The Next Big Idea Daily

Many of us have internalized the message that there’s one dream job for us and we shouldn’t stop until we find it. So we tweak our resumes and browse LinkedIn in the hopes of finding a role that helps us self-actualize. But first determining what matters and recognizing that we may already have it is a better recipe for happiness.

In today's episode, Simone Stolzoff ("The Good Enough Job") tells Michael that when you think about the role work plays in your life, "it's worth considering that valuing more free time over more money tends to be more fulfilling and lead to higher overall well-being."

Do you live to work or work to live? Journalist Simone Stolzoff tackles that age-old question with renewed energy in his book "The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work." All this week, he'll be chatting with host Michael Kovnat about how work came to play such an outsized role in our lives and what would happen if we stopped chasing the dream gig, gave up the idea of having a calling, and in...

Our time with Tiago Forte may be over, but hopefully your journey to building a second brain has only just begun. In his final lesson, Tiago explains how your second brain can motivate you to take action. • Grab a copy of "Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential" • Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks bac...

Today, Tiago explains how mastering the art of subtraction can strengthen your creative output.

Today’s lesson: “Before you shut off new sources of information and converge on an end result, take time to diverge. Expand your horizons, expose yourself to diverse influences, and collect anything that resonates with you.” Tiago Forte is the author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential.”

Today, Tiago Forte, author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential,” says that if you want to accomplish a big goal, you must first stockpile small building blocks. P.S. Use the code DAILY to get 10% off any Next Big Idea Club membership at nextbigideaclub.com

Do you ever struggle to keep track of all the information swirling around in your head? The idea you had for a new project at work; that stat you read in the paper this morning; the name of your sister’s boyfriend. Productivity expert Tiago Forte says you need a digital system to store all those thought bubbles. He thinks of it as a “second brain.” And this week on the show, he’ll teach you how to...

Anticipating regrets can often work to our advantage. It slows our thinking. It taps our cerebral breaks, allowing us time to gather additional information and to reflect before we decide what to do. But it should come with a warning label. --- • Sign up for our newsletter where Michael shares his reflections every Friday (that's today!)

So, what can we do to turn our existing regrets into engines of progress? Science suggests a three-step process.

After analyzing thousands of regrets from people in more than 100 countries, Daniel Pink (”The Power of Regret”) has identified the four core regrets that haunt us most. Today, he explains what they are and how understanding these categories can help you make better decisions in the future.

Regret makes us feel worse, but it can make us do better. Indeed, the way it makes us do better is by making us feel worse.

It’s popular to claim you have no regrets. Popular, but perilous. Because regrets aren’t anything to be ashamed of — on the contrary, they’re an integral part of being human. When you deny their existence, you deny yourself the opportunity to look back on your missteps so you can chart a better path forward. This week on the show: Next Big Idea Club curator Daniel Pink shares five key insights fro...

Today, meditation expert Sharon Salzberg shares one final insight from her new book "Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom."

Today, Sharon Salzberg tells us how practicing loving-kindness meditation can change how we treat others and understand ourselves.

What if instead of demanding that a painful emotion disappear or becoming all consumed by it, you began to relate to your experience with spaciousness infused with kindness?

Society’s prescriptions for freedom, happiness, and abundance may not be your own.

Sharon Salzberg has been meditating since 1971 — “since before it was cool,” she likes to say. That practice has inspired a series of books, most recently “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” which is all about using the power of mindfulness to confront, and ultimately overcome, whatever obstacles stand in your way. Today, she tells Michael how to transcend “contraction...

All week, Wharton professor Katy Milkman has been giving us research-backed tips for making changes that stick. Now, in the final installment of her mini masterclass, she explains why the most durable habit is a flexible one. --- • Katy Milkman’s book is “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.” Grab a copy today. • A few years back, she spoke with Daniel...

Struggling to achieve a goal? Form a club with people who have your back.

How do you make change fun? By bundling an arduous task (exercising) with an enjoyable one (binge-watching lowbrow TV). --- Have you heard about our book boxes? Every quarter, we’ll send you the season’s two best books of the season as chosen by our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink. You’ll also get access to our app, VIP invitations to live events, and other memb...

New Year’s. Your birthday. The start of a new season. These are days when the slate is wiped clean. Which makes them perfect for establishing new habits, like going to the gym or writing in your diary. Today, Wharton professor Katy Milkman explains how you can use the “fresh start effect” to make changes big and small. --- Have you heard about our book boxes? Every quarter, we’ll send you the seas...

How do you get from where you are to where you want to be — from procrastinator to optimizer, couch potato to gym rat, night owl to worm-getting early bird? That's the question Wharton professor Katy Milkman set out to answer in her recent book "How to Change." Actually, she didn't just "set out" to answer it. She did answer it, and she's on the show this week to share science-based strategies you...

Have you figured out how to live the good life? Don't worry if you're still working on it. It's only been a week. And you haven't even heard the final piece of advice from Matt Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, professors at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and authors of the new book "Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most." --- • It's Friday, which means it's pub day for our newslett...

You can’t take bits and pieces of different philosophical traditions and put them together into a roadmap to the good life. --- • Have you downloaded our app? It’s loaded up with hundreds of book summaries written and read by the world’s leading authors. Check it out by going to nextbigideaclub.com/app