Paul M. Michaud MD, CPE In the book, Drive, Daniel Pink proposes that intrinsic motivation is the most powerful driver of human behavior, with purpose, mastery and autonomy as the primary intrinsic motivators. Purpose: The feeling of contributing to something larger. Mastery: The desire to improve skills. Autonomy: The freedom to direct one’s own work. What happens when...
Author Archives: paulmmichaud
The fundamental attribution error and the antidote
Paul M. Michaud MD, CPE Too often, we attribute other people’s poor behavior to their character, while attributing our poor behavior to external/situational factors. Reference previous link language here. Hanlon’s razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ______.” While it is possible that the behavior you are observing is, in fact,...
“Your emotions are logical… you’re just bad at logic.”
When you experience an emotion, you have a thought about that emotion. That thought often determines the action you take. You likely blame the emotion for the action you take without considering the thought that led to the action. Next time you feel a strong emotion it may be useful to remember… your emotions are...
If a person explodes with anger at you, remember this…
“Everyone is caught up in a chain of events that long predates the present moment. Our anger often stems from problems in our childhood, from the problems of our parents which stem from their own childhood, on and on. Our anger also has roots in the many interactions with others, the accumulated disappointments and heartaches...
Time does not heal… it is what you do in time that heals.
“That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” ~Khaled Hosseini “Don’t turn away. Keep your...
“You can’t become what you need to be by remaining what you are.”
Image credit: Hope for the Flowers, Trina Paulis “Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization.” ~Tim Ferriss
The most important thing is…
The imperfect process of habit development
“Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits… The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.” ~James Clear
“The cave you fear to enter …”
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” ~Joseph Campbell
Mirrors and windows…
Great “leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. Poor “leaders often did just the opposite—they looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out the window to assign blame for disappointing...