It’s January 2021, some of us are back in full lockdown, and we are talking about Pia’s most used phone app: Calendar. She addresses some of these questions: Why is this her most used app? Why is planning so important to her? What does planning for spontaneity mean to her? Other questions that we address in this episode: What are some of the neuroscientific and psychological aspects of how we use calendars? How can we be more deliberate about how we use calendars? What is, or should be, the impact of pandemic/working from home on how we use calendars?

Some practical aspects of using the calendar we talk about: How to use the calendar for all aspects of your life and work, not just for meetings? How to use the calendar to enhance joy and calm in your life? What can we do in our corporate cultures, systems and team working practices to enhance the most effective use of calendar? How to plan well in advance for space for “no meetings”, solitude and deep work? How to deliberately plan for breaks in between meetings? How to use the calendar so as not to forget things, keep to your routines and stick to your intentions?

We are back online, back on zoom, to record this 2-part podcast on curiosity. We discuss the many aspects of curiosity. Why is it important to be curious? What can we be curious about? How does curiosity work? How does it feel to be curious? How can we invoke curiosity? What stops our curiosity? What is the purpose of curiosity? What is needed for us to be able to be curious? We roughly identify three categories of curiosity: Curiosity into the self, curiosity into others, and curiosity into things.

We discuss different ways to develop curiosity and to learn more about curiosity, the relation between curiosity and the personality trait of openness, the importance of curiosity in leadership, how curiosity is an antidote to polarisation and how the inner journey of inquiry can help us get in touch with the essence of our true nature. Our discussion takes us into many examples, ranging from discussions with cardiologists, Rumi poetry, why we practice yoga, what stops puppies from learning, the metaphor of scuba diving, the love for an octopus and the US presidential elections.

We are back online, back on zoom, to record this 2-part podcast on curiosity. We discuss the many aspects of curiosity. Why is it important to be curious? What can we be curious about? How does curiosity work? How does it feel to be curious? How can we invoke curiosity? What stops our curiosity? What is the purpose of curiosity? What is needed for us to be able to be curious? We roughly identify three categories of curiosity: Curiosity into the self, curiosity into others, and curiosity into things.

We discuss different ways to develop curiosity and to learn more about curiosity, the relation between curiosity and the personality trait of openness, the importance of curiosity in leadership, how curiosity is an antidote to polarisation and how the inner journey of inquiry can help us get in touch with the essence of our true nature. Our discussion takes us into many examples, ranging from discussions with cardiologists, Rumi poetry, why we practice yoga, what stops puppies from learning, the metaphor of scuba diving, the love for an octopus and the US presidential elections.

We recorded this 2-part podcast in a very special, happy place for us, a tiny village in southern Spain, and we discuss happiness. What are the important elements of happiness for us? We touch on nature, slowness, timelessness, lack of a need to perform, presence, mindfulness, space, absence of self-doubt, the somatic experience of emotions (positive and negative), purpose, personal values, truth, freedom, pleasure, positive relationships, flow states, physical and mental wellbeing, success, attention, lightness, play and the relative joy of carrots.

We discuss some formulas for happiness, for example the relationship between happiness and success, or the relationship between happiness and expectations of life. We also discuss some distinctions for example between happiness and pleasure, happiness and desire, and happiness and purpose and we dig a little deeper into the purpose of negative emotions.

We discuss some important practical tips, we suggest to try for example meditation, gratitude writing, reflecting on personal values, lowering of expectations (desire what you have, not what you don’t have), internalising goals that you have control over (and don’t try to control things you don’t have control over), reasoning (present the negative feeling with evidence of the opposite), changing our beliefs (accept people do what they can with the resources they have), or practising kindness and compassion.

We recorded this 2-part podcast in a very special, happy place for us, a tiny village in southern Spain, and we discuss happiness. What are the important elements of happiness for us? We touch on nature, slowness, timelessness, lack of a need to perform, presence, mindfulness, space, absence of self-doubt, the somatic experience of emotions (positive and negative), purpose, personal values, truth, freedom, pleasure, positive relationships, flow states, physical and mental wellbeing, success, attention, lightness, play and the relative joy of carrots.

We discuss some formulas for happiness, for example the relationship between happiness and success, or the relationship between happiness and expectations of life. We also discuss some distinctions for example between happiness and pleasure, happiness and desire, and happiness and purpose and we dig a little deeper into the purpose of negative emotions.

We discuss some important practical tips, we suggest to try for example meditation, gratitude writing, reflecting on personal values, lowering of expectations (desire what you have, not what you don’t have), internalising goals that you have control over (and don’t try to control things you don’t have control over), reasoning (present the negative feeling with evidence of the opposite), changing our beliefs (accept people do what they can with the resources they have), or practising kindness and compassion.

It has been a little while since you have heard from us, we took a break. This episode is a follow-up on an episode we recorded in May 2019: Episode 4, titled Decompression. We suggest you listen to that episode if you didn't already. We go deeper into this topic, and discuss the importance of taking a break from a high intensity life, and also bring it into the context of the current COVID situation. We distinguish between taking a break and taking a holiday, the two are not the same.

We discuss the reasons why we should take breaks, different ways of taking a break, for example taking a break from the clock or planning for spontaneity, the different levels of taking breaks, e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, annually, and we give some examples of our own experiences in terms the need for taking breaks and what we do to take breaks. We give some hints and tips on how listeners can take some actions, in particular to reflect on the summer break and decide what it means for the planning of future breaks.

In this episode, the 20th episode to date, we discuss trust. What do we mean by trust, how does it relate to sensemaking and news (and fake news)? We discuss for example how the Swedish COVID situation is reported in international media, and the distinction between truth and truthfulness in journalism. We discuss what makes people trustworthy, and the importance of knowing yourself and authenticity in trustworthiness. We also discuss one other important aspect of trust, which is “not lying” and what we can learn about trust from children and teenagers.

We introduce the trust equation (David Maister), and we define the different elements of the equation: the trust equation argues that we should maximise credibility (which comes from experience and subject matter expertise), reliability (quality and timeliness, and managing expectations truthfully) and intimacy (authentic connection, openness and vulnerability), whilst minimising self-orientation (people with low levels of orientation on self and high levels of empathy, curiosity and focus on others are easier to trust and executive coaches are the best dates, trust us!)

We have managed to go one and half year since starting the podcast without personality being the main topic of dialogue, so we thought it was about time. We discuss the importance of personality in how people react to the COVID-19 situation, we briefly touch on the point of neuroticism and how it impact how we react to the crisis, but the main discussion is about introversion versus extraversion, and what this means for how we we lead our lives in a world of lockdowns and physical distancing.

Western society is normally geared towards extraverts, and the past few months have been much more kind towards the lifestyles of introverted people. We discuss what this means and our hopes of what will remain in the post-pandemic world. Will society be kinder to introverts? Will the introverted lifestyle be more accepted by extraverts? Will introversion be more valued in leadership? We suggest that listeners take some time to reflect on the past few months, on their personality type and how they can integrate these insights in their post-COVID lives.

In this episode, recorded in the third week of April, we discuss compassion. Continuing the theme of the last episode, we thought it would be appropriate to follow up with a discussion on compassion, perhaps one of the most important values for humanity in these unusual times. We start by discussing distinctions between empathy, sympathy, compassion and kindness. We discuss the importance of self compassion, as well as the need for compassion for others, which also means that we acknowledge that people are in different living, work, and family situations, as well as that each person reacts differently to the general anxiety of these times and to for example the impact of physical distancing. We discuss some practical examples of compassion and acts of kindness, specific to the current times.

In this episode, recorded at Easter, we discuss radical self care. Lots of people are in lockdown, busier than ever trying to do a job, perhaps looking after children and other family members, staying in touch with friends, providing support to people that need it, selflessly being kind to others, and often the very last on their priority list is their own wellbeing. We discuss the concept of radical self care, and why it’s important, particularly now, to ensure a sustainable life.

We suggest that you need to move your own wellbeing to the top of your list, and make it a priority, once in a while, to take a break from all your responsibilities, whatever your needs are: Spending time in nature, being in solitude, listening to music, exercising, yoga and meditation, reading, writing, nesting, decluttering, doing whatever feels good or that you know is good for you. It’s important to structure and plan your day/week to be deliberate about care for yourself.