In honor of Back-to-School season, throughout September, Everyday Better is sharing conversations inspired by the essential life skills we didn’t learn in school, but should have. This week on the show, mindfulness educator Case Kenny explains how we can change our mindsets and find a more optimistic outlook.
If you watch the news, you won’t find much to be optimistic about. To realists, optimism might seem like denying reality. But in this conversation, you’ll hear why optimism isn’t about burying our heads in the sand; instead, it’s a learnable skill you can use to find more agency amidst chaos and build trust in yourself, your community, and the world.
In this week’s episode of Everyday Better, Case shares what optimism really is and how we can authentically cultivate it in ourselves. He explains why changing our mindsets starts with addressing our self-talk and how we can learn to challenge negative beliefs.
You can find Case’s new book The Opposite of Settling here.
If you liked this episode, check out our conversation with cognitive scientist Maya Shankar on navigating life’s biggest transitions.
Follow Leah Smart and Case Kenny on LinkedIn.
--------
36:59
--------
36:59
Maya Shankar: How to Navigate Life’s Biggest Transitions
In honor of Back-to-School season, throughout September, Everyday Better is sharing conversations inspired by the essential life skills we didn’t learn in school, but should have. This week on the show, cognitive scientist and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, Maya Shankar, reveals what happens to us when we encounter unexpected and unwanted changes in our lives.
Finding a way to deal with disappointment, shock and unwanted change is one of the most quintessential skills of adulthood. So why do so few of us know how to do it? Even Maya—who studies change—found herself at a loss when she realized that her lifelong dream of becoming a mother might never be realized.
In her conversation with Leah, Maya shares the psychological reasons why we all resist change and how we can learn to navigate events that stir up grief, shake our identities and change our realities.
Pre-order May’s forthcoming book The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans here.
Follow Leah Smart and Maya Shankar on LinkedIn.
--------
30:49
--------
30:49
Esther Perel: How to Balance Work, Family, and Fulfillment
In honor of Back-to-School season, throughout September, Everyday Better is sharing conversations inspired by the essential life skills we didn’t learn in school, but should have. This week on the show, world-renowned psychotherapist Esther Perel diagnoses our cultural obsession with work and offers a path forward.
As children, we’re taught to measure ourselves by gold stars and report cards, and many of us carry those lessons into adulthood. For countless Americans, work has become the center of our identities, communities, and our source of meaning and belonging.
In a time of uncertainty and shifting priorities, Leah and Esther sat down to explore how, in a culture that worships our careers, we can cultivate a healthier relationship to our work. Esther shares how major life transitions like becoming a parent can reshape our ambitions and offers practical tools for navigating conflict at work and building stronger human connections in an increasingly contactless world.
If you’ve ever felt like your worth is tied to your work performance, or if you’re struggling to balance career ambitions with other life priorities, this conversation will help you rethink what success truly means.
If you liked this episode, you’ll also love this one: How to Stop Fighting About Work With Dr. Alexandra Solomon.
Follow Leah Smart and Esther Perel on LinkedIn.
--------
35:26
--------
35:26
The Enneagram: A Path to Discovering Who You Really Are
Bea Chestnut is a psychotherapist, consultant and globally-recognized expert on the enneagram, a personality typing system based on ancient spiritual traditions. For the past 27 years, Bea has studied, written about and taught the enneagram in both therapeutic and business settings. She uses it as a map for guiding her clients towards a deeper understanding of themselves and others.
On this week’s episode of Everyday Better, we are bringing back one of our favorites: Leah and Bea’s deep dive into the enneagram – what it is, where it comes from and how it can be used to raise your level of awareness. Bea describes each of the nine enneagram types, including each type’s growth path for reaching a higher level of consciousness. She also shares how she discovered the enneagram and explains why she thinks it’s one of the most powerful personal development tools in the world.
If you liked this episode, you’ll also love this one: The Enneagram at Work: Leveling Up Your Leadership Skills.
For more on the enneagram, check out Bea’s book The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up: Find Your Path, Face Your Shadow, Discover Your True Self.
Follow Leah Smart and Bea Chestnut on LinkedIn.
--------
54:57
--------
54:57
Why Learning To Disappoint People Is the Key to an Authentic Life
On paper, Amber Rae had a dream life: she lived in Mexico with her husband and business partner. She was a budding memoirist and a speaker, teaching people how to be true to themselves and find emotional clarity. But beneath the surface, Amber felt disconnected and unfulfilled.
Then one day she woke up. She realized she had built her entire life around the expectations of others and she set out to do something different.
This week on Everyday Better, Amber shares her story of dismantling her old life in the pursuit of authenticity, breaking free from people-pleasing and learning to disappoint others along the way. She explains why disappointing others isn’t selfish, but instead a learnable skill we can use to live in alignment with our true selves.
If you liked this episode, you’ll also love this one: Warning: This Podcast Will Remind You of Your Mortality with Jodi Wellman.
Get Amber’s book Loveable: One Woman’s Path from Good to Free here.
Follow Leah Smart and Amber Rae on LinkedIn.
Everyday Better is your guide to creating positive change at work, at home, in your relationships, and beyond.
Each week, Leah Smart, LinkedIn's Senior Editor and a certified coach specializing in self-improvement, shares inspiring conversations with trusted voices and curates research-backed strategies to help you navigate transitions, challenges, and uncertainties with clarity and intention. Because work and the rest of your life don’t exist in silos, and what happens in one always finds its way into the other.
Discover fresh perspectives, get unstuck, and take small steps every day, toward the life you want. New episodes every Tuesday.
Ireland