We continue our series on Happierness with happiness researcher and evangelist Arthur Brooks. This is part two where we go behind the scenes to find out What Drives Arthur in his personal life as he strives to practice what he preaches. I appreciate that Arthur is up front with the fact that he’s not naturally prone to be in a so-called, happy state. He must proactively work at it. Me too. Arthur again is a Harvard Professor, a columnist at The Atlantic, a very in demand speaker, and author of 12 books. I had him on the show in 2023 for his book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. The message in that book continues to influence me. This time he’s back with his new book co authored with Oprah Winfrey, titled, Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Arthur is a very intentional person and deeply considers all areas of his life. When I asked him about his values regarding his career he spoke to his efforts to stay aware of the why of what he does as opposed to just the what. In his pursuit of health I found it interesting that he cited he’s not necessarily happy to be exercising, but it helps him be less unhappy overall.

In this episode we begin a series on happierness. As you're about to hear, we can't live a meaningful life and just be in a state of happy all the time. We'd actually miss out on some of the most rich aspects of our existence. And probably die early. But amongst the necessary challenges of life, we can absolutely be happier, which improves...literally everything. My expert guest on the topic, who is back with us for the second time, is Arthur Brooks. His book Strength To Strength has been pivotal for me, and so many others, and was the focus of our first series together. Arthur is a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School where he teaches renowned courses on happiness. His incredibly popular, How to Build a Life column at the Atlantic was found and followed by Oprah Winfrey and now Arthur and Oprah have written a book together titled, Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. I encourage you to look at Arthur's new online workshop, The Art and Science of Happiness at scienceofhappier.com

I wrap up our series on perfectionism and how it is hurting our drive. This is the Big Idea, The Big Takeaway & The Big Action episode to distill it all down. Being a perfectionist is not something to be proud of, and it in fact points toward our inability to be authentic and a propensity to people please and perform. It points to our insecurity, not strength. My catalyst and expert for the series was Thomas Curran, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics. Thomas studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts our mental health. His TED talk on our dangerous obsession with perfectionism has received more than three million views. In part three I brought on my brother, Jared Angaza, to discuss our journeys as seeking perfectionists who thought we were being valiant but ultimately realize we were attempting to fill our self identity voids. Come with me as I boil down the highlights of what I’ve found out, and am striving to learn.

We continue our talk on perfectionism and how we’re letting it diminish our success and joy. We kicked off the series with Thomas Curran who is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics where he studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts our mental health. Check out his TED talk on our dangerous obsession with perfectionism that’s gotten more than three million views. Thomas’s new book is The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough. Here I’m joined by my brother, Jared Angaza, and for my part will say we’ve both spent much of our lives with an unhealthy pursuit of perfectionism.

I'm back with Thomas Curran in our series on Perfectionism and how we don’t understand what it actually says about us and how it is sabotaging our drive…for the purpose of…getting out of the Perfection Trap. This is part 2 in our series and it’s the What Drives You episode where we go behind the scenes to hear what drives the expert on perfection, in the key areas of life. Thomas again has a PhD in psychology and is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics where he studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts our mental health. I encourage you to check out his TED talk on our dangerous obsession with perfectionism that has received more than three million views. Thomas’s new book and our muse for this series is The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough which you can get. I’m interested in hearing how Thomas deals with perfectionism and good enough in his daily life!

I'm with Thomas Curran to begin a series on Perfectionism and how we don’t understand what it actually says about us and how it is sabotaging our drive…for the purpose of…getting out of the Perfection Trap. Thomas Curran has a PhD in psychology and is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics. Thomas studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and how it impacts our mental health. His TED talk on our dangerous obsession with perfectionism has received more than three million views and his research has been featured in media ranging from the Harvard Business Review to New Scientist to CNN. Thomas’s new book He is the author of The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough

I wrap up our series on Physical Transformation with my Big ideas, Big Takeaways and Big Actions. I began our series with a conversation with celebrity trainer Don Saladino who regularly trains the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, and Hcccugh Jackman. Instead of mere tips and tricks and hacks he gave the hardcore lesson on mindset and how it’s more about how we think than merely how we train. I just watched the new Christmas movie starring Ryan Reynolds, Spirited, with my kids and had fun showing off pics of Ryan with Don, and me…with Don. And I’m actually starting Don’s program, The Long Game, to help me get back in shape after 10 weeks out due to injury. You can get 20% off any of Don’s ePrograms at donsaladino.com and use code Drive. In part 3 I continued the conversation on Physical Transformation with my pal, medical doctor and Functional Medicine guru Randy James, and he shared from his perspective on sitting with patients every day, who are looking for physical transformation, though instead of getting shredded to play Deadpool like Ryan, they are mostly trying to alleviate chronic pains and illness and gain back their physical capacity. From these conversations and my own life experience with physical transformations, I’ve pulled out some primary highlights for achievable and sustainable physical transformation.

We continue our series on Physical Transformation. I kicked us off with celebrity coach Don Saladino who is well known as trainer of the biggest names in Hollywood such as Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Emily Blunt, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman and more. I appreciate he gets paid big bucks for results. Period. So he can’t sugarcoat or minimize what it takes to transform a body. Which is…hard, and it takes far more than just giving direction on how to lift weights, run, and eat. So I asked my friend, medical doctor and functional medicine expert, Randy James, to join me in this discussion. He, like Don, is paid out of pocket for transformation. While Don often has people coming to him to change their physical appearance, Randy generally has people coming to him to change how they feel physically. But I think the psychology is the same. It means different goals, different habits, and ultimately different beliefs about yourself.

I’m back with fitness trainer and leader Don Saladino for this series on physical transformation. In our previous episode we dove deep into the myriad of complexities and information overload on diet and nutrition and exercise and what it really takes to transform our physical selves, whether you’re Ryan Reynolds getting shredded to play Deadpool or a civilian like me striving to simply look and feel well. This is my What Drives You episode where we go behind the scenes with Don personally to find out what drives him in the key areas of life…what his values are and how he strives to walk them out day to day. Find Don at donsaladino.com and use code “drive” to get 10% off his e-programs.