thing you see is your Kindle, your brain gets a different cue. Research refers to this instinct as “habit stacking” and “cue design.” The idea is to take something your brain already does (picking up your phone to scroll) and sneakily insert reading, gently redirecting the automatic cue. This way, each idle moment—waiting in line, commuting on public transit, a quiet moment in the morning—becomes a reading window.
So, your favorite reading app deserves prime digital real estate—the middle of your home page—while distracting apps are buried away in a folder, two or three swipes away.
Commuting. Washing dishes. Dusting the annoying decorative trim at the bottom of the walls.
These moments are tedious, irksome. But they’re also perfect opportunities to treat your brains to the worlds of Tolkien, Woolf, and García Márquez. This represents habit stacking at its purest. The technique, pioneered by behavioral researcher BJ Fogg and popularized by James Clear’s Atomic Habits, exploits the brain’s existing neural pathways. Since the anchor habit (commuting, exercising) is already wired into daily routine, the desired behavior (listening to a book) simply rides in on the coattails of the existing habit.
Plus, it’s a great way to devour literature: if you spend even half an hour a day listening to audiobooks, you can easily finish 15–20 books per year.
School taught us to be faithful, monogamous readers. One book at a time. Cover to cover, start to finish. And no switching. Too bad adult brains don’t work that way.
The reality? Your energy shifts. Your focus changes. Some days, your mind craves ideas and changes. You want nothing more than to read about how basketball can help you succeed in life. Other times, you wish to get lost in the strange, bizarre universe depicted in Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona.
The tactic: keep two to five books going at once; give your brain choices. Perhaps a novel, like 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. A challenging work of nonfiction. A cozy audiobook, maybe one read by the actual author, like Ina Garten does in Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir. Plus, something short and fun for tired nights.
Self-determination theory, a foundational framework in motivational psychology, highlights autonomy as the key driver of lasting engagement. Choice matters.
We’ve all been there. It’s the book of the year. You see it stacked up in piles like a shrine to reading in every bookstore window you pass. Everyone can’t stop raving about this book. But you can’t bring yourself to read past the first fifty pages.
Guilt creeps in. You don’t want to abandon this novel; you’ll seem like a quitter. The better option? Stop reading altogether.
Notice the sunk cost fallacy at work: the deeply human, deeply imperfect belief that the more you’ve invested in something, the harder it is to walk away—even when walking away is clearly the right choice.
Give yourself a break. Destroy the bias! Realign with your intrinsic motivation: the genuine desire to know what happens next.
Hey, so I don’t know if you know this: not every book you read has to be Ulysses by James Joyce. Start with whatever books pique your interest, effortlessly. Genre fiction. Thrillers. Romance. Fantasy. Short stories. So-called “literary prestige” is what’s standing between you and your ultimate reading goals.
The problem is this: if you start your reading life at the steepest part of the mountain, books start to feel like work. Flow theory, developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, suggests that the “optimal experience” happens when skill level and challenge level are perfectly synced. If the book’s too difficult, and it seems like every page requires a dictionary, anxiety strikes. Too easy? Boredom.
So, take this as your invitation to read anything you love. You’re building the neural pathways and attention span that will eventually lead to Joyce’s epic later on.
Reading is such a personal, private experience. That’s a beautiful thing. It can also make progress feel invisible, even to you.
Tracking your reads with an account, like Goodreads, or in a notebook, changes that. Now, instead of “out of sight, out of mind,” you can see a list of titles. A little progress bar. A challenge you’re proud to celebrate. You’re gamifying the system, and wow, does it feel good.
Psychologists have long noted that our minds do not like open loops, unfinished mental threads that your brain keeps revisiting because they feel incomplete or unresolved. It’s called the Zeigarnik effect, and it’s why checking off a bullet point on your to-do list feels so satisfying.
Welcome to the gamification of reading: annual challenges, completion badges, public reviews, and community rankings leverage extrinsic rewards to supplement intrinsic motivation. Over time, your brain begins to associate reading with these tasty little rewards, and books start to feel smoother, lighter, and more enjoyable.
There is no moral virtue in reading slowly. Sure, it’s nice to sit with a sentence, to luxuriate in its prose as the language washes over you like a warm breeze.
But for audiobooks, a slightly faster pace can actually improve your sense of momentum. Your mind will wander less frequently because it has to pay attention to keep up. Many find that listening at 1.25x or 1.5x speed (approximately 225–275 words per minute) is the sweet spot. This is because the average audiobook reader takes their time. They enunciate, sometimes frustratingly so, at 150–160 words per minute—well below the typical adult’s listening comprehension.
But remember, there’s a delicate balance at play here. Do not jump to extremes. Play at the edges. Notice where you still feel present with the material. Let that be your guide.
Whenever someone recommends a book—in a conversation, on a podcast, in an article—and your brain goes, ‘Oh, that sounds good,” don’t think. Get your hands on it immediately. Buy it or download it on the spot.
Think about it, how many times have you been told about an excellent book…then did nothing about it? Life moved on, and the recommendation evaporated. Lost to the tabs, shuffled to the “saved for later” cart.
Decision fatigue, the progressive depletion of the brain’s capacity to make high-quality decisions after repeated choices, is real. By the end of the day, your brain is tired. Eliminating the decision about whether to buy a book removes friction at the exact moment you’re likely to balk. A fantastic book can lead to an entire new world: one good idea can shift a career, a relationship, and your connection to the universe.
Stop calling yourself someone who “wants to read more” and start seeing yourself as a reader. You are a person for whom books are just a normal part of everyday life.
When researchers study habits, they keep finding the same thing: the story you tell yourself about who you are matters more than sheer willpower. How someone sees themselves (“who I am”) is a very strong predictor of whether they will change their behavior or keep going.
Reading works in this way. Once that story shifts, countless tiny decisions follow. If you believe you are a reader, reaching for a book in a spare moment feels natural. Suddenly, scrolling before bed feels off. A person who views themself as a reader will notice new ways to read: during a delay at the airport, a lunch break, or in the morning while drinking coffee; not because they’re forcing themselves to, but because that’s simply who they are.
Right now, your brain might be trained for short bursts of attention, quick hits of novelty, and constantly switching between tabs. It’s tired, and that makes starting a new chapter feel even more daunting.
But brains are pliable. They change in response to what we repeatedly do. Besides, this was never about hitting some impressive “books per year” quota. You’re taking back your time and filling it with an activity that’s actually nourishing.
A book on the nightstand replacing a phone. A reading app on the home screen. A lovely audiobook playing through your headphones as you vacuum your apartment or walk around the block. Together, these small actions steadily send a message to your mind: reading is safe, familiar, and rewarding. Over time, that message becomes a feeling.
And before you know it, you are not forcing yourself to read more.
You are simply living like someone who already does.
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