Change Academy

Everyone is burned out. Employees are burned out. Business owners are burned out. Caregivers are burned out. But the solutions that are being promoted are not necessarily what we need in order to solve the problem of burnout. Cassie Christopher returns to the Change Academy to talk about workplace burnout and the impact this is having on both employees and employers (and even the self-employed)--a...

If there’s an issue that you can’t seem to get a handle on, a goal that you've had forever,  or a problem that just won’t stay solved, this episode is for you. We’re talking about why this happens--and how to get yourself out of this frustrating cycle.  Often, it's because there's a mismatch between the solutions that we are applying and the problem that actually needs to be solved in order for us...

We’ve been on Spring Break for the last few weeks but we haven’t spent the time lounging on a beach. We’ve been doing some big thinking about the future of the Change Academy and we have some big news to share:  We are redefining our respective roles at the Change Academy. Having co-created and co-hosted the show for the past 3 years, Brock is now stepping away from the mic but not going far…just...

Brock and I (Monica) are taking our traditional Spring Break from the podcast and using that time to take a fresh look at our goals, objectives and commitments and do some tidying of our own.  And we’d like to invite you to do the same–and we’ve even created a special resource to help you do just that. -- Visit ChangeAcademyPodcast.com/tuneup to join us for a system-by-system inspection and tuneup...

We’ve talked a lot about goals in this podcast: the purpose and function of goals, how to set good ones, and how to pursue them more effectively, even your goal-setting personality! But in this episode, we want to talk about NOT reaching our goals–and why that is not necessarily a problem.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Do you get stuck in your thoughts, even when (or maybe, especially when) they aren’t helpful? We all do. There is even a name for it - Cognitive Fusion. Well, in this episode, we are going to learn how to defuse ourselves from those thoughts that threaten to undo our hard work, make us feel unworthy or sad, and hold us back from reaching our goals. ★ Support this podcast ★

Some new research caught recently our attention because it reinforces and expands on a concept that we introduced about 6 months ago in our episode on the Law of Subtraction. When we recorded that, we weren’t aware that our so-called “law of subtraction” had been studied by University of Virginia professor Leidy Klotz. In this episode, we explore some of that research and how we can use this insig...

Motivation gaps are those times where you feel as if you are not motivated enough to do what it takes to get a particular result. In this episode, we talk about four things that frequently cause motivation gaps, plus what researcher, Julie Dirksen, refers to as a "special motivation gap." ★ Support this podcast ★

In our last episode, we were talking about feelings of unworthiness and how that can affect our ability or willingness to work on ourselves and our lives to make them better. This episode sort of picks up where that one left off.! Monica and our guest Cassie Christopher are discussing something that we often hear people say when they are disappointed with their results or their progress:  “I guess...

In our recent episode " Will I succeed? " we offered some questions to evaluate your chances of succeeding at whatever goal you are working toward. One of them was: Do I believe I am worth the effort – and worthy of the outcome? What if your answer to that question is No? What can you do to change that to a Yes? In this episode, we explore some possible answers to this question.  ★ Support this po...

Do you know the difference between goals and commitments? Both play an important role in creating a life that is both meaningful and purposeful. In this episode, we explore the distinctions between them, and how they can work together to guide your efforts. ★ Support this podcast ★

This free workshop will be on Tuesday, January 3rd, at 6 pm Eastern (3 pm Pacific) and you can sign up at weighless.life/action ★ Support this podcast ★

Creating change can be difficult.  It can also be great…but it is rarely easy.  So it makes sense that we want some assurance that we have a reasonable chance of success before we’re willing to invest our resources–and get our hopes up.  But when we ask, “Will I succeed?” we often look in the wrong places for the answer. In this episode, we talk about ways to evaluate your chances of success. More...

In this encore episode, we revisit an interview with one of the excellent individuals that we coach in our Weighless.life program. Marieka has, at the time of this recording, lost 15% of her body weight. And she has done it through the types of lifestyle overhauls, habit changes, mindset shifts and all the fun stuff we talk about in this podcast, each and every episode. Find out more about Weighle...

Have you ever wondered why you seem to be stuck at a particular weight, or a particular level of fitness, or a particular amount of money in the bank? If you’re like a lot of the people we work with, you’ve spent a fair amount of mental energy (and other resources) trying to make a change.  And yet, you find yourself seemingly stuck…unable to move out of your current reality into that vision of yo...

Change can be scary. And sometimes, fears about what transformation might cost us can lead us to sabotage our own success. We may have mixed feelings about leaving certain parts of our selves (or our lives) behind–even if they are things that we don’t particularly like. These worries and fears are totally normal. But left unexamined or unchecked, they can keep us stuck.  In this episode, we’re goi...

For some endeavors, all you need to succeed is knowledge and a good reason to follow through.  As long as you have a good set of instructions, you should be able to succeed on your first try.  Acquiring a skill, however, requires knowledge plus practice.   If you expect to succeed at a skill without allowing yourself time to practice, you're likely to be frustrated.  (And we don't want that!) ★ Su...

If you have ever come up with a scheme to keep yourself from succumbing to temptation, you have experimented with a thing called a commitment device. As you’ll see, you are not the first to try this. In this episode, we’re talking about different types of commitment devices and whether they might be useful in staying on track with whatever you are trying to accomplish in your life–whether that’s b...

As a society, we place a very high value on optimization. Now that it’s so easy to track your nutrition, sleep, exercise, productivity, your stock gains or weather, you naturally want to optimize them. What we don't always acknowledge is that optimizing for one thing is likely to cost you gains in at least one other domain.  In this episode, we talk about why it’s so important to be clear on exact...

Our evaluation of a certain experience can be heavily influenced by things that actually have nothing to do with it. For example, if we happen to be very thirsty when we sample a new beverage, we may later remember it as being far better than it actually was.  It’s called attribution bias. And if left unexamined, it can lead us to make choices or decisions that are not based on our actual goals an...

In this episode, we talk about the importance of distinguishing between stress and stressors. Because this can be the first step toward reducing their negative effects, both on our bodies and on our lives. According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, 84% of adults reported feeling stressed out. Two-thirds say that they feel overwhelmed by the issues they face.  This is n...

Focusing on a lot of projects at once is a good way to make sure none of them get done. In this episode, we dig into why focusing our efforts on one change at a time can create more change in our lives in the long run. This applies to projects we want to accomplish/finish, not just the habits we want to create. Most of us have a long list of things about our lives (or ourselves) that we would like...

In this episode, we'll show you how to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones on the road to success. We may stumble when we’re trying something new and don’t yet know where the tricky parts are. (Fair enough!)  And then there are those things that we seem to stumble over and over again.  You’d think we’d learn how to avoid them! But one of the reasons that we don’t is that we focus on the wro...

In this episode, psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson talks with Monica about the ways in which people with ADHD often struggle with various aspects of behavior change–whether that’s staying focused on the goal, following through on plans, or resisting impulses that lead them astray.  Monica Johnson, Psy. D., is a clinical psychologist and owner of Kind Mind Psychology, a private practice in NYC.  She...

When we become aware of a gap between our present reality and our desired reality, our inclination is to add something. A new practice. A new program. A new effort. When that doesn’t work, we go back to the drawing board and add another thing.  What if the answer were not to add something new but to subtract something that is not working, or not pulling its weight?  ★ Support this podcast ★