Personal Growth

Improving ourselves improves the world around us. Looking for inspiration? From curated TED Talks to stories of thought leaders providing actionable advice, there’s no better place to start your personal growth journey than right here.

Image: Naila Francis grief coach and death midwife

Rebranding Loss and Grief: How Beginnings AND Ends Can Be Celebrated with Naila Francis (Episode #125)

Many of us have first-hand experience with grief and loss, but our guest today—a grief coach and death midwife—will give us alternatives to how we approach this rite of passage. Today’s guest, Naila Francis, shows us how we find simple sources of joy even in the depth of our losses, that help us move forward with grief, NOT move on from it.

Image: A woman's hand, nails painted blue, knocking down the first domino in a line of many. Symbolic for taking the first step to achieving her goals.

Real Change: How to Set Annual Goals and Stick to Them

Goals are very easy to set, but very hard to stick to. Real change almost never happens overnight, and it's hard coded into our human brains to be easily discouraged when our efforts don't yield quick results. But this doesn't mean achieving those goals is impossible! Here are some of the best practices you can use to set achievable goals and reach your full potential.

5 min read

Image: A young girl helping a young boy get up off the ground in the woods. Representative of the public's gravitation towards movies like Casablanca, where people end up selflessly helping each other.

Here’s Looking at You Kid! A Lesson from Casablanca

Oftentimes, the most compelling and transcendent media are those in which characters act in other-centered manners, overcoming their petty personal concerns for the sake of someone else or a greater cause. Take Casablanca, for example. One of the most well known films of all time does just this...

The Ultimate Triangle Pose: Connecting Yoga, Travel, and Girls’ Education with Jordan Ashley (Episode #121)

If you are wondering about your “purpose,” and you like to travel, then today’s guest will open a whole new landscape of possibilities for you. Jordan Ashley had two passions (yoga and travel) but over time, she began to feel like both were too self-involved. Then, the magic happened (travel with purpose) and she decided to connect her passions to her commitment to helping girls around the world who were being denied access to education. We can all learn from Jordan’s story and perhaps discover what we are uniquely built to contribute.

Image: Zach King wearing a purple shirt and backwards baseball cap, speaking on stage at VidCon 2014 in Anaheim, CA.

Wonder Makes Us Healthier: A Magician’s Secret to Experiencing it Every Day

Reclaiming our childlike wonder does more than just make life a little more fun. It can make us healthier, too! YouTuber and magician Zach King, known best for his hard-to-believe illusions online, has some thoughts about how we take back this spirit and add a dash of magic into our adult lives. So, how do we do it?

A Brain in Each Leg? Follow Your Curiosity to the Bottom of the Ocean with Nathan Robinson (Episode #120)

Having filmed bioluminescent shrimp 4,700 feet beneath the sea and studied light as the world’s potentially most common communication method in the world, Dr. Nathan Robinson’s deep sea discoveries lead the world in exploring the depths of our ocean and changing the way we see this largely unexplored landscape. He spots opportunities for wonder everywhere, and celebrates them with a sense of awe that is infectious. Taking us to the most extraordinary realms on our planet, Nathan’s work and enthusiasm have the power to move mountains… and it may already have.

Image: A man mid-cartwheel on a boardwalk in front of a lake, no longer feeling overwhelmed.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s How to Shift Your Focus & Get Back on Top

Often, the number of things we handle daily in our personal and professional lives can leave us feeling overwhelmed and stuck. It can be easy to spiral downwards. If you ever find yourself in this state of stagnancy, take a moment to reflect on where your focus is.

The Leaders in Your Life are Not Who You Think with Drew Dudley (Episode #118)

If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a timely bit of kindness from a stranger or received a compliment or word of encouragement at just the right moment, then you know how these seemingly small acts can lead to a lifetime of impact. Drew Dudley would call those moments ``Everyday Leadership,” and he has some inspiring ideas about how we can all be leaders in the lives of others, right where we are. Sometimes, the most powerful thing we can do is simply recognize someone else’s leadership.

Image: Two staircases headed in opposite directions, one beige and one teal. Representing the way there can be two sides to one story.

Middle Version: How to Interpret Two Sides of One Story

When two sides to one story sound completely different, how do you determine the truth? As humans, we are biased to believe the first version we hear, but what can we do when that bias doesn't serve us? Here's how to approach the situation when two stories don't match up.

Reintroducing Yourself as You Are, Not as You Were with Cheldin Barlatt Rumer (Episode #115)

Communication is a struggle for most of us. Either we don’t really know when to keep quiet, or we can’t muster the courage to speak up. Our guest, Cheldin Barlatt Rumer, is an expert in seeing our communication landscape, in every moment, with fresh eyes. She has some inspiring perspectives on how we elevate the voices of others, re-introduce ourselves to others after all we’ve been through, and how we can re-imagine the role of the internet in our lives as a tool for communication that can help us thrive.

Image: A stop sign half submerged in water. Is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

Good Thing, Bad Thing, Who Knows?

Go back in your life. Has anything happened to you that, at the time it happened, you thought was a ‘bad thing’? But, looking back at it today, you can clearly see that it was not so bad and, perhaps, was even a ‘good thing?’ Most people can recall many such instances. So, is it possible that what you are today about to label a ‘bad thing’ could, at some point in the future, turn out to have been a ‘good thing?’

Get Closer to the Good Life: Ditch the Fast Life with Carl Honoré (Episode #114)

If many days end with you feeling depleted and wondering what just happened because of your dizzying pace, Carl Honoré has insights that will help you break free from this need for speed. Carl is the originator of the “Slow Movement,” a growing way of thinking about how we spend our time: Should we continue rushing through everything, or consciously decide which things we will slow down for so we can truly savor the moments? Due to Carl’s work, there are growing communities around Slow Travel, Slow Food, Slow Schools, Slow Living, Slow Biking, Slow Money, and more.