Potential Psychology

How do we learn, grow and fulfil our potential today and into the future?

My guest for today's conversation arrived in the United States from Kenya at the age of 18 with $273 to his name and a mission to survive. As he tells it, he is LGBTQ and grew up in a world in which his identity either did not exist or was punishable by death or a lifetime in prison.

Upon his arrival in the US he was granted a diversity scholarship to attend college which led to both a Bachelor and Masters Degree from Stanford University, a role with the prestigious Boston Consulting Group and a successful stint as Group Business Product Manager at LinkedIn. Today Thomas Igeme is the co-founder & COO of Trybe.ai - a technology platform that uses the science of habit building to help people reach their full potential.

His LinkedIn bio simply states, 'I build tech that unlocks the potential of people and teams' but in this conversation you will discover that there is so much more to him than that.

During our discussion Thomas and I explore:

•How Trybe.ai is disrupting the professional learning experience using the latest in technology as well as the best of science.
•The complexity of work today and why the development needs of leaders and professionals are more akin to high performance athletes than ever before
•What's required to build 'soft skill' muscle and habits
•The three scientifically-supported elements that lead to behaviour change
•Why professional development is personal, especially for Thomas
•Diversity and Inclusion and why it matters for our workplaces and our society
•The importance of 'giving everyone a fair shot', and
•Connection, belonging and fulfilling our potential.

This episode of the Potential Psychology Podcast is brought to you by PAFOW - People Analytics and the Future of Work. You can hear and see Thomas speak at PAFOW Sydney20 on 3rd and 4th March 2020.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

I was introduced to Tess Walton at an event late in 2019 and we clicked straight away. We got talking about her specialist topic - the future of work - and I quickly realised that this was a podcast episode in the making.

It took us a little while to co-ordinate schedules but we connected last week for this amazing conversation which weaves and wends its way through a whole lot of topics all focused on the future.

•How do we create the future?
•What could it look like?
•What skills and what kind of thinking do we need to get there?
•How does working with the leaders of large organisations to visualise and create the future parallel working with individuals to create and live our best life?
•And how do we get curious - about everything?
•

This interview was so much fun and I walked away full of energy. I'm sure you will too.

About Tess Walton
Tess specialises in Workforce Planning, People Metrics, HR Strategy, Change Management, Business Analysis, Business Strategy, HRMS Implementation, HR Projects and Productivity Improvements. She's a thinker and a facilitator and an excellent asker of questions. You can hear and see Tess speak at PAFOW Sydney20 on 3rd and 4th March 2020.

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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Today on the show we're talking a bit about exercise, a bit about spirituality, a bit about indigenous cultures and quite a bit about a very select group of people who choose to run around and around an extended city block in New York City for not just days but weeks at a time!

My guest is Sanjay Rawal, an award winning documentary maker based in New York City. We're talking about his film 3100: Run and Become, a beautiful and intriguing documentary about the Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race and the role that running plays in personal growth. But as you'll hear the film is just a starting point for a deeper, wide ranging and insightful conversation about the many different paths we can take to be our best self.

During our conversation Sanjay and I discuss:

•The Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - What is it and how did it come to be?
•Who enters it and why?
•How to manage your mind to run for 52 days.
•Finding flow through exertion and contemplation through movement
•Staying in the moment to manage challenge and hardship
•How striving towards a goal contributes to our wellbeing
•The role of running in traditional cultures
•Finding meaning and purpose through serving others.

This conversation and Sanjay's film has completely reframed exercise and exertion for me. Rather than dwell on discomfort and challenge I am finding the joy in exertion and the peace in each moment, even when it hurts.

Thanks to our partner PAFOW20 Sydney for this episode of the podcast. Join me at PAFOW20 Sydney on March 3 & 4 2020 to Honour the Human Experience in the Age of AI & Perpetual Change.

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The one in which I share my family's brush with bushfires on New Years Eve 2019 and then explore the effects of calamity and catastrophe on children with psychologist and author Karen Young.

Welcome back to the Potential Psychology Podcast and our eighth season of the show. It's great to be back.

We've had a turbulent start to 2020 in Australia. We're no strangers to bushfire but as of as of 14 January 2020, fires this season have burnt an estimated 186,000 square kilometres (72,000 square miles), destroyed 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. It's estimated that anywhere up to one billion animals have also died as a result of the fires.

News coverage of the disaster was global with graphic images of fire ravaged communities broadcast on every conceivable platform. It was all we could talk about. For weeks eastern parts of the country were swathed in smoke and for many communities lives have been turned upside down.

After our own escape from the fire affected NSW South Coast early in January I was keen to talk to an expert on the impact of these events on kids in particular. Karen Young, psychologist, author and expert on kids and anxiety joined me on the show and during our conversation I asked:

•How should we talk to kids about catastrophic events?
•What's a 'normal' reaction to trauma in kids - and what's not?
•What happens in kids' minds when exposed to catastrophe or news of catastrophe?
•Does age make a difference to the impact and how we talk to them about these events?
•How can we as parents and carers help?
•When should we worry?
•And if we're worried - what should we do?

Karen shares her wisdom, knowledge and tips for parents and carers. She reminds us that kids are resilient and that our role is make them feel safe, even in the moments when we're not feeling so safe ourselves.

Join me as we kick off a new season and a new year with a personal conversation about fires, fear and the role of a parent.


Thanks to our partner for this episode PAFOW20 Sydney. Join me at PAFOW20 Sydney on March 3 & 4 2020 to Honour the Human Experience in the Age of AI & Perpetual Change.

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

This episode of the Potential Psychology Podcast is brought to you by PAFOW and their upcoming Sydney event, PAFOW20 Sydney: Honoring the Human Experience in the Age of AI & Perpetual Change

Welcome back. Our Summer Series - in which we are revisiting favourite past episodes - is drawing to a close. We will be back next week with new interviews and new guests and another big year.

Today we revisit my conversation with Dr Adrian Medhurst. Adrian is a psychologist, a speaker, an author and the CEO of - Benny Button, a wellbeing and performance organisation.

Adrian mission is life is to improve the lives of as many people as possible through wellbeing and performance initiatives, starting with our workplaces.

In this interview Adrian and I chat about

•Agility and finding the balance between being well and performing at our peak
•Using little tweaks to enhance our happiness
•How to live well and have impact
•Mindfulness
•And how to master daily stress - something we might all like to get a better handle on as we throw ourselves into 2020

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

It's week three of our Summer Series of the Potential Psychology Podcast. While the team and I are busy behind the scenes prepping Season 8 of the show, we're taking a look back at some of our favourite episodes.
And this quote encapsulates the essence of today's show....

'Don't waste a lot of time and money pushing kids in directions they don't want to go. Instead, find out what weirdness they excel at and encourage them to do that. Then get out of the way' - Seth Godin

My guest is Professor Lea Waters, one of the world's leading experts on Positive Education, Positive Organizations and Strength-Based Parenting and Teaching. She's a psychologist, a past president of the International Positive Psychology Association, and the Founding Director of Positive Psychology Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Lea is also author of The Strengths Switch: How the new science of strength-based parenting can help your child and your teen to flourish and the creator of The Strengths Switch online program, your online guide to becoming a strength-based parent.

Join me as I talk to Lea about:

•Strength-based parenting - What are strengths and how do you identify them in your child?
•The benefits of strength-based parenting for parents
•Why we default to finding weakness rather than strength and how to counteract this
•Stopping the cycle of criticism and the benefits of a strength-based approach for teens
•How to create harmony at home, and
•Practical strategies for building a strength-based approach in your family.

It's a refreshing, fun and positive conversation about parenting and kids!

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

It's week two of our Summer Series of the Potential Psychology Podcast. Over the next few weeks while the team and I have a short break and get started behind the scenes on the next super cool series of the show, we're revisiting some of our favourite past episodes.

Today we are talking about one of my favourite topics - Sleep! My guest is Dr Kate Sprecher and she is speaking to me from Colorado, in the United States, where she a is post-doctoral researcher in the Sleep and Chronobiology Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Kate's passion is understanding how sleep affects our physical and mental health with her guiding question being, 'How we can get the best sleep possible?'

In this conversation I ask Kate about:

•The impact of sleep (or lack of it) on our health and wellbeing
•How she and her team study sleep in the lab
•Her tips for better sleep, and
•Her recommended resources for learning more about better sleep and how to get it.

We also discuss:

•The impact of our natural and unnatural environments on our sleep cycles
•The role of sleep for the human body, from how we think and feel to the impact on our hormones and even deep down to our mollecular level
•The simple strategies we can use to maximise the quality of our sleep for greater happiness and wellbeing.

Sleep (or lack of it) affects us all and Kate explains the science of sleep in such an easy to understand, engaging way.

Join me for this very important conversation about something we all do every day.

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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Our Summer Series

We're back after a slight delay due to the Australian bushfires.

My family and I were caught up in the bushfire drama on the NSW South Coast where we were holidaying with family (15 adults, 7 kids and a dog) on New Year's Eve 2019.

We're all safe and home now but it was a tense and difficult day as we prepared to defend my sister-in-law's home and our lives. Thankfully the worst we experienced was heat, smoke, anxiety and exhaustion as our little pocket of the coast, whilst surrounded by fire, was saved.

We spent two and a half days unable to leave as the roads were closed, with no power or communication - so no means of uploading a podcast episode! We were eventually able to evacuate when Mother Nature gave us a brief window of respite. We had 14 hours on the road and covered 1100km but made it home safely.

My heart goes out to all of those who have suffered loss during these fires. We will be talking further about it on the show in our next series.

In the meantime and in an effort to regain some normality, here is the first episode of our Summer Series 2020, 'Revisiting Why Everything You Know About Motivation Is Wrong'

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Today we meet Emma and Carla Papas, The Merrymaker Sisters.

These real-life sisters are Yoga, Pilates and Meditation teachers, entrepreneurs, podcasters, authors, social media stars and, as I discover in this interview, flourishing personified.

They quit their full time government desk jobs in July 2014 to pursue their passion of bringing health and happiness to the lives of others. Since then they've created the #1 mobile recipe App Get Merry, published the best selling healthy cookbooks Make It Merry and Get Merry, host the #1 GetMerry podcast as well as created MerryBody: an online yoga, pilates and mindset studio.

Every month they reach over 200 000 people through their products and programs, with a mission to live in a world where people finally accept, love and respect their bodies and themselves.

In this high energy conversation Emma, Carla and I explore:

•Following your bliss and thriving through challenge
•Finding the courage to do hard things
•The benefits of yoga and pilates beyond 'a better body'
•Why other people matter
•The best decision they ever made, and
•The science of flourishing.

It's a very merry way to close out the season and the year and to inspire you to get ready for an incredible 2020.

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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Hands up if you procrastinate.

Okay, hands down.

Of course you procrastinate. You're human aren't you? The question is, are you one of the 80 per cent who procrastinate over some tasks, some of the time? Or the 20 per cent who procrastinate over most tasks, most of the time?

And why do you procrastinate?
What is procrastination from a psychological point of view? (It might not be what you think it is)
How are feelings involved?
And how do you stop?

I'm exploring all this and more in this SOLO episode of the show.
I've got tips, strategies, some myth busting, the research and a lot of the 'why' of procrastination that helps us understand it and then change it.

Join me to get a grip on your time and tasks and set yourself up for less procrastination in 2020!

This episode of the Potential Psychology Podcast is brought to you by the Wellbeing Evidence and Horizons Conference, Australia's leading multi-disciplinary, evidence-based wellbeing and resilience conference. April 28 & 29, 2020. See you there!

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com