Change Academy podcast

Every path to success includes its share of stumbling blocks.

We may stumble when we’re trying something new and don’t yet know where the tricky parts are. (Fair enough!)  And then there are those things that we seem to stumble over and over again.  You’d think we’d learn how to avoid them! But one of the reasons that we don’t is that we focus on the wrong part of the story.

In this episode, we’ll show you how to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones on the road to success.

Continue reading “How to turn Stumbling Blocks into Stepping Stones”

In this episode, psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson talks with Monica about the ways in which people with ADHD often struggle with various aspects of behavior change–whether that’s staying focused on the goal, following through on plans, or resisting impulses that lead them astray.  

It’s not just a lack of willpower or commitment. And there are some strategies that can help.

Continue reading “It’s not me, it’s my ADHD (with Dr. Monica Johnson)”

When we become aware of a gap between our present reality and our desired reality, our inclination is to add something. A new practice. A new program. A new effort. When that doesn’t work, we go back to the drawing board and add another thing. 

What if the answer were not to add something new but to subtract something that is not working, or not pulling its weight? 

Continue reading “Law of Subtraction: Why you should do less to reach your goals”

Dr. Michelle Segar is an NIH-funded researcher at the University of Michigan. She’s also a best-selling author and health coach. She’s spent close to thirty years studying how to create sustainable changes and healthy behaviors that can survive the complexity and unpredictability of the real world.

Continue reading “Opening up Your Options with Dr. Michelle Segar”

Our expectations powerfully impact what happens to us.  If we believe something is going to help, hurt, suck, or be fun – our experience will probably fulfill that belief. 

But it’s not only that we behave in ways that fulfill our expectations or that we interpret what happens through that lens. Although both of these things are true.

Our expectations actually determine our physiological responses to inputs like diet and exercise and stress. 

Continue reading “The surprising ways expectations matter”

We’re told that self-care is essential to our well-being; it’s practically a duty! But it’s easy to confuse self-care with self-indulgence–and while indulgences can be fun, they don’t necessarily improve our well-being.

In this episode, we explore the difference between self-care and self-indulgence, so that you can make sure that the time, energy, and money you spend on self-care is actually moving you toward your goals. 

Continue reading “Rescuing $elf-Care from Consumer Culture”

Permission giving thoughts are all of those reasons and excuses that our brains are so good at coming up with for continuing to engage in habitual behaviors which we have identified as unhelpful. 

Continue reading “Permission Giving Thoughts”

There are a lot of reasons you might consider giving up on a goal or objective. And sometimes, quitting is absolutely the right thing to do. Other times, though, we are quitting for the wrong reasons, for example:

• Not seeing the benefits quickly enough
• Fatigue
• Anticipation of future fatigue
• Perfectionism
• Success would move us out of our comfort zone.

Quitting can start to become a habit–or even part of our identity. But so can Not Quitting. Which habit and identity would you rather strengthen?

Continue reading “Quitting for the Right Reasons”

It’s natural to feel some frustration when we don’t know the answer, when we’re not sure what to do, when what we do doesn’t work–or doesn’t work as quickly as we wish it would. 

But feeling frustrated doesn’t mean that you’ve failed! It’s not a dead end. And it’s definitely not an emergency–especially when you can see it as an opportunity. 

Continue reading “The Upside of Frustration”

When people are trying to achieve a certain goal or outcome, they often look for a regimen to follow. After all, that’s how we’ve been trained to approach these things. And while a set of rules or instructions may help you create a specific result, it rarely leads to long-term change. For that, we believe you need more than a regimen. You need a system.

In this episode, we explore the distinction between a regimen (a set of rules) and a system (a process). Both can be useful. But in the long run, you’ll probably get more benefit out of learning a system than following a regimen.

Continue reading “Regimen vs. System”