The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life

In 2012, Mandar Apte influenced Shell’s CEO to start Shell’s GameChanger social innovation program , which would invest in innovative solutions to sustainability challenges (SDG’s) and create both social impact and business returns. Through the portfolio of investments that he made through this impact investment fund, Mandar showcased how global brands, like Shell, can and must play a greater role...

Sharon K. Ball is a licensed professional counselor–mental health service provider, national board-certified counselor, and an accredited Enneagram teacher through the International Enneagram Association. Because of her background, Sharon has provided trauma-response counseling for victims of mass shootings and hurricanes. She’s been called upon to provide crisis-intervention services during natio...

Creativity is not a nice to have - it’s a must have - now, during this 4th industrial revolution - and for the future of work. Natalie is the creativity whisperer to the C-Suite. Her dynamic, accessible and engaging approach has changed lives and impacted executives and leaders across Fortune 500 companies, cultural institutions, and countless individuals. Creativity is the source of all innovatio...

If you only had one thing to tell your younger self, what would it be? On today's micro episode, Chad and Shelley discuss their one thing. It's been on their mind this month as they've been having powerful coaching and podcast conversations, as well as challenging ones with their kids and touring college campuses. Time Stamps: The relationship is about aspiring to live in your big self. 1:42 What...

Scott Simon is a happiness entrepreneur and founder of the Scare Your Soul courage movement and the author of the book Scare Your Soul: 7 Powerful Principles to Harness Fear and Lead Your Most Courageous Life .  He is dedicated to creating, curating, and leading opportunities for people around the world to be happier, empowered and courageous in their own lives. Scott founded the movement in 2015,...

Dr. Jerome Wagner is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, consultant in private practice, and emeritus faculty member in the Department of Psychology and Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University, Chicago. On today's episode, Jerry helps us see that the true self is something that we already have and already are and maybe we don’t really have to go out and "find it," and...

Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author. Recognized as the world’s top communication and organizational culture thinker, and #1 self-awareness coach, Tasha is Principal of The Eurich Group, where she uses science to help successful executives achieve dramatic personal and organizational change. As a coach, consultant, and speaker, Tasha...

Giving up is ego work. Giving up carries a different energy completely. It is fueled by a fear and a holding on. It produces tension and when we can no longer carry it, we feel the need to give up. Giving up is submitting to lower energy. It’s a feeling of self-abnegation, self-diminishment.  Surrender is leveling up. Giving up is downshifting.  We give up on ego work. We surrender to soul work. ...

Sally Clarke is an author, speaker, researcher and burnout expert and Co-Director at Human Leaders. A former finance lawyer, she works with leaders and organizations around the globe to embed wellbeing at work so people and business thrive. Sally's latest book, ‘Relight Your Spark’ guides individuals on how to heal and evolve after burnout. Her book Relight Your Spark, is a practical guide to all...

There’s growing evidence that signals sent from our internal organs to the brain play a major role in regulating emotions and fending off anxiety and depression. Interoception may be less well known than the “outward facing” senses such as sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell, but it has enormous consequences for your wellbeing. Scientists have shown that our sensitivity to interoceptive signals...

We need to be open to a third force — another way of having an experience — so that we can defuse the psychic bomb of our personal history.  This script is why we repeat dramas throughout our lives. When you introduce a third force — or a new way to do the script — you can finally step out of it.  This is also why self-confrontation is critical to healing and growth. We cannot set up camp only in...

Today, we learn from Enneagram type Seven, Milton Stewart, and the inner and outer work he's doing. Milton is the founder of Kaizen Careers, Coaching and Consulting. He facilitates the Enneagram and is on a mission to help people feel seen. Milton is one of the very few African-American male Enneagram teachers in the world. He hosts and produces the Do It For The Gram podcast, which teaches the En...

The concept of trust has been coming up a lot for us lately. Chad's been asked to do a training on it recently, especially when it comes to trying to build a team through the "storming" stage of development. And for Shelley, it's been a piece of the personal growth work she's been doing at this time in her own life. Trust comes easier for some people than others. Some are naturally inclined to dis...

When Ginger first hopped into a five-day class on the Enneagram in the '90s, she accidentally enrolled in the advanced group. But she didn’t let jumping in over her head stop her curiosity. Before those five days were over she had a vision from a blimp that she had to do this.  Her website The Enneagram in Business is an ever-expanding trove of information for personal and professional application...

A Harvard-trained physician, clinical cardiologist, and certified mindfulness meditation teacher with 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Jonathan Fisher survived burnout and rediscovered his joy at work the hard way. He is now committed to ending workplace burnout and optimizing peak performance in healthcare and the corporate world.  His mission is to empower leaders and teams to experience mor...

Why would Chad and Shelley say that radical responsibility is a major commitment? Why would it be one of the foundations for beginning to make huge shifts in your learning and personal growth? Tune into today's episode and find out why taking complete responsibility for the conditions you create in your life is all on you and your choices. What could go wrong? Time Stamps: 1:04--What exactly do me...

Big Self Show hosts, Chad and Shelley get together to explore their takeaways from Chad's conversation with Rob Cross and Karen Dillon and their new book, The Microstress Effect. Shelley emphasizes the important role that our own personality plays in creating the ongoing conditions of our stress. She opens up about a couple of ways her own personality has dictated the terms of her ongoing stress p...

Welcome to Season 5 of the Big Self Show, episode 122! We kick off this season with an exploration from a brand new release, The Microstress Effect, by Rob Cross and Karen Dillon. Conventional wisdom for coping with stress has often focused on finding ways to "steel" yourself to endure, through such practices as mindfulness and meditation. And recent research has highlighted the importance of rela...

Today we share a wide-ranging conversation with Parker Palmer. From acts of rebellion to the hidden wholeness of the world to the integration of the inner and outer life, as well as teaching and leadership, this conversation is rich in wisdom and hope. We have followed Parker Palmer’s work for literally decades, and are both thrilled and honored to have him on our podcast. This opportunity to get...

This work largely comes from Chad's recently released book, Shock Point: The Enneagram in Burnout and Stress . We invite you to check it out anywhere books are sold through the global online marketplace. We’re covering this information as a part of the Big Self Podcast for three reasons: (1) Towards the larger goal of increasing self-awareness. If you are able to assimilate this information in you...

While there are nine distinctive ways that personalities show up in the world, there are also by contrast, very similar ways that all people look when their ego isn't in charge. With steady practice in Self-Observation, Self-Inquiry, and Self-Development, you will see a healthier response to your day-to-day responses. These are the six ways a healthy ego looks like in relationships. Time Stamps: 5...

We may learn about the false self, we may learn how to hide features of false self from others so that we seem genuine, but hiding and merely learning about are not the same thing as authentic transformation. And that's the challenging subject matter we tackle on today's episode. The way of the false self is invested in your outer identity and what you possess, whereas the way of the true self is...

Traumatic events happen to the best of us. Some are more ordinary than others, like car accidents or losing a job, and others are bigger. Whether big T or little t, traumas are crisis’ that happen to all of us, it’s not some rare thing. Resilience is about using the crisis or the suffering to grow and launch yourself into a whole new beginning. Beyond just recovering from setbacks, resilience help...

Each Enneagram personality type have their own superpowers--their ways and means of functioning in the world--that gets them through life, helps them to survive. But these very unconscious characteristics can also create their own versions of stress. They are patterns that we usually don't even fully understand. We also don't know how to break free of them and to make them more conscious, observab...

Each Enneagram personality type have their own superpowers--their ways and means of functioning in the world--that gets them through life, helps them to survive. But these very unconscious characteristics can also create their own versions of stress. They are patterns that we usually don't even fully understand. We also don't know how to break free of them and to make them more conscious, observab...