Category: Self-Improvement, Psychology and Mindset

It’s September! If you’ve listened to any episode in the last month, then you know that I’m on round two of what I’ve dubbed my September Sabbatical, otherwise known as my yearly time to take a break from podcast production.

We’re not leaving you hanging, though. Instead, we’re digging through the archives and airing some of my favorite interviews on the show. Enjoy!

What does it take to create a sustainable sense of hope?

That’s the question that I invited Mark Manson, megabestselling author of Everything is F*cked and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, to answer on this episode.

While we published this episode one year ago, the question of how to create hope remains as pressing as ever.

Mark says that three basic factors contribute to a sense of hope:

1. Autonomy
2. Purpose
3. Community

Mark and I keep these three factors in mind as we discuss how to define success, find new challenges, and choose what’s meaningful in life. We touch on the importance of emotional regulation and avoiding crises of hope. And we talk about how they relate back to the financial independence retire early (FIRE) movement.

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Are you scared to take the first step toward the habits that you want to build?

Do you believe in your ability to change?

Or are you completely lost as to where to start?

Charles Duhigg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the best-selling books The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better joins us on today’s show to tackle these questions.

On his podcast, How To!, Charles explores the “why” behind our habits and helps listeners overcome life’s biggest challenges. Among them, finding a new career before it’s too late, walking away from an impossible parent, fighting racism in your town, and saying the right thing at the worst time.

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Who will you become in five years? 

Will you be the same person you are today, living a similar lifestyle? 

Or will you be a radically different person, with contrasting beliefs, goals, and preferences? 

According to research, most of us believe that we’ll maintain the same beliefs, goals, preferences, and behavior as our past selves. We believe that we’ll continue to plod along the trajectory our past selves set, destined for the same end-goal. 

That belief is flawed, and in some cases, downright wrong. 

Our personality is constantly evolving. The person we are today is not the same person we’ll be in five years. 

            What? That’s silly. I’m me either way, aren’t I?

Think about it this way: are you the same person you were five years ago? Ten years ago? Fifteen years ago?

Of course not. Things in your life have changed: your interests, hobbies, decision-making process, and habits are different than they were a decade ago. 

Past you ≠ present you. Present you ≠ future you.

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Dr. Susan David, a psychologist on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, joins us to talk about emotional agility.

For the past 20 years, Dr. David has researched and refined the principals around this concept.

A few years ago, she wrote about emotional agility for the Harvard Business Review. Her article became one of the most popular articles of the year, and the publishers heralded it as the Management Idea of the Year.

Dr. David gave a TED talk on the same topic, which went viral, gaining over a million views. She then published a book, called Emotional Agility, which became a #1 Wall Street Journal Best Seller.

The concept of emotional agility also won the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award. She’s provided consulting around this concept with clients that include the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the NASDAQ, Google, and Microsoft.

She joins us today to explain how to define emotional agility, how to develop it in your life, and how it applies to any goal that you want to pursue – whether that’s financial independence, early retirement, career advancement, or greater success in your health and your relationships.

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Today on the show we feature Scott Young, author of Wall Street Journal best-selling book Ultralearning.

Scott finished a 4-year MIT computer science curriculum in one year, learned how to speak four languages fluently in one year, and learned how to draw portraits in 30 days. Scott is also a writer, programmer, traveler, and avid reader who, for the last ten years, has explored the question: what’s the best way to learn? Ultralearning answers that question.

In today’s episode, we chat about the nine principles of Ultralearning, which can help you learn new skills, reinvent yourself, stay relevant, and adapt to whatever life throws at you. If you think you know the best way to learn something…think again. This book will challenge your assumptions.

If you enjoyed my interviews with James Clear or Cal Newport, you’ll enjoy this one.

Whether you want to develop hard skills to become more valuable at your job, soft skills for your journey to self-improvement, or you want to honor your love for learning, these nine principles will help you become more effective at developing new skills.

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In a hectic world, stillness is the key to a calm, enjoyable life.

That idea comes from Ryan Holiday, author of Stillness is The Key.

Stillness is finding flow, staying present, and being impervious to the pressures of the outside world. It doesn’t mean removing yourself from society and sitting in a forest; to the contrary, many CEOs and world leaders have practiced remarkable stillness during times of crisis.

Stillness exists within, regardless of the frenetic pace of the outside world, and irrespective of the pressures that you face at the moment.

In today’s episode, bestselling author Ryan Holiday discusses actionable tips on how to practice the art of stillness, as well as its applications to the pursuit of financial independence.

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