Work Life Play with Aaron McHugh

I recorded this episode while on an adventure run in LA. I was exploring and found a really cool trail that winded to the top of a city park with this perfect pond and view of the city. Running helps me maintain my curiosity and the spirit of adventure. Every time I travel, I bring my running shoes along. I have this belief that there will be something cool wherever I go. And low and behold, I find some amazing trails, runs, byways, parks, rivers, streams, and epic scenery.

I offer you this story as a muse on finding what you're searching for. I believe that you will find whatever it is you are searching for if you believe its out there. When you start with a belief "I bet this might be cool....." you will see what it is your heart believes.

Chris Lieto is a top ranked World Class Triathlete, 3 time Ironman Champion, Husband, Father @BasePerformance and doing @MoreThanSport. Big Island of Hawaii

The Story of Shackleton Sir Ernest Shackleton is a legend as an Antarctic Explorer. However his fame did not come from accomplishing his goal of reaching the south pole. Instead on his third trip to the Antarctic, his ship The Endurance became frozen in the pack ice, 100 miles from land.

He and his 27 men proceeded to spend nearly two years in a desperate plight for survival. Shackleton was credited with being the bold leader that made the hope of survival and rescue possible. In the end all 27 men survived.

"That was all of tangible things; but in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had 'suffered, starved, and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole.' We had seen God in his splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of men."

— Ernest Shackleton, South

Salit's core idea is that all humans have an innate ability to perform, pretend, and improvise. It's what helps us develop as children and continue developing as adults. You may not have been on a stage since you played a tree in third grade, but the reality is that you're performing all the time. Performance Breakthrough shows how you can use ideas and techniques from theater and improvisation, along with the new science of performative psychology, to enhance your performance at work and "become who you are not yet."

Be the hero. Own it all. All the ingredients are raw materials that are useful in our stories. All of it. Be gracious and kind to yourself. Love the people you are with. Be curious. Go searching for life.

Keep going,

Aaron

Thank you friends for being on this adventure with me of 100 episodes of Work Life Play. At the end of this episode, I have a special closing from my friend Jack O'Neill from Jackopierce. My wife and I spent the weekend with them in NYC as part of attending a Seth Godin conference. Our new friends Ryan and Heidi Miller joined us to make six.

Check out their work:

Ryan's work 08Left Custom art for Travelers and Lovers of Aviation.

Heidi's custom card company Mango Ink

Jack's music with Jackopierce

Andrew Reiner is a writer and educator in Baltimore, MD. He is working on a book about masculinity and, right now, a chapter on boys/men and crying.

He read a blog by my friend Sam Jolman, How to Cry Like a Man, while researching this topic and he read a comment I made on how I did not cry between the ages of 12-21.

This episode is about becoming wholehearted and emotionally fit as men. "Embracing the full spectrum of our life".