Manage to Engage

This episode is part three of a series excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” We continue the conversation about compassion today by deconstructing the ubiquitous judgment of judgment...

The next four episodes are excerpted from my Embodied Values and Virtues Course which was live the first quarter of 2022. We spent an hour or so on each of eight virtues of Clear and Open, which I bas...

Leaders tend to want their outsides to change without having to change themselves. But the truth is you cannot become a leader without change. Being a leader – the kind that truly inspires people to f...

What does it mean to live a spiritual life? Recognizing the fact that you do not always know what’s good for you. The spiritual path can often be confusing, but it’s pointing you in the right directio...

Humans have the unique ability to live out of harmony with their own nature. We have free will, which allows us to deny our own needs – even though we can’t escape the consequences that come along wit...

Excuses aren’t all bad news. As we explored last week, the areas in which we make excuses are likely the areas we don’t want to look at. If we use that to our advantage, tracking what we make excuses ...

Doing nothing is hard. You’ve done the hard work to dredge up feelings from the deepest crevices of your mind, and now you’re supposed to stop… but doing nothing is still doing something. It is an act...

Previously, we looked at how your relationship with your parents — and more specifically, your acknowledgement of their flaws — is essential to claiming self-authority. Ignoring reality is dangerous. ...

The discomfort many of us have around money shows up in different ways. Now that we know what money truly is, it’s natural to start applying that to our current perception of it. As we clarify and fur...

Being an adult means never having to say, “I have to.”At the end of the last episode, I shared why this idea that you have to do anything is just one of the most commonly shared delusions — a delusion...

To close out our first guest series, Matt Niblock shares how to identify the best candidates for the long haul in a high-pressure job and how hiring managers can create a good candidate experience — w...

This is the first episode in a four-part series exploring the critical importance of curiosity, how you can start approaching life with real curiosity, and how you can help the people you manage do th...

To close out this series on How Everything is True, we’re going to make CLEAR Thinking more practical. And to start, I want to break down the term “CLEAR Thinking” a little further.  CLEAR Thinking ...

The rapid rise of extreme subjectivism — which we’re still experiencing, and it’s really impossible to tell when we’ll reach an inflection point — has led to the rapid death of critical thought. We ca...

Life is your teacher, and life doesn’t care about how happy you are. Life doesn’t care about how comfortable you are. Life is fundamentally about your resistance to change, and it is conspiring with t...

The ego gets a bad rap, but it’s essential to both our personal and societal development.    We should express gratitude for and acknowledge the good that our egos bring. Our egos got us where we are ...

You go to school. You’re presented with a whole host of topics that you know little to nothing about. Then, over the course of about twelve years, teachers repeatedly shove information down your throa...

We start today’s episode with some reflections on the previous series about Desirable Difficulty. So, if you haven’t already listened to episodes 218 to 221, I recommend going back and listening to th...

In the last episode, I introduced you to the concept of Desirable Difficulty, or the idea that personal growth and evolution only happen as a result of butting up against and working your way through ...

If you normally listen to these episodes as a fly on the wall, I’d like you to approach today’s episode a little differently. I want you to put yourself in the seat of a person on this coaching call a...

In the last episode, I introduced you to The Competence Paradox.   This is the idea that, on one level, people are always doing the best that they can with what they have; the incentives, resources, a...

What’s the most that you are capable of? How do you know?   The truth of the matter is that, whether you think you’re capable of quite a lot or nothing at all, you’re probably wrong. People are terrib...

Are you great at anything, or do you want to be great at anything?   We’re all good at some things, but only a select few of us are willing to do what it takes to experience greatness – and if you eve...

In the last couple episodes, we discussed how our natural inclination is to orient towards happiness – and why this is, ultimately, a problematic cultural agreement that almost all of us are contribut...

The pursuit of happiness is one of the three “unalienable rights” suggested by the the United States Declaration of Independence – but the very act of this pursuit is problematic, and the single most ...

When we think of courage, we often think of braving some sort of life-threatening situation. But almost every day, even the people who jump out of planes work to avoid holding others accountable or be...

Our society operates using the framework that problems get solved through intelligence – but I argue that problems get solved through consciousness, which has nothing to do with intelligence or skill....

I am going to say something that might be simultaneously freeing and uncomfortable to hear: living in frustration is completely optional.   If you are frustrated, it is likely due to your expectations...

When someone is emotionally invested in an idea or a group, it’s almost impossible to persuade them to question their beliefs – even if you provide factual information that really should cause them to...

Today, I want to talk about what makes the whole world go ‘round – not money, not love, but shame.   It’s always been a huge factor, and if you look through a history book, you will pretty much find a...

A few episodes back, we discussed how subjectivism became extreme in our society, which is apparent when we see the popularization of terms like ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news.’ And we can thank D...

Here in the United States, especially when it comes to our economy, we live in a false reality.   Today we will establish how mediocrity perpetuates this paradigm and what it looks like in practice, l...

Do you see the pure potential of every human being that works for you? When you can see something greater than even they can see, and you hold that for them, you are taking responsibility for your rol...

Society conditions us to crave supervision… and hate it. School, work, authority figures – they all contribute to disengagement in various forms, priming us to both invite and resent “the man” for wat...

Today we look at addiction and change through the lens of a morning cup of coffee. We end up identifying with certain habits and routines related to our addictions, incorporating this assumption that ...

This episode starts a two-part series on the power of organization and the epidemic of chronic overwhelm. We also discuss the being and doing aspects of being organized, it’s critical to work on both....

In this episode, I tell the story of the most embarrassing moment of my teenage years and how I survived to learn from the experience. And if that isn’t reason enough to listen, we explore the power o...

We live in a world where the existence of “alternative facts” is now accepted by many. How do you manage someone when they’re seeing a situation so differently, that you just can’t see eye to eye? It’...

What’s your communication turnaround standard? Do you have one? Does your department or company have one? Part of integrity and thrival is getting back to people in a timely fashion, and organizing yo...

We all know that integrity is important, but what is it, exactly? You may be surprised to discover that you don’t have the integrity you tell yourself you do, and therein lies the opportunity. The mos...

This episode is part four of the series on heart-centering. This series is made up of excerpts from the Open To Excellence course available to Clear and Open Members. To find out how to join the conve...