I used to constantly second-guess my decisions and worry about worst-case scenarios. It slowed down my work, drained my energy, and made it harder to enjoy life. 

I’ve been a neuroscientist for over 20 years and I’ve learned that you don’t need to optimize every minute of your day to make your brain stronger. 

Even the smallest shifts in your approach can lead to positive changes that help you focus, feel calmer and fight burnout.

Here’s how I keep my brain strong and healthy.

High achievers often see anxiety as a flaw. I see it as a smoke detector: signals from the limbic system, your brain’s emotional center, pointing to what matters.

Whether it’s an emergency or just some burnt toast, I wouldn’t want to get rid of the alarm. In the past, ignoring my anxiety only made it harder to tell when to act and when to stay calm.

Now when I feel anxious, I pause and ask what it’s telling me about why this moment matters. Once I can name it, I can address it, rather than stewing or freezing.

When you’re under pressure, the prefrontal cortex — your brain’s CEO — floods with dopamine and norepinephrine.

These chemicals sharpen focus and drive in the short-term, but they also deplete the neurotransmitters tied to joy and fulfillment, like serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins.

This isn’t a sustainable form of motivation. It will only burn you out and make you miserable. 

When I start to get down on myself, I do a simple shift. Rather than ruminating on the outcomes I don’t want, I focus on the outcomes I do want. This helps clear my mind, and makes me more excited to pursue the goal in front of me. 

I don’t track my REM sleep or heart rate with an Apple Watch or an Oura Ring. Wading through too much data about things I can’t directly control just makes me more stressed.

If I wake up tired, I remind myself that today might be tough, but it’s going to be ok. Then I stick to my routine instead of trying to make up for it with additional caffeine or sleeping in the next day.

What helps more is managing the habits that set my brain up for good sleep: morning sunlight, a consistent bedtime to support melatonin release, regular exercise, and a calming nighttime routine to lower cortisol.

Jumping back and forth between different tasks and projects can sometimes make you feel more productive, because you get a little boost of dopamine every time you focus on something new. But that productivity boost is an illusion. 

Task-switching actually taxes the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that helps you make decisions and solve problems. This strain can lead to mistakes and mental exhaustion. 

When I really need to buckle down and get stuff done, I break the task into small time blocks so I can focus fully on one thing at a time. 

Positive thinking is a very powerful tool. But it can sometimes make you feel worse.

So many high achievers fall into this trap. They try to force their way to a good outcome by avoiding any negative feelings, and end up getting in their own way. 

A more helpful approach is to acknowledge and label your emotions.

It might feel silly, but it eases the load on your amygdala, letting your brain release tension and refocus with intention instead of suppressing your feelings.

For a long time, I focused solely on my ambition to avoid feeling like a failure.

From a neuroscience perspective, this approach elevated my stress hormones. I’d get a quick boost of dopamine and motivation, but in the long-term, it led to me feeling burned out.

Now, whenever I start to spiral, I take a deep breath and remind myself that I’m doing my best. 

By recognizing my worth beyond my output, I can rewire my brain and unlock a greater sense of joy and fulfillment.

Alex Korb, PhD, is a neuroscientist, UCLA professor, and mindset coach. He is the author of ”The Upward Spiral.”

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In the blur of adult life, it’s surprisingly easy to lose touch with people.

When I was younger, I felt comfortable stopping by friends’ houses just to say hi and see what they were up to. No plan, no pressure, and also no reason. In fact, not knowing the outcome was part of the fun! 

But as life got busier, I realized there was often a small internal hesitation when I thought of reaching out to someone: I don’t want to interrupt… It’s been too long… I should have something important to say… So instead, I’d think of someone fondly, feel a brief tug of connection, and then move on with my day, letting the moment pass.

It didn’t feel right. And so, after some false starts, I landed on an approach that removes nearly all of that friction.

I regularly send this 10-word message: “You crossed my mind, and I wanted to say hi.”

A simple text, that’s it. No explanation. No request. No expectation. Just a small signal that says: You matter to me. (If you feel inspired, add an emoji or two, like I usually do!)

You can send this to pretty much anyone in your life, past or present, including friends, colleagues, mentors, or loved ones. It’s simple, unpolished, and almost disarmingly small. And better yet, it always lands.

This message works because it asks for nothing. There’s no obligation baked into it, no implied follow-up, no pressure to perform closeness or produce a meaningful response. It leaves the other person completely free to reply immediately, to reply later, or not to reply at all. In doing so, it creates a sense of emotional safety that many messages unintentionally lack.

In a world that feels increasingly transactional and rushed, being remembered is surprisingly powerful. 

We’re living through what some researchers have begun calling a “friendship recession,” a quiet but profound decline in how people experience and sustain connection. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 20% of 30- to 49-year-olds feel lonely or isolated all or most of the time, while 24% of 18- to 29-year-olds report feeling the same.  

Loneliness among workers is on the rise, with as many as 20% of employees reporting daily loneliness, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report. The same goes for 22% of remote workers and 25% of those under 35. 

Against these backdrops, sending a simple message to someone who crosses your mind matters. There is meaning in simply being thought of and connected with.

I don’t remember the first time I sent this message intentionally, but I do remember noticing how much people appreciated it. 

Sometimes the responses are immediate, and sometimes they arrive hours or days later. Some are quiet (“Thanks for reaching out.”), and others are effusive (“It’s so great to hear from you!”). 

What surprises me isn’t just the warmth of the responses, but also how every so often the timing feels wildly serendipitous. More than once, someone told me they had just been thinking about me. Or they were having a particularly hard day. Or I’d been in one of their dreams recently. To me, this highlights how we’re all more connected than we realize, even when we’re not in touch.

Sometimes, the exchanges naturally end there. But more often than not, they turn into a text conversation, call, or in-person coffee or lunch that adds momentum and connection to my day.

Over the years, I’ve shared this habit with others, and I often hear the same concerns: Wouldn’t that feel awkward? What if they don’t respond? What if it seems random? 

What I’ve gotten comfortable with is that any discomfort is on my (the sender’s) side — and that it’s super brief. Once it’s sent, a message that asks for nothing rarely feels intrusive. And if someone doesn’t respond, it doesn’t negate the kindness of the gesture. The message still did its work.

So who crossed your mind? Send them a quick message. You don’t need any other reason.

Sara Sutton is the founder of Liveand.Love, a platform built around the idea that small actions can meaningfully shape how we experience our days and relationships. She previously founded FlexJobs, Remote.co, and JobDirect, and is widely recognized for her work advancing remote and flexible work. Her insights have been featured by the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Forbes.

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Gigi Gonzalez has a new rule for herself: She doesn’t work Fridays.

“Fridays are my errand day,” says Gonzalez, 36. “That’s when I go to the dentist. That’s when I take my dog to the groomer [or] when I get my nails done.”

For the rest of the workweek, Gonzalez keeps her schedule tight, working Monday through Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

That wasn’t the case one year ago, when Gonzalez says she logged a more traditional 40 hours of work a week as her own boss running The First Gen Mentor, where she’s a financial educator, content creator and author.

It’s not that she’s landed a sudden windfall or considerably increased her rates. Rather, Gonzalez moved from Chicago to Valencia, Spain, with her husband in May 2025. Since then, her personal expenses have gone down enough to make a 16-hour workweek possible.

The move has transformed her work-life balance, her finances and her outlook on a long-term future abroad.

Gonzalez’s journey abroad kicked off in 2019. One day, she was discussing her financial services job at a high-school career day and advised students to study abroad if possible, something she regretted not doing herself.

After repeating her regret through seven different presentations that day, Gonzalez decided it wasn’t too late for her to live abroad as an adult. She says she spent the next two years saving about $20,000 with the goal of taking a year-long sabbatical from work.

The Covid-19 pandemic upended her plans, so in April 2021 Gonzalez says she used her savings to launch her own business, The First Gen Mentor, where she offers financial education to first-generation students and young professionals of color. A few years into being her own boss, Gonzalez realized she could do her job from around the world, and she revived her plan to move overseas.

After some research, she and her husband set their sights on Spain, where Gonzalez can apply for citizenship after two years of residency through her Mexican citizenship. (She currently holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico, where her parents were born.)

Spanish was Gonzalez’s first language, so there wouldn’t be a major language barrier. Plus, Spain launched its digital nomad visa in late 2023, which allows foreign freelancers, remote workers and self-employed business owners to live in the country while earning money from overseas.

From July 2024 to April 2025, the couple saved over $20,000 to move abroad by selling their furniture and focusing on values-based spending. “It didn’t feel like deprivation; it felt like I was budgeting towards a greater purpose of moving abroad,” says Gonzalez, who is a financial advocate for Intuit.

She also limited her impulsive spending. That meant no new furniture, plants or clothes. “Basically, anything I couldn’t pack in three suitcases [wasn’t] going to make the cut,” she says.

Gonzalez got her digital nomad visa in April 2025 and added her husband as a dependent; he works in operations for an international company and secured a transfer to their Spanish subsidiary. Gonzalez’s visa gives her three years of residency, during which she says she plans to apply for citizenship in Spain.

Gonzalez says her cost of living in Spain is much lower than it was in the U.S., which means she can work less, typically 16 but sometimes up to 20 hours per week, and still live comfortably.

As a result, she says her sense of work-life balance has “completely transformed.” She can enjoy the luxury of a slow morning, starting with breakfast, exercise, self-care and lunch before logging on at 2 p.m. when her U.S.-based clients are starting their days.

Gonzalez says some early and aggressive investments are also paying off. During the pandemic, Gonzalez says she invested up to 35% of her income into her retirement accounts. It was enough to hit a number where she’ll be able to stop working and live off the distributions from her portfolio in retirement. Gonzalez currently has over $220,000 stashed for retirement.

“That means that I have enough in my investments now that I don’t have to add more money,” Gonzalez says, “and I can still retire at the traditional age of 65 without adding another dollar, just by letting compound interest do its magic.”

With her retirement income taken care of, Gonzalez says she only has to work enough now to support her everyday spending. “If one day I want to stop [running my business] and just go be a barista or a waitress, I can do that, because I just need to pay for my current expenses,” she says. “I don’t need to earn more to put towards retirement.”

Gonzalez hopes to stay in Spain long-term and says retirement is even more within reach given its lower expenses, especially around medical care. That being said, she says her newfound sense of work-life balance and a slower pace of living don’t make her dread working a few more decades.

“I’m not rushing to retire because I’m semi-retired,” she says.

Gonzalez says her personal expenses have gone down since moving abroad. Rent for her and her husband’s downtown Chicago apartment was $3,700 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit; meanwhile, in Valencia the couple pays 1,900 euros (roughly $2,200 USD) for a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom apartment.

Health insurance is another huge difference. In the U.S., Gonzalez says she and her husband paid more than $400 per month for employer-sponsored coverage with a high-deductible plan; in Valencia, their private health care is about $200 per month with no copays or deductibles.

“It’s really shocking as an American,” she says. “I don’t think twice about going to the doctor for something because there’s no copays; it’s already paid for.”

Not all of Gonzalez’s expenses are lower these days. Doing business in two countries is pricey.

Gonzalez says she employs a U.S.-based tax team to keep her LLC active and in compliance; her digital nomad visa also requires that she registers her business in Spain, so she has a Spanish tax team to help with that.

Given the added complexities of her business since moving, Gonzalez’s $350 monthly tax help has doubled to nearly $700 a month. “It was a big learning curve in the beginning, but I’ve adjusted,” she says.

Gonzalez says that when she told friends and family about her plans to move abroad, many of them didn’t realize how long she’d been planning for it.

“A lot of people see [others] living their best life in Europe, and then they look into the process, they get overwhelmed, and they don’t do it,” Gonzalez says. She recommends people really explore why they want to move abroad. Then, “create the systems and change their money mindset to be able to meet those goals.”

Gonzalez says her big moments of inspiration came from that high-school career day, but also when binging “House Hunters International” episodes or traveling abroad and wishing she could stay longer. It was enough motivation go keep her going through researching, saving up for and adjusting to her new life overseas.

“This is definitely one of the things for me, if I would have been on my deathbed, I would regret never experiencing life abroad,” she adds. “You get one life. Live it right.”

Conversions from euros to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to $1.16 USD on March 9, 2026.

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When Naseema McElroy was 25, she owned five rental properties. It was how she thought she was going to build her wealth.

By taking advantage of subprime lending practices that allowed borrowers with weak credit histories to easily obtain high-interest mortgages in the early 2000s, McElroy figured she would borrow as much as she could to purchase multiple properties and it would all work out in the end, she tells CNBC Make It.

Then about a year later, in 2008, the housing market crashed.

“I was really naive,” McElroy says. Suddenly, she owed lenders more than what her properties were worth. To avoid foreclosure, she says she was forced to sell two of the investments for less than what was left on their mortgages. Two other properties were foreclosed on, and eventually she says she had to declare bankruptcy.

Since then, the now 44-year-old labor and delivery nurse has grown her net worth to over $1 million, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. She owns her primary home, but the majority of her wealth comes from investing in the stock market through broad-based index funds, documents show.

The biggest lesson she says she’s learned from the experience: “Real estate is one form of investing, but it’s not the only form.”

While there can be upsides to investing in real estate, it’s significantly riskier than investing in the stock market and can require a lot more work than many investors anticipate, says Alex Caswell, a certified financial planner and founder of Wealth Script Advisors in San Francisco, California.

On social media, “there’s been a popularization of the idea that real estate is somehow a silver bullet in terms of building wealth,” Caswell says. However, in reality, becoming a successful real estate investor requires extensive research and dedication, he says.

Before purchasing a property, Caswell says investors should consider a swath of variables, including how much it could appreciate, property taxes, maintenance costs, insurance expenses and the best way to finance the purchase.

All of these variables rely on assumptions, and adding all of your assumptions together can create “a lot more of an unpredictable investment experience,” Caswell says.

Additionally, becoming a landlord like McElroy may not be as easy as collecting a monthly check, Caswell says.

“I just remember how hard it was to be a landlord,” says McElroy, who was also working full time as a health-care administrator at the time.

On top of constant costs associated with maintaining her homes, she says collecting rent and dealing with tenants became a constant struggle.

McElroy says she never generated as much revenue from the venture as she expected, and looking back, McElroy says her failure to understand the true costs associated with real estate before taking on so much debt became the biggest money-related mistake she has ever made.

If you’re not looking to commit to becoming a full-time real estate investor, Caswell says you’re probably better off prioritizing financial security by investing in the stock market through retirement and traditional brokerage accounts.

If you want to “dabble” in purchasing property, only do so once you’ve saved enough to retire comfortably, he says.

“The risk and the level of dedication to succeed in a real estate venture is going to be so great that if you fail at it, it could really set you back financially,” Caswell says.

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While progress toward gender parity remains slow, several career paths offer above-average representation of women as well as high pay, according to a report from Resume Genius published Mar. 3.

Resume Genius, an online career platform and resume builder, identified the top 10 careers with high median salaries and projected job growth in which women make up 50% or more of workers, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“All of these roles are very high-paying, and require specialized knowledge and skills,” says Resume Genius career expert Eva Chan. “For women who are very ambitious [and] want to go up the career ladder, those are very good roles to aspire to.”

Chan notes that many of the jobs are in the health care industry, including roles like physician assistant and nurse practitioner. Historically, women have been drawn to jobs in health care because they can be “a little bit more flexible” with scheduling, according to career coach Colleen Paulson, which “helps to keep women in the workforce through life changes like having kids.”

Health care roles often come with well-defined advancement opportunities and attractive salaries and benefits, Chan says, making it easier for women to make long-term plans. These jobs also offer “very stable” career paths due to the rising demand for health care professionals, she says.

According to Resume Genius, these are the top 10 highest-paying, women-led careers, as well as each role’s median salary, the percentage of women in the field, its estimated growth between 2024 and 2034 and the educational requirements associated with it.

Median annual salary: $161,700

Proportion of women: 53%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 15%

Education: Bachelor’s degree

Median annual salary: $140,030

Proportion of women: 76%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 5%

Education: Bachelor’s degree

Median annual salary: $137,480

Proportion of women: 60%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 5%

Education: Doctor of Pharmacy

Median annual salary: $133,260

Proportion of women: 73%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 20%

Education: Master’s degree

Median annual salary: $132,870

Proportion of women: 70%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 5%

Education: Bachelor’s degree

Median annual salary: $132,050

Proportion of women: 88%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 35%

Education: Master’s degree

Median annual salary: $125,510

Proportion of women: 69%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 10%

Education: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Median annual salary: $117,960

Proportion of women: 74%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 23%

Education: Bachelor’s degree

Median annual salary: $98,340

Proportion of women: 88%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 14%

Education: Master’s degree

Median annual salary: $95,410

Proportion of women: 95%

Estimated job growth 2024–2034: 15%

Education: Master’s degree

The report also identified several high-paying careers in which women’s representation is low but rising, including roles like mechanical engineer and surgeon. Still, occupational segregation remains a concern, Paulson says.

For example, while the percentage of women in mechanical engineering has nearly doubled — from 6% in the 1980s to 11% in 2024, according to Resume Genius’ data — women are still vastly underrepresented in the field, says Paulson, who previously worked as a mechanical engineer.

In Paulson’s experience, woman are often deterred from pursuing these career fields by the prospect of being the only woman in a male-dominated environment. “While it’s great to see that representation is increasing, it’s still probably not where we really want it to be,” she says.

Part of the solution is for companies to prioritize an inclusive workplace culture, she says. That could mean sponsoring internships for early-career women, creating mentorship groups or hosting networking events.

“It starts with welcoming younger women in a real way and making it so that they want to stay in the field,” Paulson says.

Chan is encouraged to see more “leadership, influence and progress” for women in these high-paying but historically male-dominated roles, she says. But “there is always going to be more work to be done.”

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