Stress is best defined as an emotional and physical state where the body is getting ready for the "fight or flight" response.

During the fight or flight response the body releases adrenaline, experiences palpitations and increased sweating that lasts until the perceived threat is over, or until the body falls into exhaustion and can no longer sustain this state. The stress can cause a lack of sleep, inability to focus, and changes in our eating habits.

The imposter syndrome is the feeling that you are unworthy of your accomplishments at work and that you will be exposed as a fake. People who experience imposter syndrome perceive it as harmful to their success.

But the behaviours that the 'imposters' show to compensate for their self-doubt can make them better at their jobs and motivate them to outperform their non-imposter peers in interpersonal skills.

This is a way of life in Japan, where people work towards what they love doing, and do that with passion. Iki means life, and gai means ‘to be worthwhile’; loosely translated, Ikigai means the work, activity or hobby that gets an individual up in the morning.

It's something you live for: If you have a great time when you are working, it could be ikigai. If you have a family you love and you can do something for, it's also ikigai.

While collaborating with others is essential in a creative process, exceptional creativity needs solitude. Interacting and brainstorming in a group is not as deep creatively as shutting down the world and being completely alone with your own craft. Creative people generally tend to be introverts.

The best creative minds like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein remain flexible and spend a lot of quality time in solitude, while also valuing the ideas from other sources.

1. Self-Awareness: understanding of one’s emotions.
2. Self-Regulation: it frees us from being prisoners of our feelings.
3. Motivation: having an intrinsic desire to achieve things.
4. Empathy: the ability to understand emotions of other people.
5. Social Skill:  the ability to build rapport and manage relationships.

Emotions (like rage) are a jolt of energy with a short duration and are also called ‘action potentials’. This is because they provide information that energizes you towards a particular action.

Moods are states of mind shaped by our current problems, stress, thought and rumination. Moods that go on longer than a day or two can cause anxiety or depression.

Resilience is the ability to walk through bad experiences.

It generally means adapting well in the face of chronic or acute adversity.

Mondays involve transitions where you have to face the unknown. You may be anticipating the stressors it may bring, such as anxiety about all the work on your plate, or social anxiety.

People with complicated life circumstances can also feel anxious about transitions.

Conventional wisdom states our motivation leads us to perform an action.

Our feelings and motivation do guide us, but there is a way to change our mental state, our mood. The way is Action itself.

Creating a fictional persona is a strategy that involves taking a step back from our immediate feelings to allow us to think rationally about a situation. It allows us to rein in feelings like anxiety, and increase our perseverance and self-control.

Beyoncé created a persona that she stepped into just before a performance: "the moment right before when you're nervous... then Sasha Fierce appears, and my posture and the way I speak and everything is different."