Author: Dr. Jim Taylor

Recent Posts

Latest News: Comedian Louis CK’s Take on Smartphones and Kids

You have to watch the comedian Louis CK’s funny, yet painfully insightful and true take on smartphones, kids, people, texting, and life.

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Latest News: Your Children are Listening to be Translated into Russian

I’m pleased to announce that my third parenting book, Your Children are Listening: Nine Messages They Need to Hear From You, will be translated into Russian, following in the footsteps of translations into French and Korean.

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Share Activities of Love with Your Children

One of the most powerful ways you can express love to your children is to give them a gift that is, sadly, in short supply for many families, namely, time. The message you send when you are with them, mind, body, and spirit, is that you love them enough to make them your number-one priority. […]

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Early Childhood Education Has a Big ROI

Back in 2011, I wrote a blog post arguing that early childhood education was far more important to positive outcomes for poor children than current efforts to reform public education once kids get to elementary and secondary school. A recent commentary in the New York Times by James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate in Economics from […]

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Are Messy People More Creative?

An interesting article in the New York Times describes research that suggests that a messy environment increases creativity. FYI, I am the antithesis of messiness (just look at my office!). :->

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Will There be a Backlash Against Technology?

In a past post, I described my belief in the Law of Unintended Consequences, which suggests that we can’t predict how innovations will impact us individually or collectively. This law couldn’t be more relevant than in the influence of the Internet, and all of the technological advances that followed, on our lives. What makes the Law […]

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Use Rituals to Send Love to Your Children

Repetition is an essential part of ingraining healthy messages in your children. Rituals provide that consistent replication. Rituals communicate messages not only by what you say or do, but, more powerfully, by the actions your children themselves take. Plus, when they engage in rituals, and experience their positive consequences, your children gain “buy-in” and ownership […]

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Parenting: Use Catchphrases to Send Love to Your Children

The messages about love that you send to your children at a young age are so important because love is a powerful, complex, often wonderful, and sometimes painful emotion that will play a central role in their lives. The messages you communicate in your expressions of love toward your children provide the context for the […]

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Cycling: Psych Down or Psych Up to Ride Your Best

In my last post, I introduced you to the importance of intensity in your cycling. I indicated that all of the mental preparation in the world will go for naught if you are not also physiologically prepared to ride your best on race day. After a good pre-race warm-up on your bike or trainer, reaching […]

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In Sports, Think Now, So You Don’t Have to Think Later

I just returned from Europe where I spent a week working with a group of highly ranked U.S. athletes during their off-season prep period. After a few days, the feedback I was getting from them was that I was really getting into their heads and causing them to think a lot, in fact, to a few of them, think a bit too much.

This wasn’t a surprise to me as I hear this frequently. Between my mental skills work with athletes during practices, one-on-one sessions, team talks (in which we discussed a relevant sport topic each evening), and daily imagery sessions, the athletes were getting their minds stuffed with the mental side of their sport. I was definitely making them think more than they were accustomed. But that is, in fact, my job: to get the athletes I work with uncomfortable, push them outside of what they are used to, and think about things that will take them to the next level. Yes, admittedly, it can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but after a few days, they got used to it and figured out how to incorporate my approach into their usual training regimen.

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