MAKING WORK (& LIFE) MORE HUMAN Podcast

Regulation does not mean being calm all the time.

You can be regulated and excited, angry, energized, nervous or under pressure.

The better question is:

Do I still have enough access to myself to make a useful choice?

This episode introduces the first R of the 3R Human Performance OS and explores how our internal state influences what we perceive around us.

In this episode

- Why regulation and calm are not the same thing

- How nervous-system state influences interpretation

- State Awareness

- Emotional and Cognitive Signal Awareness

- Contextual Awareness

- A practical 30-second regulation reset

Try this

When activated:

1. Feel your feet.

2. Slow your exhale.

3. Unclench your jaw or hands.

4. Widen your visual attention.

5. Name three facts about what is actually happening.

One of the hardest forms of maturity is learning to let more than one thing be true at the same time.

That does not mean every claim is equally true, every position is equally supported, or judgment no longer matters.

Released just over a week before the November 3, 2026 U.S. midterm Election Day, this episode uses a particularly polarized moment as an invitation to practice discernment rather than partisanship.

In this bonus episode of Making Work (& Life) More Human, Nathan explores the difference between complexity and relativism - and why discernment may be a better alternative to rigid either/or thinking. The episode also connects with a question explored by Brené Brown, Adam Grant, and John Green on The Curiosity Shop: can we build an "us" without a "them"? The neighboring question here is: Can we hold conviction without requiring an enemy?

In this episode:

- Why binary thinking feels efficient and comforting

- How more than one relevant truth can exist at the same time

- Why "both things can be true" is not false equivalence

- Understanding versus agreement

- Why legitimate values can collide in ethical questions

- Curiosity without gullibility

- Conviction without contempt

- Accountability without dehumanization

- How the Reflect pillar of 3R helps separate facts from interpretations

Try this

Choose one issue where you feel strongly and ask:

1. What do I know as fact?

2. What am I interpreting?

3. What legitimate value might another perspective be protecting?

4. What evidence would cause me to revise my position?

5. Would I judge the same behavior differently if someone I identified with did it?

The goal isn't to force yourself into neutrality.

It's to practice discernment.

Explore further

The Reflect pillar of the 3R Human Performance OS focuses on patterns, assumptions, interpretation and the question:

What else could be true?

The 3R Quick Profile can help you identify where your own defaults may shape how you interpret and respond.

If information alone changed behavior, most of us would have solved our biggest habits years ago.

We often know what we want to do.

The more interesting question is:

What happens between knowing and doing?

Nathan explores automatic patterns, the moments immediately before repeated behavior, and why sustainable change often requires understanding what's happening underneath the behavior.

In this episode:

- Why more information isn't always the answer

- How automatic responses can outrun conscious intention

- Why the 30 seconds before a behavior matter

- How old strategies become defaults

- Where Regulate, Reflect and Respond enter the change process

- Why hypnosis can be useful in the knowing-doing gap

Try this:

Choose one behavior you want to change.

Don't try to stop it yet.

Study the 30 seconds before it.

What happened? What did you feel? What did you expect? What were you trying to avoid, gain or change?

Explore further

Mind Harmony 1:1 work focuses on the gap between conscious intention and repeated automatic patterns.

Mentioned

- hypnosis

- 1:1 Mind Harmony sessions

- habit change

- 3R Human Performance OS

#MindHarmony #MakingWorkAndLifeMoreHuman #MWALMH

We often talk about "work-you" and "home-you" as if they're separate people.

They're not.

The nervous system that walks into the morning meeting is the same one that woke up after four hours of sleep, worried about a child, argued with a partner or spent the morning thinking about money.

In this episode, Nathan explores why context changes interpretation and how becoming aware of what we're carrying into a room can change what happens next.

In this episode:

- Why work-life separation has limits

- How state affects interpretation

- Why behavior doesn't always tell the whole story

- Accountability without ignoring nervous-system state

- A simple 3R transition practice

Try this:

Before your next meeting, conversation or transition home, ask:

What am I bringing into this room?

Then:

What does this situation actually need from me?

Explore further

Practice state and transition awareness through the 21-Day Journey inside the Mind Harmony app.

Mentioned:

- 21-Day Journey

- Daily Check-In

- 3R Human Performance OS

- nervous-system-aware leadership

What happens when the role, title and routine that helped define you suddenly disappear?

In the first episode of Making Work (& Life) More Human, Nathan McMillen shares part of the story behind Mind Harmony, the questions that followed losing his job just before turning 50, and why those experiences led him toward a larger question:

What if many of the problems we treat as productivity problems are actually human problems?

In this episode:

- Why work can become intertwined with identity

- The difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it

- Why we don't leave the rest of ourselves behind when we go to work

- The origins of the 3R Human Performance OS

- Regulate, Reflect and Respond as a framework for creating more intentional choice

Try this

Ask yourself:

Where am I treating a human problem like a productivity problem?

Don't rush to solve it. Start by noticing it.

Explore further

Follow Making Work (& Life) More Human for weekly conversations about nervous-system state, patterns, habits, leadership, relationships and sustainable behavior change.

Mentioned

- 3R Human Performance OS

- Mind Harmony

- Mind Harmony app

- 3R Quick Profile

- 21-Day Journey

- Making Work (& Life) More Human book

What if the reason change doesn't stick isn't that you need more discipline?

What if there's more happening underneath the behavior?

Welcome to Making Work (& Life) More Human, a short weekly podcast from Nathan McMillen, founder of Mind Harmony and creator of the 3R Human Performance OS™.

This podcast explores the human underneath performance - the nervous-system states, automatic patterns, interpretations, habits and choices that shape how we show up at work, at home and everywhere in between.

In this trailer

You'll hear:

- why this podcast exists

- why knowing better doesn't always mean doing better

- why work and life can't be completely separated from the human experiencing them

- the three parts of the 3R Human Performance OS

- what to expect from weekly 10-15 minute episodes

- The 3R Human Performance OS™

Regulate - What state am I in?

Reflect - What pattern, story or assumption may be operating?

Respond - Given what I know now, what response do I want to choose?

What to expect

Topics will include nervous-system regulation, stress and recovery, habits and behavior change, Enneagram patterns, hypnosis, leadership, conflict, decision-making, relationships, and sustainable human performance.

Each episode is designed to leave you with at least one practical idea, question, or exercise you can use.

Start here

Follow or subscribe, then continue with Episode 1: Why Making Work (& Life) More Human Matters.