100% Awesome Podcast
280 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 157 ratingsYou might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thoughts you think. This is very good news because it means that changing our thoughts can change everything else. This podcast provides practical ways to gain awareness of your current thoughts and then deliberately choose the ones you want in order to improve every area of your life. The way things are is not the way things have to stay. And that my friends, is 100% awesome.
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Episodes
Episode 260: Lessons about Creation from 5 Years of Podcasting
April 25, 2024 04:00 - 37 minutes - 51.1 MBThis week’s podcast episode marks 5 years of the show! And today I’m sharing 5 important things that I have learned during that time as I have created this podcast. No matter who you are or what you are trying to create in your life, your brain is going to create resistance and excuses and fear and these can keep you from creating the things you want. So today, I want to inspire you and give you the help you need to overcome your brain. Along the way, I’ll teach you that creation...
Episode 259: Ordinary Awesomeness
April 18, 2024 04:00 - 26 minutes - 37.9 MBHave you ever noticed all the tiny little things that make life awesome? It turns out that the more you notice, the better you feel. Your brain, of course, wants to notice all the things that have gone wrong, but there are just as many things that have gone exactly right and it can feel really good to bring your awareness to them. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’ll remind you of how fun it is to like things, teach you what you can learn from the U-curve of happiness, give you a dail...
Episode 258: Restocking Your Life
April 11, 2024 04:00 - 34 minutes - 48.9 MBI recently cleaned out my closet and intentionally decided, piece by piece, the items that I wanted to keep in my wardrobe and the ones that I no longer needed or wanted. What if we did the same thing in our lives? If I went through my life piece by piece and examined each element—my habits, my schedule, my relationships, my work, my faith, the thoughts and feelings that I have most, the things I spend my time on—are they all things that I really want to be choosing? Given the choice to...
Episode 257: Halftime Report: Lessons from the First 50 Years
April 04, 2024 04:00 - 31 minutes - 44.7 MBThis week I celebrate my 50th birthday which has me thinking about this episode of the podcast kind of like a halftime report. If I’m about halfway through my life (halfway through the game, if you will) I’m metaphorically going back to the locker room to take breath and evaluate how the first half of the game has gone. I’ve been on earth for five decades and today I’m thinking about my life, assessing what I’ve learned and loved about the first half of my life, and the recording the lesso...
Episode 256: Abundance, Grace, and the Gifts of Spring
March 27, 2024 04:00 - 33 minutes - 53.1 MBFor those of us that live in the northern hemisphere, spring is a time of year where there are reminders everywhere about the true abundance of our lives. Of course, we always live in an abundant world surrounded by an abundant universe, but because of hedonistic adaptation, most of the time our brain either doesn’t notice it or diminishes it down to nothing. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing a few things that have caught my attention recently that have surprised me, humbl...
Episode 255: When in Doubt
March 21, 2024 04:00 - 25 minutes - 37.9 MBThere’s never going to be a point at which your brain isn’t going to doubt you and question your ability to succeed, no matter how talented or capable you are or how many times you’ve succeeded or failed in the past. Most of us are waiting for the doubts to go away. We think that if we could make our doubts go away then we would find our belief. But on today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing the idea that belief isn’t the absence of doubt—believing in ourselves is a choice we are ...
Episode 254: What’s Wrong with Me?
March 14, 2024 04:00 - 31 minutes - 46.8 MBToday on the podcast I ask and answer a question that you may occasionally find yourself asking: What’s wrong with me? As humans it’s easy to wonder why we feel so bad, why we can’t seem to figure out how to be happy and productive, why we do the things we do, why it feels so hard to do the things we’re “supposed to do,” and why it often feels like we’re our own worst enemy…I mean, what it wrong with us? Over and over, we ask this question, thinking that if we could just figure out the p...
Episode 253: Parental Control
March 07, 2024 05:00 - 35 minutes - 53.6 MBFrom the moment we become parents we are concerned about the safety, happiness, and success of our children. But how much of that is in our control? And how much of it is our responsibility? In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing three important distinctions that will allow you to improve the relationship you have with your children by releasing all the things you can’t control and focusing on the things you can. You’ll learn the big difference between being a responsible par...
Episode 252: Stepping Out of the Attention Economy
February 29, 2024 05:00 - 40 minutes - 60.6 MBWhile it’s true that most of us appreciate the ease and entertainment that we get from our digital devices, it may also be true that we are spending more time on them than we want to be. Why is this? Well, it turns out that our brains are biologically programmed to respond to the content and the alerts of digital media and there is an entire attention economy dedicated to taking advantage of that, and using your neurobiology to get more and more of your time, attention, and money there....
Episode 251: Stop Trying Harder, Start Trying Warmer
February 22, 2024 05:00 - 33 minutes - 47.7 MBAll of us know about trying harder. We’ve been taught to believe that if your life doesn’t look the way you want, you probably need to try harder! But today I want to offer you the idea that instead of being harder and tougher on ourselves in order to create what we want in our lives, what we really need to do is to be warmer with ourselves. Instead of criticism and impatience with our efforts, what is really going to help us grow and become is learning and practicing in an environment of ...
Episode 250: An Endless Supply of Encouragements
February 15, 2024 05:00 - 23 minutes - 34 MBI can’t believe it, but this is the 250th episode of the podcast! And today, I’m showing my appreciation for all the things that have helped me reach this milestone. I have been the recipient of an endless supply of encouragements and today I want to take a moment to say thank you. During the episode you’ll learn how you have your own endless supply of encouragements and how you can use those encouragements to bolster others and strengthen yourself as you meet the challenges of your life...
Episode 249: Thoughts about Suicide
February 08, 2024 05:00 - 36 minutes - 52 MBPerhaps there is no category of thoughts with more stigma or misunderstanding than suicidal thoughts. These kinds of thoughts scare us. We don’t like to talk about them and most of us don’t know what to do when we find them in our own heads or in the heads of the people we love and care about. But suicidal thoughts are common for human beings and really understanding why we have them and what we should do with them is an important part of taking care of yourself and protecting others. To...
Episode 248: Creating an Amazing Personal Culture
February 01, 2024 05:00 - 37 minutes - 52.4 MBThere’s a famous concept that is often used in business, in teams, and in other organizations that says that when it comes to success, culture is way more important than strategy. When it comes to accomplishing your own dreams and creating results in your own life, this idea is just as true. It’s easy to focus your energy and effort on the “strategies” and all the things you need to do. But what if your personal, internal culture has a much greater impact on your success than any of the th...
Episode 247: What’s In and What’s Out
January 25, 2024 05:00 - 28 minutes - 42.2 MBIt’s been a tough week for coaches in the NFL. The playoffs are in full swing and right now there are a lot of coaching changes happening across the league and lots of talk about who’s in and who’s out. Just like in fashion or in NFL coaching, our thoughts go in and out of usefulness. There are times when we decide that thinking one way has got to go and it’s time to make room for something new. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing what’s in and out for me this year, especiall...
Episode 246: 3 Thoughts to Help You Fight for Your Dreams
January 18, 2024 05:00 - 29 minutes - 41 MBThere’s a good reason that many of our dreams go unfulfilled: our brains always get in the way. In the first three weeks of the year, I have already been reminded how just as soon as we start working towards our dreams, our brains step up to stop us—which is why all of us have to learn to fight for our dreams. Today on the podcast, I’m sharing three recent experiences and three lessons to help you fight that good fight and help you if you’re scared or discouraged or unsure where to star...
New Year, New Neurotransmitters
January 11, 2024 13:46 - 39 minutes - 54.3 MBYou are not your brain. You are not your biology or your physiology or your neurochemistry. You are a being separate from your brain, but your brain chemistry is making a far bigger impact on your life, your feelings, and your choices than you may realize. Today on the podcast I’m teaching you about some of the most important neurotransmitters in your brain, why they work the way they do, and how you can use that knowledge to hack your neurochemistry so that you can get more of the thin...
Episode 244: Goal Revolution
January 04, 2024 05:00 - 32 minutes - 46.8 MBThis time of year we hear lots of talk about goals, but I think many of us have goal trauma. We’ve been hurt by goals we’ve set in the past or hurt by our own mistreatment of ourselves as we pursued them. A lot of us are disillusioned and tired and maybe we’re even a little bit scared to set goals because, instead of helping us, many of our goals have ended up eroding the relationship we have with ourselves. And today I’m hoping to change that. Today on the podcast, I’m inviting you t...
Episode 243: Brave New Year
December 28, 2023 05:00 - 29 minutes - 43.1 MBRecently I have been thinking about the difference between living your life well and having a life well-lived. Living your life well is about making sure you’re living your life correctly, taking all the right action and making all the right choices so that you can earn approval from yourself or others. It’s about external measurements and external validation of your choices. While having a life that has been well-lived is about enjoying your life, growing and developing in ways that matte...
Episode 242: Best Lessons of the Year
December 21, 2023 05:00 - 27 minutes - 42.2 MBAs we are in the final weeks of 2023, I have naturally been thinking about the year—the things I did, the choices I made, the results I have created, and especially the lessons I have learned. Today on the podcast, I wanted to share the three lessons that have meant the most to me this year. These are the things that changed me the most and made a huge difference in the way I think about myself and my life. Every once in a while, it’s powerful to stop and notice and record what you have...
Episode 241: Your Brain is Like a Hallmark Movie
December 14, 2023 05:00 - 33 minutes - 49.8 MBThis time of year, it’s hard to miss the onslaught of cheesy, formulaic Christmas movies, where (inevitably) a big city businessman/advertising exec/marketing bro finds true love and happiness with a small-town baker/chef/café owner. It’s a story that’s been so overtold that you can guess the characters, the setting, the plot, and the happy ending before it even starts. In many ways, our brain follows the same predictable pattern as these movies. No matter how boring, and no matter how ti...
Episode 240: Purpose and the Life You Were Supposed to Have
December 07, 2023 05:00 - 27 minutes - 27.6 MBAs humans, most of us wonder about our purpose. Unlike God’s other creations, we tend to worry about what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives and how to find and fulfill our true purpose while we’re here on earth. Sometimes these concerns cause us to hurt ourselves with the thought that our lives were supposed to be different than they are and that if we were better somehow or had made better choices, then we’d have the life we were really supposed to have. In today’s episode of th...
Episode 239: Navigating the Holidays with Grace
November 30, 2023 05:00 - 32 minutes - 35 MBThe holidays can be a really stressful time of year. It seems like there are a million things to do, a million places to be, a million expectations to meet, and never enough time and energy and resources to do it all. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing 6 practical tips to help you navigate the holidays more gracefully and to approach this time of year with more grace for yourself and the other people in your life. If you want to create more connection and really enjoy the nex...
Episode 238: Increasing Your Gratitude
November 23, 2023 05:00 - 22 minutes - 22.3 MBWhile there are never feelings that you should or should not feel, there might be feelings that you WANT to feel more of—and maybe gratitude is one of those for you. Not only can gratitude be one of the most enjoyable emotions to feel in and of itself, it can also be used to soften and ameliorate painful emotions like stress and grief. Today on the podcast, I’m sharing a small but powerful tool that you can use to immediately increase the amount of gratitude you feel in any situation. I...
Episode 237: Doing Hard Things with David Deaton
November 16, 2023 05:00 - 43 minutes - 42 MBMy brother recently ran his third 100-mile ultramarathon and I wanted to know all about it! WHY did he run it? HOW did he run it? And WHAT does he do to keep going when things get hard? We talk about all of it in this latest episode of the podcast. This is an episode packed with tons of insights and a-ha moments to help all of us who want to do hard things but don’t know how to keep going when our brain is telling us to stop. We talk about why it’s pursuing your goals matters, tools ...
Episode 236: Thoughts and Prayers
November 09, 2023 05:00 - 35 minutes - 39 MBOne of the greatest gifts we have down here on earth is the ability to talk to God. But just like anything else in life, sometimes our thoughts get in the way of us using this gift the way we want to. For many of us, there are a lot of thoughts that can get in the way of our conversations with God, that prevent us from opening up to him, that make us feel guilty and self-conscious, and stop us from making him a trusted confidant that we want to talk to and listen to. In today’s episode ...
Episode 235: The Grief of the World with Kelly Norton
November 02, 2023 04:00 - 41 minutes - 41.8 MBIt’s easy to feel heavy and overwhelmed by the suffering and devastation happening in our world right now. It seems like there is no end to the pain caused by living in the world or to the pain that can be caused by the choices of other people. In today’s podcast episode, I am sharing a recent conversation I had with grief coach, Kelly Norton, who shared some powerful thoughts about how to handle and manage the grief of the world and the pain we feel witnessing the realities of the human ...
Episode 234: Casting Spells and Making Magic
October 26, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 30.4 MBA spell is defined as a series of words that has magical powers. But there’s nothing mystical or supernatural about the fact that the words in our head (our thoughts) are powerfully, unconsciously, almost “magically” creating our lives. And if we think about the metaphor of casting spells to allow you to alter or control reality, nowhere is that a more useful skill to have than in your own mind. The words you choose to think are literally creating your life—and that means that your abilit...
Episode 233: Poisonous Thoughts in Disguise
October 19, 2023 04:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBOur brains can be kind of tricky sometimes. They often like to give us thoughts that sound nice, but which can actually be harmful and cause us pain. In fact, some of our most poisonous thoughts walk around our minds disguised as helpful, useful, reasonable, and sometimes even “positive” thoughts. Today on the podcast I’ll show you how three thoughts (that your brain probably gives you on a daily or weekly basis) might be causing you to feel powerless, frustrated, and ashamed—but you might...
Episode 232: How to be Encouraging
October 12, 2023 04:00 - 24 minutes - 24.8 MBThere are lots of times in our lives when we’re going to feel discouraged and, as the prefix indicates, to have moments where we literally feel separated from our courage. When this happens to us or to the people we love, what do we do? How do we effectively help and encourage when we or others need it the most? This week I received an audio message from my son that was so encouraging that it made me wonder what characteristics made it so effective. I think it perfectly exemplified how ...
Episode 231: The Season of Self Compassion
October 05, 2023 13:38 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThe seasons are changing and I think it’s time to change the way we see ourselves as well. It’s time for a season of self-compassion. I talk a lot on the podcast about self-development, but none of us can truly grow and develop and reach our potential without having a high degree of love and compassion for ourselves. Without it, our quest for self-actualization can easily become an exercise in self-contempt. Self-compassion sometimes gets a bad rap because we mistake it for self-indulgen...
Episode 230: You Aren’t Failing
September 28, 2023 04:00 - 32 minutes - 37.4 MBOne of the things that can keep us stuck and discouraged and not pursuing our dreams is the fear of failure. It’s easy to be scared of failure because almost every day our brain points out the ways that it sees us failing. Our brains are good at noticing where we aren’t measuring up, where we’re falling behind, and where we’ve failed to meet our own expectations—and it feels terrible. But what if you can’t fail? What if there’s actually no such thing? In today’s podcast I’m sharing t...
Episode 229: Do You Want to Change?
September 21, 2023 04:00 - 35 minutes - 35.4 MBWe are in a transition time of the year, moving from summer to fall. And every time we come to a transition moment in life, there is an opportunity to check in with yourself and ask yourself if you want to keep creating the things you’ve been creating or if you want to make a change. This periodic evaluation can allow us to live a life of intention rather than a life by default. In today’s podcast, I ask two important questions: What do you want? Do you want to change to get it? And...
Episode 228: When You’re Dreading It
September 13, 2023 04:00 - 36 minutes - 40.1 MBDread is suffering your brain creates ahead of time. It’s the pain we feel because our brain is trying to avoid a possibly painful experience ahead of us. And dread can be such an intense emotion that when we feel it, it can be easy to make excuses for ourselves and talk ourselves out of doing the things we want to do. What if what is really between you and the life you want is just a feeling? What if it’s just the feeling of dread? Today on the podcast, I’m deconstructing dread and...
Episode 227: Lessons from Our SwimRun
September 07, 2023 04:00 - 40 minutes - 37.6 MBLast week, my son, Caleb and I competed in our very first SwimRun competition, in which we ran nearly 16 miles up and down the hills and trails of Mackinac Island and swam over 3 miles in the cold water of Lake Huron. It was an awesome experience that neither of us will ever forget. As with any goal, along the way, we learned lots about ourselves, our capacity, and our brains and we think the lessons we learned will help you as you create the goals and dreams you have in your own life. ...
Episode 226: Lifecycle of a Goal
August 31, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes - 31.2 MBWhenever we start a new goal, we feel motivated and excited and determined. And we’re pretty familiar with the end of a goal as well, when we either achieve what we want or we don’t. But what happens in the middle? While we all recognize the determined beginning and the satisfying achievement or disappointing failure at the end of a goal, there are parts in the middle that nobody talks about. And if you aren’t aware of the entire lifecycle of the goal and don’t anticipate all the phas...
Episode 225: Life and Death and the Love In Between
August 24, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 28 MBWe live in a world of opposition. For every one of us, the fact that we are alive means that we will someday die. And when we choose to love someone, it means that we are inevitably also choosing loss and grief. This is what it means to be human. Our lives contain the possibility for so much joy and happiness and connection, but all of these experiences are really only available because the possibility of loss also exists. How do we make peace with that? And how do we dare love when loss i...
Episode 224: Feeling Abundant
August 17, 2023 04:00 - 28 minutes - 30.1 MBOur brain like to tell us that we don’t have enough. They point out that we don’t have enough time or money or energy or love. They are constantly scared about running out and not having what we need. But what if we can’t actually run out of the things we need? What if there is always more not just available to us but always coming to us? What if abundance is the truth and scarcity is the lie? In today’s podcast, I’m giving a new way to think about abundance in your life and the simple ...
Episode 223: Developing Emotional Mobility
August 10, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes - 38.4 MBRight now, in the physical health space, there’s a big push to improve and increase mobility. The idea is that the more mobility you have, the more ability you have to do the things you want to do with your body. If you can’t move your body the way you want to, it can create limitations. In the same way, the more mobility we can develop in our emotional lives—the more strength and flexibility and ability to feel and move with our emotions—the more experiences and choices become available ...
Episode 222: A Case for Quiet
August 03, 2023 04:00 - 35 minutes - 69.6 MBOne of the hardest things to come by these days is quiet, especially inside our own heads. We live in a world where it’s now possible to have a nearly constant stream of other voices, entertainment, distraction, and noise vying for our attention and taking up the space in our minds. This leaves very little time or space to listen to own thoughts and process our human experience. Over time this impacts our mental fitness, makes us more anxious, reduces our attention spans, erodes our relati...
Episode 221: Advice for the Newlyweds
July 27, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes - 71.2 MBMy daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks and as I have anticipated this big event in her life and the creation of her new family, I have thought a lot about the things that make an awesome marriage and the things I wish I would have known when I got married. Every marriage (and every relationship) requires work to be happy and successful, but for the most part, most of us are trying to make our marriages better by doing the wrong kind of work. The work we need to do is always in...
Episode 220: Secrets to Transformation
July 20, 2023 04:00 - 27 minutes - 55.4 MBFor most of us, transforming and changing our lives can feel impossible and out of reach. But that’s only because when we think about transformation, we tend to focus our attention on big changes that are made in a very small amount of time. But it turns out that the smallest changes that often go overlooked are the ones that make the biggest impact in transforming our lives. In today’s podcast episode I’m sharing the biggest secrets to real transformation and sharing the hidden levers...
Episode 219: Thoughts about Your Summer Body
July 13, 2023 04:00 - 35 minutes - 67 MBNo matter what time of year it is, most of us have a lot of negative thoughts about our bodies. We’ve been told in countless ways that our bodies are not acceptable as they are, that they need fixing, and that we should be deeply ashamed of them. This is especially true during the summer. Since the early 60’s, the idea of getting a “summer body” has purposely made us feel inadequate, implying that if we’re not toned, tanned, fit and ready for the summer, there is something wrong with us an...
Episode 218: Things I’ve Learned from Taylor Swift
July 06, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes - 62.2 MBToday’s podcast episode is a fun one! This seems to be the year of Taylor Swift and, along with all the other Taylor Swift fans, I have spent a lot of time over the last few months following her Era’s tour and relistening to all her albums. Taylor Swift is arguably one of the most popular and successful single music artists on the planet—and yet, she is also still a human being with a human brain. And watching the way she makes choices in her life and puts her work out into the world, des...
Episode 217: How to Make Everything More Fun
June 29, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutes - 51.2 MBBrain’s don’t want to have fun. They want to save energy and protect us from threats. They keep us safe by noticing how hard things are and so even when we’re doing things we want to do, we can still feel a lot of negative emotion about it. This week’s podcast episode is a continuation of our discussion last week on play and today we’re talking all about fun. How do we have more fun not just when we’re playing, but in all the areas of our life? Fun is not created by the things we do; it...
Episode 216: Time to Play
June 22, 2023 04:00 - 35 minutes - 65.7 MBThe benefits of play are well-documented. It is an important part of our mental and emotional health, but too often we trivialize or overlook it’s vital role in our lives. For most of us, play comes last, after everything else, or often, not at all. But this is the time of year when we traditionally go on vacation, have more relaxed schedules, and allow ourselves to spend more time playing and it’s a good time to reevaluate how much play there is in your life and bring your awareness to th...
Episode 215: Three of My Favorite Thoughts
June 15, 2023 04:00 - 22 minutes - 48.4 MBNew thoughts are like currency. You can use them to purchase and create new outcomes in your life anytime you want. But you don’t have to come up with them all on your own. You can borrow new thoughts from anywhere. Today I’m sharing three of my favorite quotes from other people that I have borrowed to help me think about who I am, the choices I’m making, my value as a human being, and my relationship with myself differently. I hope they will help you do the same.
Episode 214: Notice the Good
June 08, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 61.8 MBYour brain is on a constant crusade to tell you how everything is terrible. And in many ways your brain is right. 😉 But…it isn’t all terrible. No matter what, there is always good to be found. That’s the way this life was designed, with both good and bad. They always exist together, and just because your brain only notices the bad, it’s important to know that it isn’t ever the whole story. It takes work and intention to notice the good but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real or that you’re...
Episode 213: Belonging
May 31, 2023 04:00 - 26 minutes - 50.7 MBBelonging is an important part of your human experience. We often think that belonging is created by the place or the people we are with, but the feeling of belonging is just like any other feeling—which means it is created inside of us by our thoughts. Belonging isn’t something that happens to you in the right circumstances, it’s something that you create whenever you want to experience it. In today’s podcast episode, I’m sharing the truth about how to feel like you belong and what ...
Episode 212: Keys to Consistency
May 25, 2023 04:00 - 33 minutes - 67.8 MBThis is the time of year where many of us are celebrating the big moments—the culmination of things we have been working towards and the commencement of brand-new beginnings. And while the big moments are exciting, to really change our lives, we have to stop putting our attention on the start line or the finish line and start paying attention to all the quiet, unassuming moments in between. The work of our lives is really happening in the tiny, unremarkable decisions that we make day i...
Episode 211: Practice Drills for Mental Fitness
May 18, 2023 04:00 - 35 minutes - 71.6 MBOnce you know that the way you feel and the things you do are being created by your thoughts, being able to manage those thoughts becomes a priority. But acquiring the skills to question and change your thoughts is just like any other skill—it takes practice. And, just like swimming or playing the piano or cooking, when we’re trying to practice any new skill, the better the practice is and the more specific and targeted the rehearsals are, the faster our overall proficiency improves. In...