100% Awesome Podcast

We all share this world with each other. And we all have separate brains that are individually assessing and interpreting that experience for only ourselves. That means that in any given circumstance or situation or experience, lots of different brains are going to have lots of different opinions about it. The problem is that many times other people's opinions can feel dangerous. Because even thou...

Like you, I have been so inspired and delighted as I watched the recent Paris Olympics.  I was amazed by the skill, by the vulnerability, by the courage, by the willingness to suffer and sacrifice that was demonstrated by the athletes that participated. And I took notes. Because I wanted to remember the things I learned by watching other people pursue their dreams. On today's podcast, I'm sharing...

Perhaps the most essential element to changing your life is having the hope that it's possible.  It's easy to get discouraged and believe that change is impossible, but as long as we are alive and have the ability to choose our thoughts, change is available for all of us. In today's episode, I share a metaphor to remind you of your power to change and give you hope that real change is simpler and...

We each have three amazing gifts: our body, our brain, and our spirit. But many times, these three parts of us want and need different things and it's easy to find these three parts of ourselves at odds with one another. This can create conflict within and we can spend lots of time and energy fighting ourselves.  On today's episode of the podcast, I'm talking about how to listen, respect, and glea...

One of the most universal human experiences is the experience of being tired. Our bodies and our brains are fueled by limited sources of energy and all of us need to take time every day to rest and recover. But it's interesting to notice that we also have lots of thoughts about being tired and what it means about us when we stop to rest.  On today's podcast, we're covering lots of thoughts about b...

When it comes to choosing your thoughts, the truth is that there aren't any rules. You get to think whatever you want! And there really aren't any rules that you have to keep or obey or even pay attention to. But if you want to change your thoughts and you don't know where to start or sometimes feel overwhelmed or confused about how to think something new, then I hope these 7 rules will give you s...

It's the middle of the year. Maybe some of you are feeling like we're already halfway through the year and you haven't accomplished as much as you wanted to yet. Maybe you're feeling a little discouraged with your progress, or maybe your brain has convinced you that the things you want are never going to happen and this is a good time to just give up.  Today on the podcast I want to give you some...

We spend all of our time inside our own heads, but have you ever noticed how it's often more like a prison than a playground in there? Our brains can be tyrants. And if we leave the thoughts it gives us unquestioned or unsupervised, they will keep us stuck and tortured and oppressed.  On today's podcast, I'm talking about how you can use your agency to break free from the tyranny of your brain and...

Summer is traditionally a time of year where many of us take a break, get away, and do some traveling. And so today on the podcast I thought I'd share my best travel tips. But this episode isn't about things like how to pack efficiently or how to make the most of your travel reward points. Today I'm giving you all my best tips about what to think and how to feel as you travel with your loved ones—...

I recently ran my first marathon, and I learned a lot of lessons doing it.   On today's episode of the podcast, I'm sharing my race day experience. You'll hear about the highs, the lows, the lessons, the battles I fought inside my own head, and the feelings you only get to feel when you do hard things. Getting to the finish line is hard. It's gonna take everything you've got.  But I hope this epis...

I recently ran my first marathon, and I learned a lot of lessons doing it. But there were also a lot of things I learned just getting to the start line of this race.   From the sign up, to the training, through the taper, and all the miles in between, this experience taught me so many things about perspective and perseverance and fear and the power of decisions and celebrating every win. On today'...

We've just finished commencement season. At some point in our lives, most of us have sat in the audience of a commencement speech thinking that everything good in our life was about to start.  But then time passes and maybe 5 or 10 or 20 years later we can find ourselves looking around and thinking: Is this it? Is this what being an adult was gonna be like? Is this how it was supposed to turn out?...

Most of us are good at being hard on ourselves. We know how to be disappointed and disgusted and frustrated with ourselves and we're experts at being critical and condescending of the parts of us that we don't like. Treating ourselves this way comes naturally (because of the way our brains work) and we've also had a lot of practice doing it.  What doesn't come naturally is being kind—especially to...

Sometimes it can feel like your brain is the enemy, but there's actually a really significant survival advantage for everything your brain does.  When humans first showed up on the scene, we had no camouflaged skin, no super hearing, we couldn't fly or swim. We couldn't see in the dark or breathe underwater. We didn't have claws or huge teeth or thick fur. The only thing we had was a three-pound p...

Nobody likes feeling bad, but what can make it even worse is when we think we're bad for feeling bad. Even though our emotions are always just information being passed from our brain to our body, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking that feelings have a morality—that there are good ways to feel and bad ways to feel. And this can make us suspicious and even ashamed of our negative emotions.  O...

In an attempt to keep us safe and happy, our brain spends a remarkable amout of energy in places where it has no control.  For example, we can only make choices in the present moment, but have you noticed how often your brain time-travels into the future or back to the past trying to change or control things that it can't? Or maybe you've noticed how much time your brain spends thinking and worryi...

I recently spent a week at a surf school in Costa Rica and had an incredible time.  On today's episode of the podcast, I'm telling you all about my experience and also sharing some of the memorable lessons that I got from the trip, from the ocean, and from my surf coach that I have been thinking about since I got home. While you might not be planning to go to surf school any time soon, we are all...

This week's podcast episode marks 5 years of the show!  And today I'm sharing 5 important things that I have learned during that time as I have created this podcast.  No matter who you are or what you are trying to create in your life, your brain is going to create resistance and excuses and fear and these can keep you from creating the things you want.  So today, I want to inspire you and give yo...

Have you ever noticed all the tiny little things that make life awesome? It turns out that the more you notice, the better you feel. Your brain, of course, wants to notice all the things that have gone wrong, but there are just as many things that have gone exactly right and it can feel really good to bring your awareness to them. In today's episode of the podcast, I'll remind you of how fun it is...

I recently cleaned out my closet and intentionally decided, piece by piece, the items that I wanted to keep in my wardrobe and the ones that I no longer needed or wanted. What if we did the same thing in our lives?  If I went through my life piece by piece and examined each element—my habits, my schedule, my relationships, my work, my faith, the thoughts and feelings that I have most, the things I...

This week I celebrate my 50th birthday which has me thinking about this episode of the podcast kind of like a halftime report. If I'm about halfway through my life (halfway through the game, if you will) I'm metaphorically going back to the locker room to take breath and evaluate how the first half of the game has gone. I've been on earth for five decades and today I'm thinking about my life, asse...

For those of us that live in the northern hemisphere, spring is a time of year where there are reminders everywhere about the true abundance of our lives.  Of course, we always live in an abundant world surrounded by an abundant universe, but because of hedonistic adaptation, most of the time our brain either doesn't notice it or diminishes it down to nothing.  In today's episode of the podcast, I...

There's never going to be a point at which your brain isn't going to doubt you and question your ability to succeed, no matter how talented or capable you are or how many times you've succeeded or failed in the past.  Most of us are waiting for the doubts to go away. We think that if we could make our doubts go away then we would find our belief.   But on today's episode of the podcast, I'm sharin...

Today on the podcast I ask and answer a question that you may occasionally find yourself asking: What's wrong with me? As humans it's easy to wonder why we feel so bad, why we can't seem to figure out how to be happy and productive, why we do the things we do, why it feels so hard to do the things we're "supposed to do," and why it often feels like we're our own worst enemy…I mean, what it wrong w...

From the moment we become parents we are concerned about the safety, happiness, and success of our children.  But how much of that is in our control? And how much of it is our responsibility? In today's episode of the podcast, I'm sharing three important distinctions that will allow you to improve the relationship you have with your children by releasing all the things you can't control and focusi...