If life is about developing 3 good habits, what would they be

If life is about developing 3 good habits, what would they beIf life is about developing 3 good habits, what would they beWhat I love about this question is that it doesnt separate happiness from success.As you alluded to in yur question, you cannot have success without first having happiness. And happiness oftentimes leads to greater societal success.After grinding my life away for years, Ive realized that life is about simple pleasures and joys and that happiness is attainable at any moment.As I look back at the past 18 months (the happiest and most financially successful of my life), there are three habits that stand head and shoulders above the rest.Habit 1 Developing a stoic mindsetStoicism is a branch of philosophy that has been popularized by authors like Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferriss, and William Irvine.Its basic premise is that, through constant self-improvement and development of self-control, we can transcend the chaos of daily life and live in a state of peace and prosperity. Or, as the guys over at Daily Stoic Stoic Wisdom For Everyday Life put itStoicism has just a few central teachings. It sets out to remind us of how unpredictable the world can be. How brief our moment of life is. How to be steadfast, and strong, and in control of yourself. And finally, that the source of our dissatisfaction lies in our impulsive dependency on our reflexive senses rather than logic.I committed to the stoic philosophy in my early 20s and it has had a profound impact on my life and success.Its helped me embrace minimalism, appreciate the brevity of life, and truly learn to control my emotions and master my mind.One of the best habits that you can pick up is to read a book on Stoic philosophy for 30 minutes each morning. (I recommend Meditations, The Handbook, and Letters from a Stoic)Habit 2 Exercising outdoors for at least 60 minutes a day eating a clean dietRichard Branson famously said that exercise is the reason he was able to build the Virgin brand to 10-figures .And after 34 years of consistent exercise, I understand why.The lessons that you learn in the gym will have a positive impact on every area of your life and will leave you feeling, looking, and pergestalting better than ever before.Pick a simple program that you enjoy and stick to it.When you fall off the horse (and you will), take it easy on yourself and renew your commitment to fitness as soon as you can.Habit 3 Sleeping 8+ hours a nightIf youve been following me for any amount of time, then youve heard this one before.Ive said it once and Ill say it a thousand times You NEED to prioritize your sleep.I know plenty of people who think that they will Get an extra 2-3 hours out of their day by sleeping on 6 hours and waking up early.According to all of the science, they are wrong.Sleep deprivation (6 hours or less for most people) slows your cognitive process WITHOUT you even realizing it. Its a form of self-torture.This means that even though you might not think that you are sleep deprived subjectively, when you measure key performance metrics against well-rested subjects, the data tells a different story.If you arent sleeping 8 hours a night you are doing something wrong.Forget the 5 a.m. miracle.Get your 8 hours and youll perform better, feel better, and do better than you would be by getting 6 hours but waking up early.This article originally appeared on Quora.

8 Reasons to Be a Work-at-Home Parent

8 Reasons to Be a Work-at-Home Parent8 Reasons to Be a Work-at-Home ParentWorking at home has its ups and downs, but for most of us the pros outweigh the cons of working at home. While our career paths, home office setups, and childcare arrangements may vary greatly, telecommuters reasons for working at home are more consistent. 01Spend more time with your kids.Getty/MECKYThis one cuts both ways. Some people who begin working at home miss the social aspects of an office, but others feel the distractions of unnecessary meetings, social gatherings, or unscheduled chats at the water cooler cut their efficiency, further extending time away from family.08Save money on clothes and lunches.And though its really not a good idea to work in your PJs, especially with kids around who look to you as an example, you will likely spend less on work clothes by working at home. Unless you were packing your own lunch (if so, thats one task off your list), the amount you spend on lunches and coffee brea ks will decrease.09Sounds great, but what are the drawbacks of working at home?OK, now youre all ready to give up the rat race (or maybe join it if youve been a stay-at-home parent). But here are a few other issues to mull. 6 Possible Drawbacks to Working at Home.

Visualizing the Sapien Heart Valve

Visualizing the Sapien Heart Valve Visualizing the Sapien Heart Valve Visualizing the Sapien Heart ValveIn the medical world, no clinical specialty borrows more heavily from the canons of engineering than cardiology. Engineered devices and tools designed to repair or replace defective hearts and blood vessels have dramatically reduced the deadly toll of the nations leading killer during the past 50 years.The hottest property in the cardiac device field today is the Sapien transcatheter aortic heart valve, from Edwards Life Sciences, Irvine, CA, the first such device to replace a defective aortic valve without the need for open-heart surgery.The tiny valve, made of bovine tissue within a collapsible stainless-steel stent, is steered to the aorta along the femoral artery by a balloon catheter inserted through a small incision in the leg. Once guided into place in the aorta, the implant is expanded to full size, immediately replacing the function of the patients damaged valve.The Food a nd Drug Administration approved the Sapien in November 2011, but only to treat patients who are too old or too sick to be good candidates for open-heart surgery. Edwards views this as the first step toward broader approval of next-generation Sapien valves for the huge U.S. market of up to 100,000 potenzial patients.It is hoped that the Sapien heart valve could eventually eliminate the need for open heart surgery in many cases.When dealing with anything connected to the heart, an abundance of regulatory caution is always a good idea. But faced with at least two more years of clinical testing and the knowledge that the Sapien has been available in Europe for four years potential U.S. patients are understandably frustrated by the painstaking pace of the approval process.Crazy CharlieCharles Crazy Charlie Dotter (1920 - 1985) would share their frustration. Dotter laid the groundwork for the Sapien in the late 1950s and 1960s by inventing, among other things, the cardiac catheter and t he now ubiquitous technique of angioplasty. He also had his own ideas about the best way to demonstrate the safety of his inventions.Sapien heart valve, with catheter, positioned within the heart.Dotter chaired the Radiology Department at the University of Oregon Medical School, now Oregon Health Science University, in Portland. Back in 1961, Dotter was increasingly frustrated by mainstream concerns about the safety of his cardiac catheters. One morning, while presenting a seminar on this topic for his skeptical colleagues, he had a six-foot-tall cathode oscilloscope wheeled into the auditorium.As he demonstrated the device, he revealed to the stunned audience that he had been speaking for the past 20 minutes with a catheter in his own heart. He plugged the end of his catheter line into the scope and showed colleagues what a normal heart reading looked like. To the discomfort of many in the audience, he proceeded to move the catheter among the various chambers of his heart, calmly comparing and contrasting the readings.The Dotter legacy is rich with such tales of audacity in the face of the status quo.Dr. Charles Dotter.Dotters Crazy moniker was his friends affectionate tribute to his wildbret gaze and famously unpredictable public persona. He was a publicity-loving daredevil who enjoyed rattling cages alfruchtwein as much as he loved saving lives and limbs. A radiologist by training, he was a mechanical engineer by any other measure. His fast X-ray cameras paved the way for todays real-time cardiographic imaging systems. Along with his catheters for better angiograms, he experimented with ways to actually use them for treatment of blood vessel disorders. He used that technology to perform the worlds first angioplasty in 1964, saving the left foot of an 82-year-old woman who refused amputation. That achievement went unsung for more than a decade, while the mainstream medical world caught up with him. By the 1970s, many one-time skeptics were making lots of mo ney performing Dotters techniques.Dotter designed and developed his own catheters, and he designed his own fanciful coat of armsa crossed pipe and wrench mounted above his desk. If plumbers can do it to pipes, we can do it to blood vessels, he liked to say. Young entrepreneur William Cook discovered Dotters engineering brilliance at an industry trade show, and built a medical device empire largely on the power of his novel catheters.Dotter saved lives while chain smoking, hot-rodding, and scaling the nations 67 tallest mountains. He proudly tweaked the medical establishment when he saw the opportunity to prove his theories. Conventional cardiologists often had to hold their noses when referring patients to him.Visualize But Do Not Try to FixVisualize but do not try to fix, wrote one wary surgeon on his order to Dotter for a routine femoral angiogram. Dotter set out to follow those instructions, but found instead an opportunity. The patient was revealed to have two problem areas wher e the artery had narrowed to unsafe levels. The most obvious one was superficial, but Dotter found a more severe spot farther down. Dotters catheter left the superficial problem intact as promised, but treated the deeper, more serious problem by dilating the artery with his controversial catheter therapy. A later photograph of Dotter and his patient celebrating at the 11,000-foot summit of Mount Hood is evidence of who won the ensuing debate.Dotter went on to make other key contributions including early advocacy for the once-controversial technique of CPR and the invention of devices to administer last chance resuscitation therapy. But his biggest impact on health may be realized through todays spirit of partnership between traditional cardiac surgeons and Dotters medical progeny, the interventional radiologists. Such partnership would have been inconceivable in 1961, but today its routine. In fact, Edwards code-named the Sapien clinical studies Partner I and Partner II because of t he intense cooperation between the two professions.Although todays regulatory environment for medical devices may err on the side of caution, true engineering geniuses like Dotter will eventually get to the heart of the problem.Michael MacRae is an independent writer.Dotter saved lives while chain smoking, hot-rodding, and scaling the nations 67 tallest mountains. He proudly tweaked the medical establishment when he saw the opportunity to prove his theories.