Let go of work-life balance and embrace the unforced rhythms of a fully integrated life. I used to think that work-life balance was achievable.
Now I believe it is a myth.
No matter how hard I tried, I could never achieve this perfect moment of everything in my life working in perfect Zen harmony and balance.

I felt so exhausted trying to stay in balance

The way forward isn’t exhaustion. It isn’t juggling, stretching, or herculean gymnastic efforts to come through for others while ignoring yourself. The way forward is an integrated, wholehearted life.

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor, and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.”

-James Michener

Here’s why I wasn’t able to achieve balance

After the death of our daughter Hadley in 2011, I found myself desperately trying to hold my life together. My marriage was suffering. My kids needed their dad. And my already intense corporate career as an executive was only getting more complicated as responsibilities and promotions kept coming my way.

I was burning out but didn’t admit it.

Anybody else could see the signs a mile away. I was so focused on what was right in front of me that when it finally hit-I was utterly blindsided. And the solution was nothing short of a complete do-over—a “reboot,” as we called it. We sold our house and everything, down to the last fork. We spent the summer serving at a Young Life camp, finding a new normal.

It wasn’t easy. It took brutal months of inner work, therapy programs, tears, and facing the old stories that no longer served us. Stories like “I have to do it all” and “I can’t trust anybody else to get it done.” But out of that, we emerged with a new vision for our life—a new story-A life filled with excitement, ambition, love, rest, forgiveness, and hope.

As we began this journey creating a new life

I realized my software executive career no longer aligned with the person I had become. For so long, I had tried to find the fabled work-life balance.

The problem was I didn’t want my life to be compartmentalized anymore, with each area staying separate from the other. I wanted it all integrated into one wild, beautiful mess.

Once I stopped trying to achieve work-life balance, I discovered a third-way rhythm, “a repeated pattern of movement” where work, life, play, relationships, rest, finances, friendships, and adventure could co-exist within my experience of each day.

I began to experience my life as a complete whole where every valuable aspect was connected and worked together. I discovered more of God’s presence and meaning in ways I had never noticed. It radically transformed my life for the better-my mission now is to share that discovery with as many people as possible (like you).

Aligning the work I do, with who I’d become

Ultimately I left my corporate executive career behind. After eight months of living off of savings, pursuing work that fit the person I had become, and taking our checking account down to $1500, I discovered a new career doing work that I truly loved. That fit within this new integrated life we were architecting. (Fun fact, my first client meeting in my new career as an executive leadership coach happened less than 1 mile from where I resigned from my old gig just months before. Talk about coming full circle.)

Loosening our grip on balance

My story isn’t about making millions, retiring early, or living a carefree “work 2 hours a week” lifestyle. That’s all great, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Like you, I still work a full-time, 40-50 hour work week.

I’m talking about loosening our grip on perfection and balance by living a more meaningful, fulfilled, and wholly integrated life in your current environment- In the career, relationships, and body you’re in-resulting in a life full of adventure and meaning.

I’ve discovered another way to operate in the world. I am at choice. I no longer live under the “shoulds” and “ought to’s” of my creation or the expectations of others.

Living a life true to myself

Three closing wisdom invitations, starting with “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” I believe you see this within your experience.

Bronnie Ware is a palliative care provider and author The Top Five Regrets the Dying. She captured her results over years of sharing the last weeks and days with her patients who’d moved home from the hospital to die. In their final conversations, the patients discussed any regrets they had or anything they wished they would have done differently. Here’s what she heard. Take a good listen, keeping in mind work-life balance vs. wholehearted living.

The Top Five:
1) I wish I’d dared to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2) I wish I’d not worked so hard.
3) I wish I’d dared to express my feelings.
4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5) I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best with your own life.

-Saint Paul

I used to think that work-life balance was achievable. Now I believe it’s a myth. Let go of work-life balance and embrace the unforced rhythms of a fully integrated life. Embrace the mess, the beauty-the imperfection of integration.

And now, here is the invitation for us all:
-To do your best work
-To become wholehearted
-To play and live adventurously

Will you accept it? I hope you do.
Let’s navigate a well-lived life together.

Keep going
-Aaron

Today, I'm in the interview seat again. Today's topic Friendship and the journey of life impossible to accomplish alone. (Carl Richards) Greetings from the Joy Bus. My name's Carl Richards, and I am your host today of the Work Life Play podcast. I've taken over from Aaron. It was an invitation, but I fully accepted the invitation to interview Aaron somewhere around. We're, we're talking ten years now.

Aaron:

Ten years.

Carl Richards:

And 200+ some-odd episodes. So, Aaron, welcome to the show.

Aaron:

Thank you. I like it. We're in the Joybus. Carl's in the seat you always held for the guests, but you are interviewing me this time.

Carl Richards:

What would I like to start on? It strikes me, and this is a strange place to start, but I'm going to go there anyway. Talk to me about friendship a bit.

I want to pull in David Whyte's poem on friendship. David writes, "The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement neither of the other nor the self. The ultimate touchstone is witness the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another. To have walked with them, to have believed in them. And sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span on a journey impossible to accomplish alone."

Show notes: https://www.aaronmchugh.com/podcast/friendship-the-journey-impossible-alone/

Keep going, 
Aaron

In this decade anniversary celebration episode, Morgan Snyder is in the studio to interview me. For me, though, Work Life Play has no periods, no exclamation marks, no hyphens in between. It's all one integrated together story. It's taken me 10 years to articulate what it is I've been chasing the whole time. Enjoy this friends and Keep Going- Aaron
Work Life Play Merch available here.

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience. A decade agoI began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore." I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha! Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling." You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it. -Aaron

Episode: Reach for the stuff that's realA craftsman cobbler just resoled my fly fishing wading boots, and they're ready for another "one hundred thousand casts." The landfill was calling for them. Our modern world has an insatiable appetite for new—version 6.0. Version 13.0, and it's killing us and the planet we call home. This isn't a post just about saving the world. It's about the deeper drivers-what and who we value and how our hearts and souls are connected. Allow me to share a cowboy tune from Guy Clark with you, and then we'll reconvene.
I got an old blue shirt and it suits me just fine.I like the way it feels, so I wear it all the time
I got an old guitar, won't ever stay in tuneI like the way it sounds in a dark and empty room
I got an old pair of boots, and they fit just right Well I can work all day, and I can dance all night
I got an old used car, and it runs just like a topI get the feelin' it ain't ever gonna stop
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
I got a pretty good friend who's seen me at my worst
He can't tell if I'm a blessing or a curse
But he always shows up when chips are down
That's the kind of stuff I like to be around
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall
I got a woman I love, she's crazy, paints like God
She's got a playground sense of justice, she won't take odds
I got a tattoo with her name right through my soul
I think everything she touches turns to gold
Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don't hang on the wall
Stuff that's real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall

Perhaps, the boots we have, the old car, the pretty good friend, and the partner we love are the stuff that's real, stuff we feel. The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall. Stay with the stuff that's real.
Resist the upgrade.
Keep going- Aaron

Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: Working Vacations: Why we do it and how to stop
I received a desperate email that read, "I'm in leadership, working crazy hours, working through my vacation last week instead of resting, and the story goes on."

The gravitational pull is to always be connected, always available, and always responding- even on vacation. I've done it too-taken calls on the beach while the kids swam, squeezed in a few emails before breakfast, dialed into a "quick" call during dinner, returning seven days later, tired and frustrated.

Why do we struggle to step away, trusting that others can and will find their path to good outcomes?

Reminds me of the children's book, "If You Give A Pig a Pancake" A cautionary tale of saying yes once, the Pig never relents from her requests.

Excerpt from the book
If you give a pig a pancake, she'll want some syrup to go with it.
Pig: May I please have some syrup?
When she gets all sticky, she'll want to take a bath.
Pig: May I please have some bubbles and a toy?
When you give her your rubber duck, she'll feel homesick.

Book by Laura Numeroff

Your working vacation and The Pig

Sticking with our Pig and a pancake analogy, here's the version of the story you're familiar with from your most recent holiday break. The new requests are like the Pig-never fully satisfied.

(Sunday night email) If you can join the call on Tuesday morning at 630am, I promise it will be a quick one.

(Monday text) After the call, May I please also receive a written summary and go ahead and put it into a few PPT pages?

(Tuesday email & text) There is an RFP we're working on that just came in-quick deadline. I would love for you to answer just a few questions on pages 12-28. Do you mind? It would be super helpful-its due before you return from holiday.

(Wednesday email) May I please have only two more hours of your attention, during that family dinner you'd planned, the RFP client has a Q&A-the only time everyone is available. You can make it, right?

-You get the picture. It's not a vacation. It's what my friend calls "PTO-Pretend Time Off".

"If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will."

-Greg McKeown, Essentialism

Here's my advice for how to enable real rest

In the modern world, rest is vital to replenish the nutrients in our creative engines. Prioritize your rest and recovery. Operationalize your values with better choices. Take responsibility and do your creative best with your own life. In your absence, trust that others will step up and in to solve the challenges of the day.

For your next holiday, borrow my out-of-office auto-responder. Here's the one I use, (Thanks Well-being thought leader Jen Fisher for the inspiration)

"I will be out of the office on vacation with my family beginning Monday, July 3rd, returning July 17th. I and my devices will be resting, replenishing my creative engine. I look forward to responding upon my return."

Out of Office autoresponder

Recover your life and enable yourself a real rest.

You can do this.
Keep going-
Aaron
Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: Paying attention to being on and off purpose
So you don't yet know what your life purpose is, why you are here and what you are here to do. Try paying attention to the moments, the conversations, the ways you feel On Purpose. Here are a few small On Purpose practices that help me experience purposeful living and leading.

I'm like WALL-E the Pixar Robot. My family giggles, but I pick up trash everywhere I go. I value caring for the planet and our home instead of stepping over debris in parking lots and trails. I kneel and clean as I go about life wherever I am. I'm On Purpose when I'm participating in restoring the planet's beauty.

Imagine how beautiful our world will be when 7.9 billion people care for our home.

Here's another On Purpose practice. I put down my phone when going through a check-out lane at a store or in a drive-through. I choose to honor and engage the human being before me. I believe Saint Paul "we are God's workmanship" we human beings are valuable, and I dignify the Divine in them by giving one another our full attention.

This way of operating in the world applies with senior executives or a customer service rep; I'm On Purpose when I'm dignifying every human.

Imagine how we will treat one another when we believe all human beings are valuable.

We will find ourselves Off Purpose, for moments, maybe for weeks and years, ignoring and running the risk of eventually forgetting what we value and believe.

The poet David Whyte worked with a group of particularly thoughtful managers, looking at how we sacrifice our personal desires (Off Purpose) on the altar of work and success. One of the women in the group shared a handful of haunting lines:
"Ten years ago…
I turned my face for a moment
and it became my life."

With grace and curiosity, pay attention to your compass needle. Notice when you've traveled many miles without checking your instrumentation. Regularly ask yourself, "where am I? how am I? where am I heading?" It's much easier to make regular minor adjustments than waiting too long.

You'll be surprised to discover that after paying attention, strengthening your awareness muscle, making two-degree shifts, "what's my purpose, what am I here to do?" becomes easier to dance with. It won't be about having the correct answer anymore. You'll speak about the way you live, work, play, and love.

Stay alert. Choose being On Purpose.

Keep going-
Aaron
Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: Losing our sense of frontier in life

“Without going out into the fresh air, stepping away from the house, without getting caught in a storm, without getting cold, wet, without feeling hungry, a human being begins to lose their sense of frontier in their life. Their sense of edge in their own explorations.”

-David Whyte

When was the last time you stepped away from the house, took a long walk, and felt the cold air, the wind on your cheeks, grumbles of hunger?

Where is the frontier in your life? The unexplored edges of uncertainty. Forget the places of mastery and dominion. Where are you, the student, the novice, an explorer?

Where are you exploring the unknown, unfamiliar landscape of your life, the contours off the map?

Get outside, leave the pack and your sweater. Feel the cold. Remember that the frontier is where you feel alive.

Keep going-
Aaron

Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: Transmission For The Outsiders

I once believed, If I stopped writing for a while, a pause from publishing and promoting, I'd more readily find the words below the surface.
I see now I may never catalog the anthologies of my soul while in silence.
I believed the world's volume and density were too much to puncture.

I broadcast on a lower frequency for those beyond the crowds.

I used to believe I needed to understand what I was trying to say; who's it for? What's it about? how will it help?

Now I know the grounded substance of my Life, my rooted strength, transmits "wake up to your Life. God's with us."

I'm puzzled by five-year plans, same-day shipping, fresh strawberries in February, Alexa, and how humans claim to love while radically excluding.

Call me a zealot of simplicity, sustainability, and radical love of outsiders.

It's Love who wrote the play.
Keep going-
Aaron
Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: 570+ Days of Running: The Joy of Being Alive
This episode is a simple recording of my run on day 570+ above the mountains of Telluride, CO. I'm not always enthusiastic to run again, the pull to do nothing-rest-make an excuse is real. This day, I celebrated the gift of being fully alive.

Backstory on running everyday
At the beginning of COVID, I decided to run a life experiment, inspired by my son Holden and the work of James Clear. 570+ days and counting, I'm growing an everyday muscle- habit streaking -by running a minimum of one mile every day. 

Atomic Habits, Clear's book on tiny habits, caught my attention, giving validation to my question, "How can I just do it-stop the fits and starts?" Here are a few core ideas to his work, 

+Become 1% better over time, not tomorrow.

+Make the new habit so small you can't fail. 

+Never miss twice.

+Root your new habit or practice in an identity statement, e.g., "I'm an everyday runner."
Keep going- 
Aaron
Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: We are Not Human Doings

Can you remember? Can you remember the last time you walked out your front door and wandered-no plans-no reservations-and explored your own backyard, the simple spots, maybe even the lost places?

Adventure awaits the curious-hearted, an escape hatch from the mundane and predictable tyranny of screens and mindless routines.

Rambling infuses joy into your life and reminds your soul that productivity and conquest are not your primary purpose here.

We are not human doings.

We are human beings intimately created to connect.

You can do this.
Keep Going-
Aaron

Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: Why Not Today! Everybody should go big

In this episode, I take you along for my eighteen mile walking, hiking, climbing adventure of Eagle Peak near my home. You'll hear the cold, the wind, and my invitation for you to explore your frontier-push beyond the humdrum of life. 

I've heard it said,
“Boredom comes simply from ignorance and lack of imagination.” -Susan Ertz

Leave the house, why not today, go big and see what you discover.

You can do this. This is good for you. 
Keep going-
Aaron
Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: Dropping the rock

I've been thinking. I am thinking about dropping rocks, not seeing clearly, and being led.

By rock, I mean being stuck in the past, beholden to an old story no longer serving you, an old unresolved grievance costing you joy today.

My son and I were in Barcelona, Spain, waiting in line to explore La Sagrada Familia one-of-a-kind temple.

I'd just been grumbling, a well-rehearsed old-narrative regret I'd carried for nearly three decades. I'm sure I'd bored him ten times before. Here's how it went, "I regret never taking that study abroad summer course in Guadalajara, Mexico, before mom and I married. I wish… I can't believe it… If only I had…"

The story I was telling him there, on the threshold of one of the world's most holy and sacred spaces, was how different my life would have looked without this life-altering mistake that "I blew it-this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." The punchline was always about how I would have traveled internationally, learned a second language, and become a more sophisticated world citizen.

Anecdotally Holden, shared with me about their recovery community's Drop the Rock meeting format.

Bring your rocks in with you. Drop the rocks you're carrying. Leave empty-handed. Lighter.

Standing in line, my heavy rock became apparent to me.
What a load of crap I'd talked myself into.

Not seeing clearly
The saying goes, "We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are." Now Fifty years old, I'd retold this regret story so many times that it'd become unnoticeable, outside my field of vision. It was the interpretive lens, the way I saw and witnessed my life.

Here I was standing in Barcelona, Spain, (international travel) with my son (deeply connected in the relationship), practicing duo-lingo Spanish (learning a foreign language), working abroad professionally, returning from a week in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains (a more sophisticated world citizen HA!).

HERE I AM! I couldn't see any of that. I'd convinced myself my regretful decision thirty years prior would forever suppress my future.

I dropped the rock. I let go of the regret and the life-less interpretation of my youthful choice. I'm radically allowing the voice of Love to heal me on the inside, unlocking more freedom.

Listen to the stories you're telling yourself on repeat. Drop the rock. See clearly. Allow the eyes of your heart to be enlightened to see clearly-to see ALL of Reality. Remind your soul we're being led. God's with us. Thru us and in us.

You can do this.
Keep going-
Aaron

Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, I released ten new podcast episodes to celebrate my Decade Anniversary of Work Life Play. I'm proud to share these little gems with you. I know they will help you live more fully in your adventure, explore a well-lived life and find more meaning in your daily experience.

A decade ago
I began podcasting in 2012 with borrowed equipment, no training, with a simple idea "I wanted to explore."

I experimented with one tiny step, then the next. Back then, there was no map to How to Podcast. With trust and boldness, I booked my first two guests before I knew how to record or publish an episode. I should have shared this with my guests. Ha!

Compelled to explore beyond the map of my life experiences, expand my mind and heart, and curate stories of good humans. That's as far as I knew. With hindsight's wisdom, I borrow Parker Palmer's explanation for "Why did you do it?" "This is something I can't NOT do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself, but that are nonetheless compelling."

You're listening to a decade of exploration. The fruits are beyond just inspiration, but transformation for myself and many of you. Enjoy, experiment, and keep going. It's worth it.

-Aaron

Episode: A brave conversation with yourself

The modern world is a hindrance to soulful exploration. The naked soul of man is too timid, too armored to disclose whole truths quickly. Step slowly into the quiet, spacious places to explore the courageous questions that lay in wait beyond your full-throttled Life.

Maybe it's been a while since you had a bold conversation with yourself. Get out there. Forget the map. Get lost if you must.

With God as your guide, explore and whisper your questions. Stay out there. Then return with your heart forward and your spirit attuned to mapping the edges of your frontier.

Abundant, vibrant Life awaits. You can do this.

Keep going-
Aaron

Work Life Play Merch available here

Friends, today I wanna talk about how zigzag lines make for a better story. So, good story is not a straight line I heard a friend say just recently. And it really arrested my attention mostly because I wish it wasn't true. Intellectually I know this idea, like, it makes sense. Like when you listen to the arc of a story, the hero's journey, all of that is like, oh, of course, a hero wants something. They have to go through some challenge and obstacle to overcome, to become someone different, to then arrive at the other side and, [vocalization].

However, living that is really challenging for us. I remember the reason this really hit home for me recently is decades ago in the beginning, I really wanted to be a mountain guide. And I was working in outdoor retail and was apprenticing as a guide under a guide service and just couldn't wait to be like, that was gonna be my career. And then I would be out exploring the rugged blank spots on the map. And really at the time I just had a lot of internal grapple when that didn't come to be.

And, you know, I thought that if at the time if I went into the business world that I was somehow going to lose my friendship with the heart of God because for growing up, I didn't really know anyone in business. The only few that I did know were not necessarily inspiring humans. And so I thought that the mountains was gonna be the way that I could, you know, become the person I'm intended to be. So as my wife and I began to have kids and I got a full-time job selling radio advertising and, you know, home by 5 PM for dinner and bedtime stories, my outdoor life shrunk substantially. And really at the time, I remember just, not only were we having a great time, but internally I just felt like, well, I guess I kind of misread the' tea leaves' there and, you know, oh, here we go, this is the story that's in front of me right now.

And so maybe you're like me, maybe you really just prefer an A plus B equals C plan. The one that's linear, it's sequential, has predictable outcomes and only straight lines. And if you're like me, then maybe my friend Jon Blase’s poem will help land this idea a little bit. He writes the same apparently. So he is talking about people with, you know, five-year plans, forged through life with a plan, a map they chart by bolder stars. I, on the other hand, wake to mild confusion, most days, not about the tiny aspects of self-respect, such as brushing my teeth and paying my bills, but more like the big things. Like my destiny, etc. Thanks, John. So for me, I'm not a celestial navigator either. But I do wake and this is I guess a path that I found to bring life. I do wake most days and start with radical surrender and asking God to accept the path that's in front of me for this day. There's a great writing by King David I'll add here too from Psalm 119, from The Message translation. And he says, "You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You're blessed when you follow His directions, doing your best to find Him. That's right you don't go off on your own. You walk straight along the road He sets." David White calls it the pale ground beneath our feet.

So in this desire for straight unbroken lines, linear paths from A to B, and oftentimes just losing the path along the way of feeling like, well, I guess that was never to be, or I guess I misread the 'tea leaves', or I totally got that wrong and botched it, that'll never come to be. What I'm learning now, as I stare down age 50, that inclusive of all of my jagged lines, the cliff jumps, the plummets, the high places, unbroken lines as Wendell Berry writes, all have culminated in a story that I would love to tell you over a campfire sometime. That now here I am wholehearted, still friends with God. And now I'm finding myself accompanying clients in both the frontiers of business and wilderness settings.

My conclusion is I've been led. So my invitation to you today, friends, is embrace your long way around. All of the squiggly lines, and allow yourself to be led. Because a great story, a good story is often not a straight line. You can do this. It's good for you.

Keep going.

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking. I've been thinking about the slippery slope, the slippery slope of...as humans, as leaders, we find ourselves in a place progressively over time far from where we intended to be or accidentally just waking up one day and finding that we're in a place that no longer looks familiar or is no longer desirable. I've found myself on that slope many time. I just had a conversation with a friend this morning, and he was stating, after a year of really intentional work and changes in family, moved into a new home, found himself in a place of work rhythms, lifestyle rhythms that were unfamiliar and undesirable. Really not a place, like, "Why am I doing this? How did I get here?" And it's really helpful to know and have the awareness to start with. "Huh. This isn't working." Paying attention...what I talk about often is the dashboard lights of your life, and they start going off.

For me, sometimes it happens in sleep where I notice, boy, I'm sure up a lot at 1 to 2:30 in the morning with lists of unfinished things in my head. Or, boy, I really notice that I'm way less patient than I wanna be, or I really notice that I'm finding the Zoom world of constantly switching of 30-minute or 60-minute blocks and the mental fatigue that that requires. I was just reading a book from Cal Newport on Deep Work, and he talked about how the mental...basically IQ points go down through the day from the progressive switching between topic and between task. That we actually become dumber effectively is what it means.

So what do we do? What do we do when we find ourselves in a place where it isn't where we started, it's not where we intended to be, or, simply, where we want to be or what we want to be experiencing is something different than what we currently are. And I believe it usually, like, begins with two vocabulary words. One is starting to say yes to different things and say no to others. And those two words, yes and no, pulling those out, looking at those, one in our left hand, one in our right, and deciding, "Okay, now what are the mends and adjustments and trades I can make?" For myself, I notice this constant gravitational pull to say yes to more client work, to say yes to the next opportunity, to say yes to that next small thing.

My wife was in a training program, and they called 'em, "The big things that you put in a bowl are oranges. The small things you put in a bowl are Skittles." And it's much easier to have a bowl that you start with oranges in than it is to start with a bowl, fill it full of Skittles, and then try and shove the oranges in. And oranges being figurative for the things, the big, juicier, meatier, chunkier pieces of your commitments, your yeses and then moving into, then, adding the small bits around those big blocks. So for me, personally, I find it really fatiguing when I end up with a bowl full of Skittles of just tons of little bitty penny ante small things I'm doing. And for me, as I learn to lead myself, learn to lead others, the impact I seek to create has to do with fewer yeses to Skittles, more no to those small little things, and stronger...my friend called them "straight spine" and "open heart" yeses, where the oranges are easier to place in, so that I don't find myself on down the road fatigued and surprised of the results of the impact of my experience of my work and my life and, in the end, finding myself on the slippery slope in some place I don't intend to be or choose not to be.

So start with a yes. Figure out where those yeses need to be invested fully, and then where are some of the noes. I just, before recording this episode, said no to two separate invitations, so that I can keep the integrity of the yeses that I'd formally already committed to. You can do this, friends.

Keep going. This is good for you.

Aaron

Friends, this is Aaron. And I've been thinking. I've been thinking about to-do lists versus to-be lists. One of my mentors these last few years introduced me to the idea of a to-be list. I really shook my head at first. Like you mean like to be, as in like to be and to not be? What do you mean, to be? Well, she went on to talk about how each of us have, like, a to-do list, you know, shit-we've-got-to-get-done list, things that we want to make a difference in, things we need to accomplish, deadlines, timelines, deliverables. Great. But have we ever, have I, have you ever stopped to start with a daily to-be list? I kid you not, I remember months ago, I wrote down in the morning my to-be list. I wanna be patient, I wanna be open, I wanna be a non-reactive presence.

And within 2 hours, maybe it was 60 minutes, it was short, I found myself with a client live and the client on the other end of Zoom, we were in a breakout room and we were doing this game, I pushed on the wrong tile button on this maze experience that we were doing, and it was my error, but the client really got animated. We came back into the big breakout room and the client in a tile full of Brady Bunch people of a hundred, said, "I blame you." And I thought, oh my, okay, here we go. Thank goodness I have a to-be list because I want to be a non-reactive presence. I had an opportunity to practice that, and if it wasn't for my to-be list of the day, then I wouldn't have had that orientation already in my operating system around who do I wanna be, how do I want to be today.

My list for today, I want to be a mountaineer, I want to be a reader, I want to be a lover, a brother, a deep creator, I want to be a runner, an artist. What will I do with these today? Only time will tell. Very helpful to accompany my to-do list, who I want to be, and how I want to be. Friends, you can do this.

Keep going. This is good for you.

Aaron

Today I want to share something more intimate with you about pain and living forward. Earlier this year, my family and I we honored the 10-year anniversary of our daughter Hadley's passing and her death in 2011. And I found myself for a couple months, just feeling the... I don't even know if weight is the right word, but just the honoring of the reality of learning to live each of us individually and collectively as a family how to live forward. How to actually move forward. And it's definitely become easier by the year but doesn't mean the the pain or the loss is not there.

It's just a new way of learning to live holding both joy and pain at the same time. So I wanna share with you a poem that I wrote. Her birthday is upcoming.

This month I always tend to be reflective as well. And our holiday seasons are always bookended by her birthday and then her anniversary of her passing. I'll share the poem with you now and then reflect on it a little bit with you, 10 years living forward,  

"Ten rings later in the oak tree. Ten rings later and the oak tree. Radius etchings tell the truth of living forward. Closer to fine. Empty bedroom, not to dinner. Quiet, deafening, disappearance. No search party assembled. Empty wheelchair affixed for helium flight. Unconvincing logic to limbic smells and sounds. Was that her shadow? Her cry? Hair clippers to mourn the reminder of not fine. Staggering, limping, walking, living again, rings seared chronicles of summers laughing. Winters ruminating, springs living. All the roots go deeper when it's dry."

So as I reflect back on her death in passing, I envision this trees aging rings, a cross section of a log. And as you see like in the rings, each annual etching tells a different story. Some are like thick with growth. In a tree, it's like, "Oh wow, there must have been a lot of rain that year, was lots of moisture, easy for that tree to grow." Others are really thin, very small amount of growth, but the tree is still standing. And as I began to reflect on that as her passing, no search party assembled, she was missing at dinner. Her bedroom was empty. But we knew why. In our mind. But our soul and our body didn't. Our limbic brain, the part of our brain that stores meaning, and sense, and smell aroused by someone's presence. I remember just being haunted by that for years, "Oh, it sounded like her. Oh, that's not her. Was that her cry? No."

And in the honoring of her passing, I had read a passage in the book of Job. And when Job's children had died, so many tragedies had become him. But it was the last straw when the house collapsed on all of his children. And the two things he did was he shaved his head and worship God. I remember having my kids, Averi and Holden, shave my head with me. And I wore my hair clipper down to skin for a year, just to remind myself, I'm not fine, and that's okay, but have a visceral reminder.

I would go to touch my head in the morning and it would have these, you know, scaly bumps from no hair, or I'd be cold, or I looked not attractive in the mirror. But all of those were reminders. That's okay. I'm not supposed to be fine. And then as we progressed, moving through summers laughing, winters ruminating, and springs living, moving from staggering and limping to walking to living again, and all the roots go deeper when it's dry.

So, friends, like you, I've lived long enough to know to live authentically, to become wholehearted requires us to embrace our humanities spectrum, and remind our souls that God is with us and for us, even when, even when. Friends, you can do this. It's worth it. You're worth it.

Keep going,

Aaron

Friends, today what's on my mind is piercing the veneer of outside things. Ernest Shackleton, infamous Antarctic explorer, at the turn of the century, the 19th century, did this expedition in Antarctica. His men famously were trapped in the sea ice over 23 months, they found their way back home, each of them living. And in his memoirs, he wrote called "South,“ I'll share with you, two sentences. "We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had reached the naked soul of men."

I find this particular piece, the veneer, this... I remember in shop class as a kid in high school adding like a coating of veneer, a lacquer on top of whatever it was, we were creating. So veneer can be like a barrier, right? It could be thin, could be thick, could be many-layered, but how do we pierce the veneer of outside things? And I find often in our world that we live in, this modern world, the veneer of outside things exist in polished half-truths, phrases that I don't love like, "Oh, how you doing?" "Oh, I'm great. So busy, so busy," we say. Operating at 7,000 RPMs, drop the merit badge of busy and pierce the veneer. Real connection, real belonging, real community exists in the deeper textures. It's not on your phone. It's not on the flip. It's not in busy. Be whole, be intentional, be on purpose, reach the naked soul.

You can do this, friends. This is good for you.

Let's keep going,

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking, I've been thinking about dreaming bigger dreams. A friend of mine sent me a poem in the mail, a prayer over the summer. I've kept, keep going back and rereading these lines. And it reads, "Disturb me, Lord, when I am too well, pleased with myself, when my dreams have come true, because I have dreamed too little." So as I asked myself and wonder about these lines, what are my new dreams? Not the old, the vintage ones of yesteryear. What are the bashful whispers? The ones too big to say out loud. What if we whispered them with intuition? With heart, without knowing how? What if we speak it into the reality of the world as our prayer? We take it as a cue of the opening line of, "Disturb me Lord, when I am too well, pleased with myself, when my dreams have come true, because I have dreamed too little." Friends, danger is calling, danger is for good. Speak those dreams, those whispers, and let's begin to live into the questions of how might we bring bigger dreams to life?

Friends, this is good for us. You can do this. It's worth it.

Keep going,

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking about what does the world really need? Our world is pretty complex, complicated place these days, no matter what part of the globe you live on. And I've been thinking about how what the world really needs is more wholehearted humans.

Two quotes to get us started. Parker Palmer. "I wanted more than a job. I wanted deeper congruence between my inner and outer life." Congruence in that is about the who I am. My friend calls it a plum line, between who I am, what I think, feel and do, and they're all lined up. So let me read it again to you. "I wanted more than a job. I wanted deeper congruence between my inner and outer life."

Second quote, Andrew Bennett. The longest journey you will ever take. "The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart."

So friends, if we desire more than just a job, our vocational experience and existence becoming more than just showing up with our butt in a chair, all present for roll call. If we desire our neighborhoods when I hear people say, oh, I've never talked to my neighbor. I don't know who my neighbors are. I'm like, well, have you ever actually walked over and knocked on their door and said hi? And if we dared a dream beyond this transactional interchange of relationship, the mini-dramas, and small living.

The way I see it, there's really only one choice. The courageous choice, the more challenging, fulfilling choice is put your money down, buy the golden ticket of congruence and the plum line that runs through you and buckle up for the mysterious beauty and mess of discovering how to foster friendship of heart and head, that 18 inches. What if your friends of head and heart were deeply part of how you live and who you are? And how do we cultivate a deep knowing of God as our friend? Here's a promise. There's no quick shortcut, VIP line to skip ahead. And oh, by the way, this one alluded me for a long time. There's also not a finish line. We'll never be done. When we begin to embrace living more wholeheartedly in the world that we occupy.

What does the world need? More of us to sign up, buy the ticket, wear the t-shirt, and get started living more true, restored friends with our heart and our head, friends with God, and deeper congruence between our inner and outer life. Friends, it is good for us, I bought the ticket. You can do this.

Let's keep going.

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking about an idea that David Whyte wrote about. He titled it "The Economy of Presence." And he told the story in his book about this old sheepdog, Cymro in the Welsh countryside, and this dog, older of the bunch with limp, had a blind eye. He talked about how one ear's flopped over, one ear that's up is raised and black. And he had this what he titled as "The Economy of Presence," that he could stand... He could do the job with the lightest touch, he writes. He knew the pivotal places to stand. And he told the story about how the young sheepdogs would run up and back, lots of noise, lots of activity, lots of energy expended, in order to get the sheep to move where they wanted them to go. Contrast that with the older, wiser, somewhat haggard, Cymro, through his economy of presence, knowing the pivotal places to stand, said he could do it with the lightest touch, the pivotal places to do the job with the lightest touch. So he could lean, he could move ahead, he could tilt, he could stand in the right place at the right time in the right way and have the same or better result. And the sheep would respond. And they would go through this crack or segment in the wall where they could punch through.

I've been thinking about this for ourselves as leaders, as the wholehearted leaders, what would it look like for us to perform the job with the lightest touch, to know where are the pivotal places to stand? Not everywhere, not up and back, not scurrying and hurrying but to be in the right place, at the right time, and in the right way. I can admit for myself I don't yet know. I don't know where all those places are but I know that every new practice, every new integration starts in the moment of asking the question, in this now moment with this team that I'm spending time with, with this conversation, with this project, with this deliverable. Where is there an opportunity for the lightest touch, a lesser touch, and an economy of presence? You could do this, friends.

Keep going. This is good for us.

Aaron

Today I've been thinking about developing an everyday muscle. I've been 600 days and counting now in this life experiment. So it feels like it's time to share it with you. So I've always wanted to be more consistent. Like, I would call like stone colds just steady. The person who like, skips all of the fussing and excuses, mini-dramas for why I do or don't do things consistently. And the truth is I've always probably found ways to overcome a lack of consistency by just, you know, fits and starts, or like, talent, you know, I could like delay, you know, if it's a deadline or whatever it may be. In that spirit, I've always wanted to be the guy who would just show up, do the work and kind of enough said. Instead, I've been the guy in the past with lengthy explanations mostly to myself.

So at the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to run a life experiment and it was inspired by two things I wanna tell you about. And that's my son and his now six years of sobriety and the work of James Clear, he wrote a book called "Atomic Habits". And then just a third input as well I also had a friend doing this exact same experiment that he had already completed one year. So those trio inputs kind of came together.

James Clear book was really helpful it's this idea of starting with tiny habits. How do you embed and adopt new habits in your life? Lots of books out there on habits, this one just plain and simply culminated in time and attention and I found it incredibly helpful. Here are a couple of punchlines from his book that I found really incredibly useful in this.

• How do we grow an everyday muscle is become 1% better over time, not 10%, 5%.
• Make the new habit so small you can't fail. Never miss twice.
• And then root your new habit or practice in an identity statement.

My new habit, my tiny practice, my everyday muscle is about running. I started running one mile a day and it was rooted in I want to be an everyday runner. Inspiration number two, my son had just crossed over five years sober at the time, I believe. My wife had gone through and totaled up the number of days he had not in his community they call it drugging and drinking. He had not drugged and drank for over 2000 days. And I was reflecting on that like, oh my gosh, I couldn't think of anything I've done for 15 days, 200 days, let alone 2000 every single day without fail.

I was even thinking about brushing my teeth. Do I actually brush my teeth every single day? No. There's some Saturdays and Sundays where I'm home, where I'm like, yeah, I never brushed my teeth today.

So this idea of how might I become more like my son with who has this strength of sobriety in his life around this everyday muscle? And how might I embed that in my life as a person without excuse, but just moves forward with purpose and action and choice to develop this interior strength. So this big idea was what if without fail, I just start a new practice every day. I'll run one mile a day. And in your case, insert whatever new habit you might consider. And for me, the one mile, the reason it was important was it's not two, it's not six, many days I run longer than a mile. But just the every day of get up, move my body, get going, and log it.

I think I'm 603, 604 days in my practice. And have had that do some modifications here and there. If I'm in the backcountry with a backpack, you know, as long as it's three miles or longer, I count that. I don't actually physically have to run, but when they, my family and I were sick a year ago, we all, I made sure I got out, even if it was pathetically short.

We've mixed it up with some, what do we call? Our chugging run one evening with some buddies, it was drink a beer run a mile on repeat, just to make it fun. And in the end, what I've found is now one mile I've become 1% better over time by starting small. I have never missed twice. I have a little habit tracker app.

I'll put in the show notes for how to do that. And there's a component around accountability That's really important as well. And then my identity now includes becoming an everyday runner and that I am a runner. I am consistent. Which then also helps feed not only my physical body, but it also is a jumping-off point for other places in my life of like, look, well, I started that new thing. I have that everyday muscle in that way. What if I broke something down so small, you can't fail. Turn it into never miss twice and adopt a new practice that's rooted in something I want to become. Someone I want to become.

So friends, developing an everyday muscle, if that's for you, if you have a curiosity. My wife is some 580 days in on her own experiment of walking every day for 6 minutes. So it doesn't have to be revolutionary. Yeah, whatever it may be. There's been lots of people that have adopted these practices. They're very contagious. Once you start in your respective communities, outlining what you're up to. You can do this. It's worth it.

Keep going,

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking about writing it down by hand instead. In this world of digital texts, instant messages, DMs, emails, screenshots, emojis, and all kinds of other stuff that I don't even know what they are. What if we took out a piece of paper, a pen, tear out a page in a magazine. Locate your favorite stationery, go to a card store and buy a card. And what if you...I use maps all the time. I use maps from wilderness places I've been, national parks that I visit, I keep all those maps and use them, and hand write down your thoughts, your appreciations, your birthday wishes, and goodbyes.

Years ago, a friend of ours shared his homemade birthday card with me and he said, I make all of my cards. I remember just thinking, what? You do what? Like, that's cool. As a result, I don't know that I've actually purchased a birthday card since. Even started, I bought this little digital printer where it prints your photos from your phone in little like sticker size, little like two by twos with a sticky back. So I've even started using those to hand-make cards. And, specifically birthday cards just recently for our family members all in October.

So I went through and last month just scribe notes and went through writing letters on these topographic maps to a friend of ours in a trauma program in recovery. And what I found is these handwritten words, they create physical artifacts to reside in our lives. That the connection in this always-on, always programmed world, that we live in, we write it down by hand, serves as a reminder of being loved, being seen for who we are, how we want to be in the world, and enabling for others to feel seen as well. Friends, live bravely and write it down, write it by hand to bring more life with others. You can do this.

Keep going,

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking, what can you not not do? Parker Palmer writes, "Vocation at its deepest level. This is something I can't not do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else, and don't fully understand myself, that that are nonetheless compelling." I love that. Such a generous, expansive invitation for us to consider, what can we not do? I can't help myself.

What's the thing you find yourself thinking, exploring, without prompt or obligation? A friend of mine recently told me that he cannot not photograph bacteria. Like what? Come again. He was telling me about how he, my friend Rob, he discovered these galaxies in this like do it yourself home petri dishes. And he was literally like unable to stop himself. So he documented his work in a children's book for his daughter. How fantastic is that? So where are we compelled for reasons we do not understand even to ourself? What I love about this is that we get absolved of the necessity to explain. We don't need to attempt to explain why it's sensible or it's not. Why we're qualified or we should. What we're gonna do about it or not. We just get thrust into feeling compelled and paying attention to what is compelling us forward.

When I apply this question for myself, I'm compelled for reasons I do not fully understand and cannot explain a good reason for helping humans thrive. Recharging my mind and soul in wilderness and wild places to go first, down unknown paths to extract and excavate my interior life onto pen, paper, and audio and share it here with you, which is perplexing at times. And to make maps, like a cartographer, documenting the typography, edges of the frontier, and business of the heart in spiritual life with God.

I want to close with one more quote from Frederick Buechner, "When we think of these things that compel us, we're unable to explain to ourselves, what if the place that God calls us, you, is to the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet? So what is it that you cannot do? You can't help yourself from being curious about? And might it be in that place of deep gladness, it actually meets a world with deep hunger." Friends, this is good for you. This is good for us.

Let's keep going,

Aaron

Friends, I've been thinking about the words of Saint Paul. He wrote this simple couple sentences that I've been meditating on for the last year and revisiting. He writes, "Make a careful exploration, make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life." I found that, what is that? Four sentences? Five sentences? Incredibly disruptive, incredibly expansive, incredibly life-giving. And what I found is, even the first few lines, words, make a careful exploration of who you are.

Wow, careful, explore. This question of, "Well, who am I? Like, who am I made to be?" I believe we are intimately designed and created and so in that, we don't come with a operator's manual. It's like when you buy a new TV or computer, you get the user guide. Well, there isn't one specifically for each one of us, we have to discover and make a careful exploration of how we operate when we're at our best, who we are, how we're uniquely created and designed, how our life has formed us, how our experiences have formed us and the choices that we've made. And that we are continuing to make of who we are and who we want to be and how we operate in the world.

I find that to be a very poignant choice is to be intentional about those things or pretend that they're just happy accidents. And the work you've been given and sink yourself into that. I find so interesting that work is so much of our context in what we do, whether it's folding laundry, cutting grass, as a math teacher, as a physician, as a mom, as a CPA, as a bookkeeper, a retail checkout person in the sporting goods section.

What is the work that we've been given today? The work that's in front of us today. The work as a nurse, the work as a consultant, the work as a salesperson, the work as a bank teller, the work as a mom. What is the work that's been given to us today? And sink yourself into that. So don't go left or right. Don't go searching. Don't go wandering, just sink yourself fully into today. And then in case you forget, don't be impressed with yourself. Advice from St. Paul. Don't think your shit don't stink. I have a buddy of mine that I think of. We talk about often about not taking the line, as you progress in your career often you end up with a short line, oh, this friend of mine had told this story to me of when he became a senior executive, then he was at a cocktail party and he was waiting in the long line. And then this woman came up to him and said, "Oh, Mr. so-and-so, that's not the line for executives come with me." And we were talking about how easy it is to slowly become impressed with yourself, to slowly think you're a big deal, to slowly believe you're better than others.

Paul continues, "And don't compare yourself with others." I find that incredibly helpful. I play that game so often in my head, comparing myself with other people. And it's entirely unfruitful because each of us must take responsibility for doing the creative best we can with our own life. So what does it look like to take responsibility for doing the creative best we can today in this life? The one we have today, in the place we live today, with the neighbors we live next to, with the people that we lead and love, those entrusted to our care, with the responsibilities that we have, with the accountabilities that are ours.

How do we do the creative best we can with our own life today? Friends, keep going. This is good for us. This will enhance, yeah, the relationships in our life. The work that we do, the impact we create, and the intimacy we seek. Thank you, Saint Paul. Kingdom come.

Keep going,

Aaron

In today's episode, I want you to meet my friend and Flamenco dancer Ana Lucia Jardim. I want to share with you a tiny moment when she and her trio shared the beautiful art of Flamenco with a room full of work colleagues in San Francisco. I knew this was a moment to savor, so I pulled out my phone, recorded the audio of their music, singing and dancing, and a year later, reflected together, and here's what she shared.

Special thanks and acknowledgement to singer, Roberto Zamora http://robertozamora.com/index.html and David McLean https://www.davidmclean.net/ Flamenco Guitarist and Composer, Todd Anderson our producer and Ana Lucia Jardim our wise guide.

I'm signing-off here for this year to resume again in early 2021. To all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday.

Keep going. You can do this.
Aaron

In the last person standing town, Scott Teems makes his home in Los Angeles, with a passion for telling stories through film. As a Hollywood and television writer and director, Scott Teems shares with us today on Work Life Play, the importance of showing up every day and why you need someone in your corner who believes in you.We talk about his life as a Hollywood and television writer and director, why most people quit sooner (and don’t go the distance), the supporting people, namely his wife TJ, and properly calibrated expectations to pursue big dreams.
Scott brings us in close to educating us about how a film comes together from casting, location scouting, screenwriting, editing, and securing funding for a movie.

Watch for Scott Teem’s upcoming Big screen studio works Halloween Kills (sequel to Halloween releasing the Fall of 2021. He wrote Firestarter, Stephen King adaptation, starring Zac Efron which begins shooting in 2021 releasing in 2022. 

Also check out THE QUARRY, You can watch the trailer here and read a review here. (Amazon, Apple TV, AT&T, Dish, DIRECTV, Google Play, Microsoft, etc.).

THAT EVENING SUN, available to rent the film on Vimeo.

Scott's documentary, HOLBROOK/TWAIN, is available on Amazon, Apple/iTunes, VUDU, or Google Play! Holbrook/Twain backstory and Collectors edition DVD set here.

Matthew Zachary is my guest today for the audacious role he plays in the fight against cancer. Personally, this topic is significant to me. For most of the past two years, I’ve invested my client work energy supporting a major pharmaceutical organization as they re-imagine, re-engineer their approach to cure cancer and extend the lives of patients. Matthew’s founded Stupid Cancer, a brain cancer survivor himself, Newsweek calls him a Cancer Rebel, Deepak Chopra says he’s a Peace healer. Now his podcast, Out of Patients-sorting out the BS in healthcare through raw conversations about patient advocacy. I dedicate this episode to Peb and Bill, my friends. May you keep going further.

Years ago, I believed that my "real life" went on pause when my responsibilities took over. For instance, when I traveled for work, my "life" was paused while I fulfilled my work duty. This limiting mindset, the lenses through which I interpreted my life, informed my narrow experience of my life. Everything was in a container. Open this container when I "Work," this container when I "Play." This old mindset prevailed when traveling for work; I believed that I was away from my "real life," The trip was a necessary interruption, but inconveniently pausing my experience of living my life.
I now believe that I choose to live my life regardless of where I find myself in context and geography. It is all one beautifully integrated creation of my Work Life Play.
In today's episode, another from the archives a few years back, I started running small experiments, fully living my life as I desired wherever I found myself, despite the context and limitations. The big unlock was that my life no longer needed to go on hold.

In this Tiny Moment, Big Idea I ask the question "What are you afraid to try?" I recorded this episode five years ago immediately after we sold everything we owned and rebooted our lives. Many people said, "I wish I could do that." Which begs the question, "what are you afraid to try or do?" Maybe that informs what you might need to consider?

Keep going, 

Aaron

My interview today is with my son Holden. Sober five years. Wise. Gracious, and he’s teaching me a lot about the power of building an everyday muscle. He talks about how he makes decisions waiting for nudges from “Higher Power” and his brave beginnings of sobriety.

Today’s episode is a tiny moment with a big idea. Three years ago this month, I left my fifteen-year-long career in Software, stepped down as an executive, forfeited stock options, and embarked on a quest, a mission, to align the work I do every day with the person I’d become. I jumped in our 74 VW Bus and headed west to honor the beginning of this big transition in my life. Here’s what I captured then, not knowing what would unfold. 20/20 vision is easier to find when looking into the rearview mirror—but challenging when we’re in the beginning or middle of significant transitions, living with uncertainty and great frontier of the unknown.

My friend Ryan Miller is fierce with questions. Questions about love, questions about life and story, and power and shadows. The question we came together around in this episode is what is happening in our culture’s shadows today. In the movie The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” Ryan Miller’s new fictional story, Insipid, questions it all-good and evil, what is real and what is not. Dark and bright, join us.

Liz Warner completed her goal during the pandemic on June 8th, 2020, her 30th birthday. Thirty marathons, in thirty countries by age thirty-that, was her quest. Here’s her story of navigating setbacks along the road of illuminating that each of us can contribute to the ongoing play.

Earlier this year, I recorded this life changing advice from my Uber driver. Buckle up and enjoy his zeal for life and this powerful tiny moment and big idea.

Zack Duhame is unassuming. You would walk past him on the sidewalk and not realize that thirty minutes ago, he was a stunt double for Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio being drug behind a car, winning a bar fight, or being drug behind a getaway car.
Zack and I met in the mountains of Colorado at a men's retreat. For the weekend, a house rule was we didn't speak about our careers. For men, an easy facade to hide behind. We spent four intense days together, getting to know the human being, not the human doing (career and accomplishments). Many months later, we reconnected, and the great reveal "Zack the stuntman?!!!" The best part is we became friends organically. Please get to know Zack Duhame with me. Watch his adrenaline reeling stunt reel here.

I took a break from producing and delivery for a few weeks to rest and recharge. Farmers call this fallow ground-replenish soil.

“…some farmers and gardeners let their land go fallow – or unplanted – so that the soil’s natural nutrient balance can be restored…it became more and more unpopular to leave land fallow and unproductive in Western societies. The production won out over soil health. ”

I'm starting a new Explorers Wanted program (virtually) and in-person starting October 5th. Details here https://www.aaronmchugh.com/explorerswanted/

Doug Ament doesn't have all of the answers, but he asks excellent questions. In the heyday of the late '90s, he was a partner in the San Diego based most successful yacht dealerships in the World. Until it all went sideways, and they shut it down. His lessons provide us anchor points for how to navigate uncertainty when we lose sight of the shore in life and business. In this episode Doug Ament walks us through how he survived the 2008/09 professional downturn.

My guest today is songwriter Jeff Nelson. I discovered Jeff's earthy soul talk after reading about "LA contractor lands a Nashville recording contract. He is a family man who purchased and remodeled his grandfather’s home in San Pedro, where he currently resides with his wife and four children. He leads a humble life: coffee, family, building homes and good bourbon." And I knew I had to hear his story. Enjoy his intersecting art and labor, soul and play, unlock and duty.

Ryan Gottfredson PHD is a successful mindset expert. Mindsets as the lenses we wear to help us interpret and engage with the world. In our conversation, we talk about how we expand and shift mindsets limiting our experience and no longer serving us. 

My guest today, Zack Friedman recognized a pattern in humans. Some people create lemonade from lemons and others don't. His book, The Lemonade Life, is the playbook for how to choose a pathway that eludes many, and can lead to more fulfillment and success.

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.

Today. Closing the gap between where I was and where I am. Choices. Tradeoffs. Grace. Reboot. Start. Rest. Pray. Reflect. Celebrate.

My book goes live today into the world. A decade ago, I sat on my back patio and wrote the first draft of this liberating idea for Firing My Boss. My life changed that day. Not all at once, but it sparked the beginning of a journey. I remember deciding to make that manifesto available in a print self-published version. A friend asked, "why self-publish?" Me, "I don't want to wait to be picked". I had something inside of me that I had to get out and I didn't want the world of publishing to be the "committee" for deciding if my words lived.

Available wherever books are sold including in Barnes and Noble stores (In stock in select stores).

Wake up to your life. It’s time to make a ruckus at work. Hi friends, new and old, after 10 years of soulful wrestle, iteration and innovation, I’m excited to announce the release of my new book. Fire your boss-discovering work you love without quitting your job is about becoming wholehearted. Yes it’s about work, and it’s about living true in all that you create in the world. Check it out anywhere books are sold.

Keep going-Aaron

*Join my 2020 Analog experiment

Our world is fast-paced, being everything to everyone at all times (except to ourselves), and the demands of our modern world aren't sustainable if we don't learn to listen to our body, mind, and spirit to excel in our life, work and relationships. Here is Jen Fisher's story of burning out and today leads as the Managing Director of Well-Being at Deloitte consulting.

Guy Kawasaki was chief evangelist of Apple during the early 1980's Macintosh era. In this punchy, simple and short conversation Guy answers the following questions:

1. What are you best at?
2. What are you most proud of?
3. What piece of advice do you give that people fail to follow?
4. How are you GREAT at writing books, speaking, starting companies, and evangelising change?
5. What key lesson did Steve Jobs teach you?

The full transcript from our conversation is available on the show notes here. 

In the intro of this episode, I play a Haka I recorded last summer at my nephew's World Series Baseball game. The young men who put on this Haka chant was from the New Zealand baseball team. If you're familiar with Rugby then you've likely heard this before. The All Blacks Rugby team puts on a great show of this warrior dance at the beginning of every match.

The translation of the Haka is "I might die! I might die! I might live! I might live!" I fired up my microphone at 9,000 feet after a cold wintery night sleeping in the car. As I brewed some coffee for my French Press, I offer some thoughts on the options we're faced with as we consider living fully in the life we have.

Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.

May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here

https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

Big changes in life are often times made by subtle shifts in our approach. I learned this lesson on making a 2 degree shift from Onsite Workshops. I think it's a lot like using a compass and adjusting your compass to point to True North, instead of Magnetic North (declination).

I used to believe that I had to make huge changes to my Work, Life, Relationships and Play. Instead, I discovered that small subtle 2 degree shifts everyday, in every decision, in every conversation help me plot a new trajectory for my life.

Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.

May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here

https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

Alastair Humphreys in his book MicroAdventures: Local Discoveries For Great Escapes says, "Adventure is a state of mind, a spirit of trying something new and leaving your comfort zone. It's about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness and curiosity".

I think that invitation is a perfect frame for this idea. Wherever you live, mystery, possibility and adventure await you...if you choose to go looking for it. My wife and I first tried on this idea of living like tourists in our town by taking a Staycation. We booked a hotel three miles from our home, reserved a couple of massages at our athletic club, sat in the hot tub, ordered a few beverages, went to a movie and dinner and were home by lunch the next day to relieve the babysitter.

It was simple. It didn't take a lot of money. It did not require a lot of time and planning. It was incredibly restful and encouraging. It unlocked this idea for us and I hope you will try it on for yourself.

In your town there are (within a one to two hour car/train ride)...

• Museums
• Restaurants
• Clubs
• Volunteer opportunities
• Music
• Sporting events
• Rivers
• Trails
• Roads
• Parks
• Unexplored towns
• Food trucks
• Historic buildings
• High school sports

Rid yourself of the excuse that you're...

• too busy
• too bored
• too scheduled
• too poor
• too important
• too old

Get up and go.

Keep going-

Aaron

Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.

May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here

https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

In this episode I outline the lessons I've learned in budgeting my emotional energy investments and expenditures. You can read the full post on the topic here.

I experienced a burn out in 2015. I was emotionally and physically depleted. In my struggle to articulate what I was experiencing and how I got there, I began imagining my emotional energy using this idea of emotional calories. I started connecting my emotional energy with my physical energy, food nutrient intake, caloric requirements and energy management.

Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start.

May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO
full signup event details here

https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

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". 

Dean Karnazes exudes life...to the fullest. At age 30, Dean discovered his feet were meant for running unimaginable distances instead of his former wing tipped polished leather shoes of Corporate America. Dean won't taunt you with his stories of his expanding the boundaries of human potential. Instead, Constantine Dean Karnazes (Dean's actual real name) will ask you this trite question in a piercing new way, "Are you happy?" 

I S O L A T I O N is a short film directed by David Guersan and Mathieu Bernat about a stranger leaving his modern lifestyle for a spiritual journey through incredible Scottish landscapes. Throughout the film, the stranger works to uncover the meaning of solitude and isolation. The piece was shot while traveling for two weeks in a leaky van through remote parts of Scotland. Thanks to my friend Britt Jones for the recommendation on watching this short film.

Author, speaker, and leader Eric Eaton shows readers a pathway to bust their limitation, define success for themselves, and live an abundant life. Eric distilled decades of personal and professional lessons into a proven plan to alleviate guilt and frustration in achieving their goals.

It's easy to believe that if we lived somewhere else, worked somewhere else, were with someone else....we could experience the life we desire. Most of the time...that turns out to be entirely wrong. 

Change -lasting change, starts from within us. We see with our eyes what we believe we will see from our wholehearted life. Maybe...the life we want starts in the geography we are right now?

Jake Norton is a world-renowned climber, photographer, filmmaker, philanthropist, and inspirational speaker. Based in Evergreen, Colorado, Jake’s worldwide adventures have taken him to the summit of Mount Everest (three times) and on expeditions on all seven continents.

Discovering, restoring and recovering balance requires being honest about and accepting your limitations. I did not want to believe that I had physical, emotional and relational limitations. Unfortunately, despite my disbelief, my thresholds of energy stopped me in my tracks. I had ignored my stamina limitations for so many years until I found myself depleted and on the sidelines of life.

In this podcast, I offer my personal experiences of accepting my thresholds and limitations. I always feared that if I heeded the idea that I had limitations, it somehow seemed like giving up.  Today, operating within my capacity I can live, work, play and love in a sustainable way.

Dan Roam is the author of the international bestseller The Back of the Napkin, the most popular visual-thinking business book of all time. Dan helps business people think and solve problems visually. His newest book, Draw to Win distills ten years of working with business professionals from Microsoft, IBM, The White House, Google, Lucas Films....and a bunch of others.

Build in MicroRest into your day. Begin choosing to pause, for a moment, a second or a few minutes. Stop, come to an idle and catch your breath.

Practical MicroRest habits

Work: Schedule five to fifteen minute meeting blocks on your calendar. Title the meeting “Planning” or “Strategy”. Be proactive by building in moments in your work day that enable you to rest, pause and catch your breath.

Power naps: Take ten to thirty minutes to rest. Turn off your cell phone. Turn on a timer. Put in your headphones and listen to something tranquil. Quiet your mind or fall asleep. Do what’s good for you.

Pause on your block: After work, before walking in the door to your family, pull over on your street and pause. Remind yourself of your love and gratitude for your family. Honor the realities of your day, but transition away from your work day and into your family life.

Stop Multitasking and starting doing one thing at a time. In this episode, I outline how multitasking deters us from experiencing balance. Instead, focusing our energy and attention on one task, conversation, meeting, email, or project at a time increases our productivity.

Why Multitasking doesn't work

Money
Why you should start Singletasking. Multitasking makes us 40% less productive.
Read More

Fast Company
Multitasking rewires our brain and stunts our emotional intelligence.
Read More.

Forbes
Multitasking doesn't work. The truth is we are wasting time. Our brains aren't equipped to Multitask.
Read more

I've found that closing the gap between where I am today and Where I want to be usually isn't accomplished with one magic lever switch or dial adjustment. Instead, it is a series of small adjustments made regularly over time that slowly reconditions our choices and habits to alter our future.

Restoring Balance in our Work, Life, Play, Health and Relationships isn't easy. We individually maintain our own definition of what balance means to us. Start where you are and begin making adjustments to recovering balance. Start by doing one thing at a time-Stop Multitasking.

In this podcast series on Restoring Balance, I deconstructs the art of making adjustments in your approach, your thinking, your beliefs and habits. I share practical easy-to-start tools to restoring balance to your Work, Life, Play, Health and Relationships. Part 1-Changing Your Atmosphere starts with changing how we approach our circumstances by changing our internals.

Andrew Skurka is an accomplished adventure athlete, speaker, guide, and writer. The 34-year-old is most well known for his solo long-distance backpacking trips, notably the 4,700-mile 6-month Alaska-Yukon Expedition, the 6,875-mile 7-month Great Western Loop, and the 7,775-mile 11-month Sea-to-Sea Route.

Andrew spends most of his adventures off trail picking his way through the high mountains. I really enjoyed my time meeting Andrew. I found him to be very kind, humble, relatable and focused.

What's Andrew's #1 piece of advice?

"GO"

Andrew's Media Highlights & Accolades

National Geographic, March 2011. Circling Alaska in 176 Days.

Outside, April 2011. Adventurers of the Year.

National Geographic Adventure, December 2007. Adventurer of the Year.

Backpacker, August 2005. Person of the Year.

Men’s Journal, December 2005. Adventurer Hall of Fame.

Five years ago I started writing a couple articles on a wordpress site to profile my ideas as part of a career change.

Accidentally….Now two-hundred and forty field reports (blog posts) and 86 podcast episodes later on Work Life Play….I can confidently say I’m onto something. This podcast is a milestone marker to this five year journey and the lesson's I've learned.

Thanks for your friendship, your love, your encouragement, your comments, your shares and rooting me forward.

Here’s my summary as best I can articulate it today.

Learn how to restore balance in your life.
Create a life that matters to you.
The narrative we tell ourselves frames our life.
Work can’t be about survival.
Life can’t be entirely about work.
Rethink work.
Live differently.
Capitalize on the small margins of your life, they add up.
Stay curious.
Live adventurously.
Learn to play.
Love the people that you’re with.

Create a life that matters to you.
The narrative we tell ourselves frames our life.
Work can’t be about survival.
Rethink work.
Live differently.
Capitalize on the small margins of your life, they add up.
Stay curious.
Live adventurously.
Learn to play.
Love the people that you’re with.

Five years later, I know I’m onto something.

Quantifiable Proof

Meet Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, co-authors of the Stanford course turned book providing a methodology to Designing Your Life: How to build a well-lived, joyful life. Our conversation provided me a meaningful crescendo to my two hundred and forty field reports here on Work Life Play. This book is new quantifiable proof to my work.

• Everbody gets stuck, start where you are
• Learn how problem solving used in product design can be applied to designing your life
• The idea of Work-Life balance is totally wrong and approaches the problem with a win-lose outcome
• Understand why your life needs a dashboard in five categories: Work, Life, Play, and Health & Love
• Dysfunctional beliefs require Reframed Thinking in order to Design Your Life 
• You're never too late to Design Your Life

Last week, I crashed a women only backyard dinner party. Thirty women were dressed and buttoned to celebrate their Season Finale of Super Soul Happy Hour/Share Classes. Party lights were strung between Ponderosa pines and simple picnic tables borrowed from the local high school. Each place setting held a Martha Stewart style full bouquet of food and wine. Elayne Prechtel envisioned this backyard soiree of Sharing our Life, Love & Food and created an enchanted Colorado summer evening for her friends. 

Srini called in for our interview from a SoCal seaside coffee shop between tides. He ejected on his busy life to detox for a few days by practicing what he preaches. During our interview you'll hear trains pass by, seagulls cawing and Srini get fired up about why becoming UNMISTAKABLE eliminates any notion of competitors.

Over a quick beer in downtown Portland, I met Srini in 2013 at Chris Guillebeau's World Domination Summit. He just released his first book, UNMISTAKABLE: Why Only Is Better Than Best. You've probably listened to one of his near 700 episodes of his popular podcast The Unmistakable Creative. He interviews everyone from an FBI hostage negotiator to some of my favorites Bob Goff, Rob Bell, Tim Ferris and Seth Godin.

In this podcast he talks about his love for surfing and the metaphors for life he discovered between sets of waves. We chat about how UNMISTAKABLE uses the stages of surfing as the framework for his becoming Unmistakable.

Podcast Highlights:

• Srini's favorite surfing locations
• How to avoid the "Mimic Epidemic"
• How to approach hard to get to people
• Why blazing your own trail is your best chance at being UNMISTAKABLE

In this podcast interview with Joanne Miller, she helps us understand the importance of having a peaceful and healthy home environment. In Joanne's new book, Creating a Haven of Peace (available on Amazon) she stresses the importance of intentional environmental design within your home. Bottom line: Peaceful home = Peaceful life.

In this podcast, my adventure buddy, Ray Cameron and I retell our experience of turning around on our attempt to climb Crestone Peak. Crestone Peak is Colorado's 7th' highest mountain rising to 14,294 feet above sea level. Colorado's has over fifty-eight summits above 14,000 feet and I've been on a quest to summit all 58 of them. Locals call these peaks "14'ers".

How to Scale Influence with Carl Richards | Episode #79

Rob Bell says in his new book, How to Be Here, "We all have a blinking line, a cursor. Your blinking line is whatever sits in front of you waiting to be brought into existence".

The narrative I tell myself everyday frames my Work Life Play. Every morning the tapes in my head begin to play. I used to think somebody else was responsible for those audio files. My High School principal told me once, "You'll never amount to anything". To be fair, I had just dumped dish soap in the biology lab fish tanks and suds overflowed to the top with dead fish. It was TV camera worthy.

Podcast bullet:

• If you don’t like the work you’re doing everyday. We can still choose to do it well.
• It is honorable just doing the hard work of staying alive.
• There is a lot of pressure in our modern world for our lives to be epic and big. Big and epic aren’t helpful when you find yourself in a season of work you don’t love.
• We see with our eyes what we believe we will see. Seeing is believing.
• How we operate in difficult seasons, says a lot about our core beliefs.

1. You are more powerful than you believe.
2. You are more influential than you think.
3. Invest a dollar, an hour, an ounce of emotional energy in yourself.
4. You will never loose.
5. Markets are volatile.  You are steady.
6. Money is fleeting.  You are constant.
7. Risk equals reward and sometimes just a good story.

I had this nutty idea of asking Kristen Howerton if she would be willing to do a podcast interview while riding in a Surrey with the Fringe on Top (picture a four-wheeled carriage with each person peddling) on the Newport Beach, CA boardwalk. She said, That sounds fun. Boom. Game On.  In this episode, we got real...I mean really real. We covered a big range of topics as we bounced through conversations about...

 the pressure of perfectionism, the pretty veneer of social media, social justice, realistic expectations about life and parenting, vulnerability, the political election, LGBT community and religion, white priveledge, Multi-racial families, adoption and being a big-deal blogger.   

It is a fine line between choosing humility or humiliation.  I use this phrase "Eating Humble Pie" when I feel the tension of choice between humility and humiliation. I use this phrase when I find myself walking the fine line between experiencing shame and feeling humbled. I recorded this podcast after walking out of Crossfit class with my tail narrowly tucked between my legs. I got worked. Everyone in the class was ahead of me. I expect the Crossfit fenatics to beat me. I even expect some of the hundred pound women to kick my xxx. Unexpectedly, even the new skinny guy left me in the dust.

Tribes of Belonging

Your tribe of belonging is where you are at home. You know where you fit. You’re part of the tribe and everyone in the tribe knows you belong. You’re comfortable, safe and you can predict what will happen next within the tribe. You’re even apart of defining the rules and system of your tribe of belonging. An easy example is your family. Your hometown, your fraternity or serority, your school, your place of worship and likely your

Tribes of Visitation

Tribes Translator Required

Everyone should be part Mercenaries and equal parts Missionaries. I learned this idea from Mike Rowe the TV show host of Dirty Jobs. He riffed on this idea on a Fast Company video post and shared why he believes that everyone should be both. I unpack this idea of contrast between these two profiles. 

I have a confession to make. I get hung up with self-induced pressure of perfection. I have a vision of what things can become. As a result, I can easily get stuck in the muddy mire of perfect. I make things harder than they need to be. My wife reminds me of how I make things an “event” that don’t need to be. For as many cool things I create and author, there are twice as many projects that I get stuck on. I get hung up adhering to imagined rules that I’ve made impossibly more difficult than things need to be.

I discovered Kevin Butler's art in a Herschel Supply Co. magazine in a surf shop in Laguna Beach, CA. The Journal Issue 2, was intoxicatingly stacked from cover to cover with images of surf, land, sea, play, beauty and art. Kevin's RAD Cars with RAD Surfboards drawings were featured as Herschel's new beach line. I've been dragging around this journal for two years. I caught up with Kevin here on Work Life Play and got the download on how his art has so much soul.

It seems like there are only two choices, Option 1 (the way I've always done it) re Option 2 (the way I don't want to do it). However, I've discovered another option I never knew existed. We've learned to call this unforeseen possibility option "The Third Way". 

Podcast Highlights:

• The high’s and low’s of working side-by-side with Steve Jobs for twelve years.
• Discover the power of defeating complexity with simplicity.
• Watch the 1998 TV ads for the iMac with Jeff Goldblum.
• Why is simplicity so difficult to get right?
• Hear the story about the creation of the first Apple Store and naming the Genius Bar.
• Watch Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford “You cannot connect the dots going forward”.

I called my friend Gill at 10 am this morning. “Gill I’m calling you back. What’s up?”

“We’re going to climb Pikes Peak today. You should join us Aaron.”

Pause; remind myself that the lists of excuses for saying “No” are not that important or urgent or necessary. “YES. I’ll be there in an hour”.

Movies are extremely helpful in telling parable stories through the lives of someone else. The two movies that reframed my beliefs about risking saying “YES” more often are The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Yes Man. These are must see films if you think you might be prone to using the words like,

No

Ahhh, I really need to….

Well it’s been a long time since I….

You know my (person) really was expecting me to…

Keep me in mind for next time….

Give me a heads up next time and I’ll be able to plan better.

Think differently

Business travel does not have to be a drag. Remove resignation from your list of excuses. You can fulfill your work obligations and HAVE A GOOD TIME ALSO.

Come prepared

• adventure clothes
• running/walking/hiking shoes
• Petzl headlamp -my favorite Tikkina (cheap, light, easy)
• light jacket (check out Patagonia's Houdini)
• Gear every Road Warrior should carry

Unfortunately, I experience anxiety. I used to resent the feelings of anxiousness, worry and discomfort. I can't say, I like feeling anxious. However, I've learned to embrace anxiety as a necessary, although sometimes irrational, indicator of perceptions, beliefs and risk. I've learned is that anxiety is always trying to alert me. Like the Tsunami warning sirens broadcasting the early warning detection of pending harm, anxiety is trying to educate us about a perceived threat. As I mature, I am learning to embrace the feeling of anxiety as a early warning detection system. 

Your Good Amount of Weird [Episode #64]

Everybody is weird in a good way. Your weird is your superpower. Embrace your weird. Love your weird. Foster your weird. Practice being weird.

A friend of ours told me a story about her son coming home from school sharing his acrostic (the thing you make where each letter in your name has a word associated with it). His name had a “G” in it and after wrestling with the perfect word to describe himself by only selecting words that start with a “G” he told his mom he wrote

A good amount of weird. Amen brother.

I've only recently embraced the belief that my weird is rare and good. I’m not talking about the kind of weird that means you collect toenail clippings from when you were in the third grade. I’m talking about the kind of weird that makes you have powers like a super hero.

My wife Leith McHugh was interviewed last week on Rob Bell’s Robcast Episode 99 | Leith McHugh on Rebooting Your Life. You will want to listen to this powerful interview. I put together a summary of the nine key areas that were part of our Life Reboot. In this podcast, I walk through each of these key Reboot categories and how to evaluate your own need for a Life Reboot.

This podcast was recorded while backpacking the Colorado Trail at 10,000 feet on Kenosha Pass. I captured a few ideas, a few trail sounds and invite you into our three day 28 mile adventure. 

All the Roots Grow Deeper When It's Dry

You don’t need a destination. You don’t need a lot of money. You don’t need to spend a lot of time planning. You just need to stuff your kids in the car, point in a direction and start driving. Our modern life is too full. Life is too full of responsibilities, objectives, targets, metrics, schedules, measurement, technology, and pressure.

A road trip without a detailed itinerary can help you experience more rest, play, adventure and connection with the people you love. It's almost summer. This podcast will help you get started on your summer road trip with your kids.

Podcast highlights:

• Don't quit your day job. It can fund your dreams.
• Figure out what type of entrepreneur you want to become
• How to structure your life in order to have money or time to invest in your dream gig
• Take the 10% Entrepreneur Quiz to see if you have what it takes. Click here to start.  

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.” James Michener

Podcast Highlights with Ben Lecomte:

• From Tokyo to San Francisco in the name of sustainability -The LONGEST Swim
• Why would Ben swim across the Pacific Ocean
• What will he think about while he swims eight hours a day, every day for six months?
• How long did it take for Ben to swim the Atlantic Ocean ten years ago?
• What are the biggest challenges he will face to finish?
• How the lessons Ben learns in the ocean change how he lives on land
• Follow Ben's progress on Twitter
• Follow The Longest Swim on Instagram
• Follow The Longest Swim on Facebook

Cedar Wright Work Life Play Highlights:

• Cedar's latest film, The Fledglings about paragliding from the summit of 18,490' Pico de Orizaba the third highest mountain in North America.
• Ask yourself, What can I not help but do in life? Go do that.
• Discover what drives you? What are you passionate about? It doesn't matter if can make money in the beginning.
• Cedar lived on less than $5,000.00 per year for a decade before he became the famous climber.

Rob Bell is a brother from another mother. I love this man. I've listened to Rob's voice in my earbuds since early 2000's. When he was a pastor in Grand Rapids Michigan at Mars Hills Church, I would download his weekly sermons and listen to them on my Sunday long runs. Last January, Leith and I went to Rob's Business edition two-day event in Laguna Beach. Last month we spent the day with him and 99 others in Denver at his How to Be Here Experience. In this podcast interview, Rob Bell and I talk about his new book, How to Be Here.