Title: Why Challenging Yourself Improves Wellbeing

Date: 10/23/24

Name of podcast: Thrivology Lab

Episode title and number: Episode 6. Why Challenging Yourself Improves Wellbeing

Brief summary of episode: In this episode we discuss why doing hard things improves wellbeing. We explore how distress tolerance and exposure therapy help us meet mental challenges and how similar these mechanisms are to physical challenges. Lastly, we discuss how these topics relate to growth mindset, grit, willpower, the will to live, and neuroscience.

Bullet points of key topics + chapter markers

Topic #1 [0:00] Intro

Topic #2 [10:00] Growth requires the risk of failure

Topic #3 [11:55] Deliberately seeking out physical challenges

Topic #4 [16:00] Distress tolerance and mindfulness

Topic #5 [22:00] Exposure therapy, anxieties, and phobias

Topic #6 [30:00] Doing hard things increases self-efficacy and confidence

Topic #7 [32:00] Grit, growth-mindset, and tenacity

Topic #10 [39:30] 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and expertise

Topic #11 [40:30] Neuroscience of willpower: the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC)

Topic #12 [44:00] Aging and the aMCC

References & Resources:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogi

- https://eastermichael.com/book/

- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212657015300179

- https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-book/

- https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/dweck-growth-mindsets

- https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/there-are-no-secrets/

- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811920302159?via%3Dihub

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