Work Life Play with Aaron McHugh: Recent Episodes
Aaron McHugh
Get the real stories of how entrepreneurs, artists, heretics, authors, liberators, athletes, and innovators pursue their ideas and aspirations.
From TED speakers, national broadcasters, New York Times best selling authors to Ultra-marathon runners and start-up CEO’s you’re guaranteed to be encouraged to swing for the fence in your own pursuits.
Accept my invitation to: Do your best work Live the life you want to live Play a lot more
A navigation lesson recorded in the Colorado wilderness featuring renowned guide "Pathfinder" Dave Eitemiller. A video of this experience is here.
Rilke says, "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
On the road to impossible, how to sustain our ability to create impact and performance.
Inspired from George Ella Lyon's "How to write a poem" exploring the question, where am I from?
Creekside thoughts about endings and new beginnings in corporate and personal life - inspired by Dr. Henry Cloud's book "Necessary Endings." Intentionally saying goodbye or hello to metabolize an ending and keep moving forward.
A life principle learned in the field. We had to choose between insisting the trail still existed and following our original plan, or admitting that our maps and the terrain were inaccurate.
I reflect on a cherished memory of a dear friend and the moving farewell during his funeral as bagpipes played Amazing Grace.
Inspired by Wendell Berry's Sabbath series, this is my take on a Sabbath Poem with reflections, outdoor exploration, and meaningful connection.
I’m built for a monastic life but navigate the corporate world, a challenging balance to thrive in.
Warren Bennis said, "Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult."
The hard but rewarding effort to live fully and authentically, integrating all parts of yourself amidst life's challenges.
Unedited recordings from the front lines of my journey. Sixteen months ago, I took on a new, all-consuming career assignment—amazing and demanding every bit of me. Along the way, I’ve cataloged ideas, insights, and transformational stories to share.
Welcome to Field Reports: raw, real, and simple adventure updates.
Keep going, friends. Aaron
Let go of work-life balance and embrace the unforced rhythms of a fully integrated life. I used to think that work-life balance was achievable. Now I believe it is a myth. No matter how hard I tried, I could never achieve this perfect moment of everything in my life working in perfect Zen harmony and balance.
I felt so exhausted trying to stay in balance The way forward isn’t exhaustion. It isn’t juggling, stretching, or herculean gymnastic efforts to come through for others while ignoring yourself. The way forward is an integrated, wholehearted life.
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor, and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.”
-James Michener Here’s why I wasn’t able to achieve balance After the death of our daughter Hadley in 2011, I found myself desperately trying to hold my life together. My marriage was suffering. My kids needed their dad. And my already intense corporate career as an executive was only getting more complicated as responsibilities and promotions kept coming my way.
Our sweet daughter Hadley crossing over to eternity I was burning out but didn’t admit it.
Anybody else could see the signs a mile away. I was so focused on what was right in front of me that when it finally hit-I was utterly blindsided. And the solution was nothing short of a complete do-over—a “reboot,” as we called it. We sold our house and everything, down to the last fork. We spent the summer serving at a Young Life camp, finding a new normal.
Ringing in the Opening Day Trading bell at the London Stock Exchange, but wondering what’s it all for? It wasn’t easy. It took brutal months of inner work, therapy programs, tears, and facing the old stories that no longer served us. Stories like “I have to do it all” and “I can’t trust anybody else to get it done.” But out of that, we emerged with a new vision for our life—a new story-A life filled with excitement, ambition, love, rest, forgiveness, and hope.
As we began this journey creating a new life I realized my software executive career no longer aligned with the person I had become. For so long, I had tried to find the fabled work-life balance.
The problem was I didn’t want my life to be compartmentalized anymore, with each area staying separate from the other. I wanted it all integrated into one wild, beautiful mess.
Once I stopped trying to achieve work-life balance, I discovered a third-way rhythm, “a repeated pattern of movement” where work, life, play, relationships, rest, finances, friendships, and adventure could co-exist within my experience of each day.
I began to experience my life as a complete whole where every valuable aspect was connected and worked together. I discovered more of God’s presence and meaning in ways I had never noticed. It radically transformed my life for the better-my mission now is to share that discovery with as many people as possible (like you).
Aligning the work I do, with who I’d become Ultimately I left my corporate executive career behind. After eight months of living off of savings, pursuing work that fit the person I had become, and taking our checking account down to $1500, I discovered a new career doing work that I truly loved. That fit within this new integrated life we were architecting. (Fun fact, my first client meeting in my new career as an executive leadership coach happened less than 1 mile from where I resigned from my old gig just months before. Talk about coming full circle.)
Taking an inventory of the assets of my life. Dashboard lights from Green (going great), Yellow (watch this), to Red (needs attention now) Loosening our grip on balance My story isn’t about making millions, retiring early, or living a carefree “work 2 hours a week” lifestyle. That’s all great, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Like you, I still work a full-time, 40-50 hour work week.
I’m talking about loosening our grip on perfection and balance by living a more meaningful, fulfilled, and wholly integrated life in your current environment- In the career, relationships, and body you’re in-resulting in a life full of adventure and meaning.
I’ve discovered another way to operate in the world. I am at choice. I no longer live under the “shoulds” and “ought to’s” of my creation or the expectations of others.
Fully alive and without knowing where it’s all heading. Trusting this is the way forward. Living a life true to myself Three closing wisdom invitations, starting with “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” I believe you see this within your experience.
Bronnie Ware is a palliative care provider and author The Top Five Regrets the Dying. She captured her results over years of sharing the last weeks and days with her patients who’d moved home from the hospital to die. In their final conversations, the patients discussed any regrets they had or anything they wished they would have done differently. Here’s what she heard. Take a good listen, keeping in mind work-life balance vs. wholehearted living.
The Top Five: 1) I wish I’d dared to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 2) I wish I’d not worked so hard. 3) I wish I’d dared to express my feelings. 4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 5) I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best with your own life.
-Saint Paul I used to think that work-life balance was achievable. Now I believe it’s a myth. Let go of work-life balance and embrace the unforced rhythms of a fully integrated life. Embrace the mess, the beauty-the imperfection of integration.
Today, I coach global executive leaders on how to be more effective. It starts with being more human. And now, here is the invitation for us all: -To do your best work -To become wholehearted -To play and live adventurously
Will you accept it? I hope you do. Let’s navigate a well-lived life together.
Keep going -Aaron
Today, I'm in the interview seat again. Today's topic Friendship and the journey of life impossible to accomplish alone. (Carl Richards) Greetings from the Joy Bus. My name's Carl Richards, and I am your host today of the Work Life Play podcast. I've taken over from Aaron. It was an invitation, but I fully accepted the invitation to interview Aaron somewhere around. We're, we're talking ten years now.
Aaron:
Ten years.
Carl Richards:
And 200+ some-odd episodes. So, Aaron, welcome to the show.
Aaron:
Thank you. I like it. We're in the Joybus. Carl's in the seat you always held for the guests, but you are interviewing me this time.
Carl Richards:
What would I like to start on? It strikes me, and this is a strange place to start, but I'm going to go there anyway. Talk to me about friendship a bit.
I want to pull in David Whyte's poem on friendship. David writes, "The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement neither of the other nor the self. The ultimate touchstone is witness the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another. To have walked with them, to have believed in them. And sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span on a journey impossible to accomplish alone."
Keep going, Aaron
In this decade anniversary celebration episode, Morgan Snyder is in the studio to interview me. For me, though, Work Life Play has no periods, no exclamation marks, no hyphens in between. It's all one integrated together story. It's taken me 10 years to articulate what it is I've been chasing the whole time. Enjoy this friends and Keep Going- Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Reach for the stuff that's real
A craftsman cobbler just resoled my fly fishing wading boots, and they're ready for another "one hundred thousand casts." The landfill was calling for them.
Our modern world has an insatiable appetite for new—version 6.0. Version 13.0, and it's killing us and the planet we call home. This isn't a post just about saving the world. It's about the deeper drivers-what and who we value and how our hearts and souls are connected.
Allow me to share a cowboy tune from Guy Clark with you, and then we'll reconvene.
I got an old blue shirt and it suits me just fine.
I like the way it feels, so I wear it all the time
I got an old guitar, won't ever stay in tune
I like the way it sounds in a dark and empty room
I got an old pair of boots, and they fit just right
Well I can work all day, and I can dance all night
I got an old used car, and it runs just like a top
I get the feelin' it ain't ever gonna stop
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
I got a pretty good friend who's seen me at my worst
He can't tell if I'm a blessing or a curse
But he always shows up when chips are down
That's the kind of stuff I like to be around
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
I got a woman I love, she's crazy, paints like God
She's got a playground sense of justice, she won't take odds
I got a tattoo with her name right through my soul
I think everything she touches turns to gold
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
Perhaps, the boots we have, the old car, the pretty good friend, and the partner we love are the stuff that's real, stuff we feel. The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall.
Stay with the stuff that's real. Resist the upgrade.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Working Vacations: Why we do it and how to stop
I received a desperate email that read, "I'm in leadership, working crazy hours, working through my vacation last week instead of resting, and the story goes on."
The gravitational pull is to always be connected, always available, and always responding- even on vacation. I've done it too-taken calls on the beach while the kids swam, squeezed in a few emails before breakfast, dialed into a "quick" call during dinner, returning seven days later, tired and frustrated.
Why do we struggle to step away, trusting that others can and will find their path to good outcomes?
Reminds me of the children's book, "If You Give A Pig a Pancake" A cautionary tale of saying yes once, the Pig never relents from her requests.
Excerpt from the book
If you give a pig a pancake, she'll want some syrup to go with it.
Pig: May I please have some syrup?
When she gets all sticky, she'll want to take a bath.
Pig: May I please have some bubbles and a toy?
When you give her your rubber duck, she'll feel homesick.Book by Laura Numeroff
Your working vacation and The Pig Sticking with our Pig and a pancake analogy, here's the version of the story you're familiar with from your most recent holiday break. The new requests are like the Pig-never fully satisfied.
(Sunday night email) If you can join the call on Tuesday morning at 630am, I promise it will be a quick one.
(Monday text) After the call, May I please also receive a written summary and go ahead and put it into a few PPT pages?
(Tuesday email & text) There is an RFP we're working on that just came in-quick deadline. I would love for you to answer just a few questions on pages 12-28. Do you mind? It would be super helpful-its due before you return from holiday.
(Wednesday email) May I please have only two more hours of your attention, during that family dinner you'd planned, the RFP client has a Q&A-the only time everyone is available. You can make it, right?
-You get the picture. It's not a vacation. It's what my friend calls "PTO-Pretend Time Off".
"If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will."
-Greg McKeown, Essentialism
Here's my advice for how to enable real rest In the modern world, rest is vital to replenish the nutrients in our creative engines. Prioritize your rest and recovery. Operationalize your values with better choices. Take responsibility and do your creative best with your own life. In your absence, trust that others will step up and in to solve the challenges of the day.
For your next holiday, borrow my out-of-office auto-responder. Here's the one I use, (Thanks Well-being thought leader Jen Fisher for the inspiration)
"I will be out of the office on vacation with my family beginning Monday, July 3rd, returning July 17th. I and my devices will be resting, replenishing my creative engine. I look forward to responding upon my return."
Out of Office autoresponder
Recover your life and enable yourself a real rest.
You can do this.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Paying attention to being on and off purpose
So you don't yet know what your life purpose is, why you are here and what you are here to do. Try paying attention to the moments, the conversations, the ways you feel On Purpose. Here are a few small On Purpose practices that help me experience purposeful living and leading.
I'm like WALL-E the Pixar Robot. My family giggles, but I pick up trash everywhere I go. I value caring for the planet and our home instead of stepping over debris in parking lots and trails. I kneel and clean as I go about life wherever I am. I'm On Purpose when I'm participating in restoring the planet's beauty.
Imagine how beautiful our world will be when 7.9 billion people care for our home.
Here's another On Purpose practice. I put down my phone when going through a check-out lane at a store or in a drive-through. I choose to honor and engage the human being before me. I believe Saint Paul "we are God's workmanship" we human beings are valuable, and I dignify the Divine in them by giving one another our full attention.
This way of operating in the world applies with senior executives or a customer service rep; I'm On Purpose when I'm dignifying every human.
Imagine how we will treat one another when we believe all human beings are valuable.
We will find ourselves Off Purpose, for moments, maybe for weeks and years, ignoring and running the risk of eventually forgetting what we value and believe.
The poet David Whyte worked with a group of particularly thoughtful managers, looking at how we sacrifice our personal desires (Off Purpose) on the altar of work and success. One of the women in the group shared a handful of haunting lines:
"Ten years ago…
I turned my face for a moment
and it became my life."
With grace and curiosity, pay attention to your compass needle. Notice when you've traveled many miles without checking your instrumentation. Regularly ask yourself, "where am I? how am I? where am I heading?" It's much easier to make regular minor adjustments than waiting too long.
You'll be surprised to discover that after paying attention, strengthening your awareness muscle, making two-degree shifts, "what's my purpose, what am I here to do?" becomes easier to dance with. It won't be about having the correct answer anymore. You'll speak about the way you live, work, play, and love.
Stay alert. Choose being On Purpose.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Losing our sense of frontier in life
“Without going out into the fresh air, stepping away from the house, without getting caught in a storm, without getting cold, wet, without feeling hungry, a human being begins to lose their sense of frontier in their life. Their sense of edge in their own explorations.”
-David Whyte
When was the last time you stepped away from the house, took a long walk, and felt the cold air, the wind on your cheeks, grumbles of hunger?
Where is the frontier in your life? The unexplored edges of uncertainty. Forget the places of mastery and dominion. Where are you, the student, the novice, an explorer?
Where are you exploring the unknown, unfamiliar landscape of your life, the contours off the map?
Get outside, leave the pack and your sweater. Feel the cold. Remember that the frontier is where you feel alive.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Transmission For The Outsiders
I once believed, If I stopped writing for a while, a pause from publishing and promoting, I'd more readily find the words below the surface.
I see now I may never catalog the anthologies of my soul while in silence.
I believed the world's volume and density were too much to puncture.
I broadcast on a lower frequency for those beyond the crowds.
I used to believe I needed to understand what I was trying to say; who's it for? What's it about? how will it help?
Now I know the grounded substance of my Life, my rooted strength, transmits "wake up to your Life. God's with us."
I'm puzzled by five-year plans, same-day shipping, fresh strawberries in February, Alexa, and how humans claim to love while radically excluding.
Call me a zealot of simplicity, sustainability, and radical love of outsiders.
It's Love who wrote the play.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: 570+ Days of Running: The Joy of Being Alive
This episode is a simple recording of my run on day 570+ above the mountains of Telluride, CO. I'm not always enthusiastic to run again, the pull to do nothing-rest-make an excuse is real. This day, I celebrated the gift of being fully alive.
Backstory on running everyday
At the beginning of COVID, I decided to run a life experiment, inspired by my son Holden and the work of James Clear. 570+ days and counting, I'm growing an everyday muscle- habit streaking -by running a minimum of one mile every day.
Atomic Habits, Clear's book on tiny habits, caught my attention, giving validation to my question, "How can I just do it-stop the fits and starts?" Here are a few core ideas to his work,
+Become 1% better over time, not tomorrow.
+Make the new habit so small you can't fail.
+Never miss twice.
+Root your new habit or practice in an identity statement, e.g., "I'm an everyday runner."
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: We are Not Human Doings
Can you remember? Can you remember the last time you walked out your front door and wandered-no plans-no reservations-and explored your own backyard, the simple spots, maybe even the lost places?
Adventure awaits the curious-hearted, an escape hatch from the mundane and predictable tyranny of screens and mindless routines.
Rambling infuses joy into your life and reminds your soul that productivity and conquest are not your primary purpose here.
We are not human doings.
We are human beings intimately created to connect.
You can do this.
Keep Going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Why Not Today! Everybody should go big
In this episode, I take you along for my eighteen mile walking, hiking, climbing adventure of Eagle Peak near my home. You'll hear the cold, the wind, and my invitation for you to explore your frontier-push beyond the humdrum of life.
I've heard it said,
“Boredom comes simply from ignorance and lack of imagination.” -Susan Ertz Leave the house, why not today, go big and see what you discover.
You can do this. This is good for you.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: Dropping the rock
I've been thinking. I am thinking about dropping rocks, not seeing clearly, and being led.
By rock, I mean being stuck in the past, beholden to an old story no longer serving you, an old unresolved grievance costing you joy today.
My son and I were in Barcelona, Spain, waiting in line to explore La Sagrada Familia one-of-a-kind temple.
I'd just been grumbling, a well-rehearsed old-narrative regret I'd carried for nearly three decades. I'm sure I'd bored him ten times before. Here's how it went, "I regret never taking that study abroad summer course in Guadalajara, Mexico, before mom and I married. I wish… I can't believe it… If only I had…"
The story I was telling him there, on the threshold of one of the world's most holy and sacred spaces, was how different my life would have looked without this life-altering mistake that "I blew it-this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." The punchline was always about how I would have traveled internationally, learned a second language, and become a more sophisticated world citizen.
Anecdotally Holden, shared with me about their recovery community's Drop the Rock meeting format.
Bring your rocks in with you. Drop the rocks you're carrying. Leave empty-handed. Lighter.
Standing in line, my heavy rock became apparent to me.
What a load of crap I'd talked myself into.
Not seeing clearly
The saying goes, "We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are." Now Fifty years old, I'd retold this regret story so many times that it'd become unnoticeable, outside my field of vision. It was the interpretive lens, the way I saw and witnessed my life.
Here I was standing in Barcelona, Spain, (international travel) with my son (deeply connected in the relationship), practicing duo-lingo Spanish (learning a foreign language), working abroad professionally, returning from a week in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains (a more sophisticated world citizen HA!).
HERE I AM! I couldn't see any of that. I'd convinced myself my regretful decision thirty years prior would forever suppress my future.
I dropped the rock. I let go of the regret and the life-less interpretation of my youthful choice. I'm radically allowing the voice of Love to heal me on the inside, unlocking more freedom.
Listen to the stories you're telling yourself on repeat. Drop the rock. See clearly. Allow the eyes of your heart to be enlightened to see clearly-to see ALL of Reality. Remind your soul we're being led. God's with us. Thru us and in us.
You can do this.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.
A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."
I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!
Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."
You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.
-Aaron
Episode: A brave conversation with yourself
The modern world is a hindrance to soulful exploration. The naked soul of man is too timid, too armored to disclose whole truths quickly. Step slowly into the quiet, spacious places to explore the courageous questions that lay in wait beyond your full-throttled Life.
Maybe it's been a while since you had a bold conversation with yourself. Get out there. Forget the map. Get lost if you must.
With God as your guide, explore and whisper your questions. Stay out there. Then return with your heart forward and your spirit attuned to mapping the edges of your frontier.
Abundant, vibrant Life awaits. You can do this.
Keep going-
Aaron
Friends, today I wanna talk about how zigzag lines make for a better story. So, good story is not a straight line I heard a friend say just recently. And it really arrested my attention mostly because I wish it wasn't true. Intellectually I know this idea, like, it makes sense. Like when you listen to the arc of a story, the hero's journey, all of that is like, oh, of course, a hero wants something. They have to go through some challenge and obstacle to overcome, to become someone different, to then arrive at the other side and, [vocalization].
However, living that is really challenging for us. I remember the reason this really hit home for me recently is decades ago in the beginning, I really wanted to be a mountain guide. And I was working in outdoor retail and was apprenticing as a guide under a guide service and just couldn't wait to be like, that was gonna be my career. And then I would be out exploring the rugged blank spots on the map. And really at the time I just had a lot of internal grapple when that didn't come to be.
And, you know, I thought that if at the time if I went into the business world that I was somehow going to lose my friendship with the heart of God because for growing up, I didn't really know anyone in business. The only few that I did know were not necessarily inspiring humans. And so I thought that the mountains was gonna be the way that I could, you know, become the person I'm intended to be. So as my wife and I began to have kids and I got a full-time job selling radio advertising and, you know, home by 5 PM for dinner and bedtime stories, my outdoor life shrunk substantially. And really at the time, I remember just, not only were we having a great time, but internally I just felt like, well, I guess I kind of misread the' tea leaves' there and, you know, oh, here we go, this is the story that's in front of me right now.
And so maybe you're like me, maybe you really just prefer an A plus B equals C plan. The one that's linear, it's sequential, has predictable outcomes and only straight lines. And if you're like me, then maybe my friend Jon Blase’s poem will help land this idea a little bit. He writes the same apparently. So he is talking about people with, you know, five-year plans, forged through life with a plan, a map they chart by bolder stars. I, on the other hand, wake to mild confusion, most days, not about the tiny aspects of self-respect, such as brushing my teeth and paying my bills, but more like the big things. Like my destiny, etc. Thanks, John. So for me, I'm not a celestial navigator either. But I do wake and this is I guess a path that I found to bring life. I do wake most days and start with radical surrender and asking God to accept the path that's in front of me for this day. There's a great writing by King David I'll add here too from Psalm 119, from The Message translation. And he says, "You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You're blessed when you follow His directions, doing your best to find Him. That's right you don't go off on your own. You walk straight along the road He sets." David White calls it the pale ground beneath our feet.
So in this desire for straight unbroken lines, linear paths from A to B, and oftentimes just losing the path along the way of feeling like, well, I guess that was never to be, or I guess I misread the 'tea leaves', or I totally got that wrong and botched it, that'll never come to be. What I'm learning now, as I stare down age 50, that inclusive of all of my jagged lines, the cliff jumps, the plummets, the high places, unbroken lines as Wendell Berry writes, all have culminated in a story that I would love to tell you over a campfire sometime. That now here I am wholehearted, still friends with God. And now I'm finding myself accompanying clients in both the frontiers of business and wilderness settings.
My conclusion is I've been led. So my invitation to you today, friends, is embrace your long way around. All of the squiggly lines, and allow yourself to be led. Because a great story, a good story is often not a straight line. You can do this. It's good for you.
Keep going.
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking. I've been thinking about the slippery slope, the slippery slope of...as humans, as leaders, we find ourselves in a place progressively over time far from where we intended to be or accidentally just waking up one day and finding that we're in a place that no longer looks familiar or is no longer desirable. I've found myself on that slope many time. I just had a conversation with a friend this morning, and he was stating, after a year of really intentional work and changes in family, moved into a new home, found himself in a place of work rhythms, lifestyle rhythms that were unfamiliar and undesirable. Really not a place, like, "Why am I doing this? How did I get here?" And it's really helpful to know and have the awareness to start with. "Huh. This isn't working." Paying attention...what I talk about often is the dashboard lights of your life, and they start going off.
For me, sometimes it happens in sleep where I notice, boy, I'm sure up a lot at 1 to 2:30 in the morning with lists of unfinished things in my head. Or, boy, I really notice that I'm way less patient than I wanna be, or I really notice that I'm finding the Zoom world of constantly switching of 30-minute or 60-minute blocks and the mental fatigue that that requires. I was just reading a book from Cal Newport on Deep Work, and he talked about how the mental...basically IQ points go down through the day from the progressive switching between topic and between task. That we actually become dumber effectively is what it means.
So what do we do? What do we do when we find ourselves in a place where it isn't where we started, it's not where we intended to be, or, simply, where we want to be or what we want to be experiencing is something different than what we currently are. And I believe it usually, like, begins with two vocabulary words. One is starting to say yes to different things and say no to others. And those two words, yes and no, pulling those out, looking at those, one in our left hand, one in our right, and deciding, "Okay, now what are the mends and adjustments and trades I can make?" For myself, I notice this constant gravitational pull to say yes to more client work, to say yes to the next opportunity, to say yes to that next small thing.
My wife was in a training program, and they called 'em, "The big things that you put in a bowl are oranges. The small things you put in a bowl are Skittles." And it's much easier to have a bowl that you start with oranges in than it is to start with a bowl, fill it full of Skittles, and then try and shove the oranges in. And oranges being figurative for the things, the big, juicier, meatier, chunkier pieces of your commitments, your yeses and then moving into, then, adding the small bits around those big blocks. So for me, personally, I find it really fatiguing when I end up with a bowl full of Skittles of just tons of little bitty penny ante small things I'm doing. And for me, as I learn to lead myself, learn to lead others, the impact I seek to create has to do with fewer yeses to Skittles, more no to those small little things, and stronger...my friend called them "straight spine" and "open heart" yeses, where the oranges are easier to place in, so that I don't find myself on down the road fatigued and surprised of the results of the impact of my experience of my work and my life and, in the end, finding myself on the slippery slope in some place I don't intend to be or choose not to be.
So start with a yes. Figure out where those yeses need to be invested fully, and then where are some of the noes. I just, before recording this episode, said no to two separate invitations, so that I can keep the integrity of the yeses that I'd formally already committed to. You can do this, friends.
Keep going. This is good for you.
Aaron
Friends, this is Aaron. And I've been thinking. I've been thinking about to-do lists versus to-be lists. One of my mentors these last few years introduced me to the idea of a to-be list. I really shook my head at first. Like you mean like to be, as in like to be and to not be? What do you mean, to be? Well, she went on to talk about how each of us have, like, a to-do list, you know, shit-we've-got-to-get-done list, things that we want to make a difference in, things we need to accomplish, deadlines, timelines, deliverables. Great. But have we ever, have I, have you ever stopped to start with a daily to-be list? I kid you not, I remember months ago, I wrote down in the morning my to-be list. I wanna be patient, I wanna be open, I wanna be a non-reactive presence.
And within 2 hours, maybe it was 60 minutes, it was short, I found myself with a client live and the client on the other end of Zoom, we were in a breakout room and we were doing this game, I pushed on the wrong tile button on this maze experience that we were doing, and it was my error, but the client really got animated. We came back into the big breakout room and the client in a tile full of Brady Bunch people of a hundred, said, "I blame you." And I thought, oh my, okay, here we go. Thank goodness I have a to-be list because I want to be a non-reactive presence. I had an opportunity to practice that, and if it wasn't for my to-be list of the day, then I wouldn't have had that orientation already in my operating system around who do I wanna be, how do I want to be today.
My list for today, I want to be a mountaineer, I want to be a reader, I want to be a lover, a brother, a deep creator, I want to be a runner, an artist. What will I do with these today? Only time will tell. Very helpful to accompany my to-do list, who I want to be, and how I want to be. Friends, you can do this.
Keep going. This is good for you.
Aaron
Today I want to share something more intimate with you about pain and living forward. Earlier this year, my family and I we honored the 10-year anniversary of our daughter Hadley's passing and her death in 2011. And I found myself for a couple months, just feeling the... I don't even know if weight is the right word, but just the honoring of the reality of learning to live each of us individually and collectively as a family how to live forward. How to actually move forward. And it's definitely become easier by the year but doesn't mean the the pain or the loss is not there.
It's just a new way of learning to live holding both joy and pain at the same time. So I wanna share with you a poem that I wrote. Her birthday is upcoming.
This month I always tend to be reflective as well. And our holiday seasons are always bookended by her birthday and then her anniversary of her passing. I'll share the poem with you now and then reflect on it a little bit with you, 10 years living forward,
"Ten rings later in the oak tree. Ten rings later and the oak tree. Radius etchings tell the truth of living forward. Closer to fine. Empty bedroom, not to dinner. Quiet, deafening, disappearance. No search party assembled. Empty wheelchair affixed for helium flight. Unconvincing logic to limbic smells and sounds. Was that her shadow? Her cry? Hair clippers to mourn the reminder of not fine. Staggering, limping, walking, living again, rings seared chronicles of summers laughing. Winters ruminating, springs living. All the roots go deeper when it's dry."
So as I reflect back on her death in passing, I envision this trees aging rings, a cross section of a log. And as you see like in the rings, each annual etching tells a different story. Some are like thick with growth. In a tree, it's like, "Oh wow, there must have been a lot of rain that year, was lots of moisture, easy for that tree to grow." Others are really thin, very small amount of growth, but the tree is still standing. And as I began to reflect on that as her passing, no search party assembled, she was missing at dinner. Her bedroom was empty. But we knew why. In our mind. But our soul and our body didn't. Our limbic brain, the part of our brain that stores meaning, and sense, and smell aroused by someone's presence. I remember just being haunted by that for years, "Oh, it sounded like her. Oh, that's not her. Was that her cry? No."
And in the honoring of her passing, I had read a passage in the book of Job. And when Job's children had died, so many tragedies had become him. But it was the last straw when the house collapsed on all of his children. And the two things he did was he shaved his head and worship God. I remember having my kids, Averi and Holden, shave my head with me. And I wore my hair clipper down to skin for a year, just to remind myself, I'm not fine, and that's okay, but have a visceral reminder.
I would go to touch my head in the morning and it would have these, you know, scaly bumps from no hair, or I'd be cold, or I looked not attractive in the mirror. But all of those were reminders. That's okay. I'm not supposed to be fine. And then as we progressed, moving through summers laughing, winters ruminating, and springs living, moving from staggering and limping to walking to living again, and all the roots go deeper when it's dry.
So, friends, like you, I've lived long enough to know to live authentically, to become wholehearted requires us to embrace our humanities spectrum, and remind our souls that God is with us and for us, even when, even when. Friends, you can do this. It's worth it. You're worth it.
Keep going,
Aaron
Friends, today what's on my mind is piercing the veneer of outside things. Ernest Shackleton, infamous Antarctic explorer, at the turn of the century, the 19th century, did this expedition in Antarctica. His men famously were trapped in the sea ice over 23 months, they found their way back home, each of them living. And in his memoirs, he wrote called "South,“ I'll share with you, two sentences. "We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had reached the naked soul of men."
I find this particular piece, the veneer, this... I remember in shop class as a kid in high school adding like a coating of veneer, a lacquer on top of whatever it was, we were creating. So veneer can be like a barrier, right? It could be thin, could be thick, could be many-layered, but how do we pierce the veneer of outside things? And I find often in our world that we live in, this modern world, the veneer of outside things exist in polished half-truths, phrases that I don't love like, "Oh, how you doing?" "Oh, I'm great. So busy, so busy," we say. Operating at 7,000 RPMs, drop the merit badge of busy and pierce the veneer. Real connection, real belonging, real community exists in the deeper textures. It's not on your phone. It's not on the flip. It's not in busy. Be whole, be intentional, be on purpose, reach the naked soul.
You can do this, friends. This is good for you.
Let's keep going,
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking, I've been thinking about dreaming bigger dreams. A friend of mine sent me a poem in the mail, a prayer over the summer. I've kept, keep going back and rereading these lines. And it reads, "Disturb me, Lord, when I am too well, pleased with myself, when my dreams have come true, because I have dreamed too little." So as I asked myself and wonder about these lines, what are my new dreams? Not the old, the vintage ones of yesteryear. What are the bashful whispers? The ones too big to say out loud. What if we whispered them with intuition? With heart, without knowing how? What if we speak it into the reality of the world as our prayer? We take it as a cue of the opening line of, "Disturb me Lord, when I am too well, pleased with myself, when my dreams have come true, because I have dreamed too little." Friends, danger is calling, danger is for good. Speak those dreams, those whispers, and let's begin to live into the questions of how might we bring bigger dreams to life?
Friends, this is good for us. You can do this. It's worth it.
Keep going,
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking about what does the world really need? Our world is pretty complex, complicated place these days, no matter what part of the globe you live on. And I've been thinking about how what the world really needs is more wholehearted humans.
Two quotes to get us started. Parker Palmer. "I wanted more than a job. I wanted deeper congruence between my inner and outer life." Congruence in that is about the who I am. My friend calls it a plum line, between who I am, what I think, feel and do, and they're all lined up. So let me read it again to you. "I wanted more than a job. I wanted deeper congruence between my inner and outer life."
Second quote, Andrew Bennett. The longest journey you will ever take. "The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart."
So friends, if we desire more than just a job, our vocational experience and existence becoming more than just showing up with our butt in a chair, all present for roll call. If we desire our neighborhoods when I hear people say, oh, I've never talked to my neighbor. I don't know who my neighbors are. I'm like, well, have you ever actually walked over and knocked on their door and said hi? And if we dared a dream beyond this transactional interchange of relationship, the mini-dramas, and small living.
The way I see it, there's really only one choice. The courageous choice, the more challenging, fulfilling choice is put your money down, buy the golden ticket of congruence and the plum line that runs through you and buckle up for the mysterious beauty and mess of discovering how to foster friendship of heart and head, that 18 inches. What if your friends of head and heart were deeply part of how you live and who you are? And how do we cultivate a deep knowing of God as our friend? Here's a promise. There's no quick shortcut, VIP line to skip ahead. And oh, by the way, this one alluded me for a long time. There's also not a finish line. We'll never be done. When we begin to embrace living more wholeheartedly in the world that we occupy.
What does the world need? More of us to sign up, buy the ticket, wear the t-shirt, and get started living more true, restored friends with our heart and our head, friends with God, and deeper congruence between our inner and outer life. Friends, it is good for us, I bought the ticket. You can do this.
Let's keep going.
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking about an idea that David Whyte wrote about. He titled it "The Economy of Presence." And he told the story in his book about this old sheepdog, Cymro in the Welsh countryside, and this dog, older of the bunch with limp, had a blind eye. He talked about how one ear's flopped over, one ear that's up is raised and black. And he had this what he titled as "The Economy of Presence," that he could stand... He could do the job with the lightest touch, he writes. He knew the pivotal places to stand. And he told the story about how the young sheepdogs would run up and back, lots of noise, lots of activity, lots of energy expended, in order to get the sheep to move where they wanted them to go. Contrast that with the older, wiser, somewhat haggard, Cymro, through his economy of presence, knowing the pivotal places to stand, said he could do it with the lightest touch, the pivotal places to do the job with the lightest touch. So he could lean, he could move ahead, he could tilt, he could stand in the right place at the right time in the right way and have the same or better result. And the sheep would respond. And they would go through this crack or segment in the wall where they could punch through.
I've been thinking about this for ourselves as leaders, as the wholehearted leaders, what would it look like for us to perform the job with the lightest touch, to know where are the pivotal places to stand? Not everywhere, not up and back, not scurrying and hurrying but to be in the right place, at the right time, and in the right way. I can admit for myself I don't yet know. I don't know where all those places are but I know that every new practice, every new integration starts in the moment of asking the question, in this now moment with this team that I'm spending time with, with this conversation, with this project, with this deliverable. Where is there an opportunity for the lightest touch, a lesser touch, and an economy of presence? You could do this, friends.
Keep going. This is good for us.
Aaron
Today I've been thinking about developing an everyday muscle. I've been 600 days and counting now in this life experiment. So it feels like it's time to share it with you. So I've always wanted to be more consistent. Like, I would call like stone colds just steady. The person who like, skips all of the fussing and excuses, mini-dramas for why I do or don't do things consistently. And the truth is I've always probably found ways to overcome a lack of consistency by just, you know, fits and starts, or like, talent, you know, I could like delay, you know, if it's a deadline or whatever it may be. In that spirit, I've always wanted to be the guy who would just show up, do the work and kind of enough said. Instead, I've been the guy in the past with lengthy explanations mostly to myself.
So at the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to run a life experiment and it was inspired by two things I wanna tell you about. And that's my son and his now six years of sobriety and the work of James Clear, he wrote a book called "Atomic Habits". And then just a third input as well I also had a friend doing this exact same experiment that he had already completed one year. So those trio inputs kind of came together.
James Clear book was really helpful it's this idea of starting with tiny habits. How do you embed and adopt new habits in your life? Lots of books out there on habits, this one just plain and simply culminated in time and attention and I found it incredibly helpful. Here are a couple of punchlines from his book that I found really incredibly useful in this.
- How do we grow an everyday muscle is become 1% better over time, not 10%, 5%.
- Make the new habit so small you can't fail. Never miss twice.
- And then root your new habit or practice in an identity statement.
My new habit, my tiny practice, my everyday muscle is about running. I started running one mile a day and it was rooted in I want to be an everyday runner. Inspiration number two, my son had just crossed over five years sober at the time, I believe. My wife had gone through and totaled up the number of days he had not in his community they call it drugging and drinking. He had not drugged and drank for over 2000 days. And I was reflecting on that like, oh my gosh, I couldn't think of anything I've done for 15 days, 200 days, let alone 2000 every single day without fail.
I was even thinking about brushing my teeth. Do I actually brush my teeth every single day? No. There's some Saturdays and Sundays where I'm home, where I'm like, yeah, I never brushed my teeth today.
So this idea of how might I become more like my son with who has this strength of sobriety in his life around this everyday muscle? And how might I embed that in my life as a person without excuse, but just moves forward with purpose and action and choice to develop this interior strength. So this big idea was what if without fail, I just start a new practice every day. I'll run one mile a day. And in your case, insert whatever new habit you might consider. And for me, the one mile, the reason it was important was it's not two, it's not six, many days I run longer than a mile. But just the every day of get up, move my body, get going, and log it.
I think I'm 603, 604 days in my practice. And have had that do some modifications here and there. If I'm in the backcountry with a backpack, you know, as long as it's three miles or longer, I count that. I don't actually physically have to run, but when they, my family and I were sick a year ago, we all, I made sure I got out, even if it was pathetically short.
We've mixed it up with some, what do we call? Our chugging run one evening with some buddies, it was drink a beer run a mile on repeat, just to make it fun. And in the end, what I've found is now one mile I've become 1% better over time by starting small. I have never missed twice. I have a little habit tracker app.
I'll put in the show notes for how to do that. And there's a component around accountability That's really important as well. And then my identity now includes becoming an everyday runner and that I am a runner. I am consistent. Which then also helps feed not only my physical body, but it also is a jumping-off point for other places in my life of like, look, well, I started that new thing. I have that everyday muscle in that way. What if I broke something down so small, you can't fail. Turn it into never miss twice and adopt a new practice that's rooted in something I want to become. Someone I want to become.
So friends, developing an everyday muscle, if that's for you, if you have a curiosity. My wife is some 580 days in on her own experiment of walking every day for 6 minutes. So it doesn't have to be revolutionary. Yeah, whatever it may be. There's been lots of people that have adopted these practices. They're very contagious. Once you start in your respective communities, outlining what you're up to. You can do this. It's worth it.
Keep going,
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking about writing it down by hand instead. In this world of digital texts, instant messages, DMs, emails, screenshots, emojis, and all kinds of other stuff that I don't even know what they are. What if we took out a piece of paper, a pen, tear out a page in a magazine. Locate your favorite stationery, go to a card store and buy a card. And what if you...I use maps all the time. I use maps from wilderness places I've been, national parks that I visit, I keep all those maps and use them, and hand write down your thoughts, your appreciations, your birthday wishes, and goodbyes.
Years ago, a friend of ours shared his homemade birthday card with me and he said, I make all of my cards. I remember just thinking, what? You do what? Like, that's cool. As a result, I don't know that I've actually purchased a birthday card since. Even started, I bought this little digital printer where it prints your photos from your phone in little like sticker size, little like two by twos with a sticky back. So I've even started using those to hand-make cards. And, specifically birthday cards just recently for our family members all in October.
So I went through and last month just scribe notes and went through writing letters on these topographic maps to a friend of ours in a trauma program in recovery. And what I found is these handwritten words, they create physical artifacts to reside in our lives. That the connection in this always-on, always programmed world, that we live in, we write it down by hand, serves as a reminder of being loved, being seen for who we are, how we want to be in the world, and enabling for others to feel seen as well. Friends, live bravely and write it down, write it by hand to bring more life with others. You can do this.
Keep going,
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking, what can you not not do? Parker Palmer writes, "Vocation at its deepest level. This is something I can't not do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else, and don't fully understand myself, that that are nonetheless compelling." I love that. Such a generous, expansive invitation for us to consider, what can we not do? I can't help myself.
What's the thing you find yourself thinking, exploring, without prompt or obligation? A friend of mine recently told me that he cannot not photograph bacteria. Like what? Come again. He was telling me about how he, my friend Rob, he discovered these galaxies in this like do it yourself home petri dishes. And he was literally like unable to stop himself. So he documented his work in a children's book for his daughter. How fantastic is that? So where are we compelled for reasons we do not understand even to ourself? What I love about this is that we get absolved of the necessity to explain. We don't need to attempt to explain why it's sensible or it's not. Why we're qualified or we should. What we're gonna do about it or not. We just get thrust into feeling compelled and paying attention to what is compelling us forward.
When I apply this question for myself, I'm compelled for reasons I do not fully understand and cannot explain a good reason for helping humans thrive. Recharging my mind and soul in wilderness and wild places to go first, down unknown paths to extract and excavate my interior life onto pen, paper, and audio and share it here with you, which is perplexing at times. And to make maps, like a cartographer, documenting the typography, edges of the frontier, and business of the heart in spiritual life with God.
I want to close with one more quote from Frederick Buechner, "When we think of these things that compel us, we're unable to explain to ourselves, what if the place that God calls us, you, is to the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet? So what is it that you cannot do? You can't help yourself from being curious about? And might it be in that place of deep gladness, it actually meets a world with deep hunger." Friends, this is good for you. This is good for us.
Let's keep going,
Aaron
Friends, I've been thinking about the words of Saint Paul. He wrote this simple couple sentences that I've been meditating on for the last year and revisiting. He writes, "Make a careful exploration, make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life." I found that, what is that? Four sentences? Five sentences? Incredibly disruptive, incredibly expansive, incredibly life-giving. And what I found is, even the first few lines, words, make a careful exploration of who you are.
Wow, careful, explore. This question of, "Well, who am I? Like, who am I made to be?" I believe we are intimately designed and created and so in that, we don't come with a operator's manual. It's like when you buy a new TV or computer, you get the user guide. Well, there isn't one specifically for each one of us, we have to discover and make a careful exploration of how we operate when we're at our best, who we are, how we're uniquely created and designed, how our life has formed us, how our experiences have formed us and the choices that we've made. And that we are continuing to make of who we are and who we want to be and how we operate in the world.
I find that to be a very poignant choice is to be intentional about those things or pretend that they're just happy accidents. And the work you've been given and sink yourself into that. I find so interesting that work is so much of our context in what we do, whether it's folding laundry, cutting grass, as a math teacher, as a physician, as a mom, as a CPA, as a bookkeeper, a retail checkout person in the sporting goods section.
What is the work that we've been given today? The work that's in front of us today. The work as a nurse, the work as a consultant, the work as a salesperson, the work as a bank teller, the work as a mom. What is the work that's been given to us today? And sink yourself into that. So don't go left or right. Don't go searching. Don't go wandering, just sink yourself fully into today. And then in case you forget, don't be impressed with yourself. Advice from St. Paul. Don't think your shit don't stink. I have a buddy of mine that I think of. We talk about often about not taking the line, as you progress in your career often you end up with a short line, oh, this friend of mine had told this story to me of when he became a senior executive, then he was at a cocktail party and he was waiting in the long line. And then this woman came up to him and said, "Oh, Mr. so-and-so, that's not the line for executives come with me." And we were talking about how easy it is to slowly become impressed with yourself, to slowly think you're a big deal, to slowly believe you're better than others.
Paul continues, "And don't compare yourself with others." I find that incredibly helpful. I play that game so often in my head, comparing myself with other people. And it's entirely unfruitful because each of us must take responsibility for doing the creative best we can with our own life. So what does it look like to take responsibility for doing the creative best we can today in this life? The one we have today, in the place we live today, with the neighbors we live next to, with the people that we lead and love, those entrusted to our care, with the responsibilities that we have, with the accountabilities that are ours.
How do we do the creative best we can with our own life today? Friends, keep going. This is good for us. This will enhance, yeah, the relationships in our life. The work that we do, the impact we create, and the intimacy we seek. Thank you, Saint Paul. Kingdom come.
Keep going,
Aaron
In today's episode, I want you to meet my friend and Flamenco dancer Ana Lucia Jardim. I want to share with you a tiny moment when she and her trio shared the beautiful art of Flamenco with a room full of work colleagues in San Francisco. I knew this was a moment to savor, so I pulled out my phone, recorded the audio of their music, singing and dancing, and a year later, reflected together, and here's what she shared.
Special thanks and acknowledgement to singer, Roberto Zamora http://robertozamora.com/index.html and David McLean https://www.davidmclean.net/ Flamenco Guitarist and Composer, Todd Anderson our producer and Ana Lucia Jardim our wise guide.
I'm signing-off here for this year to resume again in early 2021. To all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday.
Keep going. You can do this.
Aaron
In the last person standing town, Scott Teems makes his home in Los Angeles, with a passion for telling stories through film. As a Hollywood and television writer and director, Scott Teems shares with us today on Work Life Play, the importance of showing up every day and why you need someone in your corner who believes in you.We talk about his life as a Hollywood and television writer and director, why most people quit sooner (and don’t go the distance), the supporting people, namely his wife TJ, and properly calibrated expectations to pursue big dreams.
Scott brings us in close to educating us about how a film comes together from casting, location scouting, screenwriting, editing, and securing funding for a movie.
Watch for Scott Teem’s upcoming Big screen studio works Halloween Kills (sequel to Halloween releasing the Fall of 2021. He wrote Firestarter, Stephen King adaptation, starring Zac Efron which begins shooting in 2021 releasing in 2022.
Also check out THE QUARRY, You can watch the trailer here and read a review here. (Amazon, Apple TV, AT&T, Dish, DIRECTV, Google Play, Microsoft, etc.).
THAT EVENING SUN, available to rent the film on Vimeo.
Scott's documentary, HOLBROOK/TWAIN, is available on Amazon, Apple/iTunes, VUDU, or Google Play! Holbrook/Twain backstory and Collectors edition DVD set here.
Matthew Zachary is my guest today for the audacious role he plays in the fight against cancer. Personally, this topic is significant to me. For most of the past two years, I’ve invested my client work energy supporting a major pharmaceutical organization as they re-imagine, re-engineer their approach to cure cancer and extend the lives of patients. Matthew’s founded Stupid Cancer, a brain cancer survivor himself, Newsweek calls him a Cancer Rebel, Deepak Chopra says he’s a Peace healer. Now his podcast, Out of Patients-sorting out the BS in healthcare through raw conversations about patient advocacy. I dedicate this episode to Peb and Bill, my friends. May you keep going further.
Years ago, I believed that my "real life" went on pause when my responsibilities took over. For instance, when I traveled for work, my "life" was paused while I fulfilled my work duty. This limiting mindset, the lenses through which I interpreted my life, informed my narrow experience of my life. Everything was in a container. Open this container when I "Work," this container when I "Play." This old mindset prevailed when traveling for work; I believed that I was away from my "real life," The trip was a necessary interruption, but inconveniently pausing my experience of living my life.
I now believe that I choose to live my life regardless of where I find myself in context and geography. It is all one beautifully integrated creation of my Work Life Play.
In today's episode, another from the archives a few years back, I started running small experiments, fully living my life as I desired wherever I found myself, despite the context and limitations. The big unlock was that my life no longer needed to go on hold.
In this Tiny Moment, Big Idea I ask the question "What are you afraid to try?" I recorded this episode five years ago immediately after we sold everything we owned and rebooted our lives. Many people said, "I wish I could do that." Which begs the question, "what are you afraid to try or do?" Maybe that informs what you might need to consider?
Keep going,
Aaron
My interview today is with my son Holden. Sober five years. Wise. Gracious, and he’s teaching me a lot about the power of building an everyday muscle. He talks about how he makes decisions waiting for nudges from “Higher Power” and his brave beginnings of sobriety.
Today’s episode is a tiny moment with a big idea. Three years ago this month, I left my fifteen-year-long career in Software, stepped down as an executive, forfeited stock options, and embarked on a quest, a mission, to align the work I do every day with the person I’d become. I jumped in our 74 VW Bus and headed west to honor the beginning of this big transition in my life. Here’s what I captured then, not knowing what would unfold. 20/20 vision is easier to find when looking into the rearview mirror—but challenging when we’re in the beginning or middle of significant transitions, living with uncertainty and great frontier of the unknown.
My friend Ryan Miller is fierce with questions. Questions about love, questions about life and story, and power and shadows. The question we came together around in this episode is what is happening in our culture’s shadows today. In the movie The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” Ryan Miller’s new fictional story, Insipid, questions it all-good and evil, what is real and what is not. Dark and bright, join us.
Liz Warner completed her goal during the pandemic on June 8th, 2020, her 30th birthday. Thirty marathons, in thirty countries by age thirty-that, was her quest. Here’s her story of navigating setbacks along the road of illuminating that each of us can contribute to the ongoing play.
Earlier this year, I recorded this life changing advice from my Uber driver. Buckle up and enjoy his zeal for life and this powerful tiny moment and big idea.
Zack Duhame is unassuming. You would walk past him on the sidewalk and not realize that thirty minutes ago, he was a stunt double for Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio being drug behind a car, winning a bar fight, or being drug behind a getaway car.
Zack and I met in the mountains of Colorado at a men's retreat. For the weekend, a house rule was we didn't speak about our careers. For men, an easy facade to hide behind. We spent four intense days together, getting to know the human being, not the human doing (career and accomplishments). Many months later, we reconnected, and the great reveal "Zack the stuntman?!!!" The best part is we became friends organically. Please get to know Zack Duhame with me. Watch his adrenaline reeling stunt reel here.
I took a break from producing and delivery for a few weeks to rest and recharge. Farmers call this fallow ground-replenish soil.
“…some farmers and gardeners let their land go fallow – or unplanted – so that the soil’s natural nutrient balance can be restored…it became more and more unpopular to leave land fallow and unproductive in Western societies. The production won out over soil health. ”
I'm starting a new Explorers Wanted program (virtually) and in-person starting October 5th. Details here https://www.aaronmchugh.com/explorerswanted/
Doug Ament doesn't have all of the answers, but he asks excellent questions. In the heyday of the late '90s, he was a partner in the San Diego based most successful yacht dealerships in the World. Until it all went sideways, and they shut it down. His lessons provide us anchor points for how to navigate uncertainty when we lose sight of the shore in life and business. In this episode Doug Ament walks us through how he survived the 2008/09 professional downturn.
My guest today is songwriter Jeff Nelson. I discovered Jeff's earthy soul talk after reading about "LA contractor lands a Nashville recording contract. He is a family man who purchased and remodeled his grandfather’s home in San Pedro, where he currently resides with his wife and four children. He leads a humble life: coffee, family, building homes and good bourbon." And I knew I had to hear his story. Enjoy his intersecting art and labor, soul and play, unlock and duty.
Ryan Gottfredson PHD is a successful mindset expert. Mindsets as the lenses we wear to help us interpret and engage with the world. In our conversation, we talk about how we expand and shift mindsets limiting our experience and no longer serving us.
My guest today, Zack Friedman recognized a pattern in humans. Some people create lemonade from lemons and others don't. His book, The Lemonade Life, is the playbook for how to choose a pathway that eludes many, and can lead to more fulfillment and success.
Sunni Brown is an inspiration. She helped me exercise my wierd. After many years of trading messages, I'm proud to share our conversation with you today. One of my favorite quotes from Sunni I included in my book “If you can’t change your mind, it’s very hard to change your life. Human beings that are mentally agile, those who can and will unstick—from an ongoing challenge, a mindset, a limiting belief, or a point of view—are more likely to flourish. Period.”
Brendan Leonard promises that real adventure is not out of reach. I discovered his work through The Art of Getting Lost, a get-out-there excuse removing antidote to exploring more.
He writes, “The hardest thing is convincing yourself it’s okay. Now I know you’re important at work and at home, but trust me, the folks at work and at home can do without you for a day or a couple of days. You’d be surprised what people do when you’re unavailable for a day or two: They figure it out on their own. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut where you’re working hard for everyone else and neglecting the things you want and need-like spending the night sleeping under the stars or going for a long hike-so you have to recognize it and schedule some time out of the rut for yourself.”
Friends, Brendan Leonard is a worthy guide to follow in the art of getting lost and doing work you love. Find his work at Semi-Rad.
Dave Evans and Bill Burnett are designers at heart. Early in their careers, they designed for companies like Apple. Today, as Life Designers, they show people how to get off the couch and prototype alternative versions of their lives and their careers.
Moe believes that Bravespace workplaces enable for people to face the risks, emotional exposure, uncertainty, and vulnerability that come with work. Leaders must know that people aren't machines, but that we are strong and fragile, smart, complex and beautiful. Bravespace workplaces are people-centered environments where leaders deeply understand that people make all the good things happen at work.
Morgan Snyder is more than my guest today. Our sixteen-year friendship is an anchor I repeatedly tether myself to for hope, truth, and joy. Our transformative reciprocity began when we were angsty younger men in our thirties. We'd commiserate together. Now we celebrate. To relieve anxiety, we'd pedal bikes in sync to reset our life's drive train. Our strategy? To conjure more energy, with an improved approach to come through for everyone except ourselves. Now we prioritize our soul's needs, joyfully contributing with wisdom's restraint in fewer places. Mashing those Colorado hills, Morgan was dictating his book aloud on how we can become the kind of man that God can entrust with power. He started with one question, "What's the most important thing?".
This book isn't for everyone, Becoming a King: The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man.
Who is this book for?
It's for the hungry, curious, and humble enough to admit maybe there is a better way? A less-traveled path that leads to abundant, sustainable life? If you're a man who values questions over answers and journeys over destinations, this book can change your life. I've walked and witnessed Morgan's excavation (a term you'll hear him use in almost every conversation) as a man, husband, father, employee, and friend. Before his inside-out restoration, restoring the heart of a man, he was intense. Today, he's still where he was unsettled and his winsome love and oxygenated Life with God is disarming and inviting.
-To the devout cynics, his warm "me too" rebel smile creates a safe zone to drop your guard.
-To the weary, he shows his scars underneath his flannel sleeves.
-To the polished and perfect, his empathetic, inquisitive engagement illuminates possible hairline cracks in the foundation.
For the few, the curious and open, there is a path that leads to life and few find it. Morgan is a trustworthy guide to this ancient path. Follow him. I do.
I'll be the first to admit. I can be easily distracted. Ping, blue dot, check email, etc. Nir Eyal named my interference as pain management. "Unless we deal with the root causes of our distraction, we'll continue to find ways to distract ourselves. Simply put, the drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behavior." I invite you to put aside your biases and assumptions about distraction and listen to Nir Eyal's research on how to become Indistractable.
My guest today on Work Life Play is Caitlin Landesberg, founder and CEO of Sufferfest Beer Company, for those who believe in earning their beer. Caitlin Landesberg is an Athlete, long-distance trail runner, and is relentlessly curious. We talk about living fully, pursuing wormholes with curiosity and abandoning demands for outcomes. Her disarming charm, tech-startup roots tenacity kneaded the gospel of Sufferfest Beer one finish line and neighborhood grocery story at a time. Here is her story.
My guest today is Canadian Andrew Jensen, PGA pro tour golfer and avid spokesman for the pitfalls and hope for those of us who struggle with depression and anxiety. "I turned pro and embarked on just this lonely, isolated life and isolation is not good for the depressed brain." Rich, earnest and real. I know you'll enjoy his story today.
In 2018, I interviewed Bryan Falchuk, author of Do a Day: How to Live a Better Life Everyday. What struck me about Bryan was how his lowest-life moment, became his redefining inspiration. Here’s what he had to say, “I walked into our room and my wife’s in bed, my son’s standing there and he’s looking at his mother who’s dying in front of his eyes and he turns and looks at me and it all smacked me in the face. It’s like, ’what are you doing? You’re failing her. You’re failing him.
And I’m feeling ‘why do I have to have such a miserable life,’ everything’s falling apart and somehow I’m still standing and I’m not homeless and I’m not, missing a limb or, some other much more extreme thing. So maybe it’s not as bad as I always am so insistent that it is and all that just hit me in that moment.”
What is the Cult of Average? Today, my friend and guest Tom Davis liberates our thinking by guiding us to a values-based operating system for our lives.
A ‘pay the rent’ lifestyle is one that is based on living life for other people. It's about paying the rent, paying my bills, going to my job, doing what everybody else tells me. What happens is, slowly but surely, I start to erode away. I start to disappear because the things that matter to me, my core values, the ‘why I do what I do,’ there is no time for them anymore. There's no me because I'm just trying to survive.
That's the problem with survival mode; all you're doing is getting through the day. You go home and you collapse and say, "I was so busy working, but what did I actually do that mattered?"
Usually, I wouldn't write an introduction to a podcast episode that I am the "guest" or the speaker. But hey, this is the best talk I've ever given at my new book launch party on February 1st, Fire Your Boss: Discover Work Your Love Without Quitting Your Job, What makes that accurate? Ninety of some of my favorite humans on the planet were in the room transferred to me through osmosis, and I gained strength as the evening unfolded. Which meant I spoke with boldness and brightness that I long to embody daily. The second and equally equitable, I love people. Deeply. I love the hearts, minds, and lives of people in the daily context of the world of work. My big heart and my decades of living on the front-lines of enterprise corroborate my assignment as a watchman to our hearts arousing at work.
Alastair Humphreys is unusual. He cycled around the world (46,000 miles) and rowed across the Atlantic Ocean unsupported. Those feats are unusual, but more accessible for the commoner are his microadventures, short, local, burts of curious wanderings out your front door. I'd pair beautiful and unusual together to give a crisper coupling of his leadership invitation to each of us "Live Adventurously". Motivational speaker, Author, and Good Human, Alastair is the real deal.
Peb Jackson is uncommonly attracted to risk and survival. Today at age 75 it remains true-it's in his bones. We talk about learning to empty yourself, living an adventurous life of the heart and in wild places where blank spots on the map still exist.
Leith McHugh, my lovely wife of 26 years, is in the house today on the Work Life Play podcast. She's up to some amazing things in the world. We talk about "How McHugh's Roll" and the importance of inviting our children into our family ethos. She shares about her LEITH brand, and the coaching work she brings to women focused on identity and story.
My guest today on Work Life Play is Ultrarunner, Author, mom, and Outside contributing editor Katie Arnold. Katie's book, Running Home serves as the backdrop for our conversation, "A memoir about grief, motherhood, adventure, and finding your stride".
Today. Closing the gap between where I was and where I am. Choices. Tradeoffs. Grace. Reboot. Start. Rest. Pray. Reflect. Celebrate.
My book goes live today into the world. A decade ago, I sat on my back patio and wrote the first draft of this liberating idea for Firing My Boss. My life changed that day. Not all at once, but it sparked the beginning of a journey. I remember deciding to make that manifesto available in a print self-published version. A friend asked, "why self-publish?" Me, "I don't want to wait to be picked". I had something inside of me that I had to get out and I didn't want the world of publishing to be the "committee" for deciding if my words lived.
Available wherever books are sold including in Barnes and Noble stores (In stock in select stores).
Wake up to your life. It’s time to make a ruckus at work. Hi friends, new and old, after 10 years of soulful wrestle, iteration and innovation, I’m excited to announce the release of my new book. Fire your boss-discovering work you love without quitting your job is about becoming wholehearted. Yes it’s about work, and it’s about living true in all that you create in the world. Check it out anywhere books are sold.
Keep going-Aaron
*Join my 2020 Analog experiment
The Far Green Country, a documentary film about RV living in the national parks, marriage, and parenting. Eli Pyke shares his story of he and his family living in an RV for a year as they reset their lives.
Our world is fast-paced, being everything to everyone at all times (except to ourselves), and the demands of our modern world aren't sustainable if we don't learn to listen to our body, mind, and spirit to excel in our life, work and relationships. Here is Jen Fisher's story of burning out and today leads as the Managing Director of Well-Being at Deloitte consulting.
Today's interview is with Blaine and Sam Eldredge with And Son's Magazine. We talk about their eight-year dream of creating a print magazine, the power of transformation v.s. entertainment, masculinity as a lens by which we can view everything else, in defense of millennials, the joy of words, vulnerability and going first, the temptation to quit, brotherhood and hearing God's voice.
Which relationships bring you life? Do you know which relationships drain your energy? Begin by mapping your relationships across your work and life to gain insight about where you need to invest your time and energy.
Today's podcast is from session #1 from Reboot Live last October 2017. Last year, we held two Reboot Experience Workshop and took people on an inward journey to answer big questions like what do you want in life? And How do I find my path to a well-lived joyful life?
What if you listened to the voice of light and easy? What would it tell you to do? What truth would it remind you of? Maybe things are about to go great for you in your career, with your relationships and in that new thing you want to try. Lean in and listen.
Mark Evans carves into leather hides to reveal light from darkness. As a kid, he started drawing and his Archimedes moment came when a drop of blood stained his new Christmas present, a leather jacket. He pulled out his boyhood knives to scratch off the blood which revealed this discovery of a now eighteen year career. To tell his story, we drove our JoyBus to an empty dirt road and retraced his life, love and art.
Jeremy Stewart and I talked flip flops, political science, pediatric cancer and the power of why. Learn from his wisdom in this episode.
Wanting to do more than just create a great flip flop and stunned to learn that pediatric cancer is the most fatal disease among American children – more fatal than almost all other childhood diseases combined – Hari Mari set out to help.
Hope must be cared for, nurtured and protected. Hope stays alive when we steward even the smallest glimpse or the thinnest thread.
An action is required for transformation to happen. Talking about, thinking about, and dreaming about change isn’t enough. Doing something and trying something different creates possibility.
We are not failures. We fall short, we make mistakes, and we can screw stuff up, but we’re never beyond the reach of love and forgiveness. Love wins. Everyone gets a do-over(s).
Keep going,
Aaron
More on my coaching work.
My savings account just hit zero. We’ve bet our life on what we believe, and I’d like to shoot straight with you about what its been like the last seven months. In October, I left my cushy $six figure career. It was intellectually challenging, but it wasn’t soulfully and purposefully satisfying. With the support of my wife, family and close friends, it was time to leap.
My big life experiment- the big bet, was to align the work I do every day with the person that I’ve become. If it sounds super vague and lacking textbook, strategy-you’re right. With no more specificity than this prayerful mantra, we stepped out into the unknown. For our family, it was time to push all of our chips into the middle of the table and spin the wheel placing bets on “cause good every day.” Full original post is here
Interested in my one-on-one coaching work? Full details here.
The future is difficult to forecast, but our next brave step is the one thing we can do. Where are you suppressing the parts of you that appear to not fit in your world today? Where can you experiment with expressing the fullest version of you? Where do you feel that you don't fit in?
Come join me on an adventure trip in June. More details here.
Today's episode was previously recorded at our Reboot Live event back in October, 2017.
In 2015, we sold everything we owned, pushed pause on our life and started over. Not everyone needs to jettison their life like we did. But everyone can benefit from the lessons we've learned from taking the road less traveled. Read our full story here.
As your guides, we will take you on a journey to help you architect a sustainable life you want to live forward. Reboot is not a marriage conference.
Reboot is revolutionary and experiential and brilliantly crafted to help you rediscover what’s most important to you and stop what’s not working.
Full details about our Reboot live event. We're planning our next event coming soon.
Alex Woodard reminded me of how pliable our lives and dreams are if we let go. Alex's story is a powerful example of driving hard towards his goal of playing his music to thousands. On the eve of achieving his dream, the bottom fell out. His record contract vanished, his dog died and his dream became a nightmare. Enter stage left; he received a letter from a fan telling her story about loss and love. Alex decided to write her (Emily) a song based on her letter and send it to her. A new dream was born, For the Sender, became the project of Alex and team publishing books and music inspired by letters from the senders. Today he plays for thousands of people, raises money for charity and collaborates with top musicians. The irony is his original dream had similar ingredients, but once he let go of his desire for fame and fortune, his career took off as his story is rewritten focusing on others.
Shawn Askinosie's book might change your life if you allow it.
Meaningful Work is not a book about “saving the world”— but it is about how businesses can and should solve problems in the world, and how positive change begins with individual action.
My top ten reasons why I believe we won't change.
1-No guarantees of an outcome. 2-We really aren't yet in enough pain in our current reality. 3-The devil I know is better than the devil I don't. 4-A template was installed in us a long time ago that is difficult to refute. 5- It's easier to bitch and complain than to do something about it. 6-We convince ourselves that everyone else must have won the golden ticket, found a shortcut, has a rich uncle, got to skip to the front of the line and bypass all the pain, the risk and the uncertainty. Or we're tell ourselves we're too old, beyond repair, too... 7-We've believed a story that isn't true that only we believe. Everyone else around us sees past our living myth. 8-We're so busy managing our life, we don't realize there's a problem. We ignore the warning signs. We hold other priorities. 9-We refuse to allow transformation-fold our arms and say "this is how I am, this is how it will always be". And we get busy dying. 10-We fail to see that LIFE is an invitation to be on a journey-remain under construction until the end. BONUS-#11 We ignore the mythic as irrational, childish, lacking proof and entirely fiction and miss all of the nuance, the beauty, the mystery available to us.
Today is the Ryan Miller Show. I've titled this episode, Who Am I as we talk about their creative work in the world through 08Left, Mango Ink and his upcoming show on May 3rd in Spokane, Lights Like Us.
Kristy Dickerson, keynote speaker, businesswoman, and active CEO and co-founder of Start Planner has devoted her life to providing hope for individuals who are looking to achieve balance, success, and happiness in their lives. She has been featured in numerous national media outlets and has shown thousands of others how to be productive, efficient, and live more fulfilling lives.
This is your permission slip to cut yourself some slack. Take a break. Take a day off. Skip school. Skip work. Wear flip-flops. Punt on a meeting. Say No. Don’t go. Stay home. Call in sick. Be late. Take a nap. Do half as much and call it good enough. Tell “perfection” to take a flying leap. Go on a two-week vacation. Use your floating holiday tomorrow. See a movie at lunchtime. Stay in your jammies all day. Order pizza. Watch Netflix all day. Sleep in. Schedule a meeting in your work calendar titled “Strategy planning” and go take a walk outside. Take a nap in your car at lunch. Let the kids do their laundry. Order takeout. Cancel plans with friends. Don’t attend the school fundraiser. Turn your phone off and let it go to voicemail. Go off the grid. Catch your breath. Be kind to yourself and say “enough, I’m tired.”
If you wrote yourself a permission slip for rest, what would it say?
My guest today is Jesse Mecham, author of his new book You Need A Budget. The money powers our lives and is a resource required for living the life we want. Jesse's team, and I agree, believes that when you approach your money with intention, you can more predictably influence the desired outcomes. I love Jesse's message, and I'm convinced that regardless of how much or how little money we have, we can give our resources purpose and clarity.
Ben Moon is a Pacific City, Oregon based photographer and filmmaker who enjoys working with a diverse range of adventurers, athletes and musicians. Surviving cancer in his twenties inspired a greater connection and appreciation for others and the natural world. Ben finds human emotion to be a source of constant fascination. He is best known for his viral short film Denali, which explored the friendship between Ben and his dog. #DenaliFilm on Vimeo.com/122375452
Part 2 of my interview with Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. In this episode, he continues with practical advice on getting clear on the bigger picture and enabling for more regular course corrections. Even Greg struggles to be an Essentialist all of the time. Where and how do you start with Essentialism? How do you begin taking back control over the minutes and moments that you can influence? How to focus on the things you can control.
Download the full Q&A Essentialism Transformation guide at aaronmchugh.com/lessbutbetter
My interview with Greg McKeown, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, produced poignant questions that warrant an accompanying question guide. I believe lasting transformation can occur when we internalize these issues and principles.
Greg delivered so much succinct and dense insights during our interview that I chose to break the conversation into two parts. I hope that you will earnestly consider the implications of these questions in your work, life and, relationships.
What is Essentialism? “Essentialism is not one more thing-It’s about a whole new way of doing everything. Doing less, but better, in every area of our lives.”
Our Challenge “We forget that we don’t have to do what we’ve done in the past.”
The benefits of Essentialism “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”
Download the Transformation Q&A guide from my interview here.
Ashton Gustafson believes that there is more to life than prestige, accomplishment, trophies and ladder climbing. He believes that if we listen, taste, and smell the melody, the texture, and observe the nuances-we will find what we are all looking for. Ashton leads a rich podcast called Let The Music Play and has killer guests like Rob Bell and Richard Rohr to top chefs. Ashton loves life and is incredibly curious.
I have an experiment for you. I know the holidays are stressful, over-scheduled, over-spending, over-eating and lots of time with friends and family. Here’s my idea-What if we left no good thing unsaid?
We spend a lot of time with family during the holidays, and that can be very stressful. I heard once, “The reason they know how to push your buttons is that they installed them.” So if our buttons can be pushed quickly and we can push buttons with other people just as fast, what if we made a different choice this year? What if we lead with love and grace instead?
One Christmas I realized I’d not entirely told my friends and family how much I loved them, individually, why I loved them. I thought maybe Norman Maclean was right, “It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.” Why is it so difficult to speak a good word over the people we love most? At their funeral, we would gush “He was my favorite uncle, I loved how he always asked me about my life.”
My challenge to us all is this holiday season, we write a note, a letter, a card an honorable toast we give an extra-long hug and tell the people that you love most why you love them. Sure it could go sideways, they could misunderstand, but I’ve found when your genuine motive is love, that’s easy to receive openly. Hold your tongue on the tough stuff this year. Don’t worry it will be there next year too :)
Say the good things that are true inside, but rarely are expressed to the people you love most. Don’t wait until they are gone to say how much you love them. Take the opportunity to tell them how valuable they are to you now.
Guy Kawasaki was chief evangelist of Apple during the early 1980's Macintosh era. In this punchy, simple and short conversation Guy answers the following questions:
- What are you best at?
- What are you most proud of?
- What piece of advice do you give that people fail to follow?
- How are you GREAT at writing books, speaking, starting companies, and evangelising change?
- What key lesson did Steve Jobs teach you?
The full transcript from our conversation is available on the show notes here.
My guest today, Brian David Crane decodes for us the challenges of living and working anywhere in the world like loneliness, developing community and being productive when on Tuesday at 2 pm there is always another waterfall to explore.
The best locations to be a Digital Nomad according to BDC: * Bali * Poland * Colombia * Mexico * Canary Islands * Cape Town
Explore your muse on Nomadlist.com for the best places on the globe to Work, Life and Play.
Since 2014, he's lived on four continents, and traveled to over 40 countries. He's currently based in Asia on the island of Bali.
You can find Brian's work here.
I find asking for help to be difficult. The truth is I don't like to ask for help. I'd prefer to do things on my own, to grit it out, use endurance and perseverance to push through.
In this episode, I share a compelling story of how I learned why we should ask for help. I found myself in a maze that I was unable to escape and asking for HELP turned out to be the secret for escape. I could use your help in a couple of specific ways.
My website and email list for Work Life Play have both been hacked over this past year. You probably didn't even know that case in point. As an exercise in humility and as a practitioner of this idea, I would like to ask for your help in helping me regain some of what was lost.
1) Would you consider sharing this podcast with 5 of your friends? aaronmchugh.com/PodcastSubscribe
2) Would you consider signing up on my website to hear from me over email? aaronmchugh.com/lemonade
3) Would you consider visiting my Work Life Play store as part of your Christmas gift shopping? aaronmchugh.com/WLPStore
Thanks for your support. Keep going- Aaron McHugh
My guest today is Joanna Penn, New York Times bestselling thriller writer. She writes inspirational non-fiction for aspiring authors. We talk about the business of being a writer, her habits, and routines, how she shapes her environment to fuel her creative work and shortcutting the process to get into the flow.
I learned a lot from Joanna and appreciated her insights derived from her experience of leaving her day job to build a successful creative empire. She has excellent advice for self-publishing and marketing authors and compelling ideas, mindset shifts to make the work happen.
You can find her work at TheCreativePenn.com
Last month, I quit my job. I decided I needed to clear my head before starting a new gig. I just returned from a 3,000-mile road trip out west in our 1974 VW Bus. I put together a Best Of list from my experience. My Instagram @aarondmchugh feed has all of the photos I posted from five National Parks, the best hikes, the kindest human I met, quirky roadside Route 66 Wigwam Motel, impromptu unplugged acoustic guitar set in Sante Fe, to our favorite camp spots and sunrise.
Full post details here: aaronmchugh.com/3000miles
In this episode, I recorded a dispatch update from my VW bus road trip from Colorado to California. I'm chasing wild as I visit National Parks and enjoy the drone of the highway. Thus far, I've visited Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP and Zion NP.
I laid down a few thoughts on the benefits of pausing to reflect during a change in season.
Check out my road trip photos on Instagram @aarondmchugh
I met John Montgomery at an Explorer's dinner in Manhattan hosted by Stefan Loble (Bluff Works founder). Everyone invited had some new bent of curiosity that drove their exploration. John's is world travel. It all started when his dad used to load them in the family truckster as kids and go searching for anything new. John's spirit of adventure embodies the Work Life Play mantra.
Hear John's heckle "Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor you guys might ride motorcycles across the world, but have you ever taken a trip with all four of your kids?"
"Should we buy a new car or take a trip?"
The Montgomery tribe ops for experiences over more stuff.
Mosaico Travel Services delivers the finest in custom travel to Central America, South America, and Antarctica. These regions are our passion—our exclusive focus. We have a deep understanding of our destinations—knowledge built on the first-hand experience over decades of travel. Because we know these locations by heart, no other team is better prepared to plan and deliver your journeys to Central America, South America, and the Antarctic.
Check out MOSAICOTRAVEL.COM and tropicofcandycorn.com
Morgan Snyder, host of Become Good Soil podcast, and my close friend interviews me on Work Life Play in celebration of this podcast reaching 100,000 downloads.
We titled it "Then and Now" as we retrace through our friendship over the last thirteen years. We talk through the original seeds of Work Life Play starting back when I'd run at lunch and shower with baby wipes before putting my suit back on.
How we handle disappointment reveals what we really believe about life. Everyone experiences some level of disappointment in life, but not everyone moves forward from the imprint of disappointment. Moving forward in a positive way is challenging.
In this episode, I tell a story about a disappointment I experienced in 2014. I trained to race an IRONMAN triathlon in Lake Tahoe, CA. Unfortunately, it was canceled two minutes prior to the event start due to a raging forest fire nearby.
Disappointments can cause us to make conclusions and agreements that last a lifetime. Maybe you can relate to these
"Next time I'm not going to get my hopes up".
"Why dream".
"I'm not going to try again".
"Why try so hard".
The problem is that we get stuck. We stay in that same emotionally frozen state and are unable to fully move forward with our life, our relationships, our dreams. The way to go forward is to allow disappointment and loss to have a place for a time. It is good to be sad and experience the grief associated with the loss. We obviously don't want to stay there in loss and grief forever either.
This episode is powered by the new Joy Bus T-Shirt in the Work Life Play store.
Last year, our city was unfortunately ranked among the highest for teen suicide. We were directly impacted. We knew our pending move-in day was going to be impacted by the grief and loss. We decided to shift the story-disrupt the inertia by infusing our day with joy and fun.
We gave away free ice cream to one hundred of our friends, strangers, new neighbors, kids from school and construction workers. We set up two VW buses, one with adult beverages and one Scoop Bus. Instead of taxing our closest friends with the crummy obligation of helping us move our stuff, we decided to reframe the story instead. Instead of “Hey can you help us move?” we reframed the offer to “You should stop by for some FREE ICE CREAM”.
Free ice cream from the Scoop Bus I’ve helped a lot of friends move and I’ve hired moving companies. It is never really fun to move. As part of our Reboot, we decided to start our new move in a story like a carnival. “What if we rented the Scoop Bus and gave away free ice cream to everyone who even stops by?”
My wife was down with it. Josh and the Scoop Bus rolled up and we chalked the sign to read “FREE ICE CREAM”. Boom. You should have seen the crowds of kids that turned up. I had friends text to see if their wife could stop by with their pre-schoolers just to get a taste.
We had bikes and trucks and mini-vans stacked with our remnant belongings. I learned that day that any story can be reframed and transformed. No longer was it a moving day, it was a full-blown circus with all you can eat ice cream. What story are you living that could use to be reframed?
Podcast Highlights * The inertia risk: do something different to disrupt the existing state. * Reframing can redirect the path your story, your job, your relationships are on. * Causation vs. prevention: purposing to cause something to occur vs. expending the same or similar energy attempting to prevent. * Authorship & empowerment are more powerful than powerlessness and loss of control. * Architect a life you want to be part of.
I wanted to give you a Reboot recap from our live event a week ago. I think the best way to start is to share a few quotes from Rebooters,
“The world needs to hear this.”
“Excursions were amazing & life-giving!”
“This changed my life. I’m leaving with a whole new perspective on life and how I need to change it.”
"IT was awesome to step away from the insanity of our lives for a bit and reflect upon the life we want to craft."
It is a big deal for people to brave change, even the idea of change scares a lot of people. The beauty of the Reboot experience is that you get to define your version of a well-lived life.
Here are some of the big questions we tackled
-What makes you come alive?
-When you were eight years old, what did you do for fun?
-What is the story you tell yourself every day?
-What do you value most in life? Money? Freedom? Relationships?
-Where in your life do you feel stuck in a rut?
-How sustainable is your current life right now?
-Which relationships in your life are life-giving?
-Which relationships suck life away from you?
Have you started the 7 Practical Steps to Restoring Balance yet? I'd love to hear how it goes!
Keep up with future Reboot happenings here.
Joe was a recovering alcoholic who upgraded his addiction from booze to running. He told me if I tucked in close to his elbow and ran hard, he promised it would be tough, but he wouldn’t drop me. He’d won duathlon world championships, and I was trying to complete a Xterra off-road triathlon. Predictably every day there was a workout-no two-days the same. There was banter before the run and color commentary and coaching afterward.
Drafting behind his 150lb frame eased my pain while my legs and my mind trained to sustain the pace on my own. I became known as the apprentice, “Schoolboy.” On his elbow, I became capable of running faster than I could accomplish on my own. The principles of aerodynamics made it possible, but his commitment to pull me along changed my life.
Where are you drafting, gaining an advantage provided by someone else?
Whose elbow could you tuck into for a time? Where could you become the apprentice for a season?
This episode is powered by my book Fire Your Boss: A Manifesto to Rethink How You Think About Work. Download your free chapter here.
I yelled his name printed on his race bib, “Tim, YOU’VE GOT THIS.” I didn’t know him, but he picked his head up, stared 1,000 yards ahead and got going again. I was working an aid station at the Hawaii IRONMAN World Championship triathlon. These athletes were thirteen miles into the final leg of the 140.6-mile race. He had hours to go before he’d cross the finish line, but his eyes were fixed beyond the present moment, the pain and the fatigue. He had a vision for what was waiting at the end. The party, his family, settling the profound life questions.
I’ve found incredible strength when I can look beyond what is immediately in front of me to the more profound truth, the more significant goal. I believe we can transcend predicaments, setbacks, upsets, disappointments, and detours when we can gain a grip on the truths that keep us going. Sometimes we just need someone, anyone, to yell our name and call us back into the game.
This episode is powered by my free course 7 Practical Steps to Restoring Balance. Sign up here.
In this episode, I caught up with Jack O'Neill and Cary Pierce from Jackopierce in Napa Valley from the Motor Lodge Inn in Calistoga, CA just before their live destination show. We talk about their music, their thirty-year journey, and the grit it required to get here.
Twenty-five years, we talked, they sang, played and Jack blew his harps. They tell stories of their blue VW bus adventures and driving their 27' foot RV across the US one university town to the next.
In 1988, Jack O'Neill and Cary Pierce, the "Jack O" and "Pierce" who make up the seminal acoustic duo, Jackopierce, were playing cover songs in a dingy club with a crummy PA in their hometown of Dallas, Texas. In a moment of young-musician desperation, they whipped up a tune on the spot called "Three of Us In A Boat" to elongate their set. That became a signature track for a decade-long career wherein the two-piece sold 500,000 records over six albums (two for major label A&M) and toured three continents, nine countries, and 44 states. After a five-year breakup, in 2002 the duo reconvened as Jackopierce.
Today Jack O'Neill and Cary Pierce have a renewed creative vigor, mutual respect, and deep gratitude for their Jackopierce heritage. These good vibes shine through on JP's euphoric new album, Everywhere All The Time, out August 28.
My check engine light is on in my 2004 Honda Pilot. I’ve had it checked, but they said it was okay but for how long? How long can I drive with red lights flashing warning signs? A couple of years ago, my life’s dashboard was flashing red also. I kept pushing hard and ignored the symptoms assuming they too were “fine.”
Dashboard lights help inform us of hazards, problems, early indications of pending issues. For most of us, we assume something must be wrong with the indicator light. In reality, the blinking lights deliver essential messages that warrant our acknowledgment.
-Slow down
-Pay attention
-Stop
-Check performance
-Take it easy
-Pullover
-Repair
-Perform maintenance.
I made this dashboard for my life to gauge in simple terms how things are going. Red-bad, Yellow-needs attention, and Green-good. Give it a try and see if any of your dashboard lights are flashing or if all systems are healthy and operational.
Get Your Free 7 Day Crash Course to Restoring Balance. Rediscover your path to more joy. www.aaronmchugh.com/7steps/
You used to know how to play, but people like us can get pretty serious about life and forget how to really play. Remember when you'd jump on your pogo stick in the driveway until your dad came home from work? Back when I was jumping mud puddles on my garage sale BMX bike, I wasn't worried about my retirement account performance. There was a glistening in my eyes and radiance to my soul that responsibility and duty hadn't yet impacted.
It was true for you too. Remember when you used to play flag football in the cold and mud? Remember when you wrote short stories about your dog Aspen and her adventures with ladybug girl? It was fun. It was playful and you didn't have to do it. You chose to do it for pleasure.
Check out free my Restoring Balance seven-day crash course.
Finding your sweet spot in Work Life Play isn't simple. Each of us has our own set of values, priorities, circumstances, and objectives. Our sweet spot, the narrow window or range where goodness, sustainability, and reward all converge. Finding your sweet spot will require you to make calculated trade-offs and curated choices.
Reboot Your Life experiential workshop October 13-15 has four spots left. For signup details.
Sir Edmond Hillary claimed he climbed Mt. Everest, "Because it's there." Reframed, I think he meant "Because I can." Not everyone possesses the athleticism and grit to achieve the summit of Mt. Everest. We conceded the fact that we are not trained Himalayan mountain climber, therefore, lacking the necessary capability and capacity. The problem is most of life doesn't present itself in a simple -easy yes or no format. Instead, we face viable offers, requests, and demands that fall within our areas of capability. Available capabilities without an accurate resource assessment lead to being over-committed, over-extended, producing subpar results. The frontier-the unfamiliar challenge to explore is to commit our abilities, only when we genuinely possess capacity resources to fund the new endeavor. Start making your decisions based on your available resources, Only commit to what you earnestly know you can support from your available capacity. Get real. Do Less. Do less better. Check out our Reboot Your Life experiential workshop-October 13-15 Colorado Springs www.aaronmchugh.com/rebootworkshop
Today my guest is Bryan Buckley host of The Energy Edge Podcast. We met last year as part of an entrepreneur conference he hosted and subsequently Bryan had me as a guest on his podcast. Listen to the episode here. If you resonate with our conversation about busy to burn out and the exhaustion cycle, you might enjoy my free 7 Practical Steps to Restoring Balance. Get access here. Here is Bryan’s story from his website. WHEN YOU LIVE FAST, YOU CRASH HARD. In 2011, my body started kicking back. Doctors couldn’t find anything wrong which was good and bad news. But I knew. And, I chose to ignore it since there was too much to do and not enough time to do it. To be honest, I didn’t want to stop and rest. My identity was in my drive and producing results. What would happen if I fell behind? What if I was no longer needed? It happened – the crash. It was like a high-performance car driver always doing a 100 taking a sharp curve at 70 marked for 30 and hitting the wall. This time it hit back, and I didn’t get up quickly. C’mon man. Something was seriously wrong. In March 2015, the energizer bunny energy was now sold separately. No more workouts, marathons, and little sleep. Everything took longer, and my symptoms were paralyzing. And of course, I didn’t want anyone to know. Pride anyone? CHEAP GAS AND NO MAINTENANCE. This high performer was sidelined. Using cheap gas, ignoring maintenance and wanting every repair quick and inexpensive just to “get back out there” was to my demise. The hard driving me was a thing of the past. But how could this be? I was only 45, and although I could still get more done than most people, it was not at my “high performance” pace and energy level. This Superman found his kryptonite, and I’m allergic to kryptonite. Not cool. I was almost 30 pounds over-weight, felt horrible, and didn’t have the energy to do anything about it. Just lovely. EVER HEARD OF “ADRENAL FATIGUE?” I HADN’T. At some point in life, everyone needs a coach, mentor or guide, and this high performer was finally ready. My stress and pace had damaged my adrenal glands that produced my energy. Something had to change, or it would shut my body down. With my life physically and emotionally on a downward spiral, I reached out for help from a good friend who had been in my situation but even worse. Telling her was like the dam breaking. Fortunately for me, she knew the symptoms and even better, the solutions. To be honest, this scared me. I was the sole provider for my family and was forced to change. Everyone always saw me as the person with unlimited energy, and now I was, well, human. This was not going to be a quick fix. I had blown an engine and needed to learn how to run the race differently. RESTED, REFUELED, AND RE-ENGAGED. My life completely changed by learning how to sleep (for the first time since college), take breaks, and planned downtime. You just never hear of high performers resting. I also learned proper nutrition, fitness, and energy was creating activities to refuel my body and energy to re-engage back in life every single day. As a result, my health and energy have been coming back, and the weight is gone. I’m finally getting my girlish figure back along with my confidence. My experience and learning have created a passion in me to help others find and develop their “energy edge” so they can maximize their productivity and excel in what they feel called to do in life. As a result, I can help save time and increase impact. Isn’t that what we want in the end? Your energy is the key to your ultimate productivity. I learned the hard way. I want to teach you the lessons learned and the secret sauce.
I told a friend how I unplugged from producing my podcast earlier this summer. He’s in the publishing world, and he understands how difficult it is to build an audience and keep people’s attention. The advertised best practice is to continue doing what is working. I’ve spent the last six years turning out new podcast episodes every month, and I’d grown it to 8,000–10,000+ downloads per month. He used a term that summarizes why I needed a break from podcasting, “Fallow ground” “…some farmers and gardeners let their land go fallow – or unplanted – so that the soil’s natural nutrient balance can be restored…it became more and more unpopular to leave land fallow and unproductive in Western societies. The production won out over soil health. ” Timothy Baron Hunker.com To leave the land unproductive yes that’s why I took a break. I know that the podcasting world might say it’s crazy to walk away and intentionally leave my land fallow. Is it possible that the health of my soil is more important than production? My favorite wisdom literature says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” I choose to believe that ancient wisdom can help guide us through our present day culture. Land replenishes when you give it a break. The laws of our universe eventually apply to us also. I’m excited to see what grows in my soil after “the soil’s natural nutrient balance can be restored.” What fields in your life could use some rest? Where are you demanding production as the priority over health? If you choose unproductive for a season, what good things can grow later?
From reluctant public figure starting as a teenager, Tommy Caldwell is driven...no really driven to push beyond...far beyond where all other's would have quit. "If you get a chance to explore what nobody has....you have to do that"
From Tommy's website... The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits. A dramatic, inspiring memoir by legendary rock climber Tommy Caldwell This engrossing memoir chronicles the journey of a boy with a fanatical mountain-guide father who was determined to instill toughness in his son to a teen whose obsessive nature drove him to the top of his sport. But his evolution as a climber was not without challenges; in his early twenties, he was held hostage by militants in a harrowing ordeal in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Soon after, he lost his left index finger in an accident. Later his wife, and main climbing partner, left him. Caldwell emerged from these hardships with a renewed sense of purpose and determination. He set his sights on free climbing El Capitan’s biggest, steepest, blankest face—the Dawn Wall. This epic assault took more than seven years, during which time Caldwell redefined the sport, found love again, and became a father.
Full post, pictures and interview transcript here.
I love GoPro’s tag line, Be a Hero. Be the Hero of the life we already have. Being the hero in my life isn’t about fame, fortune, spotlights and ego. I think it’s deeper than that. I think being the hero of our lives requires us to show up and own the golden moments, our glory, our mojo, our love, our sharp whit, our manna “Yeah, can you believe I did that? Killer!” The stuff of our life that would be perfect for GoPro’s photo of the day highlight real. And…every true hero is flawed. Being a real hero also requires owning the deleted scenes. The scenes of my life that I’d rather omit, “yeah…. can you believe I did that”. The cutting room floor footage, our mistakes, shortcomings, character defects, and bloopers. Be the hero. Own it all. Be gracious and kind to yourself
I am listening to Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown on repeat. I keep revisiting a phrase he uses, Protect the Asset. His idea is that you and I are the asset of every story, every beginning, every good endeavor that we imagine and therefore we need to protect us.
Protect the asset.
Rolf Potts is a travel writer, essayist, adventurer and teacher. I discovered Rolf Potts from listening to Tim Ferris. Rolf's book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to The Art of Long-Term World Travel is attributed by Ferris as the basis for his stick-it-to-the man 4-Hour Workweek.
I sat down with Rolf Potts over Skype from our Joy Bus to learn from him about learning to live curiously. Potts calls rural Salina, KS home after having his pick of equitably frugal options abroad. His Mid-West roots pulled him back to be near family and friends.
Key insights from Rolf * Reframing your thinking enables you to power jettisons from real life to discover long-term world travel. * If you wait until society tells you to go, you never will. * We forget how easy it is to give to ourselves. * Insulating yourself from discomfort limits our travel adventures. * How to build a Time-Wealth philosophy to create enough time to experience the travels you dream about. * GO. GO. GO. Stop waiting.
About Rolf Potts
Rolf Potts has reported from more than sixty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate.com, Outside, the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, The Guardian (U.K.), Sports Illustrated, National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. His adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, driving a Land Rover across South America, and traveling around the world for six weeks with no luggage or bags of any kind.
The importance of creating a life list and define what you're aiming at. In this episode, I share my list with you as examples of the kinds of stuff you might want to consider yourself.
I updated my Life List in 2016. It sits above my desk on my wall, notated with progress, adjustments and new additions. The point is to make it apart of your everyday life. It provides me a filter for my decisions and priority setting.
This Life List is a reflection of the Work Life Play that is important to me today, Saturday, January 2nd, 2016. It is subject to change and revision. I am aiming my intentions towards these goals, events, experiences and quests. I want to live a life of Adventure, connection, passion and curiosity. I will invest in meaningful relationships, experience all that this life has to offer and challenge myself in my Work and in physical accomplishments.
Last fall, I gave a keynote address at USA Cycling's annual coach's summit event on the topic of my book, Fire Your Boss.
Accomplishing Big Things: Acting Like a Pro 8 Minutes At a Time Big goals are sexy. We love the idea of tackling big life-changing achievements. A funny thing though, not everyone makes it to the finish line. But what happens when we start breaking down those big goals and finding a space for them in the small margins?
In this keynote, I’ll teach your team how Acting Like a Pro 8 minutes At a Time will transform how they maximize their small margins to help: *Close the gap between where you are and where you want to be
*Identify the voice of the Amateur and the Pro in your life
*Understand the next right thing is within your control
*Regain power over the story you want to live
“Aaron McHugh was an outstanding keynote at USA Cycling’s 2016 Coaching Summit. In the coaching world it is imperative to be and act like a pro. Aaron’s anecdotal stories and life experiences were easy for coaches to understand and apply to their world. Aaron knows what it means to go PRO.”
—Kevin Dessart, Director Coaching Education and Athlete Development, USA Cycling
I met Rachael O'Meara on a boat ride on the Columbia River in Portland, OR. We were both attending Chris Guillebeau's WDS event. We share a similar story of pushing the pause button on our lives to find a new and improved path. You're going to love her story.
Rachael O’Meara was a customer support manager at Google when she realized she was burned out and needed to reassess her path. The best way to do this was to take a “pause”—a time-out to create space for her inner voice to be heard and to align her actions to lead a more fulfilled life. Pause: Harnessing the Life- Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break (on-sale April 4, 2017) is her new book, serving as a GPS for others looking to slow down before speeding up again. So what is a “pause”?
Rachael defines a pause as any intentional shift in behavior that allows you the space to experience a mental shift in attitude, thoughts, or emotions that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred. Pausing can be as simple as a five- minute walk outside, or a day spent unplugged from digital devices. A pause is about taking a time-out to create the space for your inner voice to be heard and to align your actions with that voice in order lead a more meaningful, fulfilled life.
Pausing offers you a chance to remember what “lights you up,” and allows you to identify your yearnings, shift your limiting beliefs, recognize and better understand what’s called “amygdala hijacks,” and discover how your relationships with others affect you.
David Wilcox is an American folk musician and award-winning guitarist. He picked up a guitar after hearing a fellow college student playing her guitar in the stairwell. He quickly discovered the power and authority that music held in telling stories of the heart.
I've listened to David's music since the early 1990's starting with his album How Did You Find Me Here. In this intimate interview, David plays his guitar, riffs on an idea that we talk about-The Illusion of Ease and offers some meaningful insights on the language of the heart.
This interview is one of the proudest moments I've experienced in the one hundred plus episodes here on Work Life Play.
Please enjoy and savor this hour with David Wilcox.
I have this theory that all of our experiences, our misfortunes, our victories, our relationships, our shortcomings, our unexplained mysteries of our life are useful raw materials. It reminds me of the periodic table of elements that represent the building blocks of all life. When combining multiple elements, they take on new properties and create new matter.
I think our life is like this.
We never fully understand which experiences and which occurrences of our life will eventually be drawn upon to make something important. I believe they are all raw materials for our present and future. They are individually useful no matter how small or difficult or forgotten. They make us who we are. Embrace the mystery of the raw materials of your life.
Here's a little shout out to Joel Spicola, my partner in entrepreneurial dreaming back in 2000. We dreamed up Cubicleplanet.com, "Uniting cubicle-dwelers across the planet". I included our Cubicleplanet radio commercial that we cut as part of our business plan that we Fedex'ed to Venture Capitalists and Fast Company magazine. We thought for sure we'd be millionaires.
Cubicleplanet has become a symbol to me of the invention and creativity that I've always had inside of me. Although we never created an actual business, we birthed an idea that had genuine possibility. Cubicleplanet represents a raw material of my life that I draw upon regularly.
Rebooting Your Life live event May 5th & 6th there are still spots available. More details here at www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot
write yourself a better story If you could reimagine your life again...what story would your write? Maybe you feel stuck in a life rut or simply feel you aren't living the life you were made for. It's easy to find yourself down a path you didn't want or you're eager to do something new. People like us want to live a meaningful life full of intimacy, connection, joy, creativity, beauty and adventure. We rebooted our life, sold everything and started our life (and marriage) again. We will help you explore what a well-lived life means to you and how rebooting your life can radically improve the story you're living. Also, just because Leith and I are co-hosting doesn't make this a marriage conference. It's open to anyone and everyone, regardless of where you're at in life and your relationships.
GRAB YOUR SPOT TODAY May 5-6th, 2017 COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
Unplug Your Life For some mysterious reason, everything works better when you unplug it. Our lives, our careers, our relationships and our health can become more fruitful when we stop and unplug. Come unplug with us and reimagine your life again. Commence Reboot We're going to dig deep together. Starting with plotting the course your life is on today. Understanding where things started to get off course. Addressing limiting beliefs that are restricting your future. Dreaming again. Restoring balance. You deserve a second chance at a well-lived, joyful, adventurous, creative, healthy, connected, meaningful life.
This episode is from 11,000 feet on New York Mountain outside of Eagle Colorado in a backcountry Yurt during a recent ski hut trip I went on with 7 guys. I recorded a few of our conversations that ended up being about a couple of movies like La La Land, Simon Birch and the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. We talked about the lessons those movies have taught us about our own life.
Here's the download on Allan Branch. He's a serial entrepreneur, rebuilding a 30' sailboat, homeschooling his kids, growing and selling a SaaS company, traveling with his kids for 12 weeks a year paid for by the business but still feeling like a crappy Dad most of the time.
Check out our live event on May 5th & 6th Rebooting Your Life. You deserve a fresh start. www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot
This Adventure log is from a recent trip I took with my brother to the Baja California in Mexico. I've dreamed about sea kayaking this area for over a decade. I fired up my microphone throughout the trip while adventure was actually happening. Some of the audio quality is great as I forgot my windscreen for my microphone. I hope you can listen past the blowing wind or mic bumps. Consider it a real-life rough cut authentically inviting you into the adventure with us.
Here is the Sea Kayaking Baja guide service Paddling South. I'd highly recommend joining them for an adventure.
Andy Molinsky, PH.D is an expert on behavior in the business world. I interviewed him about his new book, REACH: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence. Andy Molinsky is a Professor at Brandeis University’s International Business School. Andy helps people develop the insights and courage necessary to act outside their personal and cultural comfort zones when doing important, but challenging, tasks in work and life.
Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.
May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here
https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/
In the intro of this episode, I play a Haka I recorded last summer at my nephew's World Series Baseball game. The young men who put on this Haka chant was from the New Zealand baseball team. If you're familiar with Rugby then you've likely heard this before. The All Blacks Rugby team puts on a great show of this warrior dance at the beginning of every match.
The translation of the Haka is "I might die! I might die! I might live! I might live!"I fired up my microphone at 9,000 feet after a cold wintery night sleeping in the car. As I brewed some coffee for my French Press, I offer some thoughts on the options we're faced with as we consider living fully in the life we have.
Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.
May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here
https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/
Big changes in life are often times made by subtle shifts in our approach. I learned this lesson on making a 2 degree shift from Onsite Workshops. I think it's a lot like using a compass and adjusting your compass to point to True North, instead of Magnetic North (declination).
I used to believe that I had to make huge changes to my Work, Life, Relationships and Play. Instead, I discovered that small subtle 2 degree shifts everyday, in every decision, in every conversation help me plot a new trajectory for my life.
Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.
May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here
https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/
Alastair Humphreys in his book MicroAdventures: Local Discoveries For Great Escapes says, "Adventure is a state of mind, a spirit of trying something new and leaving your comfort zone. It's about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness and curiosity".
I think that invitation is a perfect frame for this idea. Wherever you live, mystery, possibility and adventure await you...if you choose to go looking for it. My wife and I first tried on this idea of living like tourists in our town by taking a Staycation. We booked a hotel three miles from our home, reserved a couple of massages at our athletic club, sat in the hot tub, ordered a few beverages, went to a movie and dinner and were home by lunch the next day to relieve the babysitter.
It was simple. It didn't take a lot of money. It did not require a lot of time and planning. It was incredibly restful and encouraging. It unlocked this idea for us and I hope you will try it on for yourself.
In your town there are (within a one to two hour car/train ride)...
- Museums
- Restaurants
- Clubs
- Volunteer opportunities
- Music
- Sporting events
- Rivers
- Trails
- Roads
- Parks
- Unexplored towns
- Food trucks
- Historic buildings
- High school sports
Rid yourself of the excuse that you're...
- too busy
- too bored
- too scheduled
- too poor
- too important
- too old
Get up and go.
Keep going-
Aaron
Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.
May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here
https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/
In this episode I outline the lessons I've learned in budgeting my emotional energy investments and expenditures. You can read the full post on the topic here.
I experienced a burn out in 2015. I was emotionally and physically depleted. In my struggle to articulate what I was experiencing and how I got there, I began imagining my emotional energy using this idea of emotional calories. I started connecting my emotional energy with my physical energy, food nutrient intake, caloric requirements and energy management.
Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.
May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here
https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/
We did the deal in a McDonald’s parking lot half a mile from the Portland airport after a 20-minute test drive and a rusty glove inspection. It took $6,700, four plane tickets and six months of looking for her. The Joy Bus was ours.
The story began when my daughter Averi blurted out this dreamy statement, “When I graduate from high school, Maya and I are going to buy a VW Bus, road-trip to California and surf for the summer.” After more banter about this idea, we began to think, Why not?
Averi is our youngest of three children. With Averi’s older brother, I would have likely offered a litany of logical facts as to how improbable dreams of surfing the Cali coast would be for two 18-year-olds. The truth is, I wasn’t always willing to embrace the wonder of big, audacious dreams. Nor was I fanning the flame of our children’s dreams to muse about what lies beyond tomorrow.
After 20 years of practice, trials and mistakes, I am becoming a much better father.
Averi and I started riffing on the idea of finding a Bus and fixing it up together as a father-daughter project. “Let’s do it,” I said. “Let’s see where this story goes.”
Our two older children no longer live at home and the reality of Averi’s post-high school departure is motivating to make our time together count. Compounding my awareness of the countdown to Averi’s launch is how her brother and sister left home. After an unsuccessful freshman first semester, our son was admitted into a drug and alcohol recovery program in California. Averi’s older sister passed away Jan. 28, 2011, after 12 years of living confined within her special-needs body.
Our daily life story needs an infusion of more joy. I’m guessing you can relate in some way to the toll that life can take on your resilience and joy. A vintage Volkswagen Bus became the perfect symbol to envision bumping up our joy meter.
Last summer we started driving around with eyes wide open scanning for our Bus. It became like a Where’s Waldo? treasure hunt. Averi and I started trading texts, “I spotted one downtown today. Army green. Roof Rack. Rusty.” Even if the VW candidates weren’t posted for sale, we stalked them anyway.
I found a 1971 VW Westphalia camper outside of Buena Vista. It was tired. Grass grown up around her, bald tires, sliding door cocked open revealing her romping bruises. We door knocked, left notes on the porch and tracked down a phone number of the owner. It turned out that his late father purchased the Bus new in 1971. Three generations later, it ended up in the front lawn waiting for the grandsons to resurrect her.
After six months of picking fields and alleyways, we concluded that we should revise our search to a Bus that was reliably running and looking decent—one that could be restored with a little love and patience. We found our Bus in Issaquah, Washington. Her original owner coddled her for her first 36 years. The seller clinched the deal by narrating the stories of his 2,500-mile adventure Bus tour of Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
Averi and I were high-fiving with optimism: “This is the one!” We called in a favor and got our friend Scott Witteveen involved, president of the local Pikes Peak VW Club. He made a few investigative phone calls to confirm our Bus’ history. “She checks out solid,” he said.
The 1,300-mile car-camping road trip in 20-degree temps was too adventure-soaked for my brother and his 11-year-old son to pass up. Now a party of four, Averi, Matt, Nate and I boarded our new 1974 VW Bus and navigated back roads and interstates through five states to bring her home to Colorado Springs.
The kids bunked in the Bus on the fold-down camper bed. My brother and I braved the winter brisk in a tent beside the Bus. We warmed ourselves with cheap whiskey and high school reminiscences of our barely running 1974 VW Super Beetle. Our joy meter was topping out.
Back in Colorado Springs, my wife confidently proclaimed, “We should name her The Joy Bus. Done. A perfect name for the joyful story we are aiming to live.
Averi and I are tinkering on weekends, slowly improving her. We make a great cleaning team. I must admit, I’m not a great mechanic, so I leave most of the VW wrenching to MotoWorks Restorations.
The story is happening. We are making the time left with Averi count. We’re not just letting time pass to eventually wonder, Where did it go? Instead, we are tilting towards a trail marked “Adventure and Relationship.” I’m not sure I’m up for Averi and Maya taking the Joy Bus to California after graduation. We don’t need to make that decision just yet. For now, she needs to learn how to drive a stick shift.
Until then, the Joy Bus is our excuse to chase adventure, build memories and choose joy—together.
I'm learning that there are very few people on the planet that I'd rely upon, trust, believe in, implicitly know I'm safe with and covered by to rob a bank with. But there are a few. In business and in life, I find it's super helpful to identify who you'd rob a bank with. Meaning, who would you bet on to come through no matter what happened.
I recorded this episode while on an adventure run in LA. I was exploring and found a really cool trail that winded to the top of a city park with this perfect pond and view of the city. Running helps me maintain my curiosity and the spirit of adventure. Every time I travel, I bring my running shoes along. I have this belief that there will be something cool wherever I go. And low and behold, I find some amazing trails, runs, byways, parks, rivers, streams, and epic scenery.
I offer you this story as a muse on finding what you're searching for. I believe that you will find whatever it is you are searching for if you believe its out there. When you start with a belief "I bet this might be cool....." you will see what it is your heart believes.
Chris Lieto is a top ranked World Class Triathlete, 3 time Ironman Champion, Husband, Father @BasePerformance and doing @MoreThanSport. Big Island of Hawaii
The Story of Shackleton
Sir Ernest Shackleton is a legend as an Antarctic Explorer. However his fame did not come from accomplishing his goal of reaching the south pole. Instead on his third trip to the Antarctic, his ship The Endurance became frozen in the pack ice, 100 miles from land.
He and his 27 men proceeded to spend nearly two years in a desperate plight for survival. Shackleton was credited with being the bold leader that made the hope of survival and rescue possible. In the end all 27 men survived.
“That was all of tangible things; but in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had ‘suffered, starved, and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole.’ We had seen God in his splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of men.”
— Ernest Shackleton, South
Salit’s core idea is that all humans have an innate ability to perform, pretend, and improvise. It’s what helps us develop as children and continue developing as adults. You may not have been on a stage since you played a tree in third grade, but the reality is that you’re performing all the time. Performance Breakthrough shows how you can use ideas and techniques from theater and improvisation, along with the new science of performative psychology, to enhance your performance at work and “become who you are not yet.”
Be the hero. Own it all.
All the ingredients are raw materials that are useful in our stories. All of it.
Be gracious and kind to yourself. Love the people you are with. Be curious. Go searching for life.
Keep going,
Aaron
Thank you friends for being on this adventure with me of 100 episodes of Work Life Play. At the end of this episode, I have a special closing from my friend Jack O'Neill from Jackopierce. My wife and I spent the weekend with them in NYC as part of attending a Seth Godin conference. Our new friends Ryan and Heidi Miller joined us to make six.
Check out their work:
Ryan's work 08Left Custom art for Travelers and Lovers of Aviation.
Heidi's custom card company Mango Ink
Jack's music with Jackopierce
Andrew Reiner is a writer and educator in Baltimore, MD. He is working on a book about masculinity and, right now, a chapter on boys/men and crying.
He read a blog by my friend Sam Jolman, How to Cry Like a Man, while researching this topic and he read a comment I made on how I did not cry between the ages of 12-21.
This episode is about becoming wholehearted and emotionally fit as men. "Embracing the full spectrum of our life".
Dean Karnazes exudes life...to the fullest. At age 30, Dean discovered his feet were meant for running unimaginable distances instead of his former wing tipped polished leather shoes of Corporate America. Dean won't taunt you with his stories of his expanding the boundaries of human potential. Instead, Constantine Dean Karnazes (Dean's actual real name) will ask you this trite question in a piercing new way, "Are you happy?"
I S O L A T I O N is a short film directed by David Guersan and Mathieu Bernat about a stranger leaving his modern lifestyle for a spiritual journey through incredible Scottish landscapes. Throughout the film, the stranger works to uncover the meaning of solitude and isolation. The piece was shot while traveling for two weeks in a leaky van through remote parts of Scotland. Thanks to my friend Britt Jones for the recommendation on watching this short film.
Author, speaker, and leader Eric Eaton shows readers a pathway to bust their limitation, define success for themselves, and live an abundant life. Eric distilled decades of personal and professional lessons into a proven plan to alleviate guilt and frustration in achieving their goals.
It's easy to believe that if we lived somewhere else, worked somewhere else, were with someone else....we could experience the life we desire. Most of the time...that turns out to be entirely wrong.
Change -lasting change, starts from within us. We see with our eyes what we believe we will see from our wholehearted life. Maybe...the life we want starts in the geography we are right now?
Jake Norton is a world-renowned climber, photographer, filmmaker, philanthropist, and inspirational speaker. Based in Evergreen, Colorado, Jake’s worldwide adventures have taken him to the summit of Mount Everest (three times) and on expeditions on all seven continents.
Discovering, restoring and recovering balance requires being honest about and accepting your limitations. I did not want to believe that I had physical, emotional and relational limitations. Unfortunately, despite my disbelief, my thresholds of energy stopped me in my tracks. I had ignored my stamina limitations for so many years until I found myself depleted and on the sidelines of life.
In this podcast, I offer my personal experiences of accepting my thresholds and limitations. I always feared that if I heeded the idea that I had limitations, it somehow seemed like giving up. Today, operating within my capacity I can live, work, play and love in a sustainable way.
Dan Roam is the author of the international bestseller The Back of the Napkin, the most popular visual-thinking business book of all time. Dan helps business people think and solve problems visually. His newest book, Draw to Win distills ten years of working with business professionals from Microsoft, IBM, The White House, Google, Lucas Films....and a bunch of others.
Build in MicroRest into your day. Begin choosing to pause, for a moment, a second or a few minutes. Stop, come to an idle and catch your breath.
Practical MicroRest habits Work: Schedule five to fifteen minute meeting blocks on your calendar. Title the meeting “Planning” or “Strategy”. Be proactive by building in moments in your work day that enable you to rest, pause and catch your breath.
Power naps: Take ten to thirty minutes to rest. Turn off your cell phone. Turn on a timer. Put in your headphones and listen to something tranquil. Quiet your mind or fall asleep. Do what’s good for you.
Pause on your block: After work, before walking in the door to your family, pull over on your street and pause. Remind yourself of your love and gratitude for your family. Honor the realities of your day, but transition away from your work day and into your family life.
Stop Multitasking and starting doing one thing at a time. In this episode, I outline how multitasking deters us from experiencing balance. Instead, focusing our energy and attention on one task, conversation, meeting, email, or project at a time increases our productivity.
Why Multitasking doesn't work Money
Why you should start Singletasking. Multitasking makes us 40% less productive.
Read More
Fast CompanyMultitasking rewires our brain and stunts our emotional intelligence.
Read More.
Forbes
Multitasking doesn't work. The truth is we are wasting time. Our brains aren't equipped to Multitask.
Read more
I've found that closing the gap between where I am today and Where I want to be usually isn't accomplished with one magic lever switch or dial adjustment. Instead, it is a series of small adjustments made regularly over time that slowly reconditions our choices and habits to alter our future.
Restoring Balance in our Work, Life, Play, Health and Relationships isn't easy. We individually maintain our own definition of what balance means to us. Start where you are and begin making adjustments to recovering balance. Start by doing one thing at a time-Stop Multitasking.
In this podcast series on Restoring Balance, I deconstructs the art of making adjustments in your approach, your thinking, your beliefs and habits. I share practical easy-to-start tools to restoring balance to your Work, Life, Play, Health and Relationships. Part 1-Changing Your Atmosphere starts with changing how we approach our circumstances by changing our internals.
Andrew Skurka is an accomplished adventure athlete, speaker, guide, and writer. The 34-year-old is most well known for his solo long-distance backpacking trips, notably the 4,700-mile 6-month Alaska-Yukon Expedition, the 6,875-mile 7-month Great Western Loop, and the 7,775-mile 11-month Sea-to-Sea Route.
Andrew spends most of his adventures off trail picking his way through the high mountains. I really enjoyed my time meeting Andrew. I found him to be very kind, humble, relatable and focused.
What's Andrew's #1 piece of advice? "GO"
Andrew's Media Highlights & Accolades National Geographic, March 2011. Circling Alaska in 176 Days.
Outside, April 2011. Adventurers of the Year.
National Geographic Adventure, December 2007. Adventurer of the Year.
Backpacker, August 2005. Person of the Year.
Men’s Journal, December 2005. Adventurer Hall of Fame.
Five years ago I started writing a couple articles on a wordpress site to profile my ideas as part of a career change.
Accidentally….Now two-hundred and forty field reports (blog posts) and 86 podcast episodes later on Work Life Play….I can confidently say I’m onto something. This podcast is a milestone marker to this five year journey and the lesson's I've learned.
Thanks for your friendship, your love, your encouragement, your comments, your shares and rooting me forward.
Here’s my summary as best I can articulate it today.
Learn how to restore balance in your life.
Create a life that matters to you.
The narrative we tell ourselves frames our life.
Work can’t be about survival.
Life can’t be entirely about work.
Rethink work.
Live differently.
Capitalize on the small margins of your life, they add up.
Stay curious.
Live adventurously.
Learn to play.
Love the people that you’re with.
Create a life that matters to you.
The narrative we tell ourselves frames our life.
Work can’t be about survival.
Rethink work.
Live differently.
Capitalize on the small margins of your life, they add up.
Stay curious.
Live adventurously.
Learn to play.
Love the people that you’re with.
Five years later, I know I’m onto something.
Quantifiable Proof Meet Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, co-authors of the Stanford course turned book providing a methodology to Designing Your Life: How to build a well-lived, joyful life. Our conversation provided me a meaningful crescendo to my two hundred and forty field reports here on Work Life Play. This book is new quantifiable proof to my work.
- Everbody gets stuck, start where you are
- Learn how problem solving used in product design can be applied to designing your life
- The idea of Work-Life balance is totally wrong and approaches the problem with a win-lose outcome
- Understand why your life needs a dashboard in five categories: Work, Life, Play, and Health & Love
- Dysfunctional beliefs require Reframed Thinking in order to Design Your Life
- You're never too late to Design Your Life
Last week, I crashed a women only backyard dinner party. Thirty women were dressed and buttoned to celebrate their Season Finale of Super Soul Happy Hour/Share Classes.Party lights were strung between Ponderosa pines and simple picnic tables borrowed from the local high school. Each place setting held a Martha Stewart style full bouquet of food and wine. Elayne Prechtel envisioned this backyard soiree of Sharing our Life, Love & Food and created an enchanted Colorado summer evening for her friends.
Srini called in for our interview from a SoCal seaside coffee shop between tides. He ejected on his busy life to detox for a few days by practicing what he preaches. During our interview you'll hear trains pass by, seagulls cawing and Srini get fired up about why becoming UNMISTAKABLE eliminates any notion of competitors.
Over a quick beer in downtown Portland, I met Srini in 2013 at Chris Guillebeau's World Domination Summit. He just released his first book, UNMISTAKABLE: Why Only Is Better Than Best. You've probably listened to one of his near 700 episodes of his popular podcast The Unmistakable Creative. He interviews everyone from an FBI hostage negotiator to some of my favorites Bob Goff, Rob Bell, Tim Ferris and Seth Godin.
In this podcast he talks about his love for surfing and the metaphors for life he discovered between sets of waves. We chat about how UNMISTAKABLE uses the stages of surfing as the framework for his becoming Unmistakable.
Podcast Highlights:
- Srini's favorite surfing locations
- How to avoid the "Mimic Epidemic"
- How to approach hard to get to people
- Why blazing your own trail is your best chance at being UNMISTAKABLE
In this podcast interview with Joanne Miller, she helps us understand the importance of having a peaceful and healthy home environment. In Joanne's new book, Creating a Haven of Peace (available on Amazon) she stresses the importance of intentional environmental design within your home. Bottom line: Peaceful home = Peaceful life.
In this podcast, my adventure buddy, Ray Cameron and I retell our experience of turning around on our attempt to climb Crestone Peak. Crestone Peak is Colorado's 7th' highest mountain rising to 14,294 feet above sea level. Colorado's has over fifty-eight summits above 14,000 feet and I've been on a quest to summit all 58 of them. Locals call these peaks "14'ers".
How to Scale Influence with Carl Richards | Episode #79 I met Carl last year in gravel grey parking lot in Western Colorado. We had $5K cash, ready to do the deal. Carl Richards was selling his BMW Adventure bike to my friend Jon Dale. We discovered that we know some of the same people of influence namely Seth Godin. Listen to my 2015 interview with Carl Episode #29 on the One Page Financial Plan.
Rob Bell says in his new book, How to Be Here, "We all have a blinking line, a cursor. Your blinking line is whatever sits in front of you waiting to be brought into existence".
The narrative I tell myself everyday frames my Work Life Play. Every morning the tapes in my head begin to play. I used to think somebody else was responsible for those audio files. My High School principal told me once, "You'll never amount to anything". To be fair, I had just dumped dish soap in the biology lab fish tanks and suds overflowed to the top with dead fish. It was TV camera worthy.
Podcast bullet:
- If you don’t like the work you’re doing everyday. We can still choose to do it well.
- It is honorable just doing the hard work of staying alive.
- There is a lot of pressure in our modern world for our lives to be epic and big. Big and epic aren’t helpful when you find yourself in a season of work you don’t love.
- We see with our eyes what we believe we will see. Seeing is believing.
- How we operate in difficult seasons, says a lot about our core beliefs.
1. You are more powerful than you believe. 2. You are more influential than you think. 3. Invest a dollar, an hour, an ounce of emotional energy in yourself. 4. You will never loose. 5. Markets are volatile. You are steady. 6. Money is fleeting. You are constant. 7. Risk equals reward and sometimes just a good story.
I had this nutty idea of asking Kristen Howerton if she would be willing to do a podcast interview while riding in a Surrey with the Fringe on Top (picture a four-wheeled carriage with each person peddling) on the Newport Beach, CA boardwalk. She said, That sounds fun.Boom. Game On. In this episode, we got real...I mean really real. We covered a big range of topics as we bounced through conversations about...
the pressure of perfectionism, the pretty veneer of social media, social justice, realistic expectations about life and parenting, vulnerability, the political election, LGBT community and religion, white priveledge, Multi-racial families, adoption and being a big-deal blogger.
It is a fine line between choosing humility or humiliation. I use this phrase "Eating Humble Pie"when I feel the tension of choice between humility and humiliation. I use this phrase when I find myself walking the fine line between experiencing shame and feeling humbled. I recorded this podcast after walking out of Crossfit class with my tail narrowly tucked between my legs. I got worked. Everyone in the class was ahead of me. I expect the Crossfit fenatics to beat me. I even expect some of the hundred pound women to kick my xxx. Unexpectedly, even the new skinny guy left me in the dust.
Tribes of Belonging Your tribe of belonging is where you are at home. You know where you fit. You’re part of the tribe and everyone in the tribe knows you belong. You’re comfortable, safe and you can predict what will happen next within the tribe. You’re even apart of defining the rules and system of your tribe of belonging. An easy example is your family. Your hometown, your fraternity or serority, your school, your place of worship and likely your
Tribes of Visitation Tribes Translator Required
Everyone should be part Mercenaries and equal parts Missionaries. I learned this idea from Mike Rowe the TV show host of Dirty Jobs. He riffed on this idea on a Fast Company video post and shared why he believes that everyone should be both. I unpack this idea of contrast between these two profiles.
I have a confession to make. I get hung up with self-induced pressure of perfection. I have a vision of what things can become. As a result, I can easily get stuck in the muddy mire of perfect. I make things harder than they need to be. My wife reminds me of how I make things an “event” that don’t need to be. For as many cool things I create and author, there are twice as many projects that I get stuck on. I get hung up adhering to imagined rules that I’ve made impossibly more difficult than things need to be.
I discovered Kevin Butler's art in a Herschel Supply Co. magazine in a surf shop in Laguna Beach, CA. The Journal Issue 2, was intoxicatingly stacked from cover to cover with images of surf, land, sea, play, beauty and art. Kevin's RAD Cars with RAD Surfboards drawings were featured as Herschel's new beach line. I've been dragging around this journal for two years. I caught up with Kevin here on Work Life Play and got the download on how his art has so much soul.
It seems like there are only two choices, Option 1 (the way I've always done it) re Option 2 (the way I don't want to do it). However, I've discovered another option I never knew existed. We've learned to call this unforeseen possibility option "The Third Way".
Podcast Highlights:
- The high’s and low’s of working side-by-side with Steve Jobs for twelve years.
- Discover the power of defeating complexity with simplicity.
- Watch the 1998 TV ads for the iMac with Jeff Goldblum.
- Why is simplicity so difficult to get right?
- Hear the story about the creation of the first Apple Store and naming the Genius Bar.
- Watch Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford “You cannot connect the dots going forward”.
I called my friend Gill at 10 am this morning. “Gill I’m calling you back. What’s up?”
“We’re going to climb Pikes Peak today. You should join us Aaron.”
Pause; remind myself that the lists of excuses for saying “No” are not that important or urgent or necessary. “YES. I’ll be there in an hour”.
Movies are extremely helpful in telling parable stories through the lives of someone else. The two movies that reframed my beliefs about risking saying “YES” more often are The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Yes Man. These are must see films if you think you might be prone to using the words like,
No
Ahhh, I really need to….
Well it’s been a long time since I….
You know my (person) really was expecting me to…
Keep me in mind for next time….
Give me a heads up next time and I’ll be able to plan better.
Think differently Business travel does not have to be a drag. Remove resignation from your list of excuses. You can fulfill your work obligations and HAVE A GOOD TIME ALSO.
Come prepared * adventure clothes * running/walking/hiking shoes * Petzl headlamp -my favorite Tikkina (cheap, light, easy) * light jacket (check out Patagonia's Houdini) * Gear every Road Warrior should carry
Unfortunately, I experience anxiety. I used to resent the feelings of anxiousness, worry and discomfort. I can't say, I like feeling anxious. However, I've learned to embrace anxiety as a necessary, although sometimes irrational, indicator of perceptions, beliefs and risk. I've learned is that anxiety is always trying to alert me. Like the Tsunami warning sirens broadcasting the early warning detection of pending harm, anxiety is trying to educate us about a perceived threat. As I mature, I am learning to embrace the feeling of anxiety as a early warning detection system.
Your Good Amount of Weird [Episode #64] Everybody is weird in a good way. Your weird is your superpower. Embrace your weird. Love your weird. Foster your weird. Practice being weird.
A friend of ours told me a story about her son coming home from school sharing his acrostic (the thing you make where each letter in your name has a word associated with it). His name had a “G” in it and after wrestling with the perfect word to describe himself by only selecting words that start with a “G” he told his mom he wrote
A good amount of weird. Amen brother.
I've only recently embraced the belief that my weird is rare and good. I’m not talking about the kind of weird that means you collect toenail clippings from when you were in the third grade. I’m talking about the kind of weird that makes you have powers like a super hero.
My wife Leith McHugh was interviewed last week on Rob Bell’s Robcast Episode 99 | Leith McHugh on Rebooting Your Life. You will want to listen to this powerful interview. I put together a summary of the nine key areas that were part of our Life Reboot.In this podcast, I walk through each of these key Reboot categories and how to evaluate your own need for a Life Reboot.
This podcast was recorded while backpacking the Colorado Trail at 10,000 feet on Kenosha Pass. I captured a few ideas, a few trail sounds and invite you into our three day 28 mile adventure.
All the Roots Grow Deeper When It's Dry
You don’t need a destination. You don’t need a lot of money. You don’t need to spend a lot of time planning. You just need to stuff your kids in the car, point in a direction and start driving. Our modern life is too full. Life is too full of responsibilities, objectives, targets, metrics, schedules, measurement, technology, and pressure. A road trip without a detailed itinerary can help you experience more rest, play, adventure and connection with the people you love. It's almost summer. This podcast will help you get started on your summer road trip with your kids.
Podcast highlights:
- Don't quit your day job. It can fund your dreams.
- Figure out what type of entrepreneur you want to become
- How to structure your life in order to have money or time to invest in your dream gig
- Take the 10% Entrepreneur Quiz to see if you have what it takes. Click here to start.
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.” James Michener
Podcast Highlights with Ben Lecomte:
- From Tokyo to San Francisco in the name of sustainability -The LONGEST Swim
- Why would Ben swim across the Pacific Ocean
- What will he think about while he swims eight hours a day, every day for six months?
- How long did it take for Ben to swim the Atlantic Ocean ten years ago?
- What are the biggest challenges he will face to finish?
- How the lessons Ben learns in the ocean change how he lives on land
- Follow Ben's progress on Twitter
- Follow The Longest Swim on Instagram
- Follow The Longest Swim on Facebook
I picked John up in my 1974 VW Joy Bus and we found a semi-quiet trailhead to park and do the interview in my bus. Friends, I want you to go see this one night movie event in nationwide theaters on Thursday, May 19th. John Eldredge and his sons have made an adventure film that I'm stoked about you experiencing. It's titled, A Story Worth Living (CLICK HERE to view the Trailer). Ransomed Heart has secured theaters across the country to view this film, so you can be assured that there is a theater near you (CLICK HERE to find a theater near you).
Cedar Wright Work Life Play Highlights:
- Cedar's latest film, The Fledglings about paragliding from the summit of 18,490' Pico de Orizaba the third highest mountain in North America.
- Ask yourself, What can I not help but do in life? Go do that.
- Discover what drives you? What are you passionate about? It doesn't matter if can make money in the beginning.
- Cedar lived on less than $5,000.00 per year for a decade before he became the famous climber.
Rob Bell is a brother from another mother. I love this man. I've listened to Rob's voice in my earbuds since early 2000's. When he was a pastor in Grand Rapids Michigan at Mars Hills Church, I would download his weekly sermons and listen to them on my Sunday long runs. Last January, Leith and I went to Rob's Business edition two-day event in Laguna Beach. Last month we spent the day with him and 99 others in Denver at his How to Be Here Experience. In this podcast interview, Rob Bell and I talk about his new book, How to Be Here.
How I Burned Out and Came Back [Episode #54] If you've ever burned out, flirted with the idea of burn out or could envision that burn out is in your future, you'll identify with my story. Burn out isn't something most people want to admit happened to them. In a society where superhuman is rewarded and even expected, saying "I can't anymore" isn't what makes the cover of many headlines. Unless of course, a burn out produces drama and carnage. Those stories create lots of buzz.
In my case, I absolutely burned out and my world approached full blown Chernobyl meltdown status. One year later, I think I have a better view into the elements, lifestyle and choices that led to my burn out. I also feel I'm very clear on what I can do differently to live in the green zone and avoid another burn out in my future
This adventure log is another from the Chasing Adventure series that I recorded while traveling to Southern California and a Work Life Play trip. I recorded this one from Joshua Tree National Park. The band U2 made this iconic place famous for their album titled Joshua Tree. It was a disappointing fact that the National Park reported that the album cover photo wasn’t actually taken inside Joshua Tree National Park. Instead, it was captured a hundred miles away somewhere in the desert. Regardless, we rocked Where the Streets Have No Name as we drove through the parks gate.
It's easy to ignore the things in our life that become normal or over time loose their original zeal. It's easy to dream our life away wishing we were somewhere other than where we are. In this Chasing Adventure episode from my week long trip to southern California, my friend Jake and I spent an evening on Stand Up Paddle boards. After we watched the sunset and then the full moon rise over the bay, we recorded our conversation about this story, Be Where You Are.
Los Angeles, CA isn’t immediately the community that comes to mind when I envision a backyard fine dining experience amongst new friends. On my recent Chasing Adventure trip to California, I purposed to orbit my decisions around people, adventure and a loose schedule. My son and I found ourselves in a story we didn’t anticipate. We didn’t realize that we were being invited into real connections with real people, not just a meal.
Picking up surfing isn't easy. Especially when you live a thousand miles away from the ocean. It's humbling being the novice. It's humbling not knowing what to do or how to do it. I think it is even more difficult as an adult man. Most men I know don't try things that they are not good at. In this episode, I talk about my experiences of learning to surf and stumbling forward.
During this episode, I talk about going out with my friend Curious Gabe as we parked near the beach for thirty-minutes and chased adventure. It was simple. It was quick and it was just what we needed. There was no planning needed. There was no big story that surfaced. This type of excursion is available to each of us. What are we waiting for?
I've spent too much of my life holding back. I want to extend for the full length of fun, let's not hold back but go for it.
Adventure Log #2 from my Chasing Adventure trip to SoCal. In this episode, I talk about the easy temptation to reach for my wallet and solve problems of discomfort. Instead, I choose to sit in the discomfort and see what unfolded as I chased adventure, work and relationships.
I don't believe that Work-Life balance is obtainable. The idea of a scale equally balanced with Work on one side and Life on the other is only temporarily obtainable. The only sustainable approach I have found to Work Life Play is in a constant adjustment of rhythm and flow.
How should I write about the width and depth of twenty-two years of marriage, life, kids, vacations, pain, joy, adventure, family, depression, death, new beginnings, sexual orientation, addiction, career, sexual intimacy, and money? In this podcast, my wife Leith and I offer a gritty and raw re-telling of our story.
Instead of writing a post about what we share in this podcast, I will share something I wrote for our friend's wedding, The Way of Love, adapted from 1 Corinthians 13:4. I am not a pastor. I am not a theologian. I am just a guy who learns best when I can relate by practical application. After two decades of marriage, I've learned that love in marriage is beautiful and equally messy.
We printed this and put it up on our refrigerator to remind of us how Love Wins.
Podcast Take Aways: * Even if you live a mile from the ocean, its easy to get stuck in the rut of always being on and always being available. * Obligation can easily win when it comes to setting our priorities of rest and play. * It doesn’t matter where you live, you still have to make a decision to be intentional about finding time to play * Adventure is available if you will go on a search to find it
You know Conrad Anker, you just might not realize how or why you know him. Let me be your tour guide circa de Conrad Anker's career mile markers. You will quickly recollect how you know him already. His personal mantra is Be Good, Be Kind, Be Happy. In this podcast interview, you'll hear how this approach to Work Life Play fits one of the top Alpinists in the world today.
Don't Do It For Fame | Don't Neglect Your Relationships
03 // Don't do it to pursue fame.
I find this one to be difficult. The truth is I do want to be noticed. Behind that shallow layer of hoping I’m seen, the deeper truth is I want my life to matter. When I am writing, the pursuit of fame can surface with its natural gravitational pull.
Here is how it can sound,
“Maybe so-and-so will read this and then he will share it and then his six million followers will read it”.
It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I believe you’ve heard this whisper also. When I was writing with my focus on being noticed, it was crap. No wonder no one read any of it. When I made the shift to simply be authentic, a few people began to notice. There is great irony in this principle. The more we are authentic and relevant, the more the possibility of being noticed increases.
When the pursuit of fame is our motive, the less authentic and relatable we become. Whatever you are pursuing, do a motive check and remind yourself that what the world really needs is you to be authentically you. That is our best bet for being noticed.
04 // Don't neglect your relationships.
A friend told me about a saying from his mentor, “The grass is greener wherever you water it.” I’ve been married for over twenty years and I have not always regularly irrigated our relationship. When I was age 25, I thought my wife could be more like xeriscaping: drought-tolerant. Turns out she never signed up for an inch of rain every three months. I’ve learned the hard way that growth comes where you regularly water.
Trust me, your spouse, your friends, your family, your significant other, your sibling, your neighbor, your employees, your child... would gladly receive some relational watering from you.
Go find that watering can.
01 // Show up consistently and do the work. I’ve found a lot of people talk a good game about consistency, but in reality, they have a lot of false starts. Many people seem to struggle with consistently doing the work that needs to be done, whether it is in our jobs, on side projects, or in our relationships.
02 //Work on what you love.
Life is short. You are really good at something. Find that something and do that. Drudgery is for prisoners doing time for crimes committed. You haven’t done anything wrong, right? Stop doing what you can barely stand doing and start pursuing what you love. Too many people never do what they love. Even worse, they don’t ever explore the frontier to find what it is they love.
Questions to ask yourself? 1. When you used to be adventures, what did you do?
What did you love before you got married, had a family and got a big job?
2. What do you believe stands in your way today to reclaiming your adventurous spirit again?
3. How can you begin to choose differently in small increments to provide room for adventure again?
- Why I believe in the Trifecta of combining all three Work Life Play
- How "succeeding" in any one category of the trifecta is not sufficient
- Why work-life balance by itself lacks long term sustainability
- How running with a rock on the bottom of the ocean taught me to play
- Why Fantasy Football and watching TV on the weekends is not the same as living adventurously
Podcast Highlights with Yogi Roth: * Learn about Yogi’s inspiration from Emilio Esteves and Martin Sheen’s trek in 2010 movie The Way. * How this act of bravery has reshaped his perspective on the definition of a tough guy * Everybody has a story that is worth listening to, Yogi coaches us on how to man-up and ask * In Life everyone is dealt a hand of cards, listen how Unapologetic Curiosity is our power play card.
Microadventures: a refresh button for busy lives.
WHAT IS A MICROADVENTURE? (From Alastair Humphreys & www.microadventures.org)
Adventure is the spirit of trying something new, trying something difficult. It is about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness and curiosity.
We all have to pragmatically juggle the commitments and constraints of our “real lives”. But we can still have a microadventure.
Getting out into the wild, if only for one night, is enjoyable, invigorating and important. Today's podcasts explores the small, easily accessible, bursts of adventure that can happen right out our front door regardless of our fitness, discretionary income or large amounts of time away from home.
Podcast Highlights:
- Bike tires rely on spokes to keep them balanced and "true".
- An imbalanced career is like a bike tire that isn't "true"; it's imbalanced, unsafe, and keeps you from finishing well.
- Our careers change, which is why we need to evaluate our careers with each new season.
- It's better to fix an imbalanced career now and be delayed than to go a long time on an imbalanced career trajectory.
- There are five spokes that balance your career:
- The Work you do
- The Company you work
- The Compensation you earn
- The Team you work with
- The Relationship you have with your boss
- Take the time to grade each "spoke" of your career with a green light, yellow light, or red light.
- Get feedback from those closest to you to find where the balance is present or missing in your career.
Highlights from 99 Ways to Live Your Best Life
- Set a specific directional bearing on the course you want to take in Work Life Play
- Topics have a wide range: managing money, marriage, pursuing fame, becoming a better boss, personal fitness.
- Hear two of the backstories behind 99 Ways:
- 10// Don't dip your quill in company ink
- 04// Don't neglect your relationships
- Understand how to master the art of living a sustainable work-life-play balance
Starting in April, my life was upside down and sideways. This is my story of my how I unplugged in order to recharge, hit the reset button, and started over.
Podcast Highlights: * Understand the importance of understanding whose life are you actually living * How to get real honest about the current trajectory of your Work Life Play * How to count the costs of success * Why unplugging for months maybe the only way you can really get clarity * How selling everything we owned liberated us to start dreaming again
Learn about the Joy-Use Ratio. Small bursts of Joy can happen regularly if you come prepare and anticipate them
- How to stop listening to the voices of disqualification.
- Understand why it is important to move forward with your ideas without consideration for the outcome.
- Learn how being concerned about what other people might think, actually contributes to us doing a poor job.
- Offering our best is the best rebuttal to every excuse we can come up with
Highlights from Podcast #32: Acting Like a Pro Eight Minutes at a Time
- The difference between acting like a pro and becoming a pro is not neglecting narrow windows of opportunity.
- Take the opportunity that's right in front of you.
- Small margin plus consistency over time equals accumulative benefit.
- The gap between the life, marriage, income, adventure, fitness level, or anything else we wish to have can be closed over time with even small, intentional investments.
- Show up, invest your time, be consistent, and enjoy the benefits of your investment.
Quick Podcast Highlights from Miles: * Understand the necessity of developing your EQ (emotional intelligence) to live, love, parent, and lead well. * Hear how the doorway of pain has become one of Miles’s biggest gifts in life. * How to develop harmony in the narrative of Who You Are and What You Do For a Living. * Why creating new healing experiences can counteract life’s negative experiences. * How the work of Donald Miller and Brene’ Brown will give you insights into how Onsite can help you live out the best version of your story. * Why a subtle two-degree shift in our actions and beliefs can improve the trajectory of our life. * What if we lead from the places that we formerly hid our shortcomings and flaws?
- Understand how adventure gives us greater confidence to tackle life’s challenges
- Learn why special, difficult-to-reach places in wilderness help us gain perspective on our life back at home
- Appreciate how adventure helps us lose control and “be out on a limb”
- Accept that adventure is a choice and is available outside our front door everyday
- Receive practical ideas on how to take your kids on your own adventures
Podcast Highlights: * Carl's very personal story of loosing his home and facing financial ruin * Learn how small financial misalignments with couples can become roots for divorce later * Hear how Carl and I met over a financial transaction on the border of Colorado and Utah * Learn how Carl started taking complex money ideas and translating those concepts using a sharpie marker on a napkin * Carl tells the story about how the New York Times called him out of the blue to write his column * Carl and I share stories about being raised by single-mothers and how that shaped our financial beliefs
Podcast Highlights: * Hear how Tripp juggles his roles as a Director, Writer, Actor and On Stage Host * The backstory on how Tripp and Tyler came up with the idea for their YouTube sketch * Where Tripp and Tyler met and how they decided to start working together * Working to find the right sponsorship partners is a key to Tripp's YouTube success * Risk taking is part of Tripp's DNA * Tripp offers advice on partnerships and navigating them well * His story about boldly borrowing money from friends and family in college * Find out why the Lines Between Play and Work are very blurry for Tripp * Hear about his mantra "If I haven't failed at enough risks, but if I am not succeeding"
Podcast Highlights: The Business Case For Why We Need a Two-Week Vacation American's do not take two-week vacations. Organizational culture, the volume of work and email compound by our addiction to busyness keeps us tied to one week vacations. In this podcast, I make the case for why we need to take two week vacations and the restorative benefits for our relationships, our work and ultimately ourselves.
I include tips and suggestions on how to get approval at work, gain the support of your peers and unplug while you are away.
Podcast Highlights with Seth Godin:
* How the Industrial Revolution turned factory workers into alcoholics
* Why we deem it of paramount importance to us to know if an idea is going to work
* What was it like to be an entrepreneur in 1986
* How the connection economy works and what drives it
* What did Seth’s dad do for a living when he was growing up
* Why does it matter who cares (and who doesn't care) about our economy today?
* Why making Art is rewarded more than the cheapest, fastest product.
* What does Seth do for play and fun
Podcast Highlights: * The History of IRONMAN * Why the IRONMAN finish line should be on your Life List * How Mike Reilly got his start calling IRONMAN athletes across the finish line * How IRONMAN is a Human experience, not just a triathlon
In today's podcast interview with Andrew you will hear about the glory stories of being an adventure journalist. Like any great story, there is another version that adventure magazines don't publish:
- How arduous the writing process can be
- How challenging it can be to balance doing what you love and making a living at the same time
- When you're twenty it's much easier to jump a plane to India, but when you have a family you choose differently
Podcast Highlights * Learn how Martin's father grew him up as a footwear designer * Hear how Martin actually invented the Locus Seat even before he started KEEN Footwear * Understand how creativity, health, balance and productivity are derived from how we feel while working
- Find out how a box of donuts changed his life forever
- What were the most outlandish thing people agreed to?
- If you open yourself up to the world, the world will open itself up to you
- How to get out of your own way?
Share your story with Jia about your quest for rejection resilience.
Email Jia Jiang
Making sense of your Body of Work Pamela Slim’s new book, Body of Work, will help you find the thread that ties your career story together.
In this podcast interview with Pam she will help you define and understand the subtext of your seemingly disjointed career.
Gary is an entrepreneur, a doodler and an improvisation artist. He loves making incomplete stories. He’s comfortable with the tension of the unknown and the awkwardness of the unrehearsed. He teaches improvisation stage techniques to improve communication between business people.
Podcast Highlights * How Rich is bringing humanity back to business * The winning strategy of hiring humans and not polished resume's * How the biggest risk Rich faced was doing the same thing * The business value of Joy * How to empower employees to become evangelists * Why they don't allow headphones or earbuds at work
Author Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival was the first scientific book on survival. In this interview we talk about the art and science of survival and the process of thriving post traumatic events.
Podcast Highlights:
- What Dean’s wife said when he announced his desire to resign from his job?
- What race is he most proud of completing?
- How the classroom of running has translated to lessons for life and business?
- How you can join Dean for a run at a North Face Endurance Challenge?
- What races did he not finish the first two times?
- Why he wanted you to come join him during his 50 Marathons, 50 States in 50 Days?
Podcast highlights: * What does it mean to be remarkable in an ordinary world? * How Tess’s life was forever changed when she delivered a thirty-five minute speech. * How this journey has forced her to decouple the intertwined elements of her identity as a person being tied to her job. * What it’s been like for Tess to leave her job that she loved. * “You jumped now you can’t even tell people what you want to do”.
Podcast highlights:
• You have to read her Letter to CEO's, COO's, CIO's
• You have to do work that lights you up
• If you meet her at an event why you should start talking about yourself quickly?
• What is a Less Experienced Equal?
• How Pam could kick your xxxx if your ran into her in a dark alley?
• How Pam started developing her voice picturing an imaginary thought bubble?
Keep going...
- We are not machines and the creative process cannot be treated like one
- Being creative is not limited to only artists
- Learn how Todd started the Accidental Creative on accident
- Hear how being healthy should be apart of every plan
- Insights into Todd’s newest book Die Empty set for September 2013 release
- What causes people to end up in the place of mediocrity?
- Learn what Todd does for fun
- How to not run out of your creative juices by age 30
- Ask yourself what are you disproportionately good at?
Buy Todd's book-The Accidental Creative. I've been listening to it from Audible.com
In today’s podcast you will hear my interview with Gabriella Calicchio, CEO of the Walt Disney Family Museum. The museum is absolutely amazing.
It is located in the Presidio in San Francisco. You will hear me describe a magical day that my family and I had riding tandem bikes from downtown to the museum and then across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Highlights: * Learn how the Walt Disney Family Foundation created the museum * How Walt took $40 and a cardboard suitcase to began Walt Disney Studios * How Mickey Mouse was named * How Walt's life can inspire you to do more in your life * How Walt Disney started tinkering in the garage * How the merchandising of Mickey Mouse was as important as the animation * How no one believed that a full length animated movie would be successful
In this podcast I provide some of the back story to writing my recently released ebook, Don't Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.
I started writing it over the course of last year. I underestimated the amount of time and energy it would take.
I understand now why writers say that once they are finished with a project they are long since "over it".
I almost quit numerous times.
I felt like maybe it was just important that I write it down for myself, but did not need to go through the exercise and investment to make it a market-ready released book.
In some ways the love of the story lessened as I neared the end.
If I had to guess, I would say I invested 150 hours into the writing, editing, and revising process.
My creative team easily put in another 100+ hours as well.
I am really proud of the yield, the end result.
Read what Seth Godin and Jeff Goins wrote about my ebook.
In today's Podcast: * Hear additional storyline to a couple of key sections of the ebook.
* What it took for me to break the chains of indentured servitude.
* Learn how the character Jerry Maguire fed the original vision of this manifesto.
* I read a few selections and provide additional commentary.
Below are sample sections from the ebook. For a full free copy download here.
Dedication This mission statement is for artists, entrepreneurs, liberators, innovators, heretics, and, most especially, for forty-hour-Monday-through-Friday-work-week employees.
This is an invitation to unravel what the world has taught you about your work, your career, and your future.
Introduction I am not telling you how to get rich quick. I am not selling you some tuition program or training course I have created.
Rather, I’m offering my experience and my story to you purely for your own enrichment and encouragement. I’m offering my pain, my joy, and my discovery freely in hopes that you, too, will find a new rhythm for your career.
I love to work.
I don’t work because I am a workaholic but because I love the invention and creativity that happens in my career.
When I fired my boss, my career transitioned to an entirely new plane of enjoyment for me.
You, too, can discover a new way to approach your work.
You, too, can have a brand new job starting tomorrow.
Indentured servants: Forty years of hard labor In medieval times, indentured servants worked the land of a king for a fixed number of years until their debt was paid in full. The king owned the field, the crop and the harvest yield. He got rich, he ate and drank as much as he liked, and the servants learned to live on the crumbs from his table.
Kings love servants and minions.
Does this sound familiar to you?
For many people work can be a place where they feel like indentured servants. It can be a place where they feel obligated and stuck.
Many companies and leadership teams have this same ancient mentality. They believe that their employees are lucky to work for them. They believe that each worker is a replaceable cog. They are looking for compliant workers and employees, under the weight of needing to meet their own financial obligations, settle in for forty years of hard labor for the benefit of the company.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Why approach your workday with this kind of obligation?
I was an indentured servant I realized that I was looking for a partnership, not an obligation. I dreamed of being in a business arrangement where the company and I were equally investing in each other.
Believe it or not, it is possible. I found that part of the problem was that I was acting like a factory worker or an indentured servant. In fact, I was training other workers around me to relate to me as a replaceable cog.
Once I could name and describe this arrangement I could begin to navigate and craft a new arrangement. I stopped thinking and acting like an indentured servant and I started being a skilled craftsman instead.
Walk-n-Talk meetings How Nilofer started walking meetings instead of coffee sit-downs.
As a result how she is logging between 20 and 30 miles per week.
You will want to read her Harvard Business Review article about how today Sitting is the smoking of our generation.
And check out the Los Angeles Times Article on her TED 2013 talk.
Recommendation: Don’t be sitting while you read her article.
This is not your traditional “How to” podcast.
We discuss topics ranging from what iPhone application to use for tracking calories to how fitness can be used as medication covering up deeper questions in your life.
If you are a competitive athlete or a couch potato wanting to get started, there is a nugget of wisdom for you.
In this podcast episode, Jon Dale and I discuss how we have navigated our fitness journeys.
- How Mario started IdeaMensch after moving from Germany to the US at age 16.
- Why he packed up with three friends and drove to all 48 states holding IdeaMensch meet-ups so entrepreneurs could share their ideas together.
- Why failing and giving up are not the same thing.
- Some of the most inspiring interviews have been from a rickshaw driver and a college student from Penn State .
In today's show Jon Dale and I have a discussion about living the truest version of your instead of trying to figure out what people want. There are pitfalls to this:
- What if no one likes what you create?
- What will people think if you are authentic instead of entirely polished?
- How do you know when to mix topics e.g. Business, Sport, Family?
- Do you pay attention to metrics or follow your heart's leading?
Highlights: * 24 HR digital fast -How & Why? * How to compete with the 160M other bloggers. * As you live the truest version of yourself other people will be liberated to do the same. * How to start ignoring graphs and charts and increase your impact.
Podcast Summary Mike Field-Sport. Life. Art.
In this interview you will enjoy Mike's humble almost bashful view of his story.
But don't be fooled. He lives in a beautiful story of wealth.
Not necessarily of worldly monetary wealth but one of passion and art and friendship.
- Why we believe we need to consume more in order to be happy.
- How to live a simple lifestyle.
- How billionaires want to get back Life-Sport-Art
In today's episode you will hear from Paul Farmiga, Bill Self and Jim Fitzpatrick. Each were members of last year's Medicine Ball three-day intensive with Seth Godin. You will enjoy hearing about how their thinking was re-shaped and how that has woven into their careers these last twelve months.
Highlights: * How they differentiate Earwolf podcasts from 300,000 other comedy podcasts. * How Jeff left the world of finance to start Earwolf with no podcast or live media experience. * Hear how they changed the rules of the game of selling advertising.
Today my interview is with Lisa-Marie Cabrelli.
We were in a small breakout group at Seth Godin’s Medicine Ball and really hit it off.
I love Lisa's mantra no excuses make a living from anywhere in the world. I think you will too.
No nonsense power punch
In this interview Erica and I discuss: * Why you should stop asking for permission from others? * Choosing a life of impact instead of following the herd. * The power of unleashing human potential. * How Erica got into Seth Godin's Medicine Ball session after she was rejected.
Erica Dhawan is a globally recognized leadership expert and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. She is a Gen Y keynote speaker and researcher at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, working to bridge generational differences and drive business results.
A Quick Breakdown
- Stefan Loble did not inheret $1M and quit his job.
- He did not go raise VC (Venture Capital) or Angel investment capital.
- He did not have twenty years of experience in the men’s apparel industry.
What was his qualification for greatness?
Passion.
Here are some of the highlights from the show:
- How I found and developed my writing voice
- What it takes to connect with influential people online
- When I stopped acting the amateur and finally turned pro with my craft
- The 1000-hour rule of proficiency and practice
- Why artists need to claim their craft before they create their best work
- How to serve your way into influential relationships and get people to take you seriously