“If you were given permission to simply be more you, what would you do? Start speaking up? Standing up? Standing out? Walking out? Reaching out? Pouring out? Sitting in? Giving in? Giving up? Opening up? To what? Dance lessons? Photography school? Medical school? Dropping out of school? Starting a band? Starting a business? Starting a movement? Dominoes? Why wait? After all, you weren’t created to be successful. You were created to be you.”

In Episode 44 of The Loveable Podcast, we challenge the belief that what we are passionate about doing must make a difference in the world, that it must matter in some particularly measurable way. By the end of this episode, I think you will be more motivated to begin practicing your passions, not because they are one way to be meaningful, but because they are the only way to be truly you.

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 43: Don’t Do Something More Meaningful (Do Something More You) [Loveable 044] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“Yes, the extraordinary is a gift some of us receive at rare, fleeting moments. But our humanity is the ordinary gift we are, all of us, always receiving all the time.”

In Episode 43 of The Loveable Podcast, we are once again tackling the voice of shame, which undermines the practicing of our passions by convincing us that those passions must feel extraordinary, look extraordinary, and produce extraordinary results. By the end of this episode, you are going to be closer to discerning a path forward for yourself that looks ordinary and beautiful.

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 42: Don’t Try to Be More Extraordinary (Try to Be More Human) [Loveable 043] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

In the words of Frederick Buechner, “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

In Episode 42 of The Loveable Podcast, we are focused on cultivating a healthy sense of urgency, not by becoming more aware of what we aren’t living, but by becoming increasingly aware of what we are already living, and how precious this one chance life really is…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 41: How Five Senseless Days Could Make Sense of the Rest of Your Days [Loveable042] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“Hope can be a beautiful thing, because it gives us direction and imbues our lives with a sense of purpose and meaning. But hope can also be the worst of things, because sometimes we settle for having a direction, rather than walking in that direction. Sometimes, our numbered days are spent hoping and waiting, instead of acting and living.”

In Episode 41 of The Loveable Podcast, we talk about how the thing that is supposed to sustain us, actually detains us. We talk about how the thing that is supposed to inspire us, actually conspires against us. That thing is called hope. By the end of this conversation, you’ll be done with dreaming about what you love to do, and you’ll be more interested in pursuing what you love to do.

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 40: How Hopelessness Can Become Our Best Hope [Loveable041] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“We have a list of things we think must be accomplished inside of us before we can start taking risks outside of us. We think, Once I’m more confident, I’ll start dating. Once I’m more patient, I’ll have children. Once I’m wise enough, I’ll start a blog. Once my insides look as orderly as everyone else looks on the outside, I’ll follow my heart and my passion and start doing the things I want to do in the world. To live the things we love, we have to live them with our hearts feeling a little unfinished.”

In Episode 40 of The Loveable Podcast, we tackle one of the most common kinds of internal resistance to practicing our passions: the feeling that we are not ready yet, that we have to somehow grow more, be more transformed, feel more like we’ve arrived. By the end of this conversation, you’ll be wanting to get started sooner rather than later on the living of your passions…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 39: The Blessing of Being Unfinished [Loveable 040] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“Sometimes the simplest, most elegant, most life-changing solutions are right in front of our noses. But we can’t see them, because we are locked in to old schemas. A schema is a mental framework that helps organize and interpret information in the world around us. Schemas are essential when we need to act quickly and decisively. But schemas can also be a problem, because sometimes they’re outdated. Or worse, some of our schemas were never correct in the first place…”

In Episode 39 of The Loveable Podcast, we examine the outdated mental rules and practical hurdles that get in the way of us discovering our passions, practicing them, and cultivating a sense of purpose in our lives. By the end of this conversation, you will have greater clarity about what are the actual barriers that stand between you and your passions, and which ones are simply in your head…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 38: What If a Resurrected Life Isn’t as Impossible as It May Seem? [Loveable 039] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“Sometimes, joy is simply undone things finally lived. We need to keep the door of our hearts open, so we can listen to our urges and our wants. Many of them are trying to lead us into joy. Yet, when we’ve been shutting the door on them for so long, it can be hard to break the habit and keep it ajar.”

We all want to find our passion and discover our purpose, yet many of us have difficulty doing so, and so we think our passions are hide to find. They’re not. They are usually right in front of us, but we simply fail to see them. In Episode 38 of The Loveable Podcast, we will move you one step closer to seeing them, with five familiar questions…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 37: When You Think You Don’t Know How to Live [Loveable 038] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“You have things you’ve always wanted to do with your life. Ways you’ve wanted to spend your days. Passions you’ve wanted to practice. Hobbies you’ve wanted to make a habit of. Love you’ve wanted to spread in the form of a vocation. Care you’ve wanted to give in the form of a calling. The things we want most are not, ultimately, material things, but purposeful things—patterns of living that feel meaningful. They are the deepest wishes of your truest self.”

In Episode 37 of The Loveable Podcast, we focus on a question that can begin to clarify for you what your passion is and in what direction your purpose may lie. That question is, “What do you want to do?” We are going to let that question lead us in the direction we are here to go…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 36: Why Wanting Is the Way to Truly Living [Loveable 037] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“Let’s admit it: we’re obsessed with winning. Just look around. Everything has become a competition. Our will-to-win is everywhere, and it’s not going anywhere. But what if we gave it something better to do? What if we all decided to compete at a game called kindness?”

In Episode 36 of The Loveable Podcast, we talk about how to take our instinct for competition, which is usually divisive, and turn it on its head so it connects us in increasingly powerful and life-changing ways. This week’s episode is a dare, a dare to do away with all the conflicting and confusing goals you have in your relationships and to replace them all with one goal, one dare, one challenge that can simplify and beautify every relationship you have…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 35: The Kindness Challenge [Loveable 036] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.

“Sometimes, we fight so we don’t have to feel. Sometimes, we trade jeers so we don’t have to trade tears…and that’s a problem. Because the solutions to our most pressing concerns don’t lie within the heated exchange of our ideas; they lie at the bottom of our grief. If we don’t get better at grieving, we can’t get better at loving and living.”

In Episode 35 of The Loveable Podcast, we talk about how attention to our mortality can radically reshape our reality, making us less reactive and more tender, bringing us peace, and expanding our sense of belonging to include all people…

Here are just a few of the takeaways from this week’s episode:

You can listen below or on iTunes!

The post Week 34: Let’s Hold Each Other Like We’re Dying [Loveable 035] appeared first on Kelly Flanagan.