Have you ever wondered why hard things are so hard to do? According to David Rock, cofounder of the Neuroleadership Institute, it's because our brains are hard-wired to avoid things that require effort and instead pursue things that make us feel good. That creates a problem -- how do you get anything difficult done when your brain is actively fighting it? Rock says the key is to dive into difficult tasks when our mood is at its best and to put decisions to do hard tasks in a favorable context.

Radio entrepreneur Cathy Hughes applied for loans 33 times before her purchase of Radio One finally won approval, revealing tenacity as a key characteristic for entrepreneurs, writes Reco McCambry, CEO at Novae. McCambry outlines the characteristics that led to Hughes' success, such as constantly learning, setting goals and finding peers and mentors, and how others can follow a similar path.

If you lose your place during a speech or presentation, you can pause, check your notes, repeat the last thing you said or skip ahead -- knowing that the point you needed to make will eventually return, writes Jim Anderson. "We will forget what we want to say, but if we can come up with a way to remember our next words then our audience need never know!" Anderson writes.

The Great Resignation is less about recalcitrant, lazy workers and more of a structural crisis where retirements are up, married people are relying on their spouses and the stresses of low-paying jobs and caregiving are causing millions to reprioritize work, writes James daSilva. Individual managers can't solve those societal issues, but they can focus on training for new employees and new managers, pay more attention to remaining employees' growth and embrace the challenge of creating a better workplace, daSilva writes.

Only 25% of employees find it easy to discover in-house job possibilities, according to Gartner consultants, and with companies struggling to retain employees, talent-search organizations are using algorithms and revamped in-house job boards to help mitigate resignations. "Exploring outside the company was much easier," says Ben Reuveni, who founded Gloat, a talent-management startup.

Knowing what kind of work "sparks" you can help you create a sense of passion and purpose, says Jonathan Fields, founder and CEO of Spark Endeavors, who discusses this concept in terms of personal archetypes. "We're all in this moment where we have an opportunity to reimagine how we play together," says Fields.

Certain activities and habits can help people deal with the stressors they commonly encounter during the holiday season, ranging from forming connections when feeling lonely to following a budget if the stress is financially-induced. Psychologist Doreen Marshall recommends spending some time in the daylight to improve mood, scheduling time for rest, paring down the holiday "to-do" list and finding ways to minimize the impact of stressful obligations.

Roman Catholic nuns have been a mainstay in popular culture for decades, with portrayals as varied as those of Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and Susan Sarandon in "Dead Man Walking." But why do nuns generate so much interest? Vox's Alissa Wilkinson takes a deep dive into movies and TV shows past and present and explores how they use nuns to challenge male religious authority that's often corrupt, sometimes from an exploitative or extremely sexualized perspective and other times from a more respectful one.