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: Three lemons, symbolic of what to do when, as the saying goes, life gives you lemons.

To Heck With Gratitude! (How To Be Grateful When Life Throws You Lemons)

Are you sick and tired of being told that you should be "grateful" for the wonderful things in your life? I frequently, very frequently, advise persons to feel grateful for their lot in life. I ask them to feel grateful for what they are and what they do and the great good fortune that has been bestowed on them. For those who are ready to listen, I go further and ask them to just be grateful and not grateful ‘for’ anything.

Image: A hand holding an analog clock in front of a pink and blue background, a metaphor for time blocking.

Stop Writing To-Do Lists, Try Time Blocking Instead

Get milk, check. Pay bills, check. Call mom, check… Goodness gracious, it seems like that to-do list is a never-ending one. And when you’ve check, check, checked, it seems like there are even more things to add on. A standard to-do list tells you what needs to be done, but time blocking tells you when you’re going to do it. With this well-researched technique, you can break down that overwhelming list into manageable time blocks that will help improve your life by ensuring you do the things that matter and ignore the things that don't.

Expectations Determine Results: Lessons from Walking on Hot Coals

Hot Hot Hot! Like walking on hot coals, the way we approach a situation can have a huge impact on how we feel about it. We all have places in our life where our expectations are out of alignment. The key is to know where our expectations are too low or too high and adjust accordingly. So, how can we do it?

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.

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