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Category: Self-Improvement, Psychology and Mindset

June 21, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#323: What’s in Store for the Economy and the Future of Work?, with ChooseFI hosts Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa

What did you learn from 2020? 

That question carries a lot of weight, doesn’t it? 

Collectively, all of us experienced an unprecedented year. In March 2020, the world changed overnight. 

Working from home became the norm. The market shot up and down and up again. Bitcoin skyrocketed. Housing prices held at unfathomable highs. We saw a global reckoning around social justice. 

Needless to say, our internal and external worlds experienced rapid shifts. We may still feel ungrounded.

And now we’re dealing with the aftermath, asking questions such as, “What do I really want out of life? How can I form a plan when there’s still so much uncertainty?”

The answer: become nimble. Embrace flexibility. 

At least, that’s the conclusion Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa reach during this interview.

Keep reading...

June 8, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#321: How to Transition to Your Dream Career, with Ashley Stahl

Picture this:

You’re searching for jobs, but you’re not stressed.

You know exactly what you want from a career. You’ve built strong, solid connections.

You’ve spent long stretches of time thinking about your values and traits. You know which companies you’re excited to work for, and which ones make you say “ughh, never.”

You’re confident in your skills and your ability to communicate those skills in an interview. You know whom to network with and what questions to ask.

Thanks to your laser-focus and self-assuredness, your job hunt takes only a few weeks. You land an awesome offer and you’re excited about the possibilities of where your career might lead.

Sound like a pipe dream?

If your brain is saying, “In what world does this actually happen?!”, today’s episode is for you.

Keep reading...

June 1, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#319: The Scout Mindset, with Julia Galef

Do you tend to see things as they are?

Or do you tend to see what you want to see?

To cut to the chase: how important is it to seek truth and honesty? Especially if it means the possibility of compromising your existing beliefs and ideas about the world?

If you’re unsure, or if these questions have you thinking, “Whoa, I need more caffeine before going down a philosophical rabbit hole…”, today’s episode has you covered. (Just grab your beverage of choice beforehand.)

Julia Galef, author of The Scout Mindset and host of the long-running Rationally Speaking podcast, explains the difference between the soldier mindset (see what you want to see) and the scout mindset (seeing things as they are).

She explains why we often default to the soldier mindset of defending ideas we desperately want to believe, and reviews several thought exercises that we can use to instead train our brains to scout for the truth.

Keep reading...

May 19, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#317: How to Win at Work & Succeed at Life, with Michael Hyatt & Megan Hyatt Miller

Does work/life balance sound like a mythical wonderland that only a select few ever achieve?

Do you make it a goal to enter this mythical wonderland each year, only to end up completely disappointed a month or two later?

Or have you completely written off this mythical land to double-down on work in hopes that you’ll achieve financial independence sooner?

Neither of these has to be the reality you settle for.

Work and life can coexist together. Without enormous trade-offs.

But you need to ruthlessly prioritize both areas of your life to make it happen.

“Yeah, okay. Please indulge me. Tell me how I can achieve this so-called work/life balance.” 

We’ll leave that to our guests, best-selling author Michael Hyatt, and his daughter and CEO of Michael Hyatt & Co, Megan Miller Hyatt.

They both practice what they preach in their new book, Win at Work & Succeed at Life, and they’re here to share concrete examples and actionable steps you can take today to make work/life balance achievable.

Keep reading...

May 7, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#315: The Science of Behavioral Change, with Katy Milkman

Do you ever grapple with the differences between your present self and your ideal self? 

Your ideal self might eat healthy meals 80 percent of the time, save 50 percent of their income with ease, set boundaries without apology, or exercise and meditate four out of seven days a week. 

Yet, your present self might struggle to ward off temptation when it comes to food and spending. Your present self may struggle to set boundaries, period. And your present self much prefers sleeping in and watching Netflix over going to the gym. 

You desperately want to bridge the gap between your present self and your ideal self, but no matter what you do, construction stops halfway. 

If that resonates with you, today’s guest, Katy Milkman, is here to share the science of getting from where you are now to where you want to be. 

Keep reading...

April 28, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#313: The Unspoken Rules that Could Cost You Thousands, with Gorick Ng

Portrait photo of Gorick NgAre you aware of the unspoken rules that govern your workplace or industry?

…the rules that determine how you’re perceived by your managers?

…the rules that no one teaches us?

Yeah, those rules.

            “Um, well, if they’re unspoken rules, then…probably not?”

Case in point.

So, how the heck are we supposed to land the right jobs for our career trajectory, succeed in those jobs, and advance, without knowing what these rules are?

Today’s guest is here to pull back the curtains.

Keep reading...

April 12, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#311: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking, with Jon Acuff

Do you ever feel like there’s a voice inside your head that insists on repeating all of your fears, insecurities, or mistakes?

Does this voice craft invisible scripts that then govern your life in the most limiting way ever?

Are you just sick of this voice having a home inside your head?

You’re not alone.

Today’s guest, bestselling author, Jon Acuff, found himself suffering the same fate. It wasn’t until he silenced this voice and replaced it with a kinder, gentler one that he began to wonder if this was common.

He commissioned a study to find out, and the results were clear: 99.5 percent of 10,000 people said they were overthinkers.

Keep reading...

March 3, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#303: A World Without Email, with Cal Newport

Photo of Cal Newport, credit Penny Gray

Wouldn’t it be nice if our inbox magically managed itself?

Let’s go a step further.

What if we could live in a world without email?

Email overload takes a real toll on us – on our workflow, and on our brains. A study conducted by RescueTime found that most workers can’t go six minutes without checking email. That, combined with how inefficient we become when switching tasks, creates a gigantic loss of productivity during our workday.

Joke’s on you! I don’t use email. I use Slack instead. Ha!

Slack isn’t any better than email. Any platform that allows for endless back-and-forth communication will cause your productivity to plummet. How are you supposed to get any work done outside of Slack or email if you’re busy checking in every six minutes? Those constant notifications can keep you engaged with unstructured conversation to the point where the day ends and you’ve had no time to get actual work done.

Hmm, those days do suck. But how else am I supposed to communicate with my teammates when something needs to be done?

There are plenty of alternatives that don’t involve back-and-forth messaging. Cal Newport, third-time guest of the show, joins us to talk about these alternatives. His new book, A World Without Email, explores the pitfalls of the “hyperactive hive mind workflow” and the structures and systems workplaces have adopted to cut down on noise and increase productivity.

Cal gives us a brief history lesson on how email came to dominate the workplace, explains the inefficiencies and limitations with email, and tells us which mindset shifts to make in how we manage our time, energy, and attention at work.

Keep reading...

February 24, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#302: The Financial Benefits of Optimism, with Michelle Gielan

What comes to mind when you think about optimism?

Yeah right, how can anyone be optimistic at a time like this?

*eye roll* What fluff.

Uh…does being optimistic about my chances of eating cake count?

Given our current circumstances, optimism might feel worthless, useless, or both. But optimism doesn’t have to be this mythical, unobtainable pie-in-the-sky concept, especially when considered from this lens:

the expectation of good things to happen and the belief that our behavior matters.

Why? Because we have control of our expectations and our beliefs. We can choose to alter our expectations, and we can choose to believe that our behavior matters.

That’s what Michelle Gielan, Positive Psychologist and bestselling author of Broadcasting Happiness, is here to explain. In this episode, she offers research-based tactics that you can use today to gradually strengthen your resolve, transform your relationship with stress, and shift towards optimism.

Keep reading...

January 20, 2021By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#296: Investing is the Art of Probabilistic Thinking

There’s a lot happening in the market.

The Dow is at a new high, there are runaway stocks causing irrational exuberance, and yet, unemployment claims are on the rise. How can this be?

To make sense of this, we’re dedicating today’s show to discuss how improving judgment and using mental models can protect us against risks and short-term thinking. We also touch on the so-called death of cities, and what this means for real estate investors.

This episode is for you if: you’re confused about why the stock market is doing so well while the world definitely isn’t, you’re getting caught up in market trends and wondering if you should make a risky investment, or you’re curious about whether cities will make a comeback after this is all said and done.

Continue reading for a quick preview of everything discussed in this episode.

Keep reading...

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Afford Anything

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