ThriveologyPodcast – Thriveology: Recent Episodes
Podcast – Thriveology
How Neuroscience, Mindset, and Action Work Together
Good intentions pave a road to nowhere good… right? But why is it that even our best of intentions, our best plans, do not get us the results we want? Why is it that we stall out (assuming we even get a good start)?
It turns out that success (and thriving) takes far more than just the desire to get there. It takes far more than simply starting.
And yet, we humans seem to just get our own selves into trouble. We trip ourselves up!
Fortunately, there are ways we can get out of our own way… and neuroscience can help us.
Which is why I am bringing you an interview with John Assaraf. You may be familiar with him from his various media appearances, or from his books, or even from a few documentary movies he’s been in. And if you haven’t seen him yet, you will love hearing from him.
RELATED RESOURCES
John’s Website (with free ebook for you)
Innercise (check out the app)
One of my favorite things about doing this podcast is meeting some very cool guests. And on this episode, I had the chance to talk with Dr. Colin Zhu, a holistic doctor and chef extraordinaire. Why the chef part? Because Colin sees so many areas of health and wholeness that is touched by a good diet… along with the consequences of poor dietary choices.
A life-long advocate for healing and holistic care, Colin developed his Thr5 (Thrive) Protocol (with 5 pillars to follow). But as he continued his clinical work and his studies, Colin saw a missing element for self-care. At the roots of many lifestyle illnesses (diabetes, strokes, and cardiac illness, for example) was the eating patterns of patients/clients. The idea of “Food as Medicine” is one pillar of his protocol, and the focus of his upcoming book: The Empowered Kitchen.
In our chat, Colin discusses the earlier influences that led him to his holistic outlook. We also cover his Thr5 Protocol pillars, and talk about his latest project.
Listen below to discover how you can thrive on the 5 pillars… and how your eating may make all the difference.
RELATED RESOURCES:
Dr. Colin Zhu’s Website
His Book: The Empowered Kitchen
Have you failed?
Did that failure stop you from moving forward? Did it get you stuck?
Failure is a part of life. Ever watched a child learn to walk? Success only comes after repeated failures. Yet that same child keeps on trying, until the child gets it right.
What happens in adulthood? Why does a fear of failing keep us from acting?
When we don’t take action for fear of failing, we have pre-emptively failed.
We have already decided we would fail, so we never even start, guaranteeing we don’t get to where you want to go.
A few decades ago, I started a business. It failed miserably. And it kept me stuck for awhile. But one day, I realized there was something else to consider about that failure. There were some lessons I learned.
Those are lessons I apply every single day.
Let me suggest 3 questions that will help you turn a failure around, and make the failure simply another opportunity.
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Days have a rhythm. All day long, it is a huge inhale, trying to get that energy in you and into your efforts.
But at the end of the day, it is a big exhale, a moment of relaxing and calming.
Or more accurately, it should be.
In our natural rhythm, evenings are a time to wind-down, calm down, and move toward rest.
In fact, our ancestors had no choice but to do that. No lights to keep on. No screens to watch or video games to play. No social media to post to. Just a quiet time to move toward sleep.
Experts tell us that our society is sleep deprived. And researchers are clear that this impacts work performance, relationships, happiness, health, moods, and a myriad of other factors.
To put it simply, if you are not getting adequate rest, you will struggle to thrive! Your body, psyche, and relationships will pay the price.
In this podcast, I cover 4 areas of your life that you can shift, so that you have the best chance for getting the best rest.
Join me to end your day on a high note, and start your night ready for rest.
RESOURCE MENTIONED IN PODCAST:
Podcast on Starting Your Day Right
One of my favorite sayings is “Not my circus, not my monkey.”
Evidently, this is a Polish proverb: Not my circus, not my monkey.
Maybe it is because I have an affinity for monkeys, but I love the meaning of that.
Am I caught up trying to deal with someone else’s circus or monkey? Am I trying to deal with an issue over which I have no control, and maybe not even a stake?
We do that.
Friends are fighting, and we get in the middle. Family members are angry with each other, and we intervene. Office squabbles (in which we have no stake) pull us in. We make the circus our own, and try to take over that monkey.
When I was growing up, we had another saying: “I don’t have a dog in that fight.”
Something is happening around us, and we involve ourselves.
But if we involve ourselves when it is not our issue, not our fight, and has little bearing on our own lives, we usually end up on the losing side.
Communication theorists talk about this as creating a triangle. The reason for the triangle is an attempt to lower the level of conflict. It is an attempt to stabilize the situation. But instead of stabilizing, it only serves to destabilize, pull energy, and entrap bystanders.
We can thank our ancient ancestors for this tendency. But it is up to us to not pretend we have a dog in the fight. It is up to us to remember it is someone else’s circus, someone else’s monkey.
Learn how to distinguish your involvement in this podcast. Listen below.
Let’s just say it and get it out of the way. You, I, and everyone else, is going to die. An inescapable fact of life. We will die.
A morbid thought? I don’t think it has to be a morbid thought, as much as an organizing thought.
Reality.
It brings things into focus.
Years ago, I met a man who was dying from cancer. He was focused, determined. His prognosis was terminal, so that was not his determination. He was determined to live out the rest of his life to the fullest. He spent his time working on projects dear to him. He made apologies and amends to those whom he felt he had hurt. He was letting his loved ones know they were loved.
His imminent death gave him focus.
One day, he turned to me, after I told him how much I respected how he was facing death, and said, “What about YOUR death?”
“What?,” I asked. I wasn’t the one dying, after all.
Then he said, “YOU are going to die, too. Maybe after me, maybe before me. But you will die, too. Don’t wait. There may be no waiting.”
Death has a way of rearranging your priorities.
Listen to this week’s podcast to ponder death and YOUR life.
My coaching client was wanting to thrive. He told me he was constantly studying about self-growth. But he wanted to really transform his life. And, he told me, so much of what he was reading was, to quote him, “woo-woo stuff.” He used that term as a reference to ideas he thought were “out there.”
So first, let me just say, what is “out there” to one person is commonplace and sensible to another. But I knew what he was saying. He wanted to change things in his life… but he wanted it based in research and reliability. He wanted to get it down to the basics.
I told him we could easily look at the “low hanging fruit,” the easy things to accomplish — the ones that give the biggest bang for the effort… pretty much guaranteed.
In this episode of the Thriveology Podcast, I outline 4 areas to improve, all in very “non-woowoo” ways… and very simple ways… so that you can get the biggest bang for your efforts.
Listen in for the details!
RELATED RESOURCES
Fueling Your Body
Exercising Your Body
Resting Your Body
Dealing With Stress
Building A Thriving Life
Are you up for a challenge?
In the last episode of my podcast, I discussed how to hold on when life is tough. That’s when life is challenging you.
But what about when life isn’t so challenging… where life is copacetic? Just cruising.
It’s my observation that we work hard to keep life flat. We work hard to keep things smooth. Is it cold outside? Turn on the heater. Is it hot outside? Turn on the A/C. Keep things even… even-keeled. Flat.
We spend LOTS of energy to save the energy of dealing with challenges, big or small.
But does that help (or harm) us? Does it keep us safe or make us fragile?
What if taking on small challenges actually gets us better prepared for bigger challenges? What if making choices to expand into life helps us deal with life encroaching upon us?
One of my “things” is to find little challenges for myself… new things to try, new activities to do, new tastes or sounds to take in, and new ways to try life.
How about you? What challenges are you taking on right now?
Listen to this episode of the Thriveology Podcast to discover the power of a challenge.
RELATED RESOURCES
Learning and Life
Ways to Expand
Growth Mindset
Lessons in Jiu Jitsu
Book: Thrive Principles
Have you heard of Kaizen? It is the principle of continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement is a great model for change. It is based on constant changes toward a better outcome. No need for sudden upheaval or change (although that is sometimes necessary). Instead, course corrections are made along the way, nudging something toward improvement.
That “something”? It might be a product (like Japanese automobiles, where Kaizen became the method of them becoming excellent automobiles), companies, or even individuals.
But how, you might wonder, do you actually DO that continuous improvement?
Let me offer a super-simple tool that you can apply to your own life, to your company or workplace, or even to a relationship or organization.
SSC – Start, Stop, ContinueThree benchmarks: What do you need to Start? What do you need to Stop? What do you need to Continue?
In this week’s episode, I discuss how to apply SSC to your own life… and to other areas in your life.
Listen in for a new tool.
RELATED RESOURCES
Dealing with Change
Why We Avoid Change
Paradigms
Limiting Beliefs
I’m always looking for the life lessons, no matter what I am doing. If things go well, what’s the lesson? If things don’t go so well, what’s the lesson? If something is fun, what’s the lesson? If things are not so fun… well, there is a lesson there, too.
A few years back, I did several podcast episodes about the lessons I learned in jiu jitsu. But since then, for a number of reasons, I hung my gi up and ended by jiu jitsu life.
And that left a void in my life… along with a relocation for my wife and me. Into that void, we put pickleball. So, after less than three years of playing, I thought it might just be time for a little thinking on pickleball. What are the lessons there?
(Separately, I am also doing some writing about the psychology of pickleball performance. If you are interested, CHECK IT OUT HERE.)
While lots of the lessons I learned in jiu jitsu have only been strengthened by what I have learned from pickleball, I wanted to choose some different lessons for you. Five, to be exact. And no, you don’t have to play pickleball for the lessons to apply to your life, too.
You can listen to my Life Lessons from Pickleball episode below.
RELATED RESOURCES:
Life Lessons from Pickleball Series
The Pickled Brain – psychology and performance
My Books
What’s your WHY? Your BIG WHY? Why you are here. The WHY that is your life purpose?
I think we all have one… even if we haven’t found it yet. It’s there. Within us. Your first task is to find it. That’s important. But finding it isn’t enough. Second, you have to move toward it, work toward it… try to fulfill it. If it is big enough, it may just take you the rest of your life!
But what could get in your way??
The little “why’s.” Your questions about “why did this happen?”, “why are things this way?”, “why do I feel this way?”
Those little why’s can drown out the BIG WHY. It draws our attention away from what is important. And yet, those little why’s get our attention and energy. They keep us in circles, chasing after nothing helpful or useful. Just stuck.
In this episode of the Thriveology Podcast, I discuss our BIG WHY and the little why’s that keep us away from the BIG WHY.
RELATED RESOURCES
Meaning/Purpose/Impact
Showing Up
Accepting WHAT IS
What Can You Control?
What I Learned As A Chaplain, Pt. 1
What I Learned As A Chaplain, Pt. 2
Thrive Principles Book
Life is tough.
Not always. But along the way. And even after you get past one struggle, that doesn’t mean there isn’t another one up ahead. That’s just the nature of life.
It doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong or that the world, God, or the Universe is out to teach you a lesson. It’s just the nature of life.
You may notice 2 crowds. First is the “Grind Culture” that just says to suck it up, keep on grinding, and MAKE it work. They have a point that you have to get through some tough times. But sometimes, it is wise to step back and ask if the fight is worth it.
Then there is the “Sign Culture.” That group tells you that any struggle is an indication you are on the wrong path, that something is wrong with you, and that life “should” be easy… if you are doing it right. They have a point that sometimes, a struggle is pointing to you moving the wrong way… swimming upstream. But the fact is, life means struggles… at times.
So what do you do to hold up when life gets you down?
We discuss it… and 5 things to do… on this episode of the Thriveology Podcast. Listen below.
RELATED RESOURCES
Does Everything Happen for a Reason?
Dealing with Emotional Pain
Facing Fears
Accepting What Is
Book: Thrive Principles – 15 Strategies for Building YOUR Thriving Life
Blame is rampant in today’s world. We all quickly point the finger at someone/something else, proclaiming, “It’s not my fault!”
Interestingly, I also notice how rampant it is for people to take the credit for successes.
They/we claim credit for what goes right but refuse blame for anything that goes wrong.
We live in a “culture of blame.”
Which is what often keeps us from growing. From changing. From learning from our mistakes. If someone/something else is to blame, what could I (or you) do? Not my fault… not my problem.
Change requires us to change the equation. To take responsibility, when we are responsibible. To share credit when others deserve credit.
Great leadership is about accepting ultimate responsibility for mistakes and problems, while giving credit for successes.
So, how do we turn the equation around? I discuss it in this week’s Thriveology Podcast.
RELATED RESOURCES
Responsibility
NMF Syndrome In Marriage
Showing Up
Thrive Principles Book
Immutable Laws of Living Book
Maybe it’s just me… but I don’t think so! Sometimes, we get so stuck in win/lose mentality that we defeat ourselves. We struggle, wear ourselves out, and never get to the point of something else.
What else?
Learning. Nelson Mandela said, “I don’t lose. I either win or I learn.” What I have realized is, I either learn or learn. Sure, there may be an outcome… I win the game or lose the game.
But more importantly, did I learn? Did I take something forward with me… that will make a difference as I move forward?
In this episode, I highlight the shift — as well as how to make it — with my experiences in jiu jitsu, disc golf, and pickleball.
Listen below.
RELATED RESOURCES:
This episode as an article
My books on thriving and relationships
Here we go! The old year has passed, and the new year stretches before us… full of possibility and potential. Let’s talk about how to Thrive in ’25!
In this episode, I’ll tell you where I have been, and where the podcast is headed. I’ve got lots of great stuff coming your way, and am excited to share it with you.
Also in this episode, I tell you the 3 A’s of what you can control, so you can start applying that RIGHT NOW.
Stay tuned for future episodes!
And listen to this episode below.
RELATED RESOURCES:
My Books, Click HERE
Episode Synopsis, Click HERE
Thanksgiving, the holiday, is often lost in food and family. What is lost? Our opportunity to experience gratitude. The chance to really give thanks. Many times, it can feel like an obligation. Instead, I suggest we see it as an opportunity. Even in tough moments (actually, especially in tough moments), we can make a shift […]
Just a little rant here: philosophy classes turn off many college students for a simple reason — they never get around to saying how philosophy can shake your living. Some classes might teach more on “how to think philosophically,” or “here are the old philosophers.” Some may speak to ethics or arguments, logic or some […]
I’ve had a few people who have noticed that the Thriveology Podcast has been on a bit of a hiatus for a couple of months. They asked where I have been. Well, since the question was about my podcast, I thought I would respond in… my podcast! So, listen in for what I’ve been up […]
Do you ever do something that breaks a rule (or even a law), thinking to yourself that it doesn’t apply to you? I do. Sometimes, I use that speed limit sign as a suggestion. I’m a good driver, I tell myself. What harm could +5mph do? Except the sign is a law, not a guideline […]
Do you micro-quit? I sure do. And I need to quit micro-quitting! Maybe you do, too. It undermines my goals (and likely, your goals too). And it keeps you from thriving. What is micro-quitting? Well, if you quit something (an activity, a job, a sport, a hobby, etc.), you stop doing it. You step away […]
All around the news, we are hearing about algorithms built into our social media. It directs what we see and hear. It is how all social media decides what to feed you next. If you like this video, then you might like this one. If you know this person, then you may know this person. […]
“Where should I start?”, my client asked. Lots of times, we want to make changes, we want things to be different. And sometimes, we want things to be different before we make any changes. We want a different starting point. If you’ve ever been at a park or mall, looking at the map to figure […]
“Why don’t they treat me the way I want to be treated?”, my client asked me. So, I asked, “Have you taught them how to treat you?” The silence let me know. But after a pause, my client said, “I guess it never crossed my mind I needed to do that.” The fact is that […]
A few weeks ago, a coaching client noted her resistance to forgiving for fear that she would be vulnerable to being hurt. I told her that was not at all true. In fact, being alive leaves you open to hurt! But not forgiving? It offers no protection. It does, however, prolong the pain caused by […]
Have you seen the meme that caught my eye?: I really wish I weren’t living through a major historical event right now! I feel that! But here is the thing I am realizing — historic events are happening on a very regular basis. We aren’t living through the first pandemic (nor will it be the […]