The No Cry Zone

Welcome back to No Cry Zone, the podcast dedicated to personal performance, expanding potential, and becoming a Net Positive in the world.

In this episode, host Jim Best shares a single principle that quietly reshaped his relationships, leadership, and overall experience of life:

Never criticize. Never condemn. Never complain.

First introduced by Dale Carnegie, this principle is often dismissed as unrealistic or naïve. In this episode, Jim explains why that reaction misses the point—and why this discipline is not about being “nice,” but about being effective.

You’ll learn:

• Why criticism, condemnation, and complaining feel productive—but produce nothing
• The hidden personal and relational costs of these habits
• What to replace them with instead (observation, understanding, and choice)
• How this principle builds emotional maturity, influence, and self-sovereignty
• Why disciplined emotional control beats venting every time

Jim also shares how applying this principle —imperfectly but intentionally— made him a better parent, partner, leader, and professional.

Today’s episode features a mellow intro track by Brazen Candor, “Do I Need a Door or a Window,” which you can hear in full at the end of the show.

If you’re serious about growth, leadership, and inner authority—and tired of negativity masquerading as honesty—this one principle may change far more than you expect.

Welcome to the No Cry Zone.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

On this week’s The No Cry Zone, Jim Best is here to shake up the usual “new year, new you” nonsense. Forget the pressure, the guilt, and the hype — this episode is all about Intentional Evolution: personal growth that actually sticks and doesn’t make you want to crawl under the covers.

You’ll learn why momentum beats motivation, why effort alone isn’t enough, and how choosing who you’re becoming —not just what you’re fixing— changes everything. Think of it as growth with a little swagger, a lot of clarity, and zero meltdown.

And just for this occasion, we’ve got the song “Be Somebody” by Brazen Candor, with lyrics by Jim Best. It’s a bluesy, cool anthem about being somebody like you’ve never been before — a reminder that evolution can be bold, effortless, and completely yours.

New Year’s Evolution Day isn’t about starting over.
It’s about remixing your life, keeping the hits, dropping the skips, and choosing your vibe—on purpose.

Step up. Show up. Be somebody you’ve never been.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

The holidays don’t ruin momentum.
The story we tell ourselves about the holidays does.

In this episode of The No Cry Zone, Jim Best offers a calm, practical reframe for anyone who wants to enjoy the season without waking up in January feeling foggy, behind, or burdened by regret.

This is not a self-improvement boot camp.
There’s no guilt. No pressure. No “I’ll fix everything later.”

Instead, Jim walks you through how to get lined up for major progress during the holidays—quietly, intelligently, and with self-respect—so January feels like a continuation, not a recovery.

You’ll learn:

• Why the “enjoy the holidays or make progress” choice is false—and costly
• How alignment, not discipline, creates sustainable momentum
• Why January feels heavy for so many people (and how to avoid that trap)
• What to focus on now—mental clarity, direction, steadiness, and self-trust
• Three low-effort decisions that dramatically reduce stress and inner conflict
• Why guilt-free enjoyment actually improves progress
• A simple daily question that preserves momentum without worksheets or strain

If you want positive change that is doable and durable, this episode will help you stay present for the holidays and respectful of the future you’re building.

You don’t need a breakthrough right now.
You don’t need to reinvent yourself.
You just need to stop drifting away from who you already know you’re meant to be.

This is how major progress begins—quietly, calmly, and without crying in January.

Featuring the intro track “Dap Me Back Up” by Brazen Candor 

Join Jim for the First Annual New Year’s Evolution Day – December 30 

Learn more at UpwardsBest.com

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

MY OWN DAMN HEART

How We Quietly Break the One Thing That’s Always Been on Our Side

Most heartbreak doesn’t come from other people.

It comes from us.

In this episode of TheNoCryZone, Jim Best explores the quiet, respectable, socially acceptable ways we break our own hearts - without drama, without scandal, and without anyone noticing.

Inspired by his original song “My Own Damn Heart,” this episode examines how we slowly erode trust with ourselves through:

• Preemptive quitting before we ever begin
• Disqualifying ourselves from things we’re fully capable of learning
• Choosing comfort over alignment and calling it “peace”
• Making promises we quietly let expire

This is not an episode about self-blame or emotional excess.

It’s about self-interruption - and how repeated withdrawal hurts more than failure ever could.

You’ll hear a powerful reframe:

Your heart isn’t fragile because it wants too much.

It’s fragile because it keeps believing you.

If you’ve ever talked yourself out of something meaningful…

If you’ve postponed a dream into silence…

If you’ve learned to call resignation “maturity”…

This episode is an invitation - not to blow up your life, but to restore integrity through one honest act of follow-through.

No crying.

No melodrama.

Just clarity, courage, and a way forward.

Featuring original music, including “My Own Damn Heart” and a light-hearted closing inspired by an Italian afternoon and an Aperol Spritz.

Listen in - and stop breaking your own damn heart.

Follow the journey and join the conversation at UpwardsBest.com and explore more insights at MomentumGPS.com.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

“Positive Change that Is Doable and Durable.” 

Most people don’t fail because they lack potential - they fail because they keep shrinking themselves to match expectations, comfort zones, or old identities.

In today’s TheNoCryZone episode, we confront the subtle ways we play small:

• Holding back opinions that matter
• Swallowing discomfort instead of setting boundaries
• Staying in hesitation instead of choosing action
• Playing agreeable when authenticity is needed
• Minimizing capacity because confidence feels risky

But this is not an indictment - it’s an invitation.

You’ll discover how every moment of smallness is a locator beacon for growth: Where you shrink shows where you need expansion. Where you hesitate reveals a belief waiting to be rewritten. Where you avoid is where capability is trying to be born.

In this episode, Jim Best walks through the emotional intelligence behind noticing your own smallness - not to criticize, but to diagnose opportunity.

You’ll learn how:

• Self-observation becomes a growth roadmap
• Identity ceilings suppress potential
• Momentum begins the moment you stop shrinking yourself
  
  

And most importantly, you’ll explore the NoCryZone truth: Life won’t enlarge for you until you enlarge yourself.

If you’re tired of fitting into people’s comfort zones, tired of shrinking your voice, tired of apologizing for your wants - this episode is going to land hard and liberating.

It’s time to stop being small.

Welcome to the NoCryZone - where your potential gets real and you stop breaking your own damn heart.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

What Are You Holding Onto… That’s Holding You Back?

Welcome back to The No Cry Zone, the place where we set down shame and blame and finally give progress a fair chance.

In this episode, Jim Best invites you into an honest conversation about one of the most overlooked reasons people stall in life - not because they don’t know what to do, but because of what they’re still carrying.

Not physical weight…

Emotional weight. Mental weight. Identity weight.

We often believe effort is the problem. That if we just tried harder, things would change. But what if what’s really slowing us down… is what we refuse to let go of?

In this episode, Jim explores the idea that forward movement isn’t blocked by lack of ambition - but by attachment. Attachment to old hurt. Old fears. Old stories. Old versions of ourselves that once protected us… but now quietly trap us.

You’ll hear reflections on:

• Resentment that masquerades as power
• Cynicism that pretends to be wisdom
• Guilt that never learned when to stop teaching
• An outdated self-image that governs from the past
• Beliefs about what you “deserve” that quietly sabotage your future

This is not an episode about blame. It’s about awareness. And clarity. And the kind of courage it takes to set down what no longer fits.

If you’ve ever wondered:

• “Why does progress feel heavier than it should?”
• “Why do I know better… but still not move?”
• “What am I protecting that isn’t protecting me anymore?”

This episode is for you. Because real growth doesn’t come from adding more effort… It comes from dropping what no longer belongs.

And December is a good month to lay things down.

______________________________

Hosted by Jim Best / Lead Curator of the No Cry Zone

Focused on:

• Personal performance

• Human potential

• Persistence without pressure

_______________________________

Intro music: “Sally and Me” by Brazen Candor (from an upcoming album)

The No Cry Zone is an UpwardsBest production, created by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

Thanks for listening.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

A Prosperity-Based Thanksgiving Message

Most Thanksgiving messages stop at gratitude - “be thankful,” “count your blessings,” “appreciate the little things.”

But gratitude is only half the story.

The other half - the part almost no one talks about - is prosperity.

In this 10-minute, clarity-rich TheNoCryZone episode, Jim Best reframes the holiday message through prosperity principles: the mental, emotional, and behavioral patterns that generate abundance, wellbeing, opportunity, and renewal.

You’ll learn:

• Why abundance isn’t vague positivity - it’s prosperity in action
• How gratitude without prosperity becomes passive and predictable
• The three prosperity skills that create outcomes worth appreciating
• Why receiving without resistance is essential for growth
• How prosperity intersects with Perpetual Momentum to create lasting change
• How to see Thanksgiving through the deeper lens of causation, not just celebration

This episode isn’t about forcing gratitude.

It’s about understanding the architecture behind abundance - and using it to create more to be thankful for in the year ahead.

If you want a Thanksgiving message that is clear, grounded, forward-driven, and Net Positive… you’ll want to hear the other half of the gratitude story.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

Your mind has a cabinet — a full-blown inner government — and whether you realize it or not, it’s been running your life. Some of its members are outdated. Some are unqualified. Some are downright destructive. And very few of them were ever intentionally appointed.

In this NoCryZone episode, we swing open the cabinet door and reveal the six internal voices shaping your decisions, your habits, and your future:

• Identity — The Speaker of the House
• Fear — The Defense Secretary
• Pride — The Press Secretary
• Ego — The Attorney General
• Desire — The Department of the Future
• Momentum — The Transportation Secretary

You’ll discover which voices have been holding you back, why they gained so much power, and how to restructure your internal leadership so your best self is finally the one in charge.

This episode delivers a clean, honest look at the political circus happening inside your head — and shows you exactly how to take back control. No drama. No excuses. No crying required.

If you’re ready to stop being run by old fears, outdated identities, and unqualified internal advisors… this is your episode.

The No Cry Zone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, aligned with Best Story Alive, LLC. All rights proudly reserved.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

Coming to you from Egypt with an important message… Jim Best invites you into The No Cry Zone—a space where personal growth meets grit, humor, and real human truth.

Each episode explores the mechanics behind motivation, momentum, and mastery—because growth isn’t just emotional, it’s architectural. From the heart of Cairo to the hearts of listeners worldwide, Jim brings decades of leadership, insight, and creative depth to help you build a life you actually want to live.

Expect a mix of story, strategy, and sound perspective - served with the unmistakable energy of someone who’s seen both sides of the struggle and still believes in the climb.

Whether you’re here to refine your focus, reignite your motivation, or rebuild your momentum, the No Cry Zone is your weekly recharge:

Performance. Growth Potential. Bonafide Persistence.

Because personal development shouldn’t feel like punishment - it should feel like progress.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.

This week on NoCryZone, host Jim Best broadcasts from Cairo before setting off to explore the legendary Nile River - and dives into one of the most vital conversations of all: what it truly means to be human.

We’ve all said it - “I’m only human.” But somewhere along the way, that phrase became an apology. In this episode, Jim reclaims it as a declaration of strength. Being human isn’t a limitation - it’s an incredible advantage.

Through his signature clarity and grounded insight, Jim explores four human powers that define growth and sovereignty:

• Movement — You’re not a tree. You can change your environment, your mindset, your future.
• Learning — Turning every experience into wisdom is your superpower.
• Adaptation — Adjust without abandoning your principles.
• Connection — The courage to reach out, empathize, and grow together.

This episode will remind you that courage, compassion, and creativity are muscles - and they only grow when you use them.

Tune in for a dose of perspective that’s bold, liberating, and distinctly NoCryZone.

Because the most empowering way to live… is fully human.

Follow Jim Best at UpwardsBest to listen, learn, explore, and stay connected to daily insights for positive change that’s both doable and durable.

Explore MomentumGPS, designed to support your personal growth goals.

The NoCryZone is an UpwardsBest endeavor, produced by BestStoryAlive, LLC.

All rights proactively reserved.