Work Life Play With Aaron Mchugh

Today's interview is with Blaine and Sam Eldredge with And Son's Magazine. We talk about their eight-year dream of creating a print magazine, the power of transformation v.s. entertainment, masculinity as a lens by which we can view everything else, in defense of millennials, the joy of words, vulnerability and going first, the temptation to quit, brotherhood and hearing God's voice.

Which relationships bring you life? Do you know which relationships drain your energy? Begin by mapping your relationships across your work and life to gain insight about where you need to invest your time and energy. 

What do you value most, not your stuff, but deeper than the stuff you own?

Today's podcast is from session #1 from Reboot Live last October 2017. Last year, we held two Reboot Experience Workshop and took people on an inward journey to answer big questions like what do you want in life? And How do I find my path to a well-lived joyful life?

What if you listened to the voice of light and easy? What would it tell you to do? What truth would it remind you of? Maybe things are about to go great for you in your career, with your relationships and in that new thing you want to try. Lean in and listen.

Mark Evans carves into leather hides to reveal light from darkness. As a kid, he started drawing and his Archimedes moment came when a drop of blood stained his new Christmas present, a leather jacket. He pulled out his boyhood knives to scratch off the blood which revealed this discovery of a now eighteen year career. To tell his story, we drove our JoyBus to an empty dirt road and retraced his life, love and art.

Jeremy Stewart and I talked flip flops, political science, pediatric cancer and the power of why. Learn from his wisdom in this episode.  Wanting to do more than just create a great flip flop and stunned to learn that pediatric cancer is the most fatal disease among American children – more fatal than almost all other childhood diseases combined – Hari Mari set out to help.

Hope must be cared for, nurtured and protected. Hope stays alive when we steward even the smallest glimpse or the thinnest thread. An action is required for transformation to happen. Talking about, thinking about, and dreaming about change isn’t enough. Doing something and trying something different creates possibility. We are not failures. We fall short, we make mistakes, and we can screw stuff up, but we’re never beyond the reach of love and forgiveness. Love wins. Everyone gets a do-over(s). Keep going, Aaron More on my coaching work.

My savings account just hit zero. We’ve bet our life on what we believe, and I’d like to shoot straight with you about what its been like the last seven months. In October, I left my cushy $six figure career. It was intellectually challenging, but it wasn’t soulfully and purposefully satisfying. With the support of my wife, family and close friends, it was time to leap. My big life experiment- the big bet, was to align the work I do every day with the person that I’ve become. If it sounds super vague and lacking textbook, strategy-you’re right. With no more specificity than this prayerful mantra, we stepped out into the unknown. For our family, it was time to push all of our chips into the middle of the table and spin the wheel placing bets on “cause good every day.” Full original post is here  Interested in my one-on-one coaching work? Full details here.

The future is difficult to forecast, but our next brave step is the one thing we can do. Where are you suppressing the parts of you that appear to not fit in your world today? Where can you experiment with expressing the fullest version of you? Where do you feel that you don't fit in?  Come join me on an adventure trip in June. More details here. 

Today's episode was previously recorded at our Reboot Live event back in October, 2017. In 2015, we sold everything we owned, pushed pause on our life and started over. Not everyone needs to jettison their life like we did. But everyone can benefit from the lessons we've learned from taking the road less traveled. Read our full story here. As your guides, we will take you on a journey to help you architect a sustainable life you want to live forward. Reboot is not a marriage conference. Reboot is revolutionary and experiential and brilliantly crafted to help you rediscover what’s most important to you and stop what’s not working. Full details about our Reboot live event. We're planning our next event coming soon.

Alex Woodard reminded me of how pliable our lives and dreams are if we let go. Alex's story is a powerful example of driving hard towards his goal of playing his music to thousands. On the eve of achieving his dream, the bottom fell out. His record contract vanished, his dog died and his dream became a nightmare. Enter stage left; he received a letter from a fan telling her story about loss and love. Alex decided to write her (Emily) a song based on her letter and send it to her. A new dream was born, For the Sender, became the project of Alex and team publishing books and music inspired by letters from the senders. Today he plays for thousands of people, raises money for charity and collaborates with top musicians. The irony is his original dream had similar ingredients, but once he let go of his desire for fame and fortune, his career took off as his story is rewritten focusing on others.

Shawn Askinosie's book might change your life if you allow it.  Meaningful Work is not a book about “saving the world”— but it is about how businesses can and should solve problems in the world, and how positive change begins with individual action.

My top ten reasons why I believe we won't change. 1-No guarantees of an outcome. 2-We really aren't yet in enough pain in our current reality. 3-The devil I know is better than the devil I don't. 4-A template was installed in us a long time ago that is difficult to refute. 5- It's easier to bitch and complain than to do something about it. 6-We convince ourselves that everyone else must have won the golden ticket, found a shortcut, has a rich uncle, got to skip to the front of the line and bypass all the pain, the risk and the uncertainty. Or we're tell ourselves we're too old, beyond repair, too... 7-We've believed a story that isn't true that only we believe. Everyone else around us sees past our living myth. 8-We're so busy managing our life, we don't realize there's a problem. We ignore the warning signs. We hold other priorities. 9-We refuse to allow transformation-fold our arms and say "this is how I am, this is how it will always be". And we get busy dying. 10-We fail to see that LIFE is an invitation

Today is the Ryan Miller Show. I've titled this episode, Who Am I as we talk about their creative work in the world through 08Left, Mango Ink and his upcoming show on May 3rd in Spokane, Lights Like Us.

Kristy Dickerson, keynote speaker, businesswoman, and active CEO and co-founder of Start Planner has devoted her life to providing hope for individuals who are looking to achieve balance, success, and happiness in their lives. She has been featured in numerous national media outlets and has shown thousands of others how to be productive, efficient, and live more fulfilling lives.

This is your permission slip to cut yourself some slack. Take a break. Take a day off. Skip school. Skip work. Wear flip-flops. Punt on a meeting. Say No. Don’t go. Stay home. Call in sick. Be late. Take a nap. Do half as much and call it good enough. Tell “perfection” to take a flying leap. Go on a two-week vacation. Use your floating holiday tomorrow. See a movie at lunchtime. Stay in your jammies all day. Order pizza. Watch Netflix all day. Sleep in. Schedule a meeting in your work calendar titled “Strategy planning” and go take a walk outside. Take a nap in your car at lunch. Let the kids do their laundry. Order takeout. Cancel plans with friends. Don’t attend the school fundraiser. Turn your phone off and let it go to voicemail. Go off the grid. Catch your breath. Be kind to yourself and say “enough, I’m tired.” If you wrote yourself a permission slip for rest, what would it say?

My guest today is Jesse Mecham, author of his new book You Need A Budget. The money powers our lives and is a resource required for living the life we want. Jesse's team, and I agree, believes that when you approach your money with intention, you can more predictably influence the desired outcomes. I love Jesse's message, and I'm convinced that regardless of how much or how little money we have, we can give our resources purpose and clarity.

Ben Moon is a Pacific City, Oregon based photographer and filmmaker who enjoys working with a diverse range of adventurers, athletes and musicians. Surviving cancer in his twenties inspired a greater connection and appreciation for others and the natural world. Ben finds human emotion to be a source of constant fascination. He is best known for his viral short film Denali, which explored the friendship between Ben and his dog. #DenaliFilm on Vimeo.com/122375452

Part 2 of my interview with Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. In this episode, he continues with practical advice on getting clear on the bigger picture and enabling for more regular course corrections. Even Greg struggles to be an Essentialist all of the time. Where and how do you start with Essentialism? How do you begin taking back control over the minutes and moments that you can influence? How to focus on the things you can control. Download the full Q&A Essentialism Transformation guide at aaronmchugh.com/lessbutbetter