Month: September 2020

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113. Houston Kraft – Deep Kindness: Practices for a Compassionate World

Houston Kraft is the author of Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness. He has spent the last decade visiting more than 600 schools and events worldwide to speak about empathy, compassion, and kindness. Houston is the Founder of CharacterStrong, an organization that teaches leadership through the lens of compassion. Together with his team at CharacterStrong, Houston has created curriculums and training that serve more than 2,500 schools across 50 states, nine countries, and over a million students.

Houston joins me today to explore the skills we need to develop to create a more compassionate world. He discusses the factors that hinder us from being kind and how we can overcome them. He highlights the importance of bringing empathy into acts of kindness and shares his “To Be List.” He also defines what deep kindness is, differentiates it from what he calls “confetti kindness,” explains why the distinction matters, and discusses how we can develop deep kindness for others and ourselves.

” The practice of deep kindness is a disciplined pursuit. It must become part of our rituals, routines, and habits.” – Houston Kraft

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

  • Building human connection through physical touch
  • Why deep kindness is an urgent priority in the world
  • Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project and what the rhetoric-reality gap is
  • Weakness of the will and its relationship with our lack of kindness in the world
  • The difference between “confetti kindness” and “deep kindness”
  • The challenges of deep kindness and how we can cultivate it more
  • The pitfalls of doing acts of kindness without empathy
  • The three major things that prevent us from being kind
  • The power of emotional regulation and transforming anger
  • How emotional intelligence and skills shape human behavior
  • Houston’s “To Be” List and the qualities that make deep kindness unconditional
  • How shame and fear of embarrassment prevent us from connection and kindness
  • How we can be more kind to ourselves
  • How Houston conceptualized Deep Kindness and the approach he took to complete it

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Brilliant Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review.

Don’t forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And be sure to share your favorite episodes with your friends and colleagues on social media to inspire others to improve their lives and reach their full potential.

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112. Mark Gober – An End to Upside Down Living: Living Life in Elevated Consciousness

Mark Gober is an international speaker and author of An End to Upside Down Living: Reorienting Our Consciousness to Live Better and Save the Human Species. Mark is the host of the Where is My Mind?Podcast, where he interviews leading researchers on consciousness, such as the physicist and Nobel laureate Brian Josephson. Through his work, Mark explores areas that are not currently accepted by the scientific community, including psychic phenomena, near-death experiences, and, ultimately, elevating humanity’s consciousness.

Mark joins me today to share the concept of how matter and the biology of the universe arises from consciousness and explain why understanding this idea matters. He defines what the materialism or physicalism philosophy is and its implications on how we live our lives. He differentiates non-attachment from detachment and discusses how we can be more aligned with the stream of consciousness. He also explains how leaders, educators, and mentors can help elevate the world’s consciousness and why it’s essential to bring authenticity to our creative endeavors.

“By elevating ourselves as individuals and cleaning our impurities we begin to radiate a positivity that has an impact on others just by being.” – Mark Gober

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

  • The need to reframe reality and to live a life in service
  • Why consciousness is fundamental to our everyday experiences
  • What materialism and physicalism mean and their implications on how we live life
  • Why people think consciousness comes from the brain
  • Transforming our worldview from materialism to interconnectivity
  • How leaders can help elevate humanity’s consciousness
  • What synchronicity is and what we can do to experience it more in our lives
  • Living a self-determined life and Einstein’s question on free will
  • The notion of intellectual and radical humility and why we need to practice it
  • Non-attachment versus detachment and why the distinction matters
  • Different approaches to the “right-side-up living”
  • Surrendering and being a vessel for the broader Stream of Consciousness
  • Bringing compassion and discernment into our relationships
  • What stewardship means and how we can think of money in a metaphysical sense
  • The impact of authenticity on the creative process

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Brilliant Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Don’t forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And be sure to share your favorite episodes with your friends and colleagues on social media to inspire others to improve their lives and reach their full potential.

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111. Morgan Housel – The Psychology of Money: Building Wealth by Minding the Ego

Morgan Housel is a Partner at the Collaborative Fund and author of The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness. He is a former columnist for The Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal and has received several accolades, including the New York Times Sidney Award. In addition to his authorship, Morgan has presented at over 100 conferences in different countries, using storytelling to explore behavioral finance and history, how investors deal with risk, and how we can think about risk in a more productive way.

Morgan joins me today to explore the highest form of wealth and the psychology that drives how we spend our money. He defines what a savings rate means and explains how one can build wealth without having a high income. He differentiates making reasonable financial decisions from making rational ones and describes our emotional relationship with money. He also illustrates the economic and social dynamics that occur underneath challenging events in the United States and reveals some surprising facts about money and financial trends in the country.

“Your savings rate is the gap between your income and your ego: how much you’re making and how much you’re able to suppress your desire to impress other people.” – Morgan Housel

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

  • The “end of history” illusion and how the things we consider as meaningful change over time
  • The definition of savings rate and creating wealth by being mindful of the ego
  • The highest form of wealth and what the FIRE movement misses
  • How independence and freedom exist on a spectrum
  • The power of writing for yourself instead of writing for an audience
  • Underestimating the role of luck in life and the importance of introspecting about greed
  • How our economic and social standing in life affects our notions of money and spending habits
  • The psychology behind Americans’ massive spending on lottery tickets
  • Why people can’t be totally rational with their money and what it means to be reasonable with our finances
  • The secrets of Warren Buffet and the impact of time on investments and building wealth
  • How 2020 exacerbated the widening income inequality in the United States
  • The worst and best money decision Morgan and his wife ever made

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Brilliant Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review.

Don’t forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And be sure to share your favorite episodes with your friends and colleagues on social media to inspire others to improve their lives and reach their full potential.

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110. Jan Jones – The CEO’s Secret Weapon: A Dynamic Partnership with an Assistant

Jan Jones is the author of The CEO’s Secret Weapon: How Great Leaders and Their Assistants Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness, a book regarded as ‘the Bible’ for executives and assistants worldwide. Over her 20 years of experience working as an executive assistant, Jan has represented high-level leaders and executives such as Tony Robbins and Michael Gerber. In addition to championing the high-performing executive assistant – a role for which she advocates through her writing – Jan is also a consultant and Founder & President of Jan Jones Worldwide Speakers Bureau, an international speakers bureau that connects inspirational speakers to their worldwide audience.

Jan joins me today to discuss what it takes to be an extraordinary executive assistant. She shares ideas she learned from renowned leaders such as Elon Musk on finding, interviewing, and hiring the right executive assistant. She underscores the monumental role executive assistants play in supporting executives, leaders, and businesses and explains why the job is widely misunderstood. She also illustrates what it’s like to work for author and coach Tony Robbins and explains why she believes everyone should write a book.

“There has to be constant communication between the executive and the assistant. If you don’t trust them, an executive assistant won’t be able to do their job.” – Jan Jones

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

  • Enjoying the gift of life despite its challenges
  • Why Jan still identifies as an executive assistant and how her experience in the role guides her life and business
  • How to determine if it’s time to hire an executive assistant
  • Why Jan doesn’t recommend using virtual assistants as a long-term solution to businesses
  • The time and effort required in finding the right executive assistant
  • The relationship between a high degree of self-awareness and hiring the perfect executive assistant
  • A lesson from Elon Musk on interviewing and assessing a candidate for an executive assistant role
  • The core competencies and characteristics of an exceptional executive assistant
  • How an executive assistant made a difference in the discovery of Elvis Presley
  • Figuring out the right compensation for executive assistants
  • Jan’s experience working as an executive assistant for Tony Robbins
  • An executive assistant’s fight for recognition and why the role is maligned today
  • The impetus behind Jan’s book, The CEO’s Secret Weapon and the challenges she faced in writing it
  • The labor that comes in organizing a book’s ideas, the importance of choosing a great editor, and why everyone should write a book

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Brilliant Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review.

Don’t forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And be sure to share your favorite episodes with your friends and colleagues on social media to inspire others to improve their lives and reach their full potential.

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109. Philip Goldberg – Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Developing Wisdom and Compassion

Philip Goldberg is a public speaker, spiritual counselor, and the author of Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Clarity, Calm, and Courage and The Life of Yogananda: The Story of the Yogi Who Became the First Modern Guru, among numerous others. Philip is a meditation teacher and ordained interfaith minister who has spent over 50 years studying Transcendental Meditation. In addition to his books, Philip also regularly contributes writing to the Elephant Journal and Spirituality & Health and co-hosts the Spirits Matters Podcast.

Philip joins me in this episode to share his spiritual journey. He illustrates the turning point in life that set him off in his spiritual path to find truth and wisdom. He imparts some of the lessons he learned from practicing Eastern spiritual traditions and explains what turiya, or the Fourth Mode of Consciousness, means. He also shares the practical benefits of spiritual practice and highlights the relevance of cultivating spirituality in today’s world of uncertainty.

“Spiritual practice creates a good foundation for more effective action in the world and equips you to act in a wise, creative, and compassionate way.” – Philip Goldberg

This week on The School for Good Living Podcast:

  • Spirituality as the foundation of living a meaningful and powerful life
  • The illusion of separation and what life is about for Philip
  • The relevance of bringing spiritual practices to everyday life
  • The meaning of sadhana in Hindu traditions and the importance of regular practice
  • The practical benefits of a spiritual practice and how people think of spirituality as a luxury
  • The impetus behind Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times and for whom he wrote it
  • Searching for truth and wisdom and the experience that launched Philip on his spiritual path
  • Developing equanimity and why we shouldn’t deny our humanity
  • The meaning of turiya in Hinduism and the three aspects of consciousness
  • Why you can’t force meditative states into happening
  • Being deep in spirituality while engaged in the affairs of the world
  • What Philip learned from writing The Life of Yogananda
  • How Philip realized he’s a writer and the challenges he faced as an independent writer
  • Philip’s writing process for creating a book, from concept to completion
  • Mindsets and characteristics that will help you succeed in writing
  • Getting unstuck in the creative process and the writer’s block
  • Philip’s advice and encouragement for writers

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Brilliant Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review.

Don’t forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And be sure to share your favorite episodes with your friends and colleagues on social media to inspire others to improve their lives and reach their full potential.

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