*This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit! Just an FYI that the intro reflects the previous name.

Fear is a commonly discussed topic in personal development (as it should be), but trite advice and clichés like "feel the fear and do it anyway!" dismiss the very real and important role it plays.

Fear is critical to our survival and for that reason needs to be taken seriously. It's key evolutionary purpose is to ensure we live to fight another day, However, for many of you listening, your survival needs are covered and it's thriving that's the challenge. In this episode, we will take a deeper look at the fear that comes with taking healthy risks, and how to assess and overcome fear in that context.

Topics covered:

*This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit! Just an FYI that the intro reflects the previous name.

When you're ready for a shift in your experience, the process of making change can be daunting. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the main reasons is that when we start to think about what needs to change, the list can be overwhelming. You get to thinking about work, your personal life, your health, your mental state, and it's like hot mess central where you have no freaking clue where to begin,

The good news is that what feels like hundreds of different things boils down to handful of tendencies that you'll begin to see more clearly as you tune into one small thing at a time to address. It's through small changes that you can see massive results, but the key is to understand where your conditioning is working against you so you know specifically what needs to shift.

In order to make that easier, this episode discusses the 4 challenges common to success conditioning.

Conditioning in these areas can lead you to seek confirmation of your worth through external sources, but no amount of external validation can ever fill the internal void of not truly knowing your value.

Are you facing any of these challenges? Listen to gain clarity and tips for moving forward.

*This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit! Just an FYI that the intro reflects the previous name.

As a high achiever, it's easy to be stuck in your conditioning and listening to the voice inside you that tells you what you "should" be doing. When I had the personal recognition that much of my life was being driven by external expectations, it was eye-opening to realize that as contrary and cynical as I can be, I was basically doing what I was told. More accurately, I was doing what I'd been taught to do through success and achievement conditioning.

Well. F all of that. That's a one-way ticket to feeling stuck, trapped, and resigned in ways that suck the life out of you.

When you tell yourself what you "should" be doing, it's a red flag. It means:

This is a tricky place to operate from. On the one hand, you're prioritizing the needs and expectations of others above your own and you may get the quick payoff of making the other person (or system) happy. On the other hand, the more you do what you don't want to do, the more that thing you don't want to do is expected of you.

You can shift out of this energy relatively quickly by making baby steps in a different direction. If that resonates, this episode is for you.

*This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit! Just an FYI that the intro reflects the previous name.

Do you ever worry that you're "too much"? That people will be put off by your opinion, how you show up, or even who you are?

Here's the thing about worrying you're too much and showing up in a muted way - it sucks. It just does. No one is moved by neutrality. In fact, neutrality is boring and we don't gravitate toward it. Consider something you love. Maybe it's a band, a type of music, a movie, whatever.  Do you love it because it's middle of the road and everybody likes it? Of course not. In fact, it's highly likely you love it because it isn't those things, and it's equally likely others don't care for it at all. 

Nothing is for everyone. Imagine how the world would look if the people that created the things we love decided "Oh, I would do that but someone may not like it therefore I should hide and not put it out there." It's not that those people don't consider the possibility of rejection. Of course they do. 

But they don't let it stop them. 

If you struggle to show up authentically because you're worried about how you'll be received, or if you've avoided creating something for the same reason, this episode is for you. Authenticity doesn't come with rainbows and sunshine. It's disruptive. It's polarizing. It's also incredibly mentally freeing and empowering. 

Ready to show up for real?

*This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit! Just an FYI that the intro reflects the previous name.

Do you ever reach goals, feel flat and immediately start planning your next goal? Do the same goals go on and fall off your list in an endless, frustrating cycle? 

If so, you're in the right place. Traditional goal-setting gets a lot of things wrong. This can be really confusing if you're a driven, Type A personality who's absolutely nailed the process of setting a goal and reaching it, because it can be hard to put your finger on *why* it's not satisfying or fulfilling, and why you have to keep dangling the next carrot in front of yourself in pursuit of that elusive element of satisfaction. 

The way we're taught to pursue goals is very linear. You come up with your goal, the specific outcome you have in mind, then you reverse engineer the tasks and activities that will get you to that outcome. It's checklist oriented. Check the tasks of your list and boom - goal achieved. So this process works, right? 

Technically, it works in that you get the outcome you had in mind. BUT, if that was all that mattered, you wouldn't be here. 

What the traditional approach doesn't take into account is WHY you feel driven to achieve in the first place, HOW pursuing a given goal will impact your life, and WHAT achieving that goal will do for you. 

The traditional approach is highly focused on measurable outcomes and based on a foundation that doesn't have real substance. It's no wonder then that achievement of goals can feel empty, even if you kick ass at the achievement part. 

In this episode, we dive deeply into this topic and discuss:

Around the 11:30 mark, I encourage you to get out your journal and do some thought exercises to evaluate your process. Here are some prompts:

If you're looking for more prompts to think deeply on this topic and others like it, check out my book, The High Achiever's Guide!

You can find more info at makimoussavi.com

*This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit! Just an FYI that the intro reflects the previous name.

Have you ever expressed a desire for more from life, only to be shot down (by yourself or others) because you should be grateful for what you have? If so, this episode is for you. 

Gratitude is a powerful practice that can do wonders for your mental and emotional state. It can snap you out doom spirals of negative thought and rebalance your outlook so that you're able to see what's going right for you, even if there are things that could be better. However, misuse of gratitude can keep you in a state of resignation, stuck where you are rather than following your inner fire to elevate your experience. It can keep you in a place of comparison, where because you have more than others, it makes you feel wrong or guilty for wanting more than you already have. When you use gratitude to anesthetize yourself into being "fine" with where you are, that's dangerous to your well-being.

The practice of gratitude is a perfect example of how our conditioning can cut both ways. It can be highly supportive when used in an aligned way, and momentum-killing when used in a misaligned way. It also reveals the power of societal conditioning, where shame and guilt can be used to keep people small when your personal ambition is triggering to those around you. 

If you'd like more content just like this, check out my book, The High Achiever's Guide.

Special note - thank you in advance for your patience as I get this content out into the world with more focus on content than perfection! I will continue to refine sound quality going forward and am so happy you're here for the message.

**This podcast has been renamed to The Conditioning Culprit, the podcast for growth-oriented, high-achieving individuals ready to initiate radical change in life and work. This episode is highly relevant to those looking for content related to the intersection between business, mindset, and spirituality.

This is the introductory episode of Musings of a High Achiever, the podcast for people who identify as type A, driven personalities who are interested in deepening their self-awareness. This episode discusses the conditioning that high achievers are susceptible to, the professional dissatisfaction that led Maki to go on a deep personal development journey, and how what she discovered along the way applies to other high achievers who want to release the burden of the expectations of others to live life on their own terms.

When you're ready for a change, you might feel crazy. Are you insane to want something different for your life when you have it good already? Nope. Success that's created based on someone else's expectations and not your own can never be truly fulfilling. The point of this first episode is not only to introduce you to the premise of the show, but also to give you permission to want something different. To see yourself reflected in someone else's experience in a way that is validating, and perhaps galvanizing. Are you ready to go deep?