Life Habits
238 episodes - English - Latest episode: 28 days ago - ★★★★★ - 159 ratingsThis is the series that helps you learn new habits to optimize your life and embrace an enlightened, healthy, and prosperous lifestyle.
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Episodes
LH38 - Designing Your Life
January 25, 2010 01:50 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBIn this episode, Karel takes the approaches, methods, and techniques used in product design and applies them to designing the product, you. The quotes and top 10 list provide you a way to think about and approach self-improvement by designing your life.
LH37 - Developing Skills into Habits
January 18, 2010 01:46 - 44 minutes - 41.2 MBHave you wondered how long it should take to develop a skill into a habit? In response to a listener request, Karel addresses the very important topic in this episode. He describes the factors that determine the length of time that it takes and then summarizes the rules of thumb for simple and complex behaviors as well as what it takes to get to mastery. The top 10 list for this episode provides advice on optimizing the realization of the development of skills into habits.
LH36 - Progress
October 27, 2009 00:43 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBIn response to a listener request, Karel reviews key points from ten previous episodes in order for you to assess your progress, celebrate successes and identify additional areas of continued and intensified focus.
LH35 - Presentations
October 18, 2009 00:40 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MBWant to improve the presentations you give? Whether you're in school or beginning your career and just starting to give presentations or you're a veteran presenter, Karel provides advice on how to improve the overall effectiveness of your presentations. He addresses the following topics: audience, objectives, three main points, duration, slides/structure, graphics/text, audio-video/animation, humor, practice, and delivery.
LH34 - Work-Life Balance
August 24, 2009 00:37 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBDoes your life feel out of control? Are you not spending time on the things you think are important in life? In this episode, Karel summarizes some insightful quotes and then reviews ten ideas for optimizing the balance and integration of the work and non-work aspects of your life.
LH33 - Electronic Communication
July 20, 2009 00:32 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBWant to improve your electronic communication? Karel devotes this longer than usual episode on the topic of electronic communication which includes everything from Facebook and Twitter to texting, instant messaging, e-mail, conference calling, and video conferencing. Karel provides advice on increasing your effective use of these mechanisms as well as how to limit them as well.
LH32 - Self-Confidence
July 20, 2009 00:28 - 47 minutes - 44.1 MBKarel is joined on this episode by special guest UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers who discusses the important topic of self-confidence. Mandy shares her favorite quotes on the topic and outlines her top 10 ideas for increasing self-confidence. Mandy also recommends the book Mind over Mood as a particularly good source of information on this topic. If you live in the UK, you can also checkout the innovative service she founded called text-tonic. If you live outside the UK, you can still visit t...
LH31 - Relationships
March 20, 2009 00:25 - 35 minutes - 33.1 MBHow are the various relationships in your life doing? Karel focuses this episode on the topic of relationships - taking stock, increasing, decreasing, and deepening them across all contexts and roles within your life. He also provides advice on improving the quality of relationships, something that is so important to the overall quality of all our lives.
LH30 - Staying Focussed
February 08, 2009 01:22 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBHaving trouble staying focussed with everything going on in your life? Karel devotes this episode to the topic of getting and staying focussed and shares his thoughts and ideas so that you can improve your approach to this important aspect of your life.
LH29 - Leadership
January 25, 2009 01:19 - 28 minutes - 26.7 MBWant to further develop and hone your leadership skills? Whether you're a political or business leader, a little league coach, a parent or student, a formal designated leader or an emergent one, the advice Karel provides in this episode will help you improve your leadership skills. The problem wih the initial mp3 file for this episode is now fixed. Sorry for any inconvenience.
LH28 - Resolutions
December 30, 2008 01:16 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBWant to make New Year's resolutions that will last? Karel devotes this episode to providing advice on determining how to select appropriate resolutions and how to make sure that you'll be able to successfully carry them out.
LH27 - Gratitude
November 29, 2008 01:13 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBWant to get better at expressing gratitude? Most people don't express gratitude enough. Karel summarizes some good thinking on this topic and then provides 10 ideas for understanding gratitude and getting good at expressing it yourself.
LH26 - Resilience
November 25, 2008 01:10 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBDo you have the necessary level of resilience to deal with the changes happening in the world? Karel outlines the concept of personal resilience in this episode and provides ten ideas to develop into habits that will increase your capacity to deal with major changes, the results of them, and ways to turn challenges into opportunities.
LH25 - Blogs and Podcasts
November 18, 2008 01:07 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBWant to make sense of blogs, mini-blogs, and podcasts? Karel devotes this episode to describing the curent trends in blog and podcast technologies (Google Alerts, Twitter, iTunes) and providing specific advice on how to find the content that is of interest to you using these technologies. The top 10 list for this episode provides Karel's specific recommendations of blogs and podcasts. Feel free to provide any recommendations you may have for blogs and podcasts via comments on this site or ...
LH24 - Managing Stress
October 27, 2008 00:03 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBFeeling stressed? Karel devotes this episode to a set of ideas and skills to develop into routine habits to help you manage stress on a day-to-day basis. After summarizing the ever popular insightful famous quotes on the topic, Karel starts by helping you understand your circle of influence then describes a series of practical techniques and encourages listeners to try them and assess progress in using them. He also briefly outlines but doesn't provide the detailed instructions for practic...
LH23 - Taking Stock
October 21, 2008 00:00 - 32 minutes - 30.3 MBHow are things working out for you? Every once in a while it's good to take stock of how things are going. Inspired by a listener suggestion, Karel takes this episode to review key ideas from previous podcasts and provide additional perspectives on them in order for you to check your progress and make any necessary mid-course corrections.
LH22 - Stop Procrastinating
September 29, 2008 23:55 - 27 minutes - 25 MBHaven't been getting certain things done? Many people procrastinate and don't know how to stop. In this episode, Karel reads some insightful quotes on the topic of procrastination and then takes listeners through 10 ideas for dealing with it and developing life-long habits to prevent getting into cycles of procrastination. He also summarizes the feedback received regarding the format of the podcast which strongly favored sticking with the current 30-40 minute length and content. Thanks so t...
LH21 - Simplifying Life
September 15, 2008 23:33 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBIs your life getting too complicated? Most people experience this and don't know how to go about dealing with it. In this episode, Karel reads the usual famous quotes to get started and then summarizes 10 ideas for taking stock of your life and systematically simplifying it. In response to a listener request, the famous quotes are now going to be made available starting with this episode right in the mp3 file along with the top 10 list.
LH20 - Fostering Creativity
September 05, 2008 23:30 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBEveryone wants to be more creative but few know how to go about it. After reviewing some insightful and thought-provoking famous quotes on the topic, Karel details 10 ideas for fostering creativity. The approaches are applicable to work situations involving products, services, and processes but equally to your personal and home life. At the end of the episode, Karel also asks for input on a suggestion for improving the podcast series by providing short 5-8 minute daily refresher podcast ep...
LH19 - Forgiveness and Compassion
August 10, 2008 23:26 - 28 minutes - 25.9 MBMany people hang on to resentment, hurt, and anger. Many people also haven't experienced the power of helping others. This episode provides you with 10 ideas for skills to develop into habits so that you can appropriately and regularly express forgiveness and compassion.
LH18 - Self-Actualization
August 07, 2008 19:50 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBAfter the basic needs in life are met, many people still look for something else that will make their life everything that it can be. Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides a context for this and his work on self-actualization outlines the attributes people have who have achieved the highest levels of personal fulfillment. Karel summarizes Maslow's hierarchy approach and then uses it as the basis for a proposed set of 10 ideas for you to develop into self-actualization skills and, in time, ha...
LH17 - Anger Management
July 29, 2008 19:47 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBMost people find themselves getting angry and reacting in ways that they later regret. After providing some description of what happens in the body and setting the context with some insightful quotes, Karel details ten ideas for skills to develop into habits that can help you to control your emotions, like anger, rather than them controlling you.
LH16 - Positive Psychology
July 21, 2008 19:44 - 42 minutes - 19.6 MBA new area in the field of psychology is Applied Positive Psychology. Karel interviews Kathryn Britton a professional coach who specializes in this area. Kathryn describes the major career changes she made to become become an expert in Applied Positive Psychology. She outlines its history and the major themes it addresses given practical examples of each. Discussion in the episode mentions Kathryn's website, blog, and the newsletter to which she is a regular contributor.
LH15 - Achieving Success
July 14, 2008 19:41 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBSome people just dream of success while others actually achieve it. After reading some insightful quotes on the topic, Karel summarizes 10 ideas for you to develop into skills and in turn into habits to increase the likelihood of you being clear about what success means to you and then systematically achieving it. He also reads a comment from a listener regarding a previous podcast which includes the recommendation for a book titled "Screamfree Parenting" by Hal Runkel.
LH14 - Sex Differences
July 07, 2008 19:35 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBThe sexes are different. Karel reviews some surprising recent research findings regarding gender differences, provides some personal context for the topic, and then summarizes 10 ideas for developing some good skills in this area which can be honed into life habits. Karel deals with topics having to do with equality, ideas for cross-gender learning yielding optimized androgyny, and advice regarding the celebration of one's gender including its strengths and advantages. Karel recommends the...
LH13 - Taming Technology
June 22, 2008 19:32 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBTechnology pervades all aspects of our lives. This episode provides you with advice to make technology work for you rather than you being a slave to it. Karel gives advice on how to control the inputs, which are often technology interruptions, and the outputs, which are your ways of taking action. He also provides his usual list of 10 items to consider in this case to optimize the aspects of your life that have to do with technology. During the podcast, Karel mentions several products or ...
LH12 - Dealing with a Flat World
June 13, 2008 19:28 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBTom Friedman wrote the best-seller "The World is Flat" and described how the world was becoming smaller and more interconnected as a result of, among other things, the advancement of technology. After quoting some statistics regarding internet, blog, and podcast use worldwide, Karel makes the case for being more aware of and sensitive to global audiences and cultures. He summarizes 10 skills that should be considered on this topic for honing into habits in order to more effectively deal wit...
LH11 - Interpersonal Communication
June 08, 2008 19:22 - 36 minutes - 34 MBSpoken language is one of the most important abilities humans possess but, surprisingly, also often the most neglected in terms of skill development. The last episode dealt with spoken language as it relates to public speaking, an activity that is most feared by many people. This episode deals with person-to-person, or interpersonal, communication which everyone does everyday. After reviewing some insightful famous quotes on the topic, Karel summarizes 10 key habits do develop in order to ...
LH10 - Effective Public Speaking
June 01, 2008 19:17 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBBeing effective at public speaking is among the most important skills to have yet most people fear speaking in public and lack some of the skills to be effective at it. Karel provides advice regarding 10 valuable habits to develop in this important aspect of life. He discusses relevance to work as well as non-work settings.
LH9 - Fitness for Life
May 26, 2008 18:51 - 28 minutes - 26 MBThis episode deals with the important topic of fitness both in terms of doing it for life and gleaning the benefits that include a better and longer life. After reading some famous quotes on the topic of fitness, Karel provides 10 things to think about regarding fitness. The first three deal with ways of thinking about the importance and the benefits of optimal fitness and the remaining seven deal with the development of specific fitness habits. This guidance assumes that you are in contact w...
LH7 - Career Strategies
May 04, 2008 18:42 - 33 minutes - 31 MBBuilding on Episode 6 which dealt with the topic of Career Planning, this episode addresses Career Strategies. Karel provides 10 strategies for choosing a career and being successful in it. The ideas are relevant to those who are still in school and just thinking about future careers, those at the start of their career in order to enhance their success, and those well into their career who are looking for further career optimization or an alternative career.
LH6 - Career Planning
March 31, 2008 18:37 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBWhether you're still in school and haven't started your career, just got your first job, or in mid-career, the topic of career planning is hugely important. As Lewis Carroll said, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Most people don't pay enough attention to career planning or think about it too narrowly and then wonder why they don't have the career they truly wanted. Karel addresses this topic by introducing three factors that he believes are key to consi...
LH5 - Working Remotely
March 25, 2008 18:27 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBThere is a significant trend toward people working from home but there is very little information about good habits and best practices regarding this mode of working. Karel summarizes the three most common types of working from home and then outlines the benefits and challenges of remote work. He then provides specific advice about how best to arrange and handle working remotely as well as when it may not be the best option.
LH4 - The Power of the Mind
March 16, 2008 14:01 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBThe mind is amazingly powerful. We can either control it or be controlled by it. This episode is all about being aware of what your mind is capable of doing when you don't control it and, once you're aware of it, to take control. Karel quotes Marcus Aurelius, who said, "You have the power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength". Karel gives a few examples of the power of the mind and the ways in which it can take control without our knowledge.
LH3 - Staying Positive
March 09, 2008 13:45 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MBOne of the most important habits to learn is to stay positive no matter what the stimulus and now matter what the context. Karel starts off this episode by quoting Helen Keller who said, "when one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us". The episode includes a story about a university coach who was overly negative but whose behavior changed dramatically when confronted to an unwavering posit...
LH2 - Time Management
February 22, 2008 14:27 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBKarel Vredenburg focuses on time management in this episode. You might be thinking, "I don't have time for that!" but after listening and taking the advice given you will have a lot more time to devote to the important items in your life. Karel starts off by quoting Thomas Edison who said, "Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose." to reinforce the importance of valuing time and thus managing it effectively. Karel discusses taking ...
LH1 - Overview & Setting Priorities
February 02, 2008 14:10 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBKarel Vredenburg welcomes listeners to this new podcast series and provides an overview of the content, format, and frequency. He also introduces the first topic - starting with the end in mind and finishes up by inviting listeners to provide feedback via the website or gmail.