Work Life Play with Aaron McHugh

Sunni Brown is an inspiration. She helped me exercise my wierd. After many years of trading messages, I'm proud to share our conversation with you today. One of my favorite quotes from Sunni I included in my book "If you can't change your mind, it's very hard to change your life. Human beings that are mentally agile, those who can and will unstick—from an ongoing challenge, a mindset, a limiting belief, or a point of view—are more likely to flourish. Period."

Brendan Leonard promises that real adventure is not out of reach. I discovered his work through The Art of Getting Lost, a get-out-there excuse removing antidote to exploring more.

He writes, "The hardest thing is convincing yourself it's okay. Now I know you're important at work and at home, but trust me, the folks at work and at home can do without you for a day or a couple of days. You'd be surprised what people do when you're unavailable for a day or two: They figure it out on their own. It's easy to get stuck in a rut where you're working hard for everyone else and neglecting the things you want and need-like spending the night sleeping under the stars or going for a long hike-so you have to recognize it and schedule some time out of the rut for yourself."

Friends, Brendan Leonard is a worthy guide to follow in the art of getting lost and doing work you love. Find his work at Semi-Rad.

Dave Evans and Bill Burnett are designers at heart. Early in their careers, they designed for companies like Apple. Today, as Life Designers, they show people how to get off the couch and prototype alternative versions of their lives and their careers.

Moe believes that Bravespace workplaces enable for people to face the risks, emotional exposure, uncertainty, and vulnerability that come with work. Leaders must know that people aren't machines, but that we are strong and fragile, smart, complex and beautiful. Bravespace workplaces are people-centered environments where leaders deeply understand that people make all the good things happen at work.

Morgan Snyder is more than my guest today. Our sixteen-year friendship is an anchor I repeatedly tether myself to for hope, truth, and joy. Our transformative reciprocity began when we were angsty younger men in our thirties. We'd commiserate together. Now we celebrate. To relieve anxiety, we'd pedal bikes in sync to reset our life's drive train. Our strategy? To conjure more energy, with an improved approach to come through for everyone except ourselves. Now we prioritize our soul's needs, joyfully contributing with wisdom's restraint in fewer places. Mashing those Colorado hills, Morgan was dictating his book aloud on how we can become the kind of man that God can entrust with power. He started with one question, "What's the most important thing?".

This book isn't for everyone, Becoming a King: The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man.

Who is this book for? It's for the hungry, curious, and humble enough to admit maybe there is a better way? A less-traveled path that leads to abundant, sustainable life? If you're a man who values questions over answers and journeys over destinations, this book can change your life. I've walked and witnessed Morgan's excavation (a term you'll hear him use in almost every conversation) as a man, husband, father, employee, and friend. Before his inside-out restoration, restoring the heart of a man, he was intense. Today, he's still where he was unsettled and his winsome love and oxygenated Life with God is disarming and inviting.

-To the devout cynics, his warm "me too" rebel smile creates a safe zone to drop your guard.

-To the weary, he shows his scars underneath his flannel sleeves.

-To the polished and perfect, his empathetic, inquisitive engagement illuminates possible hairline cracks in the foundation.

For the few, the curious and open, there is a path that leads to life and few find it. Morgan is a trustworthy guide to this ancient path. Follow him. I do.

I'll be the first to admit. I can be easily distracted. Ping, blue dot, check email, etc. Nir Eyal named my interference as pain management. "Unless we deal with the root causes of our distraction, we'll continue to find ways to distract ourselves. Simply put, the drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behavior." I invite you to put aside your biases and assumptions about distraction and listen to Nir Eyal's research on how to become Indistractable.

My guest today on Work Life Play is Caitlin Landesberg, founder and CEO of Sufferfest Beer Company, for those who believe in earning their beer. Caitlin Landesberg is an Athlete, long-distance trail runner, and is relentlessly curious. We talk about living fully, pursuing wormholes with curiosity and abandoning demands for outcomes. Her disarming charm, tech-startup roots tenacity kneaded the gospel of Sufferfest Beer one finish line and neighborhood grocery story at a time. Here is her story.

My guest today is Canadian Andrew Jensen, PGA pro tour golfer and avid spokesman for the pitfalls and hope for those of us who struggle with depression and anxiety. "I turned pro and embarked on just this lonely, isolated life and isolation is not good for the depressed brain." Rich, earnest and real. I know you'll enjoy his story today.

In 2018, I interviewed Bryan Falchuk, author of Do a Day: How to Live a Better Life Everyday. What struck me about Bryan was how his lowest-life moment, became his redefining inspiration. Here's what he had to say, "I walked into our room and my wife's in bed, my son's standing there and he's looking at his mother who's dying in front of his eyes and he turns and looks at me and it all smacked me in the face. It's like, 'what are you doing? You're failing her. You're failing him. And I'm feeling 'why do I have to have such a miserable life,' everything's falling apart and somehow I'm still standing and I'm not homeless and I'm not, missing a limb or, some other much more extreme thing. So maybe it's not as bad as I always am so insistent that it is and all that just hit me in that moment."

What is the Cult of Average? Today, my friend and guest Tom Davis liberates our thinking by guiding us to a values-based operating system for our lives.

A 'pay the rent' lifestyle is one that is based on living life for other people. It's about paying the rent, paying my bills, going to my job, doing what everybody else tells me. What happens is, slowly but surely, I start to erode away. I start to disappear because the things that matter to me, my core values, the 'why I do what I do,' there is no time for them anymore. There's no me because I'm just trying to survive.

That's the problem with survival mode; all you're doing is getting through the day. You go home and you collapse and say, "I was so busy working, but what did I actually do that mattered?"