Life Habits

This is the third episode in the "Checking-in" series focused on coping during the pandemic and beyond. Karel devotes this episode on providing ideas to help you stay the course during this long-running pandemic.

Karel is joined by UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers to discuss mental health during this difficult period of a pandemic and social unrest and to discuss a variety of approaches to coping given different situations and circumstances.

With the overall series tagline for all these years being “staying sane in a crazy world”, Karel was inspired to start record episodes again with a collection of Check-in episodes to help listeners deal with and cope during the Coronavirus pandemic. This, the first in the collection, provides advice on working from home.

Karel continues his occasional major life changes episode series this time interviewing world traveler Kate Paddison.

Karel devotes this episode to design methods and tools everyone can use to be more innovative. He summarizes his seven habits of highly effective design thinkers.

Karel is joined by Lendy Krantz of WeWork to discuss insights, lessons learned, and advice on career pivots.

Karel and Marie-Josée Shaar explore an extension to Sleep, Food, Mood, and Exercise by focusing on love, caring, and connectedness.

Karel interviews Chui Chui Tan who quit her job to start her own company.

Karel's back with an episode dealing with the important topic of diversity and inclusion providing specific advice on three areas of focus.

Karel expands on his previous episodes dealing with career advice by making the case for approaching career health much like we know how to deal with physical health by doing workouts, journals, and checkups.

This episode will give you ways of dealing with uncertainty, becoming an agent of change, and having personal impact.

The top request on a listener poll was for an episode on Mindfulness and Meditation so Karel devotes this episode to that topic. He discusses the research evidence regarding the benefits and then gives guidance on practicing mindfulness and meditation.

Karel is joined by Cynthia Tripathi, the author of Escaping Average. Karel and Cynthia discuss ways of upping your game in the areas of mental state, health, career, finance, and social life.

Karel is again joined by UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers to discuss recognizing and fixing common errors in thinking.

In response to listener suggestions, Karel devotes this episode to three themes for developing and applying social intelligence to entrepreneurial, intrepreneurial, and self-improvement initiatives.

After conducting a poll with listeners via social media as to what topic to focus on for this episode, it was determined that Optimizing Happiness was far and away the most ask for. Karel builds on the foundation that was established in LH84 on Being Happier to provide additional advice to further hone particular habits to achieve even greater levels of happiness in life.

Karel has been traveling a lot and hasn't recorded episodes lately so he decided to devote this return episode to the topic of optimizing travel.

Inspired by Emma Watson's UN speech, Karel devotes this episode to providing advice for women and men to promote gender equality.

Karel devotes this episode to the critically important habit of developing empathy for others.

Karel is back after a hiatus and devotes this episode to understanding what insights and lessons sports can provide in improving our life skills.

Karel is joined again by Marie-Josée Shaar this time to address the errors in thinking that can hurt your health and what you can do to prevent them from doing so.

Want to apply the power of Positive Psychology to business and to your working life? Karel is joined by Margaret Greenberg for this episode discussing the book she wrote with Senia Maymin, "Profit from the Positive: Proven Leadership Strategies to Boost Productivity and Transform Your Business".

Karel addresses listener questions and introduces affirmations and mindfulness together with guest UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers.

Karel devotes this episode to the topic of being happier and summarizes a list of ten items from Positive Psychology that you can start to do right away to be happier. He also recommends a new social network focused on increasing happiness in the world, called Happier.com.

Karel devotes this episode to listener questions on the topic of communication challenges.

Karel is again joined by UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers as they address a listener question asking for advice on dealing with change.

Karel devotes this episode to a listener suggestion to address becoming more productive using technology. Karel discusses four major themes 1) doing things more efficiently, doing more things at once sensibly, doing fewer things at once sensibly, and doing nothing.

Karel is again joined by Marie-Josée Shaar this time to discuss four approaches to creating cultures of wellness. Make sure to visit Marie-Josée's website smartsandstamina.com which also includes a link to her book. For further information on this topic, make sure to visit positivepychologynews.com.

In response to a listener suggestion, Karel devotes this episode to various ways of improving your personal impression management using the techniques and approaches from product marketing.

Karel devotes this episode to listener requests along the theme of staying true to yourself. He addresses awareness, consistency, and strength.

Karel addresses five questions listeners submitted on the topic of workplaces challenges. The questions deal with communicating across age and experience level differences, knowing who to trust, workplace bullying, managing anger outbursts, and working effectively with a world-wide team.

This episode is a tribute to Karel's mother who passed away recently and reflects on seven of the life lessons she taught, lived, and modeled, and will serve as her gift and legacy.

Would you like to be more aware of bullying of various types and what can be done about it? This was a topic that rose to the top of our Facebook poll of listeners. Karel has university student, George Janeteas, as his guest on bullying in general and cyber-bullying in particular. You can find more about George at his website at georgejaneteas.ca. George also provided the following additional resources: the Trevor Project, Youth Line, Kids Help Phone, and Prevnet.

This episode is a tribute to the late Stephen Covey, the author of the seminal book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". Karel discusses the influence Covey has had on listeners, himself, and the world. He then provides a few quotes and briefly summarizes Covey's seven habits.

Karel dedicates this episode to a set of questions submitted by listeners on the theme of relationships and is again joined by UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers. The questions address how to deal with infidelity, getting over a failed relationship, and dealing with parents as they are progressing through a divorce. Mandy has also written further on these topics on her blog, specifically "infidelity" and "end of a relationship".

After having heard Carol Dweck being interviewed on the Harvard Business Review podcast and checking with the Life Habits listeners on the Facebook page, Karel decided to read Carol's book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" and to dedicate this episode to its major insights and recommendations. Learn how to transition your thinking from a fixed mindset to one leading to growth in all aspects of your life.

At the suggestion of a listener, Karel devotes this episode to the topic of "Doing the Right Thing" and provides some practical advice on what to consider in weighing options when needing to make an ethical/moral decision.

Would you like a broader perspective on managing your money? At the suggestion of a listener, Karel provides both a conceptual perspective and some practical advice on managing money in this episode.

In response to a listener question, Karel provides advice on the process to use to stop worrying, including the identification of your degree of control and taking action on the basis of this.

Karel summarizes key insights from Daniel H. Pink's book "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us", on the recommendation of a podcast listener. He summarizes the alternatives to "carrot and stick" approaches which include a focus on Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Find out more about Dan Pink and how to get a copy of his book.

Karel is again joined by guest UK Psychologist Mandy Kloppers to address a listener request about professional help. Mandy outlines when you seek help, what types of help are available, and what to expect so that you can get the most out of any professional help you seek. More information and advice on a number of topics from Mandy can be found on her YouTube channel and on her website.

Karel is joined again by guest Marie-Josée Shaar who describes five simple, lazy, ways to get in shape based on the content in her great new book Smarts and Stamina: The Busy Person's Guide to Optimal Health and Performance, which she authored with occasional guest on the podcast, Kathryn Britton.

Karel reflects on the life of Steve Jobs and discusses his life lessons as conveyed through Walter Isaacson's authorized biography "Steve Jobs" and Steve's 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. You may also want to check out Karel's blog post on Steve Jobs's contributions to design.

Are you still getting stuck and lacking sufficient motivation? Karel devotes this episode to using visualization of the goal and progress toward the goal as additional means of increasing your motivation and being successful. These techniques are applicable to virtually all the areas of focus and topics covered in this podcast series.

Many people either don't take time off or do so only with others. Karel devotes this episode to advice for taking time for yourself via five Rs.

Want to make a difference in life, at home, at work, or throughout all society? Karel devotes this episode to an approach to plan and make progress on this topic.

Want to improve your overall sense of well-being? Master gratitude. Karel is joined on this episode by guest Kathryn Britton who is the author of "Gratitude: How to Appreciate Life's Gifts". You can reach Kathryn by sending her email at kathryn@theano-coaching.com.

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Guy Winch joins Karel on this episode to provide a set of quotes and top 10 tips for learning to complain effectively. Guy is the author of a great book on the topic called "The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the right way to get results, improve your relationships, and enhance self-esteem". Learn more about Guy at his website, Facebook page, or on Twitter.

At the suggestion of an Australian listener, Karel solicited questions from listeners and devotes this episode to providing answers to three listener questions.

Want to improve your interpersonal communication? Learn how to listen authentically. In this episode, Karel provides 10 ideas for developing the habit of authentic listening.