Sound Insight

"I can't tell you exactly how I landed on the bathroom floor. All I can tell you is, in that moment, the cold tile was soothing against my cheek. I felt the purest sense of exhaustion I'd ever felt. I was done. There was nothing left to do but lie there, astonished that my breath was still moving in and out of my body." In this episode, I share the personal story of my experience with debilitating...

Welcome back for Season 3 of Sound Insight! One of my New Year's resolutions is to read the stacks of journals collected in my closet. I've been journaling since I was about 15 years old. The greatest gift of this exercise is the opportunity to time travel, to be in a kind of conversation with my past self. Not to be fooled by a selective and unreliable memory, but to actually listen to the voice...

What does it mean to lead from heart? When we describe someone as 'having heart' we tend to mean two things: they show compassion toward others, and they demonstrate strength and courage. Leading from heart demands that we be compassionate. It also requires inner strength. When we work with leaders, we begin by supporting them to strengthen their inner core. In this episode, Cathy explores: What i...

Three "in-the-moment" practices to reduce stress and support your well-being at work. Why is work/life well-being so challenging? In this episode, Cathy explores why so many of us struggle with work/life well-being. What makes this issue so complex? How does seeing it as a complex issue show us a way forward? How can we begin to take steps to create greater well-being in the workplace and beyond?...

After decades of promoting work-life balance, stress and burnout are still rampant, if not growing, in our organizations. Have our efforts to create work-life balance failed? In this episode, Cathy discusses how our ways of thinking about work-life balance and quality time, which came into widespread use in the 1980's, not only failed to fix the problem, but in many ways, made it worse. She explor...

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." Attributed to Mother Teresa. In this episode, Cathy shares the impact that these words have had on her life. But it wasn't until she dug deeper into the question of what creates psychological wellbeing, that a deeper meaning began to emerge. Cathy explores how these simple words parallel what research tells us lies at the heart of psy...

A Simple Way To Make Everyday Choices That Matter. Over the sweep of a life, it is the tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions we make every day that can make the biggest difference. On their own, they don't seem to matter much, but as they accumulate over time, they can make the difference between a rich and fulfilling life or one filled with regret. In this episode, Cathy shares a simple approac...

When everything in your world is changing too fast, sometimes the best thing you can do is stop trying to keep up. In this episode, Cathy reflects on the years since the onset of the pandemic and how the new normal sometimes feels like no normal. From the steady drumbeat of natural disasters, wars and gun violence to rapid advances in technology, and shifting norms in worklife and the culture at l...

5 Ways you can work with your future self to create better results with greater ease. "After years of suffering the consequences of working against myself, it slowly dawned on me that I had a future self worthy of consideration and respect." In this episode, Cathy explores the surprising benefits of cultivating a healthy relationship with your future self. Whether you are trying to improve your he...

How to Deepen Your Relationships and Sweeten Your Life with this Simple and Ancient Practice. What if you knew that your next conversation, your next piece of chocolate, or your next kiss would be your last? In this episode, Cathy shares how you can bring more appreciation, joy and connection to your life with this simple but powerful practice from the ancient Stoics. For an adapted transcript, ch...

At a time when the risks of speaking up have never been higher, how can leaders encourage good faith conversations to tackle important and complex issues? In this episode, Cathy explores seven strategies to help you engage in good faith and become a leader in creating spaces where it is safer to have these crucial conversations. You can find an adapted transcript on Cathy's blog, Field Notes.

How to turn limiting beliefs into empowering stories. The stories we believe about ourselves can empower us, inspire us, and sustain us. They can also hold us back. In this episode, Cathy explores how the stories we tell about ourselves shape our identity and our experience including: •    A personal story of how a faulty set of limiting beliefs contributed to a professional and personal crisis. ...

The truth about the hard work of loving yourself. Do you struggle with self-compassion? Are you tired of people saying you just need to love yourself? For many of us, it takes more than platitudes to put compassion at the heart of our inner conversation. In this episode, Cathy explores: •    Why most self-help advice on self-compassion doesn't acknowledge how challenging it can be. •    Why tellin...

What does it mean to live life more deeply? What is the cost of living life in the shallows? In this episode, Cathy explores: What happens when you take the time to dive deep. The value and fulfillment that come from deep work. Why our current workplaces are ill-suited for deep work. And the transformative power of deep connection and conversation. You can find an adapted transcript on Cathy's blo...

In this episode, Cathy explores the critical questions surrounding the impact of rapidly evolving information and communication technology on our behavior and our minds. How is our use and relationship with technology evolving and what is the impact on our health, our relationships, and our performance? What is the impact on our minds of living and working in an environment of constant distraction...

How can you build lasting self-confidence? For many of us, self-confidence is like a bad friend – one minute it's by your side and ready to take on the world; the next, when you need it most, it's "outta here!" In this episode, Cathy explores: The difference between lasting and fleeting self-confidence. Why so many successful, accomplished, and brilliant people still struggle with self-confidence....

What would a Slow Season look like? In this short episode, Cathy shares three simple things you can do to slow down and bring a little comfort and joy back into a stressful season.  

How my inner critic stole Christmas If you're beating yourself up because you think you should be able to sail through the holiday season with more grace, less stress and less frenzy, this podcast should make you feel better.  With a little humor and not that much exaggeration, Cathy reveals her "Lovely Girl", the inner tyrant who lives in her head and shows up every year to suck the joy out of Ch...

What does it take to become an outstanding leader? In this episode, Cathy shares 10 discoveries on what it takes to grow your leadership from two decades of working with leaders from all walks of life. She explores: What happens when you think beyond the narrow view of leadership as a role or set of particular qualities; The difference between training and development that many leadership programs...

How many of us have tried to improve our lives and reduce our stress by managing time? And yet, with every time saving strategy and device we've employed, we've become more time starved and miserable. The problem is, we're focused on building the wrong skill. In this episode, Cathy explores how developing your attention skills unlocks your true superpower. How attention, not time, is the currency...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, Cathy reflects on how so much of our experience is beyond our control. At times like this, our greatest opportunity for influence is not in focusing on how to change our circumstances but in focusing on what we bring to those circumstances. The first step in becoming calmer and more grounded in situations like this is in becoming aware of where you are. Cathy s...

The life-changing practice of embracing your inner slug. In this episode, Cathy mounts a vigorous and 'tongue-in-cheek' defense of Sloth as an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Sloth has a bad rap, particularly given its addition to the list of the Seven Deadly Sins, alongside gluttony and lust. But it has experienced a recent resurgence in popularity during COVID-19. Research now suggests th...

When you own a business, taking the summer off can be risky. In this episode, Cathy shares how despite lots of advice and evidence to the contrary, she has been taking summers off for 20 years.  She reveals how this annual ritual has changed the way she thinks about the relationship between work and leisure. She will also share 5 surprising insights that you can apply to any situation to make more...

Beware of the road marked easy: Two secrets self-disciplined people know. The road marked easy can sometimes be the fast track to somewhere much harder. In this episode, Cathy explores how avoidance and procrastination can look like the easy road but lead to a whole lot more pain and suffering.  She takes a closer look at self-discipline and two simple secrets that can get you on the real path to...

What's the worst "life advice" you've ever received? It seems whenever we have to make a big life decision – what to study, what career path to follow, what goals to pursue – there is no shortage of platitudes on offer. A lot of them have been around so long, we never question whether they really help. In this episode, Cathy talks about why some of this advice, when taken to heart, can do more har...