Positively Conflicted - The Audiobook

Conflict is real for you and for me. These final thoughts on hard questions, myriad answers, and the possibility of wrestling with the tension rather than promising a simple answer where none exists. Compare your conclusions to mine and send them along as you wish. ~~~~~ Website: samardery.com Email: sardery@lawbr.com Podcast Production Partner: Steve Heatherington of Good Podcasting Works Music :...

Recognizing that you have an arsenal of tools provides the strength to know that standing up for yourself comes in all colors. Walking away and not caring what someone thinks can be standing up for yourself, saying no to someone in authority with a willingness to pay the price is standing up for yourself, having a conversation that terrifies you is a strong response to the uncertainty of engage in...

Who among us has not made a mistake and hurt someone else? Even after recognizing it, isn't your mind working overtime to explain why it isn't all your fault? The story begins creating itself almost from the moment you realize what you did wrong. If you can own your part without minimizing it or talking at all about the fault of another, then you will have a magical power to engage conflict. Is it...

When was the last time you listened solely for the purpose of listening? Nearly always, we listen with an agenda to get something we want or avoid losing something we already have. Radical listening is the powerful practice of listening solely for the sake of listening. When you get agitated or scared, listening leaves the building like a rat running from a fire. This is precisely the uncomfortabl...

Living life on life's terms is just plain hard. Few things are more compelling than the desire to be comfortable in the United States. The market for pain relievers was estimated to be over $7 billion. This does not take into account illegal use of street and prescription drugs and the resulting addictions. Embracing discomfort is counterintuitive. Commercials and social influencers call you to th...

Conflict does not request consent. It happens anytime things are going differently than you wish. If you don't identify it, you make yourself a victim rather than a player. It always begins with you, whether you invite it or not. Engaging skillfully under the umbrella of believing that you can be okay under a variety of circumstances gives you the most important control. The control over yourself....

Without trust, the world grinds to a halt. We cannot verify every fact or check every credential. We trust drivers we've never met and an electrical grid we know nothing about. And at the same time, trust is broken every day, sometimes by us. Open your eyes to all the places you trust without knowing it. And maybe the impossible standards you impose on yourself and others. A bit of grace may be mo...

We all have preferences and put things into categories. When the preferences involve food, the risk is low. When the categories separate dogs from cats, no harm is done. The stakes change when we reject people from our groups because of how they look or decide that everyone who talks a certain way has ironclad values. The efficiency of bias in the stereotype flies in the face of fairness and decen...

The feeling of power is like a drug, and like many drugs, it has side effects. But feeling powerful and being powerful are not the same thing. Even those who are powerless find ways to wield whatever power they have. And it can come with devastating impact. Those who have power and use it wisely may do so under the radar. The most skillful use of power often goes unnoticed. The least skillful use...

Fear exposes so much vulnerability that we routinely disguise it as stress, anxiety, discomfort or concern. You feel it in your bones. You've likely done this in the last 24 hours. If you identify your fear and your natural responses, often anger or sadness, you have taken steps toward courage to move forward in the face of fear ~~~~~ Website: samardery.com Email: sardery@lawbr.com Podcast Product...

The justice gene is as fundamental as hot and cold. You don't even know that it is lingering just below the surface until someone accuses you of not being fair. With that assault on your character, you leap to defend and protect yourself. By examining your perceptions and your options, you can avoid harm and create connections. ~~~~~~ Website: samardery.com Email: sardery@lawbr.com Podcast Product...

Circumstances remind you how big the world is. Finding your place amongst things so much bigger than you are, is a daily task. When expectations transform into entitlements, it can feel like the circumstances have won. It doesn't have to be that way. You can intentionally choose your path even if you cannot control outcomes. Website: samardery.com Email: sardery@lawbr.com Podcast Production Partne...

When someone challenges you, the first instinct is to defend or justify. The queasy feeling in your stomach arrives before you've even begun explaining why you are right and they are wrong. We all think we have just the right amount of common sense. In Chapter Two, I invite you to explore what it would look like to pause in the discomfort of the moment. In that intentional, uncomfortable moment, y...

Have you ever had an internal conflict? The kind that exists exclusively between your own ears, and yet it's so powerful that you can't even sleep at night. If that's the case, then you'll be able to relate to Chapter One, the Storm Inside about our own internal conflicts. I hope you enjoy it.

Conflict always exists in context as the experience of the past, the perception of the presence and the fear of the future fight for attention. Holly McKiernan, a creative thinker and talented leader, offers this forward to describe the value of positively conflicted in the canon of conflict literature. The introduction that follows shares my struggle with conflict and why I wrote the book. To hel...

A brief taste of the podcast to come. The audiobook of Positively Conflicted by Sam Ardery