It’s said we make about 35,000 decisions on a typical day—what to wear, when to wake up, what to eat— but studies show all of these choices can lead to “decision fatigue,” which stems from the idea that each decision we make pulls from a single, limited pool of energy. But how big of a pool we start from, and how fast we drain it, is impacted by a number of factors. Since humans have a limited amount of brainpower for making smart choices, and that cognitive reserve is depleted throughout the day, we often waste mental energy on choosing almond milk over soy milk as opposed to making more important decisions like whose email to respond to first—the boss or your friend. In the age of long hours, overflowing inboxes, and packed calendars, it’s no wonder we’re depleting our mental reserves faster than we can replenish them, but today we have help! Melody Wilding is a human behavior expert who helps high-achievers mentally and emotionally thrive. A professor at Hunter College and psychology columnist at Forbes, Fast Company and Inc. Magazines, Melody is a licensed therapist and workplace psychology expert and the first guest on ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’!
“If you think about everything you do during the day, what to wear and eat, they really add up, leaving you depleted at the end of the day.”
“Social media helps us celebrate what’s going on in our lives.”
“You would only go to your high school reunion every 10 years now you see it everyday.”
“We all live with the reality that Google image search can stay with us for a long time.”
“I was always striving to do more and talking to a lot of women who felt the same. “
“Constantly challenging yourself means there will be failure.”
“I doubt myself all the time and the reaction I got was ‘me too.’ I saw a need for imposter syndrome and fears.”
“Greeting the negative emotions and being able to mine them for any good. How can you reframe the negativity to move forward.”
“How to create personal boundaries / emotional boundaries is a big topic with my clients.”
“Energy management over time management. The best asset you have besides time is yourself.”
“A self-care practice I like to share is called HALT: Hungry, Angry, Loneliness, Tired. If you are hangry nothing good is happening.”
“You’re saving energy when you eat the same thing or wear the same thing every day.”
“Have a morning routine or evening transition ritual.”
“We all have a need for connection, that’s what loneliness is about. Real connection to other people.”
“We’re conditioned to pay attention to other people over ourselves.”
“Be very clear about what you can do. ‘I can’t come to your charity event but I’m happy to tweet about it.’ Offer a positive bid instead.”
“More times than not I was feeling guilty for not feeling positive.”
“When you’re a high achieving person you’re pushing your own limits, wondering if you can make it to the next level. It’s in our benefit to figure out what self doubt it trying to tell you.”
“People in careers they don’t love are unsure and live in self doubt.”
“Fear could be trying to get our attention.”
“I was with the first ever online therapy group, Pretty Padded Room.”
“I chug water and am off to the gym, first thing. It’s how I deal with stress.”
Charity Hardwick is the Vice President of Soundcast, a privately funded company that creates wireless audio technologies for consumer and commercial markets. Soundcast’s engineering team first refined wireless technology to avoid interference from other appliances like the microwave oven or the cordless phone and has now been named one of the top innovative companies in sound design and engineering. Charity is also one of few women in the audio industry.
“We’re all trying to reach out to other people. It’s human nature to want to impress our friends.”
“Less than 1% of the population has a Golden Ear.”
“Audio really exploded with hi-fi back in the 80s. There were wires everywhere.”
“The boombox was transitional. We found a way to make audio mobile.”
“About 10 years ago Soundcast came out with a speaker with a subwoofer built in that was waterproof.”
“In my Impala I have two 12-inch subwoofers.”
“When sound starts getting compressed through streaming services that don’t care about audio quality it can prevent ear fatigue.”
“Only 5% of people in audio are women.”
Listen to ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ every Wednesday at 12pm ET/9a PT only on SiriusXM Business Radio Channel 111!
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