The Necessity for Pain

The correlation between putting effort into what you want to do. And feeling positive emotions. And not putting effort into what you are choosing to put time into. And feeling shitty.If you want coaching reach out.

Knowing something is useless if you aren't applying it.

This episode is about finding Flow in rock climbing.What that experience is like, the mindset that helps make it more likely for me. And how it applies to other parts of life. Like sales.

In episode 10 I am trying to touch on how "problems" in are life are not always stopping us from achieving what we want. As much as our belief that they are "in the way" does.I've seen this often with people while rock climbing pointing to reasons why they can't send a climb that are only stopping them because that is what they want.For example "I can't send because my shoes are too worn. So I am going to stop trying".No you could send in those shoes. But your _____ (Scared perhaps, or tired and don't want to try hard) so your using the shoes an excuse to not send.

Everything we do. We got to choose to do.Even if it feels like we don't have options. Or need to do something because of external factors.Ultimately we must still decide to give in to those factors and act accordingly.Recognizing that we always decide for ourselves what we do. Is empowering. It enables you to take back control. To take ownership over your decisions and the consequences. Because you made them.There is so little we control in life. External factors, other people, even our knee jerk reactions are out of our control. What we can control is our response. We have an ability to choose a response. To make a decision. Therefore we have a responsibility to choose wisely. Because it is all we can do.

In this episode we are joined by Meredith Kunz. Meredith works in Silicon Valley, is a Mother of two girls, and author of the book Beyond Stoicism.We discuss Stoicism, parenthood, and how it's impacted her life and outlook.Meredith Alexander Kunz is a writer who created The Stoic Mom blog in 2016 to explore how parents and kids can benefit from practicing Stoic philosophy. She is the co-author of Beyond Stoicism: A Guide to the Good Life with Stoics, Skeptics, Epicureans, and Other Ancient Philosophers, with Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez (The Experiment, 2025). he book was published in the UK as Live Like a Philosopher (Headline Press, 2025). Meredith is also a communications leader in Silicon Valley and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC). She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard College and a master’s degree in history from Stanford University. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The San Francisco Daily Journal, The Industry Standard, The Stanford Report, The STOIC magazine, the Stoicism Today blog, and she has given talks on Stoicism around the world and has been interviewed on podcasts and NPR-affiliate radio. Meredith is an associate faculty member at the Stoa Nova, an online school for a new Stoicism. Learn more and follow her work at The Stoic Mom Substack, The Stoic Mom on Instagram, or @thestoicwoman on Bluesky. You can also find her on LinkedIn.

It's easy when things start to go wrong, for us to predict the worst case outcome that it could get to. This is healthy. But spending too much time in this place can be harmful. Worrying to much about it, trying too hard to avoid it. May actually make it more likely. Learning how to recognize when something has is no longer benefiting you and how to let go is not easy. But so helpful.

Sharing 8 thoughts related to commitment. Without Commitment success isn't possible. But this also requires exposure to failure.There are many way to make commitment easier to access.

Sam Harvey owner of Braver Leaders sits down with me to discuss leadership, vulnerability, and the importance of slowing down. In a world that doesn't incentivize it.

When we start something. Learning comes quickly because there is so much we don't know.Eventually the easy lessons are learned.To continue our growth. We must continue to push ourselves to be uncomfortable.