STEVE HAFFNER

Results are evaluated on how they compare to expectations. See how defying expectations can be magical.

Trust is vital to all of your relationships, and making a personal connection is a great way to reduce mistrust.

We hear a lot about confirmation bias but it keeps getting worse. Here's why and how to reduce yours.

Inspiration for when you feel your best years are behind you and you missed your chance at greatness.

Turn new knowledge into self-improvement by scheduling an action plan.

What do you think of Will Smith? Few people know much about him personally but after he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, many people...

Projecting your current self onto the future you is a recipe for poor decision making. Learn how to overcome it.

Why is one of the most effective learning techniques so underutilized? Use spaced learning to improve your performance.

Tracking your progress makes you twice as likely to achieve your goal. Don't ignore this crucial component.

How and what you write reflects on you. Implement a few simple tips and make a big improvement to your writing.

Quitting (job, relationship, career, business) is tough and has a negative stigma. When is it the best option?

Nobody’s perfect. We all have habits we’d like to break and new ones we want to start - basically behaviors that if we change them we...

Your decision making is undermined by misunderstanding small numbers . It's time to re-think and elevate your decision performance.

Improve your odds of success with your New Years resolutions with the Three Decembers Method.

You snooze - you lose. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Give a hoot - don’t pollute I before E except after C Humans have a thing...

After 5 years of learning about thinking and decision making, here are the most impactful insights I've gained.

A major cause of both regret and distrust and we our actions do not align with our values. How can we narrow the gap?

Moonshots are great and can take you far, as long as you are clear-eyed about the probabilities of success and failure.

We all have limits and constraints, but only some are real. How do you know which are illusionary?

What can we learn from astrology and its effect on human decision making?

How the "leave it alone if it still works" mindset may be hampering your ability to innovate.

A common cause of bad decision making is favoring anecdotal evidence over base rates.

We are not always in a position to practice when we need to, but recreating your practice mentally can pay big dividends.

Magicians tell us the hand is quicker than the eye, but it is the ease with which our attention can be manipulated that is the real secret.

You've heard that we only use a small potential of our brain's capacity, right? Wrong. It's time to let go of this widely believed myth.

What types of illusions are you most susceptible to? Which ones have the biggest affect on your success?

Is it useful to dwell on the idea that all good things must come to an end? Is it true? Does it foster happiness and a sense of fulfillment?

The "for us or against" proposition is an example of a false dichotomy - a fallacy used to intimidate the listener into acquiescence.

Ample hydration provides many brain benefits including improved memory, focus, and processing speed.

Predicting how happy a future event would make us seems easy. Unfortunately, brains are wired to make us poor predictors of our feelings.

Using good behavior as an excuse to indulge in bad behavior is more common in all of us than we think.

The social proximity effect shows that we become like the people we hang around with. We pick up their preferences, mannerisms and habits.

Information courage is the ability to confront the truth when the truth is likely to be uncomfortable. Do you have it?

Whenever someone argues that an event could be a "slippery slope," you may have an illogical fallacy on your hands.

Since decision making skills aren't formally in schools, here are 7 tips for helping your children improve their decision performance.

Your ability to effectively regulate your attention control systems is essential to staying on track with your goals and values.

When is it okay to take something at face value and when should we suspect and look for hidden meaning?

Analysis paralysis erodes confidence, causes you to miss important opportunities, and keeps you in the default status quo.

Assessing when an outcome is outside of our control is tricky, and a persistent illusion often gets in the way.

Providing a reason when making a request or argument can increase buy-in. But does the reason need to be relevant? Not always.

Why is it so painful to admit we were wrong, even to ourselves? The skill of being able change your beliefs and opinions is a powerful tool.

Framing a decision as a choice between two options is common because it is fast and easy, but it runs a higher risk of producing failure.

As a mentalist, I used to pretend to read minds but I knew I couldn't do it for real. But most of us think we can.

Groupthink hinders effective decision performance by closing off other options. Enlist a devil's advocate to consider contrary approaches.

Now that 2020 is behind us we can take a look back with the benefit of distance and hindsight. Think about some of the decisions you made...

There is no way to make a great decision if the data that goes into it is faulty, inaccurate or just plain bad. Garbage in - garbage out.

How physical exercies is the best way to increase your brain's performance.

At the end of each year I do two things: 1) review the goals I had set at the beginning of the year, and 2) set my goals for the coming...

Curiosity is the engine that drives growth, innovation and personal development.

“I've wasted thousands and thousands of kisses on you.”—Faye, That Thing You Do For 3 months I worked on a software development project....