Alchemy For Life

Retooling It’s been a bit because I’ve been busy exploring different media avenues. In addition to the podcast I’ve been exploring video shorts for Youtube, and small digestible video bites for Instagram and Facebook. So, welcome back! And check them out on my Facebook as well as my Instagram. Being succinct, overcommunicating Something a lot of people struggle with is over commu...

https://youtube.com/shorts/St1VfM64o04?si=kunlp9zPirKVzMM8 What is ceremony? If you look it up you’ll be told it is a “ritual observance or procedure.” Most cases refer to weddings, and that’s good because that’s the example I used in the podcast. Why do I want more in my life? You want more if you’re trying to make a habit stick, or something is important to yo...

A reminder on the voices We use three voices to communicate with ourselves  AND  others. Even if you get that you may not realize that not only can someone’s second voice be speaking to you, but  you  might be using  your  second voice to speak to  them . Confused? Here’s a reminder for those who haven’t read  Three Voices . Your Third Voice – Your speaking...

Most people think of self care and self love as the same thing. It’s all about you, being nice to you, doing nice things for you. Right? And it has a bit of stigma attached to it to easily make the average person (especially males) feel, well, just selfish about the whole dang thing. It’s not selfish, it’s vitally important to your mental, emotional and even physical health. It&#...

I decided to make the text for this episode an outline vs. a long form article to match the podcast. Did you like this better? I. Introduction: A. Overview of the topic: the mind’s ability to recall negative experiences with ease (Negativity-Bias) B. Purpose of the story: exploring the reasons why negative experiences are easily remembered and the ways to shift towards a more positive outloo...

Three Voices If you’ve read Three Voices then you know we all have three voices that we all use to communicate with ourselves and others. As a refresher and for those who have not read the book, our first voice is our speaking voice, our second is also regarded as our “inner monolog” or “the voices in our head” or even a replay of a conversation . Seeing it out in the...

What’s wrong with me? / Intro to this thing My unspoken perception (my first voice*) is as follows.  I am not saying this is correct, and in most of this it certainly is not, but here it is.   There’s this thing .  People who have overcome this have always struck me as… more adult than me.  They seem more mature, more developed.  But also perhaps more anal retentive?...

Review of our most helpful episodes. From Interviews to a unique take on word meanings, to turning negatives to positives (and maybe vice versa) you don’t want to miss this. The Complete AFL Episode Guide: A Catalog of All Our Episodes Welcome to The Complete Alchemy for Life™ Episode Guide, where I give you a comprehensive overview of all the episodes in our podcast. In this episode, I&#821...

Shorting yourself on time-based skills You’ve heard this before right? That as you get better and better at something, you can do it more efficiently. So your skill is just as good as your competitor but you do it faster. great! Except that you charge hourly. So now they are getting better for less, and you are getting… shorted. What’s the real amount of time it takes though? Let...

Measuring We recently talked about measuring, and now we’re talking about NOT doing it. Programs running We have many programs running. We are always tasting, listening, looking, sampling… and measuring. Did you stop measuring? “Hi, I’m Mr. Scale! I’m going to disappoint you every day.” 👀 It’s pretty easy to stop measuring when it comes to that particular...

Tension We’ve talked about tension before. We’ve talked about tension vs. something being at rest and what that means for us. But now I want to talk about the tension of disagreement. Everything’s going to be OK Everything is going to be OK. Does that relieve you? It might, especially if it comes from a higher status individual . But it doesn’t really do anything. It’...

A simple answer for a complex issue… doesn’t work Did you ever have an issue with someone and tell a friend about it? They usually say “Oh well I would just say this .” You roll your eyes , take a deep breath, and attempt to explain that this is pretty complicated, and that you’ve already tried that. You could go back and forth or you could just make a note to not men...

The 30,000 foot view You’ve heard of that phrase— taking the 30,000 foot view , right? But what exactly does that mean? Does it mean to take a step back? Does it mean 30,000 steps back? Considering the big picture? How long do you do this? Do you then zoom back in and if so how long do you have to wait? Managing task, career, projects, etc. It is when you are managing things that you come up...

Progress If you’re not measuring progress, how do you know how well you are doing in the pursuit of a goal? Don’t you have milestones and stuff like that? The Alchemy for Life system has a huge amount of tracking, and milestones, and even an icon for setbacks, so why am I even asking this? Measuring something else. I’m asking because sometimes it can seem like you’re not ma...

Here’s something you don’t hear – thoughts do not equal reality. In an odd way this is a discussion (of the reverse kind) of mindfulness. Fight of flight Our fight or flight mechanism was designed and evolved to deal with something happening right now. It was designed to deal with reality . If you’re having anxiety about the room filling up with water because it’s cur...

Three Voices Did you know you have three voices? Do you know that one can always be used to override another? Do you know that one of the voices is also a sounding board that can not only help you (preparing for a speech, reviewing a discussion), but also can torment you if overused (that fight you had playing over and over in your head for seemingly ‘no reason’)? You’re using on...

Labels We all use labels because that’s the base of all languages – complex concepts, descriptions, procedures all contained in a smaller form. Imagine if you had to describe a house every time you wanted to talk about houses. Exhausting. And you’d get dumber. So we create labels for things. But as we talked about in the Assuming podcast , the use of certain labels (in that case...

Ambition It’s a good thing, right? Have you ever done something, shown something or demonstrated something and had someone say “Well, that’s ambitious?” Has a tiny bit of something negative behind that, doesn’t it? Have you ever started a project only to decide (consciously or unconsciously) to make it much more elaborate, involved, expensive, thorough or in short&#82...

How long is your day? Ingrained in the society I live in is the eight hour work day. However, to get ahead, to be salaried, to be a manager, a mover and shaker or someone who is launching businesses or being an entrepreneur it’s expected that you work 10, 12, 16 or more hours. Is this you, you hard working devil you? In a study conducted in the UK of almost 2,000 office workers, it was found...

Think outside the box (group) We all know that thinking outside of the box has its benefits. Usually this thinking happens with someone who has a different perspective than others. And that, ironically, is what this podcast is about. Groups are great, until they’re not We all are part of one or more groups, whether it is simply because of designation (humans, teachers, mechanics, insurance p...

Liminal spaces A liminal space is the between space (usually in the physical world). It doesn’t ‘feel right.’ It’s a threshold between two states. The transitory nature usually causes you to feel a little creeped out. Ever done a house tour in which a lot of the personal belongings have been minimized? It’s not your house, it’s not their house, it’s for sa...

What are your offers? Let’s talk about your offers. By offers I don’t just mean your business offerings, I literally mean things you have offered to others —whether it’s helping someone to move if they need it in the future, lending your truck, working with someone, forming a partnership, offering to mentor, etc. Integrity and Time, Energy and Resources If you are going to make o...

What’s the speed of your reality? That’s a trick question, and it sounds a little ooga-booga doesn’t it. It is, and it’s not. A watched pot never boils You’ve heard both a watched “pot never boils” and “time flies when you’re having fun,” right? Though the former is not true, both are rooted in reality… Aha, but which reality. And d...

Special Announcement This is a special announcement about free coaching that is being offered to two groups . The Alchemy for Life™ podcast subscribers group is one of the groups, which is why you’re seeing this. Congrats. Here is the scoop You’re probably just like me. You just want to know what this is all about, so here it is. What :  A free limited coaching group to help you g...

Motivation. People talk about motivation so much it’s annoying. Coaches and speakers talk about it all. the. time. You don’t need another source do you? But here’s a different take… Two parts to motivation The actual hype that gives you energy . This is stuff like music that makes you excited to do the task. The thing you are motivated to go towards. The carrot, the pat on...