19 Year Old Shrink

In this episode I talk about accepting some parts of life as temporary. And when you hear this, usually you would think of this as being negative, but it really isn’t. 

Sometimes we start off struggling, begin noticing we’re struggling, and then putting more weight on it to the point where it becomes a bigger problem that we think will last forever. 

On the flip side, when things are going really well, we take it for granted and don’t realize that this feeling won’t last forever. We don’t stay in the present moment which causes us to not enjoy the good moments as much as we could. 

For both these situations, one quote that can really help is “This too shall pass.” By constantly reminding yourself this, you’re able to take the weight off of the negative times and know that good times are coming. And by realizing this for the good times, you’re able to  spend more time enjoying the good feelings and fun times you’re having.

In this episode, I talk about something that everyone has gone through at some point: public speaking blunders. Throughout this talk, I describe an experience I had last week with public speaking where I messed up a speech and felt really embarrassed. 

Sometimes we go into a speech with a specific vision, put in all the work we needed to, and it still doesn't go as well as planned. When this happens, we start overanalyzing what others are thinking about us and thinking in the context of worst case scenario. If you feel like you've ever been in a place where you've felt the embarrassment of public speaking blunders and wanted to hear other's experiences, tune in!

In this episode I talk about the importance of keeping your friendships throughout the years.
This became more relevant as I came to college, because being far away from home definitely presents its challenges. But, by keeping these friendships with people who we are close to, we are able to not only keep those good memories close to us but gain a new perspective on the tough ones.

We naturally associate people in our lives with different times and feelings about those times. And when we stay in touch with those people who helped us beyond those times, we’re able to have a new outlook of appreciation for them rather than feeling bad about the situation.

Throughout this episode I give examples of the importance of keeping friendships and give some useful tactics to help stay in touch with people even when we aren’t physically present with each other. 

In this episode I talk about the anxiety that comes with the age of texting. I’ve noticed from a lot of the conversations I’ve had with others and also my own experiences, good communication can be thrown out the window when texting.

Without body language and tone of voice, it could sometimes be difficult to understand the true meaning of someone’s message. And from here, we sometimes make up these stories about why someone responded a certain way, and sometimes they can feel self inflicted. This just causes more anxiety and leads to us living based on perception and not reality.

Our minds go to worst case scenario and when we have that absence of body language, it’s easier to go to that place. But texting has also become an issue because a lot of people use it to argue and try and solve problems instead of talking over the phone or in person. This ends up leading to frustration, overthinking, and anger towards the person on the other end. If you feel like texting has contributed to your anxiety and frustration in your life at one point or another, tune in for advice!

In this episode, I discuss the reasons why so many people including myself  don't follow through with their New Years Resolutions. Much of the struggle to keep them lies in not being specific with your goals and for focusing too much on the end result.  An example that I give is "I want to eat better," but what does "Better" mean?  Throughout this talk, I discuss focusing more on what feeling you want to get from the goal you have, because everything that we want in life is traced back to a feeling. 

From this point, you can reverse engineer and begin to build a framework of the type of system that can create that feeling and allow your goal to be accomplished. Obviously there will be times where your systems will be tested, and you might want to sacrifice the habits you have built because of some short term inconvenience. But, as this episode continues, you will learn how to anticipate those roadblocks. 

Finally, being able to simplify the amount of resolutions that you have is really important so that you don't overcomplicate your life with so many new habits that you have to implement.  I give  advice on making this a more simplified plan so that long term you can be more successful. If you struggle with keeping your new years resolutions, definitely tune in, you're not alone!

 This episode is definitely very relevant for our winter break right now. Although it was very exciting returning to in person classes and meetings, the adjustment was definitely challenging. For myself and some of my friends who I’ve talked to, quarantine allowed us to become regimented in our routine and build a lot of structure for ourselves when we didn’t naturally have it.

With going back to in person classes, I felt like I lost a lot of those habits and routines, making this semester stressful at times. In this episode I’ll discuss some ways to use winter break to gain back your momentum going into the new year by taking advantage of “separation seasons” as Ed Mylett calls them. These are times where people are naturally not doing as much work like on weekends, summers, after work,  and from 1 pm to 5 pm on Fridays.

During winter break, it’s totally understandable for people to want to ease off, but sometimes the biggest confidence booster is putting in work when others aren’t. And if you’ve felt like you’ve lost some of your rhythm, this can be that time for you. If you have stayed consistent, this can be a time for building even more momentum going into the new year. For more advice and tools, tune in!

In this episode, I talk with Michael Weinraub about his efforts in creating a more effective environment for learners to learn and teachers to teach.

He describes his experiences starting out as a teacher in the LA Unified School district and how those extremely difficult first years allowed him to gain a lot of knowledge into helping students.

He mentions the idea of being able to look at the entire class as a whole while also being able to understand each individual and their different learning styles as a way to adjust.

If you’ve ever seen someone come into your classroom to examine the lesson plan, Michael had experiencing doing just that as well. And from that experience, he describes the type of questions and dialogue between himself and the teacher to help them teach more effectively. His job experience goes far beyond the examples mentioned,  these areas are just a starting point.

But, these episode explores the psychology behind teaching and how much attention to detail needs to go into making a lesson plan successful. If you’re interested in becoming a teacher, learning more about new trends in education, or just are simply curious, tune in!

 In this episode, I interview Fred Schwam, former owner and CEO of American Christmas. This company is focused on commercial holiday decorating throughout New York City and around the world. Fred took over the company when he was just 21 years old and describes his 30+ years of experience building up the company to where it is today. He started off as the production person, bookkeeper, truck driver, decorator, and salesperson.

For the first 9 years of his career, he hadn’t seen any huge results despite the amount of hard work and precision he had in the company’s processes. He would go to every building in New York City and would ask if they decorated for the holidays, and a lot of times got rejected. But, he continued to persist and his efforts led to signing with Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall in 1997 to display their famous Christmas decorations.

Once signing these deals, he began getting noticed among the industry and by other big brands that would ultimately make his company the face of New York Christmas. His humble beginning in the industry and choosing to go forward without knowing it all brought much of his success that I had the pleasure to learn about. If you’ve ever watched the scenes in Home Alone, Elf, and other Christmas movies and want to learn more about the face behind the decorations, tune in!

This episode focuses on overcoming Imposter Syndrome, which is feeling inept in a specific area of your life despite all of the experiences and accomplishments that you have.

I was listening to Ed Mylett's interview with NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, which inspired this topic. Strahan mentioned how even with all of his accomplishments, whenever he’s preparing an interview, or speaking with another accomplished person, he still has those feelings of self doubt creep in, wondering if he belongs.

He also discussed how his upbringing wasn’t a traditional route that people take to the NFL, and it’s tough at times for him to have full confidence in every moment of his life. But what’s crazy is he seems like the most confident person you’ll ever meet.

That’s why I think it’s important to talk about this because so many of us come off as being well suited for a task or job, but we become our own worst critics, leaving us wondering why we are qualified.

Throughout this episode, I’ll talk about my own self doubts and where I feel like an imposter in my life right now, even when others might not think anything of it. And I will talk about David Nurse’s techniques such as the life highlight reel, and hands technique to help put in perspective that you are much better suited for your responsibilities than you think.

During this episode I discuss our ability to sometimes look for advice from people who shouldn't be giving us advice. In my own experience, sometimes I view them as being a great emotional support for me during a tough time, and I remember them giving great advice for one moment in my life.

And from there, we assume that they will give great advice in every area of our life. But everyone has strengths and weaknesses in their life, and it’s important to decide who the best person to help you is regardless of past experiences.

This episode covers the idea of merging emotional support with receiving advice, and how sometimes we have to separate the two if we want to move in the right direction. If you’re someone who feels like you have people who are a great support system for you during tough times, but you don’t always get the most beneficial advice, definitely recommend tuning in!