Articles by: Hanna Brooks Olsen

[caption id="attachment_9421" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo by Markus Spiske via Flickr[/caption] There is a challenge that faces highly-motivated people, which is a constant drive to do more. Call it a feedback loop of expected achievement.

[caption id="attachment_9402" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Stacy Spensley via Flickr[/caption] When surgeon and best-selling author Atul Gawande released The Checklist Manifesto in 2009, the book's mission was simple: Get people -- all people -- in the habit of making lists. "The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably," he wrote, explaining how a checklist, in its simplest form, could help everyone from moms to doctors to artists to scholars do their work better, by taking some of the pressure to remember every detail off of the brain, thus freeing it up to think about other things.

[caption id="attachment_9288" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Karen Dalzien via Flickr[/caption] With the most recent U. S.

[caption id="attachment_9277" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Sascha Kohlman via Flickr[/caption] As we learned from Vanessa Van Edwards in her class, Master Your People Skills, storytelling is like a special treat for the brain, activating it with endorphins and generally giving listeners a good feeling. Great stories satisfy our curiosity, tap into our empathy, and entertain us.

[caption id="attachment_9193" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Photo via Flickr.

[caption id="attachment_9187" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Photo via Flickr.