This time of year, it’s hard to miss the onslaught of cheesy, formulaic Christmas movies, where (inevitably) a big city businessman/advertising exec/marketing bro finds true love and happiness with a small-town baker/chef/café owner. It’s a story that’s been so overtold that you can guess the characters, the setting, the plot, and the happy ending before it even starts. In many ways, our brain follows the same predictable pattern as these movies. No matter how boring, and no matter how tired we ...
Dec 14, 2023•33 min•Ep. 241
As humans, most of us wonder about our purpose. Unlike God’s other creations, we tend to worry about what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives and how to find and fulfill our true purpose while we’re here on earth. Sometimes these concerns cause us to hurt ourselves with the thought that our lives were supposed to be different than they are and that if we were better somehow or had made better choices, then we’d have the life we were really supposed to have. In today’s episode of the podcas...
Dec 07, 2023•28 min•Ep. 240
The holidays can be a really stressful time of year. It seems like there are a million things to do, a million places to be, a million expectations to meet, and never enough time and energy and resources to do it all. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing 6 practical tips to help you navigate the holidays more gracefully and to approach this time of year with more grace for yourself and the other people in your life. If you want to create more connection and really enjoy the next five w...
Nov 30, 2023•32 min•Ep. 239
While there are never feelings that you should or should not feel, there might be feelings that you WANT to feel more of—and maybe gratitude is one of those for you. Not only can gratitude be one of the most enjoyable emotions to feel in and of itself, it can also be used to soften and ameliorate painful emotions like stress and grief. Today on the podcast, I’m sharing a small but powerful tool that you can use to immediately increase the amount of gratitude you feel in any situation. Instead of...
Nov 23, 2023•23 min•Ep. 238
My brother recently ran his third 100-mile ultramarathon and I wanted to know all about it! WHY did he run it? HOW did he run it? And WHAT does he do to keep going when things get hard? We talk about all of it in this latest episode of the podcast. This is an episode packed with tons of insights and a-ha moments to help all of us who want to do hard things but don’t know how to keep going when our brain is telling us to stop. We talk about why it’s pursuing your goals matters, tools for quieting...
Nov 16, 2023•43 min•Ep. 237
One of the greatest gifts we have down here on earth is the ability to talk to God. But just like anything else in life, sometimes our thoughts get in the way of us using this gift the way we want to. For many of us, there are a lot of thoughts that can get in the way of our conversations with God, that prevent us from opening up to him, that make us feel guilty and self-conscious, and stop us from making him a trusted confidant that we want to talk to and listen to. In today’s episode of the po...
Nov 09, 2023•36 min•Ep. 236
It’s easy to feel heavy and overwhelmed by the suffering and devastation happening in our world right now. It seems like there is no end to the pain caused by living in the world or to the pain that can be caused by the choices of other people. In today’s podcast episode, I am sharing a recent conversation I had with grief coach, Kelly Norton, who shared some powerful thoughts about how to handle and manage the grief of the world and the pain we feel witnessing the realities of the human conditi...
Nov 02, 2023•41 min•Ep. 235
A spell is defined as a series of words that has magical powers. But there’s nothing mystical or supernatural about the fact that the words in our head (our thoughts) are powerfully, unconsciously, almost “magically” creating our lives. And if we think about the metaphor of casting spells to allow you to alter or control reality, nowhere is that a more useful skill to have than in your own mind. The words you choose to think are literally creating your life—and that means that your ability to lo...
Oct 26, 2023•30 min
Our brains can be kind of tricky sometimes. They often like to give us thoughts that sound nice, but which can actually be harmful and cause us pain. In fact, some of our most poisonous thoughts walk around our minds disguised as helpful, useful, reasonable, and sometimes even “positive” thoughts. Today on the podcast I’ll show you how three thoughts (that your brain probably gives you on a daily or weekly basis) might be causing you to feel powerless, frustrated, and ashamed—but you might not e...
Oct 19, 2023•31 min•Ep. 233
There are lots of times in our lives when we’re going to feel discouraged and, as the prefix indicates, to have moments where we literally feel separated from our courage. When this happens to us or to the people we love, what do we do? How do we effectively help and encourage when we or others need it the most? This week I received an audio message from my son that was so encouraging that it made me wonder what characteristics made it so effective. I think it perfectly exemplified how we can of...
Oct 12, 2023•25 min•Ep. 232
The seasons are changing and I think it’s time to change the way we see ourselves as well. It’s time for a season of self-compassion. I talk a lot on the podcast about self-development, but none of us can truly grow and develop and reach our potential without having a high degree of love and compassion for ourselves. Without it, our quest for self-actualization can easily become an exercise in self-contempt. Self-compassion sometimes gets a bad rap because we mistake it for self-indulgence or se...
Oct 05, 2023•30 min•Ep. 231
One of the things that can keep us stuck and discouraged and not pursuing our dreams is the fear of failure. It’s easy to be scared of failure because almost every day our brain points out the ways that it sees us failing. Our brains are good at noticing where we aren’t measuring up, where we’re falling behind, and where we’ve failed to meet our own expectations—and it feels terrible. But what if you can’t fail? What if there’s actually no such thing? In today’s podcast I’m sharing three recent ...
Sep 28, 2023•32 min•Ep. 230
We are in a transition time of the year, moving from summer to fall. And every time we come to a transition moment in life, there is an opportunity to check in with yourself and ask yourself if you want to keep creating the things you’ve been creating or if you want to make a change. This periodic evaluation can allow us to live a life of intention rather than a life by default. In today’s podcast, I ask two important questions: What do you want? Do you want to change to get it? And if these que...
Sep 21, 2023•36 min•Ep. 229
Dread is suffering your brain creates ahead of time. It’s the pain we feel because our brain is trying to avoid a possibly painful experience ahead of us. And dread can be such an intense emotion that when we feel it, it can be easy to make excuses for ourselves and talk ourselves out of doing the things we want to do. What if what is really between you and the life you want is just a feeling? What if it’s just the feeling of dread? Today on the podcast, I’m deconstructing dread and giving you t...
Sep 13, 2023•36 min•Ep. 228
Last week, my son, Caleb and I competed in our very first SwimRun competition, in which we ran nearly 16 miles up and down the hills and trails of Mackinac Island and swam over 3 miles in the cold water of Lake Huron. It was an awesome experience that neither of us will ever forget. As with any goal, along the way, we learned lots about ourselves, our capacity, and our brains and we think the lessons we learned will help you as you create the goals and dreams you have in your own life. This was ...
Sep 07, 2023•41 min•Ep. 227
Whenever we start a new goal, we feel motivated and excited and determined. And we’re pretty familiar with the end of a goal as well, when we either achieve what we want or we don’t. But what happens in the middle? While we all recognize the determined beginning and the satisfying achievement or disappointing failure at the end of a goal, there are parts in the middle that nobody talks about. And if you aren’t aware of the entire lifecycle of the goal and don’t anticipate all the phases you expe...
Aug 31, 2023•33 min•Ep. 226
We live in a world of opposition. For every one of us, the fact that we are alive means that we will someday die. And when we choose to love someone, it means that we are inevitably also choosing loss and grief. This is what it means to be human. Our lives contain the possibility for so much joy and happiness and connection, but all of these experiences are really only available because the possibility of loss also exists. How do we make peace with that? And how do we dare love when loss is inex...
Aug 24, 2023•29 min•Ep. 225
Our brain like to tell us that we don’t have enough. They point out that we don’t have enough time or money or energy or love. They are constantly scared about running out and not having what we need. But what if we can’t actually run out of the things we need? What if there is always more not just available to us but always coming to us? What if abundance is the truth and scarcity is the lie? In today’s podcast, I’m giving a new way to think about abundance in your life and the simple thing tha...
Aug 17, 2023•28 min•Ep. 224
Right now, in the physical health space, there’s a big push to improve and increase mobility. The idea is that the more mobility you have, the more ability you have to do the things you want to do with your body. If you can’t move your body the way you want to, it can create limitations. In the same way, the more mobility we can develop in our emotional lives—the more strength and flexibility and ability to feel and move with our emotions—the more experiences and choices become available and the...
Aug 10, 2023•34 min•Ep. 223
One of the hardest things to come by these days is quiet, especially inside our own heads. We live in a world where it’s now possible to have a nearly constant stream of other voices, entertainment, distraction, and noise vying for our attention and taking up the space in our minds. This leaves very little time or space to listen to own thoughts and process our human experience. Over time this impacts our mental fitness, makes us more anxious, reduces our attention spans, erodes our relationship...
Aug 03, 2023•35 min•Ep. 222
My daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks and as I have anticipated this big event in her life and the creation of her new family, I have thought a lot about the things that make an awesome marriage and the things I wish I would have known when I got married. Every marriage (and every relationship) requires work to be happy and successful, but for the most part, most of us are trying to make our marriages better by doing the wrong kind of work. The work we need to do is always in our o...
Jul 27, 2023•34 min•Ep. 221
For most of us, transforming and changing our lives can feel impossible and out of reach. But that’s only because when we think about transformation, we tend to focus our attention on big changes that are made in a very small amount of time. But it turns out that the smallest changes that often go overlooked are the ones that make the biggest impact in transforming our lives. In today’s podcast episode I’m sharing the biggest secrets to real transformation and sharing the hidden levers that will...
Jul 20, 2023•28 min•Ep. 220
No matter what time of year it is, most of us have a lot of negative thoughts about our bodies. We’ve been told in countless ways that our bodies are not acceptable as they are, that they need fixing, and that we should be deeply ashamed of them. This is especially true during the summer. Since the early 60’s, the idea of getting a “summer body” has purposely made us feel inadequate, implying that if we’re not toned, tanned, fit and ready for the summer, there is something wrong with us and our ...
Jul 13, 2023•36 min•Ep. 219
Today’s podcast episode is a fun one! This seems to be the year of Taylor Swift and, along with all the other Taylor Swift fans, I have spent a lot of time over the last few months following her Era’s tour and relistening to all her albums. Taylor Swift is arguably one of the most popular and successful single music artists on the planet—and yet, she is also still a human being with a human brain. And watching the way she makes choices in her life and puts her work out into the world, despite wh...
Jul 06, 2023•34 min•Ep. 218
Brain’s don’t want to have fun. They want to save energy and protect us from threats. They keep us safe by noticing how hard things are and so even when we’re doing things we want to do, we can still feel a lot of negative emotion about it. This week’s podcast episode is a continuation of our discussion last week on play and today we’re talking all about fun. How do we have more fun not just when we’re playing, but in all the areas of our life? Fun is not created by the things we do; it is creat...
Jun 29, 2023•27 min•Ep. 217
The benefits of play are well-documented. It is an important part of our mental and emotional health, but too often we trivialize or overlook it’s vital role in our lives. For most of us, play comes last, after everything else, or often, not at all. But this is the time of year when we traditionally go on vacation, have more relaxed schedules, and allow ourselves to spend more time playing and it’s a good time to reevaluate how much play there is in your life and bring your awareness to the thin...
Jun 22, 2023•35 min•Ep. 216
New thoughts are like currency. You can use them to purchase and create new outcomes in your life anytime you want. But you don’t have to come up with them all on your own. You can borrow new thoughts from anywhere. Today I’m sharing three of my favorite quotes from other people that I have borrowed to help me think about who I am, the choices I’m making, my value as a human being, and my relationship with myself differently. I hope they will help you do the same.
Jun 15, 2023•23 min•Ep. 215
Your brain is on a constant crusade to tell you how everything is terrible. And in many ways your brain is right. 😉 But…it isn’t all terrible. No matter what, there is always good to be found. That’s the way this life was designed, with both good and bad. They always exist together, and just because your brain only notices the bad, it’s important to know that it isn’t ever the whole story. It takes work and intention to notice the good but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real or that you’re just “fa...
Jun 08, 2023•30 min•Ep. 214
Belonging is an important part of your human experience. We often think that belonging is created by the place or the people we are with, but the feeling of belonging is just like any other feeling—which means it is created inside of us by our thoughts. Belonging isn’t something that happens to you in the right circumstances, it’s something that you create whenever you want to experience it. In today’s podcast episode, I’m sharing the truth about how to feel like you belong and what you can chan...
May 31, 2023•27 min•Ep. 213
This is the time of year where many of us are celebrating the big moments—the culmination of things we have been working towards and the commencement of brand-new beginnings. And while the big moments are exciting, to really change our lives, we have to stop putting our attention on the start line or the finish line and start paying attention to all the quiet, unassuming moments in between. The work of our lives is really happening in the tiny, unremarkable decisions that we make day in and day ...
May 25, 2023•33 min•Ep. 212
