Category 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.

56 min listen

Compete Against Your Best Self, Not Others: Advice from An Olympian with Jason Dorland (Episode #129)

Our most important goals can pull us along into lives well-lived, but they can also be at the heart of our most devastating moments. In this episode, Dr. Lynda talks to Olympic Athlete Jason Dorland,about many fresh perspectives that we can all bring to circumstances that threaten to derail our hopes and dreams. Delightfully, many of these perspectives are born of a relationship with a very special dog named Ike.

Image: An emoji shaped balloon making the "yikes" face, indicative of embarassment

Feeling Embarrassed is Actually Good for You!

Why do we feel embarrassed? The red face, the hot burning humiliation…what is the purpose of embarrassment (besides making us want to crawl into a hole)? Let’s explore why evolution cemented this social emotion into our lives, and learn how to use it productively.

Image: A person on a swing, swinging high. A metaphor for never having felt so good!

I Cannot Remember the Last Time I Felt So Good!

When you go out and help someone or make their day with zero expectations in return, purely and simply because you can, you might just feel the best you ever have. Here's a heartwarming story of helping people and expecting nothing in return, and some tips on how you can do it too.

59 min listen

What Lights You Up? Untangling Life’s Complexities with Jonathan Domsky (Episode #127)

Jonathan Domsky talks with Dr. Lynda about untangling life’s complexities with a positive outlook and strategy. Their conversation provides insight into seeing the things that are working and uncovering beliefs that may have us “stuck.” His experience in helping others get clarity and his international success as an entrepreneur allows him to offer practical solutions for our personal and professional lives.

5 min read

Image: A mug with "see the good" engraved on it.

How to Live with a More Positive Worldview using 4 Simple Shifts

What we see on the internet is just a slice of reality. There is an enormous wave of goodness and progress well underway in the world that almost no one knows about because it is hidden from view: buried by all the fear and anger that seems to be rising to the top. But have no fear... Here are four simple shifts we can all make in our daily lives to retrain our algorithms to instead favor a positive worldview full of helpful, thoughtful, and hopeful internet content.

Image: a male artist sitting at a table, his hands covered in paint.

How to Overcome Perfectionism: 5 Pro Tips by Mindvalley Trainers

Be it in relationships, at work, in public, or on social media — people are often trying to show up as society’s version of “perfect”. But maybe what we all need to be better at being imperfect. Here are 5 ways to overcome perfectionism and shift your life significantly.

58 min listen

Why Kids Can’t Change Until Adults Do with AJ Crabill (Episode #126)

Dr. Lynda talks with AJ Crabill about getting where we want to be by resisting the urge to focus on the strategies most familiar to us, and instead identifying the outcome we want and finding the most effective strategy from there. Through his work improving student outcomes by keeping “collectivism” in the center of the table, AJ has found some secrets that we can all use to come together in all kinds of boardrooms—schools, businesses, and communities—and even around the kitchen table.

72 min listen

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...

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?

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.