Although film critics have given Limitless tepid praise, I found this movie to be deeply meaningful as a therapist. Understand Limitless and you understand many of the dreams and nightmares that haunt modern life.

Early in the new year many people resist making New Year’s resolutions because of past disappointments or lack of confidence in their own abilities. If we could understand ‘resolutions’ in their larger context, we could use them for their proper purpose as tools to achieve what we most desire.

What do stressed students and out-of-work professionals behind on their mortgages have in common? Beyond a mountain of stress, they both fear the emergence of a more cut-throat world where scarcity is the rule, not the exception.

I’ve heard it said that life has two speeds: too fast and too slow. The harried workaholic and the perpetual slacker are both familiar archetypes in our culture.What factors differentiate the tortoises and the hares among us? How can we become more aware of these forces that drive us in order to get get more control of our own internal throttle?

Our modern culture’s attachment to excess is easy to see in the material realm: bigger homes, bigger cars, and bigger paychecks. The simplicity movement has done well pointing out the downsides of the “bigger is better” aesthetic. However, a predisposition to excess can also infest our minds. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to think less.

What can creative people do when opportunities to work are so scarce? Follow these steps, and take your project from inspiration to presentation. Make technology work for you as you enable yourself to succeed.

For every problem, you can find a raft of generic solutions. But find the one that works spectacularly for you — and that’s your “secret formula.”