The OptimalWork Podcast

Latest Episodes:

18. Prepare Your Brain to Embrace Challenge Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

#18: Embracing challenges starts with your judgements about them. If you’re stuck seeing challenges as threats, you need reframing. Rather than avoiding challenges, or forcing yourself to get them over with, reframing means recognizing each challenge as an opportunity for growth or service, by placing it in its true context of your whole life. Reframing is not just a mental trick — it causes an identifiable change in your brain. Among other things, this episode covers why it’s important and how to do it — with a thorough example.

17. The Secret of Motivation Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

#17: How motivated are you to tackle the challenges of the day? For many, motivation comes and goes, which means it’s not really under your control and, more importantly, it’s not really coming from you. You get motivated by things, rather than you motivating yourself to do what’s best. Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif discuss what motivation really is, what the only true stable source of motivation is, and how to cultivate it so you can always feel motivated to give your best.

16. Putting People over Projects Jul 20, 2020

Show notes

#16: In this episode, Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif discuss motives and priorities. It's common to see outcomes — like getting into the best school, securing a well-paying job, etc. — as ends in themselves. This approach has major costs: if you don't achieve the outcome, you get frustrated and double down on your outcome-focus; if you do, it just leads to you raise the bar and pursue an "even better" outcome. The alternative is to treat outcomes as means, not ends in themselves. They are a way to help you stretch yourself and ensure that you're serving others. You can tell you're being controlled by a desired outcome if you often sacrifice things — like relationships — that should actually be served by the outcomes you pursue.

This discussion was inspired by the following question: "If you posit that there’s a lot of service in most careers and that you can do them with love and that you can learn to focus and flow in most of them, then why choose one over another if it’s not for the increased paycheck, prestige, etc.?"

15. Transform Anxiety by Working at Your Best Jul 13, 2020

Show notes

#15: In this episode Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif discuss the nature and cause of anxiety. Understanding how anxiety works and what it really is — which is quite simple — can help you transform your approach to it. Crucially, as Dr. Majeres explains, anxiety is not a disorder or something to be avoided. Anxiety can be transformed into your best performance by following three steps: reframing, mindfulness, and engaging the challenge. You can follow these three steps before a time of work, turning it into a Golden Hour of focus and training yourself to embrace anxiety and use it to your advantage.

14. Left & Right Brain, Part 2: Motives Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

#14: Last week, we discussed the left-brain/right-brain paradigm as it bears on work, and this week we are building off the discussion to address motives. Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist re-popularized this paradigm in his 2009 book The Master and His Emissary, grounding it in neuroscience and using it to explain aspects of psychology, society, and culture (in contrast to previous pseudo-scientific versions of the theory). The approach has profound implications for understanding what motivates your actions — fear or love?

13. Left & Right Brain, Part 1: Work Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

#13: Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif Younes discuss the different roles of the two hemispheres of the brain ("left brain" and "right brain"). Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist re-popularized this paradigm in his 2009 book The Master and His Emissary, grounding it in neuroscience and using it to explain aspects of psychology, society, and culture (in contrast to previous pseudo-scientific versions of the theory). The approach has profound implications for understanding how to work at your best — with creativity and motives of service.

12. Why We Get Frustrated Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

#12: This week we used the feeling of frustration as our starting point. In the course of the discussion, we also talked about self-labeling (what we call "schemas"); the true nature of success and failure; and the benefits of focusing on process rather than outcome. This episode gets to the heart of OptimalWork's approach. Schemas are contrasted with ideals: schemas result from and lead to motives of fear, whereas ideals, especially service, offer motives of love. When we act independently of the schemas we (implicitly) have, we become free to learn, practice, grow, and serve.

11. OptimalWork and the Brain: The Default Mode Network Jun 15, 2020

Show notes

#11: Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif discuss the default mode network, a network of brain regions that have profound implications for the way we work and live. The default mode is involved when you get distracted, but it can also be trained to help you focus better.

10. How to Grow in Mastery Jun 08, 2020

Show notes

#10: Mastery is one of the central concepts of OptimalWork. It means doing work well, and is cultivated through the development and practice of strategies. The projects and templates tools on www.OptimalWork.com are meant to help you make good strategies, and refine them over time.

Some of the questions we discussed in this video are:

What is mastery?
How can you grow in mastery?
What's the role of mentoring and collaboration in growing in mastery?
What's the relationship between strategies and mastery?

9. What is a Golden Hour? Jun 02, 2020

Show notes

#9: Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif Younes discuss the Golden Hour, the central method behind OptimalWork. A Golden Hour is like exercise for your work, when you deliberately practice working at your best by preparing for your work with three steps: reframing, mindfulness, and challenge. The Golden Hour can be practiced at www.optimalwork.com! Some of the questions we discussed are:

What is a Golden Hour and how do you do one?
Why did we develop the idea of the Golden Hour? What's its origin and purpose?
Will the Golden Hour help me find meaning and purpose in my work? (Hint: yes!)

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected