I grew up in a very secular home with no religion at all, so I was starting from zero. A. J. Jacobs More Quotes by A. J. Jacobs More Quotes From A. J. Jacobs Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one. A. J. Jacobs powerful inspiration christian I've started to look at life differently. When you're thanking God for every little you - every meal, every time you wake up, every time you take a sip of water - you can't help but be more thankful for life itself, for the unlikely and miraculous fact that you exist at all. A. J. Jacobs meals thank-god water There's a very passionate pro-chewing movement on the Internet called Chewdiasm. They say that we should be chewing 50 to 100 times per mouthful, which is insane. I tried that. It takes like a day and a half to eat a sandwich. But their basic idea is right. If you chew, you'll eat slower and you will get more nutrients. A. J. Jacobs sandwiches insane ideas The Bible talks a lot about thankfulness, and I'm more thankful than I ever was. I try to concentrate on the hundreds of things that go right in a day, instead of the three or four that go wrong. A. J. Jacobs three thankfulness trying A 2002 Oxford study showed counting sheep actually delays the onset of sleep. It's just too dull to stop us from worrying about jobs and spouses. A. J. Jacobs insomnia sleep jobs Think of negative speech as verbal pollution. And that's what I've been doing: visualizing insults and gossip as a dark cloud, maybe one with some sulfur dioxide. Once you've belched it out, you can't take it back. As grandma said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. The interesting this is, the less often I vocalize my negative thoughts, the fewer negative thoughts I cook up in the first place. A. J. Jacobs grandma nice dark Behavior shapes emotions. A. J. Jacobs emotion shapes behavior The key to making healthy decisions is to respect your future self. Honor him or her. Treat him or her like you would treat a friend or a loved one. A. J. Jacobs keys decision self There's a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great & powerful one A. J. Jacobs unconditional-love powerful love-is I'm addicted to self-improvement. The thing is, there's so damn much about myself to improve. A. J. Jacobs obsession improvement self I've never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day. A. J. Jacobs good-things littles The Bible improved my ethical IQ. I started to act like a good person. I tried not to gossip, and lie, and covet, and just by pretending I was a good person, I think I actually became a little bit better of a person. I'm not Gandhi or Angelina Jolie, but it was a baby step. A. J. Jacobs baby lying thinking This is what the Sabbath should feel like. A pause. Not just a minor pause, but a major pause. Not just lowering the volume, but a muting. As the famous rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, the Sabbath is a sanctuary in time. A. J. Jacobs volume sanctuary should I am officially Jewish, but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant. A. J. Jacobs garden italian way Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness. A. J. Jacobs twins laziness decision Very few people changed the world by sitting on their couch. A. J. Jacobs sitting people world A few weeks later, I’m in a fluorescent-lit classroom in Chelsea awaiting the start of the official Mensa test. I’m sitting next to a guy who’s doing a series of elaborate neck stretches, like we’re about to engage in a vigorous rugby match. He’s neatly laid out four types of gum on his Formica desk: Juicy Fruit, Wrigley Spearmint, Big Red, and Eclipse. I hate this guy. I hope to God he’s not a genius. A. J. Jacobs genius guy hate After decimating several vegetables, I decide juicing is my favorite form of food preparation. There's something perversely appealing about subjecting an innocent plant to that much violence. A. J. Jacobs violence preparation vegetables Let me tell you, though: being the smartest boy in the world wasn’t easy. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want this. On the contrary, it was a huge burden. First, there was the task of keeping my brain perfectly protected. My cerebral cortex was a national treasure, a masterpiece of the Sistine Chapel of brains. This was not something that could be treated frivolously. If I could have locked it in a safe, I would have. Instead, I became obsessed with brain damage. A. J. Jacobs tasks brain boys I always thought the name of Utah’s major newspaper was some sort of weird misspelling of the word “desert.” But no, Deseret is the “land of the honeybee,” according to the Book of Mormon. I guess I should have figured they would have caught a typo in the masthead after 154 years. A. J. Jacobs utah should-have book
