Have you ever thought of the merits of quitting?

Apparently, “winners do quit all the time, they just quit the right stuff at the right time.”

Gregory Miller, an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, has helped write a number of studies on quitting. His studies have found that, in many cases, moving from a difficult goal to another, more attainable one can create a greater sense of well-being, both mentally and physically.

The article is not suggesting well-being at the cost of abandoning our utmost dreams and desires, but rather making sure pursuing those doesn’t leave us frustrated and doesn't take over all other areas of our lives. If that is the case, chances are, we’ve gone for the wrong dream.

Read the full article at the New York Times.

Barbara Taylor, On Kindness

On Thursday 12th Feb 2009 at 1pm, the RSA's Rachel O’Brien will chair "On Kindness", a talk with historian Barbara Taylor.

"The pleasures of kindness have been well known since the dawn of Western thought. Kindness, said Marcus Aurelius, was mankind's 'greatest delight' - and centuries of thinkers and writers have echoed him. But today, kindness seems to have gone out of fashion. In the age of free-market capitalism and the selfish gene, kindness is all too often regarded narcissism or weakness. Have we, as a species, become deeply and fundamentally antagonistic to each other, with motives that are generally self-seeking?"

In her new book, On Kindness (co-authored with psychologist Adam Phillips), historian Barbara Taylor calls for a re-discovery of the pleasures of kindness, and argues that what the Victorians called 'open-heartedness' and the Christians 'caritas' remains essential to our emotional and mental well-being.

For more information and to book a ticket, visit thersa.org/events.