Navigate different challenges by building understanding, mental models and good strategy. In this episode of the Growth Mindset Psychology Podcast, host Sam Webster Harris dives into a range of listener questions: How do Auditory processing difficulties affect willingness to learn Does a lack of Enthusiasm indicate a negativity bias How do you stay organised and on time with big projects and avoid panicking and procrastination Why do I get scared of people who come across differently...

The anti-hustle guide to finding a balance that maximises happiness through intention and wisdom. Optimising every second of your calendar to the nth degree isn't a recipe for dreamlike productivity, it's a collision course for anxiety-riddled burnout. In our era of ever more time demands what are we to do? Oliver Burkman in his book 4,000 week presents a guide to living as a human being in a messy and demanding environment that allows you to prioritise what's essential in a calm and...

Identify scarcity mindsets and unpack your relationship with money, success and purpose. We revisit a discussion with Kyle Livingston that explores how we find meaning in our lives and where the biggest sources of stress and anxiety come from for many. Money and success. A story-powered episode where we travel through Kyle's journey as an abandoned orphan and living with anxiety to being able to calm himself from the constant stress and consistently create opportunities. Top lessons: How...

Stop Chasing the Self-Improvement Treadmill - Learn to focus on making the world a better place. We are drowning in self-improvement content to make us wealthier, wiser, more productive sexier versions of ourselves. Yet at the same time, it seems like humanity is going backwards. What gives? In the modern-day obsession with ourselves, we are missing out on the bigger picture of how to lead an impactful life that genuinely touches those around us. Yet if we want to be the most impactful...

Conscious experience is a result of our awareness, but how do we take back our free will from external drivers? This episode explores the links between the conscious experience and what Free will really is. Building on that we explore how the body deals with pain and negative emotions and how we can learn to carve free will, awareness and control into our day-to-day lives. Dr Stephen Porges is the father of Polyvagal Theory and how the body perceives threat and safety. His lessons are...

Let's talk about Power Moves - Lethal Combinations of traits that can unlock your full potential Most of us have strengths and with each strength is a corresponding weakness. Says who? History has shown time and time again that embodying seemingly contradictory traits can result in outsized success. We look at the weaknesses we accept and how to overcome the fixed mindset, break out of our natural blockers, and become a spikey, unbalanced individual with additive strengths. Balancing...

A masterclass on our hidden mindsets and diagnosing the real problems behind our internal blockers. Your mind lies to you about what you can and can't do and creates infinitely logical reasons to hide your real fears. To overcome the real blockers in achieving our goals, we need to spend less time diagnosing external problems and more time understanding what's happening inside us. Humans are ultimately driven by underlying fear and desire, coming up with reasons that ignore this is hiding...

Anxiety is built into all our brains, examining the role of trauma in building fear responses helps us understand how to combat fear. We can also learn how trauma manifests in General Anxiety Disorder, Borderline (BPD), Narcissism (NPD) and ADHD. By studying the neuroscience of how fear and anxiety work in the brain we understand how life events and trauma shape our perceptions. To overcome the different fears we can learn from strategies required for individuals with specific disorders...

Learn the economics of satisfaction, according to psychology. Our earliest lessons in life include that money can't buy happiness. But is that completely correct? We explore tactics to change your spending that can boost your mood on both a daily level and additionally build a longer-term sense of content satisfaction. Learning how to escape the nudges of advertising and society's expectations of spending and instead live in line with your values and priorities. Everyone has different...

From deciding what to work on to overcoming blockers - All the questions from August were answered in the Ask Me Anything of the month. Free listeners will only have access to the first 20 minutes. Premium subscribers can listen to the whole episode and be able to submit their own questions for future episodes. Questions answered in this episode: What causes resistance to learning? How do you differentiate an indie podcast? (especially when many podcasts have backing by network /...

How to take the best shots in life and enjoy the process. In this episode of the Growth Mindset Psychology podcast, Sam Webster Harris delves into the psychology behind creating and seizing life's opportunities and overcoming the scarcity mindset. We are surrounded by pressures to achieve and plenty of people selling us the way, yet find ourselves going nowhere. Sam outlines practical steps you can take from any point in life to build a system around discovering opportunities and building...

Expand your perception of experience and build more flow and joy into your daily life. Many people hate time, it is a constant enemy we fight against. Yet it is simply a continuous element of the Universe that we can't change. However, like illusions that can make a straight line seem bent in our minds, we can use our own mind to bend time for ourselves. This episode expands on several psychological phenomena to help you build a better relationship with time: Live a life that feels...

Channel productivity or creativity on-demand - experience more progress, positivity, and freedom using the power of your environment. In this episode of the Growth Mindset Psychology Podcast, we explore the significant impact of our environment on our overall mindset and actions. Delve into lesser-known productivity tips from neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy and the actionable take-homes you can directly apply to your own life. Key insights explained: Cathedral Effect - for...

3 ways to stay dedicated to what is important in life, in a noisy world (and with a noisy mind). We are immersed in infinite options and distractions of alluring things we could be doing. Naturally we often find ourselves wanting to do all the things. A holiday in the Mediterranean, surfing in Bali or visiting pyramids - Why choose? Pursuing a career in finance, running a YouTube about cars, or becoming a teacher - Frustrating huh... Leaning into philosophy and the inner workings of our...

Live a life well lived by exploring the depths of Psychology and Polyvagal Theory with Dr. Stephen Porges. Join host Sam Webster on the Growth Mindset Psychology Show as he engages in a deep and enlightening conversation with Dr. Stephen Porges, the renowned researcher behind polyvagal theory. This episode delves into fundamental truths about psychology, societal norms, and personal growth. Dr. Porges shares insights on the body's physiological reactions to safety and threat, how they impact...

How to manage stress, build a calmer state of mind and create a foundation for growth and autonomy. Polyvagal Theory is an intriguing sounding term that holds a lot of answers to how the body perceives threats and gives a surprising amount of actionable take homes that we can use in our everyday lives. Join Sam Webster in this episode of the Growth Mindset Psychology Podcast as he dives deep into the fascinating world of fear, security, emotional intelligence and neuroscience. There are...

Principles to enhance learning, independent thinking, and problem-solving, whilst reducing the feeling of being lost. Ever feel like you're constantly consuming information but losing touch with your own thoughts? This episode takes you on a journey back to the essential skill of listening to yourself. We'll explore the impact of continuous content on our ability to think independently and how it can dilute our personal insight. Hear expert advice on creating the mental space necessary for...

Developing the freedom to choose how you respond to situations in life is a core part of building a growth mindset. A fixed mindset approach leaves you at the mercy of events in life that will make you angry or sad and blame your circumstances with no control from you. A growth mindset allows you to build the space to determine how you react in any situation and be the person you want to be rather than the person the world pushes you to be. To achieve that we examine: The nature of Free...

Growth begins at the edge of your comfort zone. Learn to expand your mental horizons and build a healthy relationship with the fear of failure. To build new connections in the brain and learn we need to fail. Becoming an expert in anything requires being comfortable with being a crappy amateur. A great paradox of success is that it is built on a foundation of failure. Perfection is actually a common cause of fixed mindset attitudes and can block growth. Learn practical strategies to...

How our brain chemistry and architecture works are fascinating. It can also help us embrace challenges, learn faster and reconfigure our mindsets. Today we are diving deep into how the brain lays down its wiring and builds beliefs and behaviour patterns. We can then better understand how our mindsets are formed, how they shape our outcomes and what we can do about them. This is core knowledge for anyone wanting to invest in their personal journey and influence their outcomes in life....

Dive into the timeless insights of Morgan Housel's book 'Same As Ever' and the nature or things that never change. We unpack the most profound lessons from the book, exploring how subtle shifts in perspective can lead to monumental changes in personal finance and decision-making. Sam invites his book review cohost Nicolas Vereecke on the show to discover how Housel's principles can be applied to everyday life, providing clarity and guidance through the complexities of economics and...

There is no better time to contemplate the meaning of your existence than a Tuesday. Tackle the meaty questions of life, using philosophical tools and some lessons from the school of Positive Psychology. We curiously dive through the principles of physics and the lessons of history to contemplate the effect of time on our lives. Opposingly we examine the effects of our life on everything else and why we even do things. Along the way, we'll take on ideas from Ghengis Kahn and Julius Caesar...

Some of the most important life skills sound strange to work on. But high-performers work on them anyway. From building your curiosity and enthusiasm to a better sense of humour. Several life skills make all the difference in your social and professional life. We'll even learn essential ideas that make us happier, more patient and more right. Yes, that's a thing. What's odd is that society says many things like our interests and humour are just part of who we are. We feel ashamed to want to...

Why top performers embrace imperfection and celebrate victories. We dig into the show archives to uncover the timeless topic of perfectionism. Hedonic adaption is a major reason we aren't as happy as we should be and relentlessly pursue the next thing without taking time to even reflect on the happiness we are seeking. Lessons from the episode: Balancing perfect with good enough When our work is better than we think it is Why we aren't as happy as we deserve The importance Recognising...