Manage to Engage

Why We Self Sabotage (MTE387)

Josef Shapiro — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Self-sabotage is in the news these days and it inspired me to write a piece about today that I'm delivering in this podcast. It's a door into the paradigmatic processing of reality, which is a big part of my upcoming course that begins April 17, 2025, called The Art of Open Connection. You can find the article here.

What's Your Protector Style?

Josef Shapiro — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 06:00:00 -0400

This episode is a read and talk on a recently published article on protector styles. We all have them and it's one of the most important things you can learn about yourself. Here's the link to the original article:

https://clearandopen.com/protect-yourself-from-change/

The Necessity of Challenging Values

Josef Shapiro — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 06:00:00 -0400

It’s been a while since I dropped a podcast as I’ve had a number of other priorities these days, but I do promise to keep it going.

I wanted to share a rich and challenging conversation we had in a recent Clear and Open webcast. This was the 8th session in a course we’re currently completing called Intuitive Leadership and Living. Some interesting things came out about challenging values, which in most circles would be considered taboo. Unfortunately, this enables people to stay comfortable and not grow.

I’m a business coach, spiritual educator, and therapist and I specialize in helping leaders get out of their own way. For more information about what I do or to become part of the conversations you hear on this podcast, please visit clearandopen.com.

My next course, Revealing Your Unconscious, begins September 23, 2023, and this podcast actually serves as an intro to that course. It’s going to be very much a workshop like what we did in this session, with a focus on outlining and mapping aspects of your unconscious and related principles. This will include the different types of childhood wounding, compensation styles, finding your hidden medications, how to make your unconscious conscious, and much more. For more information on that, go to courses.clearandopen.com

What’s This Really About?

Josef Shapiro — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 06:00:00 -0400

Today’s episode is, like the last series, from my course, “The Art of Asking Questions.” We talk a lot about the importance of deep listening and using questions to get to the heart of the matter in this conversation, with some interesting real-time examples.

This and future episodes are available as video at youtube.com/@clearandopen

Existential Curiosity

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 06:00:00 -0400

I offer weekly member webcasts, online courses, and mentorship at clearandopen.com because it’s my truth that – with the right tools – anyone can eliminate the people, money, and time problems holding them back in business. And I share parts of these webcasts and courses on this show because I want to help you, too.

This series is from the course entitled The Art of Asking Questions, which you can find at courses.clearandopen.com

Curiosity & Critical Thinking

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This series is from the course entitled The Art of Asking Questions, which you can find at courses.clearandopen.com

Curiosity Isn’t a Skill

Josef Shapiro — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This series is from the course entitled The Art of Asking Questions, which you can find at courses.clearandopen.com

The Tragedy of our Incurious Conditioning

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 06:00:00 -0400

We begin a four part series today from my course entitled “The Art of Asking Questions”, which you can find at courses.clearandopen.com. I’ll talk about the nature of curiosity, our poor conditioning about learning and what to do about it, how embarrassment can be productive, and a lot more.

The Dead-End of Strival

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This is the third and final part of the excerpts on excellence from my course entitled Embodied Values and Virtues, which you can find at courses.clearandopen.com. In this installment, we relate excellence to the 5 stages engagement, which you may remember from previous episodes, and the dead-end of striving.

Then we connect passion work and soulmates to the final stage of flow, the place we’re all headed whether we realize it or not. Again, this series is from my course, “Embodied Values and Virtues.”

Excellence Earns

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Today is part two of a three-part series excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” We’re focusing on excellence and apply this to the domains of soul-mates and passion-path today, the person and work that is inextricably intertwined with your destiny.

Spoiler alert: doing your best with what’s in front of you is the path to get there, and we’re not entitled to anything we haven’t yet earned.

Don’t Never Give Up

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This episode is part one of a series excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” The topic today and in the next two episodes is excellence, and it’s quite relevant to the “quiet quitting” stuff we’re hearing about in the news these days. In this episode: why never giving up is bad advice, how will-based excellence isn’t sustainable, and the terror of letting go of what once worked, but no longer serves you.

How Judgment Can Help You

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This episode is part three of a series excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” We continue the conversation about compassion today by deconstructing the ubiquitous judgment of judgment in our world, and how counter-intuitively accepting and investigating your own judgments can lead to authentic compassion.

Deconstructing False Ideas About Compassion

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two of a three part series excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” We continue the conversation about the limits of repressing feelings, fear or otherwise, and the process of dead-ending principles by living them out to their logical extreme. Then we transition from courage to compassion and deconstruct some of the most common misconceptions of compassion that tragically stop us from embodying it.

The Failure of Emotional Repression

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 06:00:00 -0400

The last series was excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues,” and we’re following suit. This episode begins a three-part series taken from the hour that followed. We talk more about courage and move onto the next virtue on the list, compassion. We talk specifically about the importance of not repressing fear, which is the most common misunderstanding of courage. Related to this, I field a question about how to productively steer yourself into fear, in the name of healing.

The Cake and Eat It Too Seduction

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This episode completes our four-part series on courage, excerpted from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” Today we explore “the cake and eat it too” dynamic, the necessity of diagnosing root causes, living paradigms all the way to their logical conclusion, the red herring of confidence, and finally, to wrap up the series, the punchline: get intimate with your fear. That’s what courage really is.

Curiosity and Courage

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This is part three in the courage series from my course Embodied Values and Virtues.

In this episode, we talk about the similarities between parenting and management and the importance and power of being curious about another’s experience. We also discuss the limits of nervous system regulation based models, treating symptoms vs. root causes, western medicine’s inability to diagnose and heal emotional issues and a lot more.

The Courage of Ownership

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:00 -0400

This is part two in the courage series from my course “Embodied Values and Virtues.” Today we talk about the courage it takes to no longer need supervision. The expectation we have to be supervised comes from our school conditioning and unfortunately follows most people well into their adult lives.

We also discuss the courage required to take responsibility for the people you draw and learn the lessons they’re there to teach you rather than playing victim.

Courage Without Control

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 06:00:00 -0400

The next four episodes are excerpted from my Embodied Values and Virtues Course which was live the first quarter of 2022. We spent an hour or so on each of eight virtues of Clear and Open, which I based off of the list created by the Samurai.

The virtue you’ll hear about is courage, and in this episode specifically what it means in peer relationships where you don’t have control. I’ll talk about the self-image that people-helpers tend to build in order to never have to be vulnerable, and also the pitfalls of using the written word for accountability.

369 - What Marketing Really Is - Part 3 - How Marketing Informs Action

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Last week, we learned to recognize that marketing is not an action, but a discipline. And the discipline of marketing leads to the three activities: client fulfillment, lead conversion, and lead generation. Identifying how it fuels each of those is essential to effective marketing. Advertising is only a tiny part of marketing, and it’s a disservice to the art to stop the discussion there.

368 - What Marketing Really Is - Part 2 - Knowing Your Worth

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Most people think they know what marketing is… but they aren’t actually doing it. And those who think they hate marketing don’t even really know what it is. When we hear the word “marketing,” many of us jump straight to advertising. But that’s not right. If we think of marketing not as an activity but as a discipline, the content starts to fall into place. Once you address the beliefs behind marketing, everything else makes sense.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

367 - What Marketing Really Is - Part 1 - Making Time for What Matters

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 06:00:00 -0400

In the coming weeks, we’re going to start talking about what marketing really is and why most people have it wrong. But before we get to that, it’s important to understand why we sometimes find it difficult to get our most important work done. We all have a very limited amount of time to do anything to our best ability, and it usually occurs at the same time each day. When we fill those hours with meaningless tasks, it’s no wonder we find it difficult to get our focused, more trying work done during the non-optimal hours. It’s important to find a balance between what you are moved to do, and what is most important to do: that is the art of living.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

366 - The Root of Responsibility Issues - Part 4 - Accountability & Consequences

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 06:00:00 -0400

The role of the org chart is to make the responsibilities of each person within the organization as clear as possible. It’s crucial that responsibility is not shared, because shared responsibility avoids accountability. Without accountability, you can’t have consequences. And without consequences, we negate our whole reason for being. The only way we can learn our lessons is by acting out our truths and experiencing their natural consequences – with some help from teachers along the way.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

365 - The Root of Responsibility Issues - Part 3 - The Existentialism of the Org Chart

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 06:00:00 -0400

to you) brings up all of our deepest existential issues with power and free will. When you try to put someone in a role, it can make their unconscious need for control feel threatened. But, through that friction, and recognizing the consequences of their actions, is where a sense of freedom truly emerges. Our beliefs have to crash with the boundaries of reality in order to discover genuine truth for us.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

364 - The Root of Responsibility Issues - Part 2 - Recognizing the Value of Work

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 06:00:00 -0400

There’s value in a job well done. Think of the difference between a reward earned after some hard work and one you’ve treated yourself to. We value the things we’ve worked towards, but we can often “cheat” our way to the same goal – but doing so isn’t truly satisfying. It’s a lesson everyone, at any level of an organization, needs to learn on their own.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

363 - The Root of Responsibility Issues - Part 1 - The Free Will Paradigm

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 May 2022 06:00:00 -0400

As humans, we have an innate desire to be free. But we also don’t recognize the realities of freedom. Free will exists: you can do whatever you want. But you can’t escape the consequences of doing it. And the role of life is to hold us accountable to reality and show us what happens when we take our truth to its natural conclusion.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

362 - Visioning From Your Soul - Part 4 - Embracing Your Own Authority

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 May 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Having a vision as a leader is one thing, but successful leaders need to inspire others to invest in that vision as well. To do that, you need to prove to them – through words as well as actions – that your vision serves their own best interest. Feeling as if you know what’s best for others can be uncomfortable at first, but it must be embraced. As long as you believe in what you are doing (and allow space for others to tell you if you’re wrong), you can become someone worth following.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

361 - Visioning From Your Soul - Part 3 - Resist or Learn

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 May 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Life has a way of putting us right up against the change we require, but it doesn’t make us any less resistant to adopting it. You have a choice: resist or learn. In order to become who you want to be, you have to look hard and realize who you are not. When we see the stories of great leaders, it feels as if they knew what they were doing all along – why else would they take such crazy risks in the face of seemingly impossible odds? But ask anyone in the midst of their soul’s journey if they felt that way and it’ll likely be a different story.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

360 - Visioning From Your Soul - Part 2 - Resisting Your True Self

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 May 2022 06:00:00 -0400

What’s holding you back from making the change necessary to step into your truest expression of self? Being our true selves sounds great, but most of us don’t live that way. Making change requires parts of our current self to cease, and those parts will fear and resist the change. Facing your destiny can be a scary prospect, but we often see the biggest growth on the other side of fear.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

359 - Visioning From Your Soul - Part 1 - Resisting the Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 May 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Leaders tend to want their outsides to change without having to change themselves. But the truth is you cannot become a leader without change. Being a leader – the kind that truly inspires people to follow – requires becoming a better version of you. And part of that change is creating a different relationship with authority and instruction.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

358 - Psychospiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram: Uncovering Courage - Part 3 - The Willingness to See

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 06:00:00 -0400

The first step of personal growth is the willingness to look at anything (and everything) within yourself. Anything you refuse to look at is only going to create internal division. Facing your weaknesses is a very difficult thing to do, but it’s something you become better at with time. Look for opportunities in your everyday life to reveal parts of yourself, and you’ll only grow stronger for it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

357 - Psychospiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram: Uncovering Courage - Part 2 - The Courage of Discomfort

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Some types get a bad reputation due to the worst parts of them, especially in certain cultures. We have to look at the shadow side of ourselves and realize how those actually become our strengths. But that takes finding the courage to closely examine those shadows, deeply understand them, and find out where you stand. Most of the problems we face in life – regardless of what our enneagram type is – stem from not having the courage to bear emotional discomfort.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

356 - Psychospiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram: Uncovering Courage - Part 1 - Why Self-Examination Requires Courage

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 06:00:00 -0400

We’re going to delve back into the enneagram this week. We started this journey by looking at and identifying the best parts of ourselves. Then we took an uncomfortable look at the dark, shadowy parts. The truth may set you free, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be difficult to look at. That’s why we’ll be exploring courage – the courage it takes to embrace emotional discomfort, and how we’re conditioned against doing that.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

355 - Effective Hiring - Part 4 - Hiring is Marketing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Hiring the right people means beginning with the end in mind. You have to work backwards from the qualities you want in an employee and create questions that will reveal those qualities in your candidates. This is where curiosity comes in. If you are not genuinely curious about who your candidates really are, you will never find the person you are looking for. This is a skill that takes practice to master, but it will pay dividends in your business.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

354 - Effective Hiring - Part 3 - Driving the Interview

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 06:00:00 -0400

The governing power of hiring is curiosity. It’s essential for finding out what drives people, and knowing that is critical in making the right hire. Part of being curious means being prepared to ask difficult questions. Interviews should be uncomfortable. When you’re hiring for someone who’s coachable, honesty is key. They need to be open about their weaknesses and their flaws, and driven to improve them.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

353 - Effective Hiring - Part 2 - The Untrainable Qualities

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 06:00:00 -0400

When hiring, we’re looking for qualities that you can’t get just by training. We subconsciously hire people who are less capable than us because we feel threatened, or we hire people who have the skills that we could train for, but that we just don’t want to. Ideally, we should hire those who could become equal to (or better than) us, but just haven’t been managed well enough to get there yet. Candidates can sense the difference, and it’s often what they really want when looking for a role – even more than money. It’s what you want as well, even if you don’t realize it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

352 - Effective Hiring - Part 1 - Hiring for Management

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 06:00:00 -0400

I recently shared the difference between management and supervision. But how does that play out in the hiring process? Supervision is based on content; not context. You look at their surface level skills and rapport with you instead of the context of who they are going to become when they work with you. If you want to hire effectively you have to be present, and, in order to be present, you can’t be busy.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

351 - Living a Soulful Life - Part 4 - The Razor’s Edge

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 06:00:00 -0400

What does it mean to live a spiritual life? Recognizing the fact that you do not always know what’s good for you. The spiritual path can often be confusing, but it’s pointing you in the right direction. We need to find the edge of where exact clarity and total abandon meet, taking your dreams, ambitions, and purpose and, at the same time, letting it go. The mind can’t grasp this – it’s a paradox. But the soul can.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

350 - Living a Soulful Life - Part 3 - The Universal & the Individual

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -0400

When things get difficult, the ego will steer us away from our next step or halt us completely.

Religion often promises spiritual experiences without the difficulties, but that ends up being a false promise. The path to spirituality is one that can only be experienced firsthand. It’s a journey into the unknown. It requires us to get out of our own way and to trust the outcome.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

349 - Living a Soulful Life - Part 2 - The Natural Order

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Humans have the unique ability to live out of harmony with their own nature. We have free will, which allows us to deny our own needs – even though we can’t escape the consequences that come along with it. The downsides of repressing our own needs can come out in the form of resentment, anger, passive-aggression, or even cancer. This becomes even more difficult to manage when we realize that we don’t often know what’s good for us. So how do we find it? Through trial and error, and deep introspection.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

348 - Living a Soulful Life - Part 1 - Serving One for the Whole

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -0400

In this episode, we talk about spirituality – what it is and isn’t. One of the topics we are most conflicted about in life, spirituality sits right alongside money, sex, love, power, and death. And like those, it is widely misunderstood. Part of that comes from a misunderstanding of self-interest and the role it plays in our lives. We’re taught from an early age that self-interest is bad, and interest in others is good. The truth is that self-interest can come in both healthy and unhealthy forms. We are all a part of the same whole, and the only way to serve the whole is to serve ourselves, rather than sacrificing our own needs in service of others. We have to break free from a lifetime of programming that says we have to spiritually disconnect from the self in order to serve the other.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

347 - Management vs. Supervision - Part 4 - Supervision is Rooted in Ego

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -0400

At the root of the conflict between supervision and management is the issue of power. People are subconsciously afraid of their own power and therefore want to be supervised. And those who are in management positions, knowing that the people below them can do everything they can become threatening to their sense of power. We all have those voices inside of us. But that’s just the ego, and we can’t let the ego rule us.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

346 - Management vs. Supervision - Part 3 - Dare to Be Useless

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Now we know the difference between supervision and management, and how falling into the trap of supervision prevents us from doing the strategic work that will truly grow your organization. If you catch yourself supervising, don’t defend the action—do something about it. It’s not hard to figure out what you need to do. It’s not even that hard to find the time to do it. What’s holding most people back is the willingness to do something uncomfortable. You’re never going to find out what your employees are capable of until you put some pressure on them, but most managers get caught up in being the one to know it all that they willingly hold their organizations back. But if you’re willing to not be needed, everything can get better.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

345 - Management vs. Supervision - Part 2 - Doing the Strategic Work

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 06:00:00 -0400

The employee mindset—or default human nature—is to exert the lowest amount of effort possible to accomplish the task at hand. If you show someone that every time they drop the ball you’ll be there to catch it, then they’re not likely to get any better at catching—let alone stepping up for more responsibility. When you build a culture of supervision, the result is that you begin dragging down each and every role in the organization. And if you can just follow the breadcrumbs and see where you continually fall into supervision instead of management, you can completely transform your organization.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

344 - Management vs. Supervision - Part 1 - The Difference Between Supervision and Management

Josef Shapiro — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Supervision and management are often used interchangeably, but I’m going to make the argument for why that couldn’t be more wrong. Supervision means, quite literally, to oversee. In action, that typically means making sure the people who already know what they’re supposed to do, do it. That’s not a great use of time, though it is occasionally necessary. Management, on the other hand, is about developing people and helping them to evolve. It’s getting people to a place where they don’t need you at all.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

343 - Claiming Self-Authority: Excuses as a Drain of Power - Part 4 - Love the Truth

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 06:00:00 -0400

You have a choice. In every moment of your life, you choose how to react. That’s how we started discussing the idea of excuses, a few lessons back, and to some, that thought is terrifying. Even continuing to live every day is a choice. Instead of being terrified by the idea, let the power to choose empower you. If you want to, you can choose to make your life better. No more excuses.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

342 - Claiming Self-Authority: Excuses as a Drain of Power - Part 3 - Use Your Excuses

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Excuses aren’t all bad news. As we explored last week, the areas in which we make excuses are likely the areas we don’t want to look at. If we use that to our advantage, tracking what we make excuses around can be one of the most powerful tools we can use to reclaim our power.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

341 - Claiming Self-Authority: Excuses as a Drain of Power - Part 2 - You Always Have a Choice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 06:00:00 -0400

What is an excuse, really? Making an excuse comes down to denying your role in an outcome. If you had the ability to respond to a situation in any way, whether you did or not, you had a hand in that outcome. To deny that is to make excuses. We always have a choice. And if we’re refusing to acknowledge our choices, there’s likely a choice we’ve made that we don’t want to look at. That’s where the opportunity to learn something about ourselves lies.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

340 - Claiming Self-Authority: Excuses as a Drain of Power - Part 1 - Saying vs Doing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 06:00:00 -0400

It’s quite easy to say “don’t make excuses.” Obvious, even. But it’s one thing to say something, another to know how to do it, and something else entirely to actually apply it to your life. Knowing something is not being something. Making excuses (or not) is a moment-to-moment decision – one you have to make every day for the rest of your life. You never stop deciding, but you can get better at noticing those moments.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

339 - Claiming Self-Authority: The Code of Conduct - Part 4 - The Training Montage

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Gaining mastery is a slow process. As much as we’d love a hyper-focused training montage across a week or a month that leaves us at our goal, in reality, mastery requires slow, methodical application of curiosity. Curiosity is essential no matter what it is you are striving to achieve. The downside – or so it may seem – is that curiosity can often lead to discomfort. But you can’t grow without discomfort, and once you realize that, you can start to view discomfort as a good thing rather than something to avoid.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

338 - Claiming Self-Authority: The Code of Conduct - Part 3 - Curiosity Cures Miscommunication

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Clear communication could solve the majority of problems business leaders face every day. Imagine how much time would be saved if you asked your team to do something, took the time to make sure they understood it effectively, and they got it done on the first try? When you don’t take the time to confirm that something has been properly understood, that time gets wasted exponentially on the back end. Following up and even redoing work takes far more time in the long run. A little curiosity upfront or after the fact: did they understand what I asked them to do? Or, if not, why is that? Asking those simple questions changes everything.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

337 - Claiming Self-Authority: The Code of Conduct - Part 2 - The Responsibility Paradox

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Let’s reframe responsibility. No one is inherently responsible or irresponsible. Responsibility is simply the ability to respond to a situation. You have the opportunity to respond in every situation you are in. And the irony of it – what I call the responsibility paradox – is that people who aren’t being responsible don’t wonder if they are being responsible, because that is the responsible thing to do. One of the most powerful ways of harnessing responsibility is to respond to a situation with curiosity. When you are curious, you start to look at the things you normally wouldn’t notice, and that’s when real insight can be found.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

336 - Claiming Self-Authority: The Code of Conduct - Part 1 - Self-Knowledge & Self-Authority

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 06:00:00 -0400

One of the best tools for claiming self-authority is the enneagram. It’s one I use constantly. When you learn to understand and use the enneagram well, it is completely life-changing. Rarely do we understand how differently people think until we really dive into this work. And when you know yourself, how you communicate, and how other people perceive you, incredible things happen.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

335 - Claiming Self-Authority: Deconstructing Your Self - Part 4 - Be True to You

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 06:00:00 -0400

I discussed the willingness to lose it all last week, and I want to start by clarifying something: being willing to lose it all does not guarantee that you won’t lose it all. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s true: the stronger your will, the higher the likelihood that you will have to fail – and fail hard – to achieve true self-authority. You won’t know the price until you take the leap, but let me tell you this: it is absolutely a price worth paying. How bad do you want it?

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

334 - Claiming Self-Authority: Deconstructing Your Self - Part 3 - Be, Do, Have

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Last week we talked about why “follow your passion” is poor advice. It’s understandable that we’d think that. We’ve been conditioned to think that acquisition leads to action, and that action leads to feeling or being a certain way. But what if we’ve had it backwards all along? What if it’s the being that leads to doing, and that leads to having what we want? That’s the true path.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

333 - Claiming Self-Authority: Deconstructing Your Self - Part 2 - The Passion Path

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 06:00:00 -0400

There are two things that define the mature self more than anything else: a soulmate and a passion path. Neither are something you go out and get – you attract them by being the kind of person who deserves them. But we’re not conditioned to work on who we are. Instead, we’re told to define what we want and acquire it. “Find your passion.” We have to deconstruct our current paradigm and start working on being the kind of person who does what they are passionate about, not the kind of person who’s always chasing.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

332 - Claiming Self-Authority: Deconstructing Your Self - Conceptualization is Not Reality

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Our society places such concern over intelligence. We’re led to believe that getting good grades, going to college, and gaining certified knowledge will lead to happiness, but the reality is just the opposite. The more intelligent you are, the better the mind gets at obstructing our feelings. The first step to overcoming this mental block is to realize that it exists. We can’t conceptualize ourselves into being happy.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

331 - Claiming Self-Authority: Reclaiming Reality - Part 4 - Giving Power to the Collective

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 06:00:00 -0400

As you explore your own authentic power, you need to be aware of the ways in which you give your power away. Maybe you’re bolstering your lack of authority by joining a group dynamic that gives you a sense of control or power. And of course, being a part of groups is not a bad thing. But unless you’ve forged yourself in the fires of loneliness, you will never know how you are leaking your power to others in order to remain a part of those groups. See where you are giving away your power so that you can gain more individually.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

330 - Claiming Self-Authority: Reclaiming Reality - Part 3 - The Art of Doing Nothing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Doing nothing is hard. You’ve done the hard work to dredge up feelings from the deepest crevices of your mind, and now you’re supposed to stop… but doing nothing is still doing something. It is an active process.

Any behavior that serves to numb feelings is suspect. Treating the symptoms rather than the cause only leads to feeling worse. When you really see what’s happening in your life – without trying to change it – that’s when things start moving.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

329 - Claiming Self-Authority: Reclaiming Reality - Part 2 - In the Light of Day

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 06:00:00 -0400

We’ve learned to challenge our parents’ reality and establish emotional boundaries. That’s hard work. But many of us are afraid to keep tugging on that thread and see what unravels. When your emotions are all out in the open, what are you supposed to do with them? All you have to do – as simple or as complex as it may seem – is to look at it, embrace it, and feel it. And do it without judgment. Wishing it weren’t there is only going to make things worse.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

328 - Claiming Self-Authority: Reclaiming Reality - Part 1 - Taking a Hard Look

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Doing the work is, surprisingly, only half of the work. The second – and often more challenging – part is to take a closer look at what comes out. Previously, we had looked at some uncomfortable parts of our pasts: acknowledging our weaknesses, examining the flaws of our parents, and looking at the relationships between them. We’re going to take some time to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned, as well as why it can be so hard to adjust the perceptions of our parents in our minds.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

327 - Rishon Blumberg: 10x Talent - Part 4 - Intentional Management

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0400

We’re in a whole new world of work. We have the dominant generation creating higher and higher demands for their work while, at the same time, businesses try to find the balance between meeting their wants and honoring their own internal hierarchies. Then there are the challenges of remote work. We’re starting to see the benefits and drawbacks of having a remote workplace. How can we get the best of both worlds? There’s going to be a lot of discussion about how work works in the future… but for now, we need to learn how to manage the position we’re in the best that we can.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

326 - Rishon Blumberg: 10x Talent - Part 3 - Living in an On-Demand World

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0400

I offer weekly member webcasts, online courses, and mentorship at clearandopen.com because it’s my truth that, with the right tools, anyone can eliminate the people, money, and time problems holding them back in business. And I share parts of these webcasts and courses on this show because I want to help you, too.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

325 - Rishon Blumberg: 10x Talent - Part 2 - Managing High Performers

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Last week, Rishon Blumberg shared his concept of hiring “10x” talent. Today, we’re going to look at how you can manage and retain that talent – or, if that talent is you, how to make sure you’re getting the most from the companies that hire you.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

324 - Rishon Blumberg: 10x Talent - Part 1 - Hiring for EQ

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Rishon Blumberg is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Brick Wall Management, an entertainment management company. As they hired freelancers to build websites and apps within the industry, they kept bumping up against the same problem: good, reliable talent is hard to find.

When people started calling tech talent “the new rockstars,” Rishon and his co-founder wondered if they could take what they do for the entertainment industry and introduce it into new markets. In the first part of this interview series, we’re going to explore finding “10x” talent: what it means, how to hire it, and, most importantly, how to retain it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

323 - Claiming Self-Authority: Access to Authentic Power - Part 3 - Reparenting Yourself

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Previously, we looked at how your relationship with your parents — and more specifically, your acknowledgement of their flaws — is essential to claiming self-authority. Ignoring reality is dangerous. In the short-term it gives us relief and removes the discomfort of non optimal experiences. But in the long-term, ignoring reality makes us incapable of recognizing what’s actually real. The job of any adult is to reparent themselves, and in order to do that effectively you have to recognize where the deficit is.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

322 - Claiming Self-Authority: Access to Authentic Power - Part 2 - The Parent Trap

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400

The biggest roadblock to becoming stronger is our refusal to get deeply intimate with our weaknesses. As an extension of that, far too many of us are unwilling to acknowledge the faults in our parents. There is nothing more important than looking at your parents weaknesses, because it’s easier to see than your own. And the more we learn about our parents, the more we learn about ourselves.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

321 - Claiming Self-Authority: Access to Authentic Power - Part 1 - Work with Your Weakness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400

We’re always told to “play to our strengths” while downplaying our weaknesses. We strive so hard to hide our shortcomings — both from others and ourselves. In reality, they are both two sides of the same coin. Without understanding both, we never see the full picture. Our biggest challenges are an expression of our greatest strengths. Let’s learn to see the best in ourselves — by acknowledging the worst.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Claiming Self-Authority course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

320 - Competence - Part 4 - Mind the Gap

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 31 May 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Competence lies in the gap between who you think you are and what is actually true about you. The role of a teacher or mentor is to help people look into the gap between. If you never risk achieving excellence and finding out where you fall short, you will be stuck succumbing to mediocrity. A healthy ego should oscillate between believing you are awesome and seeing how far you have to go without dwelling too much on one thought or the other. And working hard to close that gap is where true fulfillment comes from.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

319 - Competence - Part 3 - The Zone of Mediocrity

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 24 May 2021 06:00:00 -0400

The path to competence is paved with failure. Failure is the moment when you realize that your competence is an illusion and clarifies what you need to gain it. The problem is that so many people are afraid of failure. And fear of failure leads to mediocrity. The safest thing we can do to avoid failure is to never try at all. To achieve competence we have to become friends with failure.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

318 - Competence - Part 2 - Earn Money vs Make Money

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 May 2021 06:00:00 -0400

As we’ve discussed recently, money is a symbol of value. Applying that in our lives can lead to a paradigm shift in how we approach money. But first, we have to repair our relationship to producing value which has been warped since childhood.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

317 - Competence - Part 1 - The Origin of Incompetence

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 May 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Like money, competence leads to problems when we think we know what it is… and we think we have it, but don’t. To get to the highest peaks of excellence you have to take a deconstructive approach to competence — that is, focusing on where you are incompetent. We’re going to delve into the true definition of competence, and where incompetency is born.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

316 - What Money Actually Is - Part 4 - The Struggle is Optional

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 May 2021 06:00:00 -0400

The true essence of money and the way it is expressed in the world are at a complete impasse. That’s where so much discomfort around money comes from. We do not feel comfortable with the reality of money as it exists in the world, and yet we see no path to change it. So what are we going to do — change the way the world views money? Or change our world? That’s what we have control over, and the only real path to changing the world is through ourselves.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

315 - What Money Actually Is - Part 3 - Value, Not Worth

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400

The discomfort many of us have around money shows up in different ways. Now that we know what money truly is, it’s natural to start applying that to our current perception of it. As we clarify and further understand money, we become more comfortable with our relationship with it.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

314 - What Money Actually Is - Part 2 - The Neutrality of Money

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Before we can talk about money and our relation to it, we have to come to a common definition of it. Today, I’m going to define what money is — and what it isn’t — to parse out how that relates to you.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

313 - What Money Actually Is - Part 1 - Stirring Up Muddy Water

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400

It’s surprising how little we are actually in control — most of us, anyway. We think we’re sitting in the driver’s seat. However, we’re really in the passenger seat, staring out the window, occasionally shouting out directions but never really paying attention to the road. The truth of the matter is, you’re never really going to take that wheel. As you do the work, you’ll become more comfortable with being the passenger and hand over trust to the driver. You will, however, keep your eyes on the road.

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been stirring up a lot of uncomfortable notions such as this in order to realize how you can improve them. Today and over the next few weeks, we’re going to stir up some more truths about money — and what you can do about it.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Money: From Burden to Freedom course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

312 - Do You Hear That? - Part 4 - What Are You Not Willing to Give Up?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Today, we are on the precipice of awakening… and even the idea of that is probably going to stir some stuff up. So, let’s address the fears and the questions that the ego often wields to hold us back and the tools we have to get beyond those obstacles, both through short-lived shortcuts and long-earned practice.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

311 - Do You Hear That? - Part 3 - Schrödinger's Ego

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Our conversation kicks off with a really insightful question about the nature of ego from one of the students who was participating in the live call: is the egoic process entirely in our conscious mind or our unconscious mind? Both?

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

310 - Do You Hear That? - Part 2 - The Spirit of Exploration

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 06:00:00 -0400

As we continue to work our way through the Meditation for Awakening course, I want to talk about the importance of curiosity and exploration in a meditation practice.

In a lot of ways, this is THE most important thing — but we need to be careful about not letting our curiosity lead us into the common trap of comparing ourselves to others in the process. It’s in the act of comparison that we create the possibility of a failure state, and when we remove those expectations from the equation, we get one step closer to effortlessness.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

309 - Do You Hear That? - Part 1 - The Noisiest It’s Ever Been

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been doing a deep-dive into Meditation for Awakening. And so far, we’ve been laying down the macro-level groundwork: what meditation is and isn’t, separating yourself from your thoughts, why most people practicing don’t actually get the greatest possible benefits of meditation, and the nature of “The Spiritual Instinct.” Simply put, we’ve been looking at thy Why of meditation.

Today, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to start getting into the micro level — or the How of Meditation for Awakening.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

308 - The Spiritual Instinct - Part 4 - Allowing What Is

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 06:00:00 -0400

We’ve spent most of the last few weeks answering questions asked by the people who were originally on this coaching call, which is great, because those questions represent the fears and pre-existing notions that hold most of us back from awakening and enlightenment.

Today we’re going to look at what successful meditation looks like and what happens when you give yourself over to what I call “The Spiritual Instinct,” which I’ll also define here for you shortly.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

307 - The Spiritual Instinct - Part 3 - Letting It Be

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re going to sink our teeth into the meat of meditation: what the end goal of awakening, or enlightenment, actually looks like. And to start, we’re going to look at how my favorite Zen teacher defines enlightenment.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

306 - The Spiritual Instinct - Part 2 - The Ego Hijack

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 06:00:00 -0400

We’re continuing our exploration of meditation for awakening, and today, we’re looking at what really holds us back: the ego.

The ego is going to hijack your experience of meditation — and life, really — as long as it’s in the driver seat. We can’t kick it out of the car altogether, but we can demote it to the passenger seat by developing a better understanding of what “you” really are.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

305 - The Spiritual Instinct - Part 1 - It Commands You, Yet It Obeys You

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Over the last few weeks, we’ve gone through the basics of meditation. Now I want to shift into, more specifically, meditation for awakening — and the true goal or purpose of meditation.

Meditation has never been more popular, but it’s also been perverted into a utilitarian tool for productivity in its most accessible forms. I liken the common meditation apps of the day to welding training wheels onto your bike: it’s definitely easier to start, but they’ll slow you down forever.

Meditation can have a transformative effect on your experience of life, but if you are pursuing meditation as a means to an end, as a way of achieving a specific goal, you’re probably going to be disappointed… and you’re definitely going to miss out on the greatest benefits of meditation.

This episode was originally recorded as part of the Meditation for Awakening course, available at ClearandOpen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

304 - Meditation for Awakening - Part 4 - The Meditation Paradox

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Back in episode 301, I told you about my preferred way of teaching: by introducing students to a concept in totality, making them aware of the most advanced way in mind from the very beginning.

I prefer this because, when I was a student of meditation, I was only shown part of the story, and I ended up developing some really bad habits. I don’t see any advantage to practicing from limitation.

So, today, I’m going to introduce you to one of the most advanced and paradoxical aspects of meditation. It may be a little overwhelming or hard to wrap your head around, but we need to be aware of what success looks like before we can assess whether or not we’re being successful.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

303 - Meditation for Awakening - Part 3 - Do YOU Pass the Five Senses Test?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 06:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we talked about what the ego is and isn’t. Today, we’re going to reframe Ego as a verb. That may sound a little silly based on the cultural context of ego that we’re all familiar with, but I think it’s ultimately the most productive way to approach the transformative process of meditation.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

302 - Meditation for Awakening - Part 2 - Your Thoughts, Your Ego, & You

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 06:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we went over many of the things that meditation isn’t and why people often quit when they start approaching the reality of meditation: realizing that you are not your thoughts.

Today, we’re going to delve into who you are if you’re not your thoughts, which we can’t do without talking about the ego — both the modern, bastardized conception of ego and the actual definition of ego.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

301 - Meditation for Awakening - Part 1 - What is Meditation?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Over the next few weeks, I am going to introduce you to meditation: what it is, and just as important, what it isn’t. Because there is definitely some confusion there.

I know that some of you already have a meditation practice, but I urge you to keep going — because there’s a good chance you were taught how to meditate the wrong way, or you weren’t provided the whole picture.

How do I know? Because I spent 20 years thinking I knew how to meditate and what meditation was… and when I realized I didn’t, I was kinda pissed off. And I don’t want you to go two decades building bad habits, too.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

300 - Surrender vs. Submission - Part 4 - Glamorizing the Rebel

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 06:00:00 -0400

To wrap up this series on surrender vs submission, we’re going to look at two important footnotes:

One is the phenomenon of the rebel, a character we all love to love, and the dangers that come with glamorizing rebellion — there is a fine line between a rebel and a consummate teenager.

Second is one of the most common forms of resistance that you are likely to experience in life: your natural fears when confronted with an opportunity to change.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

299 - Surrender vs. Submission - Part 3 - The Submission-Rebellion Loop

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Now that we have a firm handle on the context of individual consciousness, we can dive into the content: specifically, the distinction between surrender and submission, how our society tends to conflate the two, and why this distinction is actually critically important when it comes to coaching, self-management, and growth.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

298 - Surrender vs. Submission - Part 2 - The Consummate Teenager

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 06:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we examined how individual consciousness evolved rapidly, from the invention of the printing press to the establishment of the United States of America to pioneering the school of psychology.

Today, we are going to look at the shadow side of this nation’s obsession with individuality, which is very much present in our world today.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

297 - Surrender vs. Submission - Part 1 - The Evolution of Individual Consciousness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Before we dive into the content of this course focusing on the dynamic between healthy surrender and unhealthy submission, we need to look at the context of the historical evolution of individual consciousness — how it evolved rapidly from the 1400s to the modern day and how our concept of individualism is still very much in flux, especially in the United States.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

296 - The Addict in All of Us - Part 4 - The Student in All of Us

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 06:00:00 -0400

About two-thirds of the time, your shadow, your addict, is sitting in the driver’s seat.

This keeps us stuck where we are — and, if you’re listening to this, where you are right now probably isn’t where you want to be — and, inevitably, we end up driving right into a wall of reality that rebuffs us for living in delusion.

To close out this series, I’m closing the loop on Learning for Change, and offering you an alternate orientation towards life that will help you slowly shift that ratio and, eventually, if you continue to intentionally lean into the work, kick the addiction to overwhelm altogether.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

295 - The Addict in All of Us - Part 3 - Embracing the Addict

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 06:00:00 -0400

The addict in us has ideas about reality that aren’t true — and they’re asserting that into our beliefs, the way we orient towards problems, and the way we engage with life .

That’s why, for so many people, real change only happens after hitting rock bottom. But that doesn't always have to be the case.

Today, we’re going to talk about embracing the addict to move towards something more productive and in line with reality — both as a manager of others and a manager of self.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

294 - The Addict in All of Us - Part 2 - Addicted to Sameness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 06:00:00 -0400

What do overwhelm and opiates have in common?

They’re both addictions that are far too common in our society today.

One may seem significantly worse than the other on the surface, but the deceptive nature of our addiction to overwhelm is truly insidious — and don’t let it tell you any different.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

293 - The Addict in All of Us - Part 1 - The Seduction of Reduction

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 06:00:00 -0400

We’ve been spending the last couple months going through a few classes from the Learning for Change course. Learning to orient yourselves to change in a healthy and productive manner is an important skill set for anyone who endeavors to go down the road of self-mastery, but it’s also a critical skill set for everyone in the world as we know it at the end of 2020, when this episode originally releases.

This series focuses on how most of us tend to orient ourselves towards the process of change, almost as a default, and how we can shift that to more easily embrace the reality of change.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

292 - 4 Stages of Relating to Change - Part 3 - The Whole Hog + Postage

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 06:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we looked at the first 2 of the 4 stages of relating to change — Ignoring and Dabbling — and how they correlated with the first 3 of the 5 stages of engagement. This week, we’ll examine the last two stages of relating to change, which will bring us full circle and parallel our conversation about discovering your one thing.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

291 - 4 Stages of Relating to Change - Part 2 - The Context of Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Sometimes in life (pretty often, actually), reality holds up a mirror and forces you to see a reflection of yourself. This doesn’t always come in the form you expect, it’s almost never when you expect, and it’s generally easy to shrug it off and just keep ignoring whatever reality is trying to remind you about. But if you do keep ignoring life, you will continue to experience suffering — because life doesn’t cooperate with being ignored.

In this episode, we’ll discuss the first two stages of relating to change, beginning with ignoring, and how you can start evolving the way you relate to change and your one thing.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

290 - 4 Stages of Relating to Change - Part 1 - Your Ego Vs. Your One Thing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 06:00:00 -0400

We just wrapped up a series on The One Thing from the Learning for Change course. Over the next three weeks, we’re going to continue working through this course, focusing on the four stages of relating to change.

We’ll build on what we learned about The One Thing, and you’ll hear from some people who are still grappling with what their one thing is and how it relates to their values. This series will also build on The 5 Stages of Engagement, which were introduced in episodes 90 to 94 and expanded on further in episodes 277 to 279. You don’t have to listen to all of that to get value out of this series, but those episodes will provide additional context to help you navigate change.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

289 - The One Thing - Part 4 - Reverse Engineering Your One Thing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 06:00:00 -0400

We finish up this series on The One Thing by examining some tools that can be used to identify it, like writing your own eulogy or reverse engineering your one thing from your greatest achievements.

If you’re willing to go deeper and commit to finding your one thing, you can sing up for the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com.

288 - The One Thing - Part 3 - What Does Fulfillment Feel Like?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Last week’s episode brought up a big question: What is your one thing? Or what’s the question that you will dedicate your life to?

But don’t worry if you don’t have a definitive answer to those questions yet. Even just thinking about the question with intention puts you closer to the right path.

And today, I’m going to give you some questions and tools you can use to continuously re-orient yourself towards fulfillment as you stumble towards your one thing.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

287 - The One Thing - Part 2 - Identifying Your One Thing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Last week’s episode brought up a big question: What is your one thing? Or what’s the question that you will dedicate your life to?

But don’t worry if you don’t have a definitive answer to those questions yet. Even just thinking about the question with intention puts you closer to the right path.

And today, I’m going to give you some questions and tools you can use to continuously re-orient yourself towards fulfillment as you stumble towards your one thing.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

286 - The One Thing - Part 1 - Co-Authoring Your Life

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Management is a constant exercise in shepherding change, internally or externally.

But most people don’t like change, internally or externally. It makes most of us feel uncomfortable, and maybe even a little icky.

Which leads me to what may be bad news for some of you: whatever it is you want in life will require you to change.

But how do you even know what change is necessary or what steps you’ll need to take? That’s the question we’re going to address today — and when you’re able to find an answer, it’s going to make almost every single other question easier to answer.

This four-part series is an excerpt from the Learning for Change course at ClearAndOpen.com. You can sign up for the course and check out a free preview by clicking right here.

285 - What is Adulthood? - Part 3 - Adulting

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Being an adult means never having to say, “I have to.”

At the end of the last episode, I shared why this idea that you have to do anything is just one of the most commonly shared delusions — a delusion encouraged by the structures of capitalism, sure, but a delusion nonetheless.

What does the alternative look like, then? What does it look like to practice adulthood as a verb and embrace saying “I get to” instead of “I have to” or “I should?”

That’s what we’ll be exploring in this final piece of our dialectic on adulthood.

If you want to keep going deeper on this subject and start applying these lessons, you’ll find this included as part of The Accountability Path 2.0.

284 - What is Adulthood? - Part 2 - Emotional Adulthood

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 06:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we started a dialectic to investigate the truth about adulthood. When does it start? What does it mean to be an adult?

The answers to those questions aren’t so simple, though, and the definitions seem to keep shifting over time, both for us as individuals and for society as a whole.

This week, we’re going to move past the logistics and legal considerations for adulthood and start addressing the concept of Emotional Adulthood and the “I have to” delusion.

If you want to go even deeper on the subject, you’ll find this included as part of The Accountability Path 2.0.

283 - What is Adulthood? - Part 1 - Defining “Adult”

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:38:00 -0400

Do you consider yourself an adult?

If you’re 18 or older, you probably answered to yourself, “Yes.” You might even have thought it was a stupid question to ask. And by the way, if you’re not 18 yet, kudos for listening — you’re way ahead of the curve.

Now, especially if you rolled your eyes at that first question, consider the answer to this: What is the definition of an adult?

The answer isn’t quite as obvious as you might think, and there’s a good chance that you’ve just never considered the question. But it’s a critical question to answer on the The Accountability Path, both as a manager of others and a manager of yourself, and it’s the question we’ll be engaging with over the next three episodes.

If you want to go even deeper on the subject, you’ll find this included as part of The Accountability Path 2.0.

282 - Matt Niblock: Hiring & Recruiting - Part 3 - Creating a Good Candidate Experience

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 10:00:00 -0400

To close out our first guest series, Matt Niblock shares how to identify the best candidates for the long haul in a high-pressure job and how hiring managers can create a good candidate experience — which doesn’t always mean making the candidate comfortable, although any good job interview should still be a safe space for truth.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

281 - Matt Niblock: Hiring & Recruiting - Part 2 - Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Appease

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Matt Niblock returns with more hiring and recruiting insight. We’ll walk through the early stages of the hiring process, touching on some common mistakes that people make along the way, when the hiring manager should push back against applicants, and how the idea of “gut meets data” that we discussed last week can be applied in practice.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

280 - Matt Niblock: Hiring & Recruiting - Part 1 - Where Gut Meets Data

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Every organization has to deal with hiring and recruiting. So it’s funny that so many of the people who are responsible for hiring have little to no idea what they’re doing — even though there are experts out there who are happy to tell you exactly what works.

Experts like Matt Niblock, VP of Employee Experience at Phase2, who has been working as a recruiter since you had to mail or fax in your résumé. And in the first part of this three-part interview, Matt will introduce us to some recruiting best practices and how hiring managers can start looking for the right person instead of the right skills.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

279 - The 5 Stages of Engagement & Accountability - Part 3 - Productive Failure & Finding Flow

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0400

In the final episode of this series looking at the five stages of engagement through the lens of accountability, you’ll learn what keeps most people from achieving flow for more than a few fleeting moments of their life and how you can get closer to achieving flow — if you’re willing to put in the work (or, paradoxically, stop working so damn hard to get there).

Take the course:

The Accountability Path 2.0

Learn more about the Five Stages of Engagement model:

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

278 - The 5 Stages of Engagement & Accountability - Part 2 - Mediocrity Vs. Excellence

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we reviewed the first three stages of engagement: crisis, survival, and security. Most people get stuck in those first two stages, engaging with a chronic stress response that makes upward momentum seem insurmountable for most of their lives. And if they eventually reach the stage of security, it can feel so comfortable that they settle in.

But for those of us that don’t want to settle, or for those of us that don’t feel comfortable with security, there are two more stages: Thrival and Flow.

In this episode, I’ll talk about making these critical transitions, especially as it relates to your level of accountability and the accountability of those who you manage.

Take the course:

The Accountability Path 2.0

Learn more about the Five Stages of Engagement model:

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

277 - The 5 Stages of Engagement & Accountability - Part 1 - Stress & Security

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 10:52:51 -0400

In this series, we will be revisiting the five stages of engagement — but this time, we’re going to examine the model through the lens of accountability. If this is a new concept for you, you won’t be lost starting with this episode, but you can find a more foundational introduction to the model back in episodes 90 to 95. Links below.

Take the course:

The Accountability Path 2.0

Learn more about the Five Stages of Engagement model:

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

276 - COVID-19, Your Ego, & You - Part 4 - As Simple As “I Don’t Know”

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0400

A fair warning before going into this episode: it starts on a pretty emotional beat, and it might be a little triggering for anyone who is currently being overwhelmed by feelings of grief or loss.

However, if you can listen through that, I think hearing the participant on this coaching call walk through her feelings can also be a healing experience that helps you process those emotions, as we discussed in the last episode.

This experience of working through grief also serves as a microcosm of the spiritual journey that I first discussed in part one of this series, and hearing that process should help anyone who is committed to spiritual evolution.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

275 - COVID-19, Your Ego, & You - Part 3 - Processing Emotions

Joseph Shapiro — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Over the last two episodes, we’ve clarified the content of our reaction to COVID-19 and the context of that reaction — the content being our egoic emotional reaction and the context being the perpetual state of not knowing.

But getting to the point where you can hold both of those simultaneously is difficult. It doesn’t feel natural because it’s not common in our society, but our minds are actually well equipped to process these emotions and move beyond them. We just have to learn how to let it happen.

So, in this episode, you’ll learn how to go about processing the fear, anxiety, grief, and other emotions that are being brought by the pandemic, get what you need to from those emotions, and then make room for that emotion within the greater context of yourself.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

274 - COVID-19, Your Ego, & You - Part 2 - The Context for COVID

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I asked a question: What happens if you experience your experience from something other than ego?

If you think about all of the things we don’t know about what the future holds, about how things will (or, unfortunately, won’t) change as parts of the world re-open amid still-growing COVID-19 cases, and you experience that through our egoic reaction, then you will probably experience some degree of fear and anxiety. For some, that anxiety and fear of the unknown can be crippling.

But if you find the center of that “I don’t know,” if you take away the content of a possible future — a future that, if nothing else, this pandemic has taught us is unpredictable — and sit in not knowing, you can move past the egoic emotion to find a sense of calm.

That’s why I view this time as a spiritual opportunity for so many, and in this episode, we’ll explore what happens when you make this spiritual transition and why our recent shared experiences create an opportune environment to do so.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

273 - COVID-19, Your Ego, & You - Part 1 - The Content of COVID

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0400

We’re doing something a little bit different for this series of episodes. While the format won’t change, we’ll be directly addressing some recent events: the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent worldwide economic shutdowns.

The effects of the pandemic are ubiquitous and — as you’ve likely read many, many times already — unprecedented. Economically and emotionally, relatively few people will come out entirely unscathed.

But, at the same time, there’s a spiritual opportunity.

So, over the next four weeks, I will illustrate why this sudden disruption represents an invitation to wake up to reality and go beyond the content of your egoic experience.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

272 - Accountability: A Teacher - Part 4 - Abiding with Truth

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 10:00:00 -0400

When you strip everything else away, accountability boils down to abiding with truth.

The truth, however, can be a bitter pill to swallow... at least at first. When you start to experience the benefits, though, you grow accustomed to the flavor. You even come to like it, to seek it out, as you develop a true sense of self-mastery.

So, to finish this series on accountability as a teacher, I’m going to share some more examples of what it looks like when the truth presents itself, looking at the results people get when they abide with it versus when they continue to resist.

If you want to immerse yourself even deeper in this content, check out the full Accountability Path 2.0 course.

271 - Accountability: A Teacher - Part 3 - The Accountability Path

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Over the last two episodes, we’ve established that the cause of all human suffering is resisting change.

Life is kind enough to tell us when something needs to change, often gently at first, but it is persistent. If you ignore the letter, it’ll leave you a call. If you ignore the voicemail, it’ll come to your door. Accountability will make itself known. And any act of resistance is just childish.

That’s the content of this lesson. In this episode and the next episode, I’ll be providing some context around how you can apply this knowledge to the accountability path.

If you want to immerse yourself even deeper in this content, check out the full Accountability Path 2.0 course.

270 - Accountability: A Teacher - Part 2 - You Are Not Your Thoughts

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:00:00 -0400

When you experience pain, when you repeatedly endure the same suffering, that’s reality asking you to participate. That’s the highest form of accountability.

Some of us will just wait for the acute pain to pass and move on without doing anything. Some will actively seek out a distraction, which is abundantly easy in this world of ours. Others will change superficially, change what they’re doing in an effort to get a different result. But when life is pushing you to change, you can’t just change your actions — you have to change your self.

A critical part of this process is learning to differentiate between your thoughts and yourself, and in this episode, I’ll walk you through the process of disidentification.

If you want to immerse yourself even deeper in this content, check out the full Accountability Path 2.0 course.

269 - Accountability: A Teacher - Part 1 - The Cause of All Suffering

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Before you get into this episode, I encourage you to pause for a moment and consider the answer to this question: What do you want and how is life telling you to change to get it?

Really, take a couple of minutes and think about your answer. Interrogate yourself. This will help you actively engage in the discussion and get the most out of not just this episode but this entire series on accountability as a teacher.

If you aren’t willing to do that, this series may not be for you. This isn’t a quick-fix solution. But if you want to create lasting and real change in your business or your life, and you’re willing to put in the work necessary to do so, then I urge you to pay attention.

And if you want to immerse yourself even deeper in this content, check out the full Accountability Path 2.0 course.

268 - Real Curiosity - Part 4 - Surrendering to Radical Curiosity

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Over the last few weeks, we’ve established the value of engaging with life through a curious lens and how people show up differently as managers when they express curiosity. We also established that the main obstacle between you and a more curious life is fear.

In this episode, I offer you some tools you can use to start overcoming the obstacle of fear and deconstructing the egoic conditioning that covers up your innate curiosity.

And as a final reminder, this series was taken from the epilogue to the CLEAR Thinking course. If you want to take this extra time at home as an opportunity to start living more intentionally, you can find the full 11-week coaching seminar at clearandopen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

267 - Real Curiosity - Part 3 - Curiosity Kills the Cat?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 May 2020 10:00:00 -0400

How many times have you heard someone say, “curiosity kills the cat?”

That is the way our society depicts curiosity — it’s a risk. So, even though we’re born innately curious, society quickly teaches us to stop. As a result, we tend to overcorrect and we transition from curious beings to fearful beings.

That’s how most adults operate — chances are that’s how you, reading this right now, operate. But the simple fact that you’re listening to this show means that your conditioning hasn’t completely covered up your curiosity, so that’s a great first step towards living life with real curiosity. And you’ll learn more about how you can start doing that in this episode.

By the way, this series is taken from the final session of the CLEAR Thinking course, an epilogue that explores the importance of real curiosity and its role in how we think. If you want to take this extra time at home as an opportunity to start living more intentionally, you can find the full 11-week coaching seminar at clearandopen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

266 - Real Curiosity - Part 2 - The Opposite of Fear

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Last week, we started a conversation about curiosity, real listening, and asking questions, and we established that good managers don’t just look at the content of the questions they’re asked — good managers also consider the context in which a question is asked.

This is an expression of real curiosity. And in this episode, we are going to look at how people express both fear and curiosity in their lives — and, critically, how that expression relates to the ways in which they engage with life... or don’t, as the case may be.

This episode is an excerpt from the final session of the CLEAR Thinking course, an epilogue that explores the importance of real curiosity and its role in how we think. If you want to take this extra time at home as an opportunity to start living more intentionally, you can find the full 11-week coaching seminar at clearandopen.com.

265 - Real Curiosity - Part 1 - Listening Really Well

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 May 2020 10:00:00 -0400

This is the first episode in a four-part series exploring the critical importance of curiosity, how you can start approaching life with real curiosity, and how you can help the people you manage do the same.

This conversation is an excerpt from the final session of the CLEAR Thinking course. If you want to take this extra time at home as an opportunity to start living more intentionally, you can find the full 11-week coaching seminar at clearandopen.com.

264 - Consciousness and Conditioning - Part 3 - Deconstructing Your Consciousness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 May 2020 10:00:00 -0400

In the last two episodes, we discussed how your identity consists of your conditioning — and why the conditioning that most of us received was inadequate.

So, why do we cling so tightly to this conditioning, even institutionalizing it? Because, deep down, we’re afraid of losing who we are. This is a reasonable response from your lizard brain, but it’s holding you back from evolving your consciousness, which is really my goal with Clear and Open.

The pursuit of consciousness is the lifelong pursuit of deconstructing who you are and what you believe so that you can cast away all that isn’t true — it’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s necessary if you want to break free of the prison you’ve built around yourself and live a full life.

I also want to remind you that this episode comes from the CLEAR Thinking course. If you want to take this extra time at home as an opportunity to stop floating through life and start living intentionally, you can find the full 11-week coaching seminar at clearandopen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

263 - Consciousness and Conditioning - Part 2 - The Root of the World’s Problems

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:00:00 -0400

We’re all trained that, if we can learn to hold and process information better, we can become a more intelligent human being and, as a result, become successful. This conditioning puts us in the situation where we perpetually feel that, if we can just get one more piece of information, we can solve our problems.

But this has no reference in reality — and this shared delusion is causing way more problems than it’s solving. Today, we’re going to look at an alternative: how consciousness, as opposed to intelligence, can be used to solve just about anything.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

262 - Consciousness and Conditioning - Part 1 - The Nature of Conditioning

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 10:00:00 -0400

We’re going to start this three-part series with something that’s probably become pretty familiar to long-time listeners: a quick rebuke of the Western educational system.

We’re going to look at how one of the beliefs and assumptions at the core of our education system not only doesn’t help us but actually sets us all up for lives full of overwhelm. Pretty much every single one of us experienced this same conditioning as a child, but it’s not doing us any favors now that we’re adults who don’t have to regurgitate information to pass tests.

This series shares the final session of the CLEAR Thinking course, which focuses on the role of Consciousness and Conditioning in CLEAR Thinking. If you want to take this extra time at home as an opportunity to stop floating through life and start living intentionally, you can find the full 11-week coaching seminar at clearandopen.com.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

261 - Engaging in Disengagement - Part 4 - Surrendering to Life

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I introduced the concept of engaging with disengagement (to both you and myself, at the time).

And that’s not just a step towards getting what you want — that process of inquiry, that working on why you’re not working on something, is what you really need. The journey is the destination. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to see that when you’re still early in the journey, but my goal with releasing this coaching call is to guide you towards that perspective.

Although I can lead you to the water, you still have to choose to drink. Or, at the very least, ask yourself why you’re not drinking when you’re so thirsty.

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Also, I’m excited to announce the next upcoming live course called “Meditation For Awakening: How To Get With Reality” that begins April 16. Meditation has never before been so popular, but when things get popular they tend to become dilute.

Meditation offers more benefits than I can name here. It reduces stress, can eliminate anxiety and depression, and when done correctly gives you X-Ray vision into the truth.

But the way most people meditate is like visiting a new country and never leaving the airport, and they especially miss out on that X-Ray vision. What’s the impact of not being able to see the truth? Just the vast majority of your problems, that’s all.

If you’ve been listening to my webcasts, you’ve experienced that I have a unique way of getting to the heart of things. That’s the X-Ray vision meditation has given me, and there’s a version of it waiting for you to have as well. Will you let me help you find it? What will your version of deep wisdom and insight look like? I really want to know, don’t you? It’s closer than you think.

Are you intrigued? To learn more go to clearandopen.com/meditation-for-awakening

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I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

260 - Engaging in Disengagement - Part 3 - Working On (Not) Working On It

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Over the last two episodes, we’ve been talking about the internal conflict we feel between growth and comfort, between “I don’t wanna” and “I wanna” — and we’ve established that these conflicts are man-made, not some inherent aspect of being.

The easiest way to see the conflict for what it is, two sides of the same coin, is to develop a healthy obsession with whatever you’re conflicted over… but developing that obsession is not, in and of itself, an easy thing to do.

However, there is a path of inquiry you can follow to get there: you can get obsessed with curiosity, you can get engaged with disengagement.

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Meditation offers more benefits than I can name here. It reduces stress, can eliminate anxiety and depression, and when done correctly gives you X-Ray vision into the truth.

Are you intrigued? To learn more go to clearandopen.com/meditation-for-awakening

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I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

259 - Engaging in Disengagement - Part 2 - Struggling Self-Discipline Vs. Healthy Obsession

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I asked you to consider those moments when we feel like there’s an internal conflict between growth and comfort — between the ‘I wanna’ and the ‘I don’t wanna’ — a misleading conflict brought about through social conditioning.

We’re told to muscle through these conflicts with self-discipline. That’s a big part of the hustle mentality that’s taken over a lot of the conversation in the entrepreneur space over the past few years, and that’s probably something you were told by parents and teachers growing up. You just won’t want to do some things so you need to develop the discipline to do them anyway.

That’s not really the best way to do something well, though. That’s certainly not the best way to learn, to grow, to become masterful at something.

So, in this episode, I ask you to consider how you can achieve growth through healthy obsession, as opposed to struggling self-discipline, and how you can start to develop a sense of healthy obsession in the first place.

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Meditation offers more benefits than I can name here. It reduces stress, can eliminate anxiety and depression, and when done correctly gives you X-Ray vision into the truth.

Are you intrigued? To learn more go to clearandopen.com/meditation-for-awakening

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I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

258 - Engaging in Disengagement - Part 1 - A Misleading Conflict

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 10:00:00 -0400

Every single day, you are likely presented with an internal conflict — do I do the thing that’s hard but rewarding or do I do what’s easy?

Over and over again, we weigh the relative advantages and disadvantages of growth versus comfort. It can feel like two different parts of ourselves are competing for our attention, and we’ve been trained that it takes self-discipline to overcome the part that just doesn’t wanna do it.

But what if that social conditioning, that version of self-discipline, is a narrow and limiting way to perceive this internal conflict?

Today, I offer you a new way to engage with the perceived conflict between growth and comfort.

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Meditation offers more benefits than I can name here. It reduces stress, can eliminate anxiety and depression, and when done correctly gives you X-Ray vision into the truth.

Are you intrigued? To learn more go to clearandopen.com/meditation-for-awakening

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I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

257 - How Everything Is True - Part 4 - How to Use CLEAR Thinking in Your Life

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 11:00:00 -0400

To close out this series on How Everything is True, we’re going to make CLEAR Thinking more practical. And to start, I want to break down the term “CLEAR Thinking” a little further.

CLEAR Thinking is thinking that is critical, logical, evidence-based, analytical, and reality-based. This is serious, productive thinking that actually changes you. This is a valuable skill because literally every single thing you do begins is a thought; thinking is the software that dictates how your biological hardware operates.

So, as you practice CLEAR Thinking, you are better able to control the very thing that controls your actions. And it really is a practice.

That’s why, after you listen to this episode, I challenge you to try the exercise that the students in this class participated in: create an argument in favor of something that you don’t think is true, like the earth being flat, and commit to it. Really put yourself in another person’s shoes.

This will help you meet the people you manage — including yourself — where they are at, and do so with compassion, no matter what their relativistic truth may be or how absurd it may seem to you.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

256 - How Everything Is True - Part 3 - Questions for Self-Inquiry

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 11:00:00 -0400

Over the last two episodes, we’ve established the value of being willing to advocate for any belief, even if that means putting yourself in the shoes of someone who subscribes to a truth that deviates from your own.

Today, we start to examine the questions that you can ask yourself to practice this particular brand of self-inquiry.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

255 - How Everything Is True - Part 2 - Equal Opportunity Advocate

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:00:00 -0400

We start today’s episode with another student advocating for an idea that they consider to be untrue — and this one’s a doozie.

So, why are we doing this? Why are you about to hear someone make an argument in favor of a flat Earth?

It’s because I want you to understand that what we were taught about the value of strong convictions is misleading — being convicted in your beliefs and being willing to advocate for them passionately isn’t a sign of good character or a considered perspective.

And if you’re rigidly stuck in one point of view, a point of view that you likely developed as a kid before you were even conscious of having a point of view, then you will just keep butting up against reality until, inevitably, you either suffer or surrender.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

254 - How Everything Is True - Part 1 - The Root of Unclear Thinking

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 11:00:00 -0400

This series on How Everything is True builds on a lot of what we discussed in the previous four episodes on How You’ve Been Conditioned to Think Unclearly. So if you haven’t listened through that or need to refresh yourself on what Transjectrivism is, you might want to go back and listen through those because we will be looking at truth through a transjectivist lens throughout this series. These series are both parts of the CLEAR Thinking course, which is now available online at clear and open.com.

CLEAR Thinking, by the way, is reflective and independent thinking. It teaches you to use your ability to reason and it makes you an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information.

And when you learn and practice CLEAR thinking, you can better control the thinking that is controlling you. That’s why this episode begins with everyone’s favorite libertarian making an argument in favor of the minimum wage — because changing the way you think about and perceive truth requires practice.

And if you’re looking for extra credit, we also mention the Managing with Inquiry course in this episode, which is also available online. And I shared Managing with Inquiry 101 as a podcast series in October 2019, which will introduce you to the basic concept and the practice of not knowing.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

253 - How You've Been Conditioned to Think Unclearly - Part 4 - Transjectivism

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 11:00:00 -0400

The rapid rise of extreme subjectivism — which we’re still experiencing, and it’s really impossible to tell when we’ll reach an inflection point — has led to the rapid death of critical thought. We can see it everywhere, especially on social media.

So, today, I offer you an alternative to either objectivism or subjectivism, a philosophy I call Transjectivism.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

252 - How You've Been Conditioned to Think Unclearly - Part 3 - The Erosion of Critical Thinking

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 11:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we traced the historical development of how Western society shifted from extreme objectivism to extreme subjectivism.

It’s easy to adopt a subjectivist or objectivist perspective on the world, and both perspectives will provide you with the comforting illusion of understanding reality as it is, at least for a while — but both perspectives are inherently flawed and life doesn’t support false beliefs for too long.

So, in this episode, we’re going to look at how this conflict is still developing today so that, next week, you have all of the context you need before learning about Transjectivism.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

251 - How You've Been Conditioned to Think Unclearly - Part 2 - What You Weren’t Taught in History Class

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 11:00:00 -0400

We spend a lot of time memorizing people and events and dates in school, even some big ideas, but we rarely learn about what those things actually mean to us — and that context, that perspective, can be quite meaningful and useful.

So we start today’s episode with a look at the history of objectivism in Western society and how the ideological homogeneity seen in many societies ends up creating these illusions of absolute truth, illusions ultimately used to secure power and control people, that still permeate through the collective unconscious to this day.

Then we’ll look at how absolute objectivism was eroded by systems of belief that favored subjectivity, and how the conflict between the two presents itself both in modern culture and inside our heads.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

250 - How You've Been Conditioned to Think Unclearly - Part 1 - Subjectivity Vs. Objectivity

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 11:00:00 -0400

This series on how you’ve been conditioned to think unclearly comes from a course that I started last year called CLEAR Thinking. My goal with both the course and this series is to show you how to wake up to reality and begin to understand how your mind works...and how it doesn’t work so well.

This series begins by examining the tension between objectivity and subjectivity that occurs as a result of both the nature of the human brain and cultural conditioning. Your mind is constantly filtering its experience (an inherently subjective activity) to validate what it already thinks is true (an assertion of objectivity), resulting in a positive feedback loop of, well, delusion.

So how do we get around that? The answer to that question is the core of our discussion on today’s episode.

As an added note, we start this episode by talking about managing with inquiry. If you aren’t familiar with this concept or you need to brush up, you can go back to episode 236 for a crash course on what Managing With Inquiry means.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

249 - Navigating Resistance - Part 3 - You Don’t Choose Life’s Lessons

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 11:00:00 -0400

Life is your teacher, and life doesn’t care about how happy you are. Life doesn’t care about how comfortable you are. Life is fundamentally about your resistance to change, and it is conspiring with the universe to push you towards embracing, looking at, and healing your resistance to change.

So, if you are experiencing significant suffering or pain, pay attention — that’s life providing feedback and trying to teach you. And as I have mentioned throughout this series, you are not qualified to turn your nose up at the solution a teacher offers if you don’t try it. So that pain is an invitation to get honest with yourself about your resistance. The earlier and more actively you do this, the less pain you will have to experience.

After you’re done with this episode, I recommend going back to episodes 206 through 209, which is a series focused on embracing being tested. It will provide you with a useful frame through which you can view the challenges that life presents to you, and that is a valuable tool for navigating resistance.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

248 - Navigating Resistance - Part 2 - Your Relationship to Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Your job, then, as a person who wants to grow and evolve, is to learn how to track your resistance and make yourself optimally helpable. That means tracking your excuses, tracking your BS, tracking your laziness, and most importantly, tracking your fear. This is true if you are a student, an employee, or anyone engaging in the practice of self-management.

So, today, I invite you to start earnestly examining the iceberg between where you are today and where you want to go.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

247 - Navigating Resistance - Part 1 - The Unconscious Obstacle

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Imagine there is an iceberg between where you are now and where you want to go in life. Typically, we’re taught that the obstacle between you and your goals is a lack of knowledge or skill — but that’s just the bit of the iceberg you can see above the water.

The real obstacle is underwater, unseen and generally not talked about. But the act of overcoming this obstacle is also the key indicator of an individual’s success and fulfillment, both in business and in life as a whole.

In this three-part series, I will bring this obstacle into the light, addressing it and naming it, so that you can start confronting and, eventually, overcoming it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

246 - Deep Practice - Part 4 - Using Deep Practice to Improve

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 11:00:00 -0400

To close our this series, I am going to take the concept of deep practice — a relatively easy concept to understand when put in the context of learning something like a new instrument — and help you connect it to the inquiry and meta inquiry required to grow as managers and people, which is a slightly more esoteric but incredibly valuable and fulfilling skill.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

245 - Deep Practice - Part 3 - The Talent Myth

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 11:00:00 -0400

There’s probably no better argument against the very idea that talent exists than a talent show. Similar to the idea of an “overnight success,” we are really only seeing the byproduct of hours and hours of effort, failure, and persistence.

Yet, our practical mind, audacious as it is, manages to convince us that the practice required to become “talented” or “an overnight success” isn’t rewarding. Finding what you’re talented at and pursuing that sounds so ideal, and the reality that these people are just well-practiced forces us to confront the difficult path to attaining what we want, whatever that is.

So, you could say that deep practice has a branding problem. Being talented is just a sexier idea than being well-practiced. But, with a little bit of perspective, which I hope this episode helps you find, you can see how much more special it is to develop a skill or develop as a person through hours and hours of deep practice.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

244 - Deep Practice - Part 2 - Defining Deep Practice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Over the next four episodes, I’m going to introduce you to a concept called Deep Practice.

And to start, I’m going to address how we were conditioned by our parents and schools to attain knowledge… and that’s about it. This works when we’re being evaluated through papers and tests, but it’s a shallow form of learning that fails us in the real world.

Because, while knowing about something is a necessary first step, most of life requires skill and awareness — and your knowledge about something just isn’t going to help you.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

243 - Deep Practice - Part 1 - Conditioned to Understand, Not Be

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Over the next four episodes, I’m going to introduce you to a concept called Deep Practice.

Because, while knowing about something is a necessary first step, most of life requires skill and awareness — and your knowledge about something just isn’t going to help you.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

242 - Maturing Beyond Your Ego - Part 3 - Doing The Work

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 11:00:00 -0400

In this episode, you’ll hear how one member of the call applies the self-reflective tools we discussed last week in their own life and relationship, which you can then use to model your own self-reflection.

Then you’ll learn how to apply these same ideas and tools as a manager so that you mentor others towards maturing beyond ego.

As you listen to this episode, remember the questions that we discussed last week from Byron Katie’s The Work:

What’s the thought that you’re holding onto?

How do you react when you’re believing that thought?

Who would you be without believing that thought?

Sit with those questions. Try to experience the version of you that comes up, the version of you that surrenders the egoic response.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

241 - Maturing Beyond Your Ego - Part 2 - A Healthy Distrust

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 11:00:00 -0400

At some point in your life, you have almost certainly experienced pain or suffering as a result of trying to get what you want. And as you learn from this pain, over and over again, you start to practice self-reflection; you start to realize that some part of yourself is steering you in the wrong direction.

This healthy distrust of yourself is a key moment in the maturation out of ego — it’s when you start to understand and experience the separation between yourself and your ego.

Today, you’re going to learn about some tools you can use once you get to this point of maturation, beginning with an exploration of Byron Katie’s The Work.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

240 - Maturing Beyond Your Ego - Part 1 - The Final Stage of Maturation

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 11:00:00 -0400

The ego gets a bad rap, but it’s essential to both our personal and societal development.

We should express gratitude for and acknowledge the good that our egos bring. Our egos got us where we are today. But we also need to understand that they will not get us where we want to go tomorrow, both as individuals and as a species

There’s a final stage of maturation that many people never see, maturing beyond the ego, but it isn’t talked about in any mainstream way. So, even if this is your first introduction to the concept, you’re probably a ways ahead of the curve just by listening to this episode.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

239 - Managing with Inquiry 101 - Part 4 - Not Knowing as a Practice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 10:00:00 -0400

This our last episode in this series about self-inquiry and not knowing, and today, I’m going to show you how to start creating a practice around not knowing.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

238 - Managing with Inquiry 101 - Part 3 - Knowledge, Skill, & Awareness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I shared a conversation about how our education system is built on the knowledge deficit model. It’s the idea that whatever problem only exists because you’re missing some knowledge.

So, later in our lives, when we bump into a problem — whether it’s a problem with the world around us or ourselves — we first try to solve it by finding that little piece of knowledge that we’re missing. We look for blogs, podcasts, and books, accumulating knowledge just like we were trained to do in school.

But, eventually, after reality punishes us enough for our misguided beliefs about the world or ourselves, we wake up, we take the red pill — and now we’re ready to actually learn something!

You have to have this willingness to face reality before you can truly make inquiry a practice, and in this episode, you’ll learn more about why good managers need to sit in this space and how you can do that.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

237 - Managing with Inquiry 101 - Part 2 - The Meta-Good Place

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I discussed how our schools and society condition us to put a premium on knowing.

Our identity forms around what we think we know about the world and ourselves, and we are afraid to reveal when we don’t know; it feels antithetical to our very being.

As a result, it becomes uncomfortable to sit and face the truth of not knowing — and most of us are never trained how or why to not know, so we just continue avoiding it.

In this episode, I’m going to show you what happens when you start undoing some of that conditioning from your childhood and sitting in the discomfort of not knowing.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

236 - Managing with Inquiry 101 - Part 1 - The Discomfort of Not Knowing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 10:00:00 -0400

You go to school. You’re presented with a whole host of topics that you know little to nothing about. Then, over the course of about twelve years, teachers repeatedly shove information down your throat, evaluating you based on your ability to regurgitate that information. Twelve years later, you know things. At least, you think you know the things that you were told.

You’re taught that you can overcome just about any problem through this process of knowing.

And you were lied to.

In this four-part series, my goal is to help you undo some of this conditioning and start a practice of not knowing — but, first, I want to share a story that will help illustrate the value of not knowing.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on Apple Podcasts.

235 - Excuses, Excuses, Excuses - Part 4 - Embracing Real Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Sometimes, there really are systems put in place that make our jobs more difficult; there really is an external force causing some of our problems.

However, even in these situations, the solution is the same or similar to what we’ve been discussing over the past three episodes: you have to muster up the confidence or courage necessary to make yourself uncomfortable and talk to people about why those systems aren’t effective and how they should be changed.

It’s time to embrace real change at every level of your life and your organization.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

234 - Excuses, Excuses, Excuses - Part 3 - Managing Excellence

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 10:00:00 -0400

We’ve spent the last two episodes exploring why the questions we ask when we are experiencing a problem are really just excuses – and how we can, instead, turn the mirror on ourselves to find real solutions through radical honesty.

It’s not easy. In fact, it’s downright uncomfortable most of the time. But it’s necessary... if you want to evolve as a person, at least.

Today, we’re going to learn how you can apply this as a manager of others and yourself, including a brief discussion on the origin of all mediocrity in the world and how you’re probably enabling it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

233 - Excuses, Excuses, Excuses - Part 2 - Replacing Excuses with Incuses

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Last week, we talked about how most of us tend to use excuses to not just avoid real change, but subconsciously self-sabotage our lives. Today, we’re going to dig even deeper into the language of excuse and why we should endeavor to replace our excuses with “incuses.”

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

232 - Excuses, Excuses, Excuses - Part 1 - Inviting Radical Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 10:00:00 -0400

We spend our lives looking out into the world for solutions to almost every problem.

Need to lose weight? I’ll try that new diet that worked for my friend.

Feeling overwhelmed at work? I bet there’s a good productivity app I’m not using.

Didn’t like a new movie? They ruined my childhood.

We’re always looking outside of ourselves, making excuses instead of searching for solutions – when, really, we should be looking internally if we actually want something to change. So, today, we’re going to explore how our language reflects this tendency and what we can do to start moving towards something more honest and effective.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

231 - Business without Busyness - Part 3 - Mediocrity Vs. Just Good Enough

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I asked you to consider where you are cluttering up your life in the name of busyness.

Now, what is the minimum that you could do to have the same impact? What is the minimum effective dose of your time and energy?

Your busy mind may try to convince you that this is an exercise in laziness, but that’s precisely the mindset and conditioning that we’re trying to get beyond – this is the kind of work you need to do to get beyond thrival and achieve flow, the fifth and final stage of engagement.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

230 - Business without Busyness - Part 2 - The Minimum Effective Dose

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I made what may seem like a bold claim: busyness very well may be what destroys us as a species.

But I’m not exaggerating. Busyness makes you stupid; It clutters your mind, and when your mind is cluttered, you don’t think as effectively, you’re not as conscious, you’re not as aware, and you don’t take as good care of yourself.

We’re all just doing doing doing. It’s not healthy and it’s easy to see. There’s some acknowledgement of this in society today, as there’s an increasing trend towards scheduling time for self-care, but even that can be seen as a construct of our capitalist system designed to maximize the amount of time we feel like we are being busy and productive.

So, today, we’re going to explore why our relationship with busyness and time is not just ineffective but also unnatural – and how, ultimately, this causes many people to get stuck in thrival, without ever reaching a state of flow.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

229 - Business without Busyness - Part 1 - Busyness Makes You Stupid

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Over the next three episodes, we’re going to get back to the basics of busyness and recuperation.

We’re going to analyze why we, as individuals and as a society, put such a high value on being busy, both consciously and subconsciously.

Because when we tell ourselves we’re busy, I think we’re all just lying in an effort to make ourselves feel better about whatever it is we’re doing – the busy mind is creating an illusion of productivity when, in reality, most of us are practicing inefficiency in almost everything we do.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

228 - Management Vs. Supervision - Part 3 - The Bridge from Supervision to Management

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I asked you what management might look like when a parent wants their child to put away their laundry – a tale as old as time, or at least woven fabric.

Because, if your parents regularly remind you to do things, over and over, you will probably become a manager who nags their employees. The nagging from your parent made you resent them at the time, then later, you nagging your employees causes them to resent you

Worse than that, when you supervise someone, you are assuming the worst of that person – you are assuming they aren’t willing or able to change – and the only thing you get in return is the feeling that you’re exerting your power on another person. That exertion of control, then, only breeds more resentment and elicits more childish behavior.

So, in the end, supervision is a lose-lose scenario, which is why I’m going to offer you a solution – a tool you can use to transition from supervision to management, as well as an assignment that will help you contextualize what using this tool will look like in your life.

But fair warning: it’s not going to be easy.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

227 - Management Vs. Supervision - Part 2 - The Context of the Relationship

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we established that supervision is when people don’t take things as far as they can without a manager following up or offering assistance; it is the act of making sure that someone does what they already know how to do. Management, on the other hand, is when someone takes something as far as they can, then a manager supports them in growing and learning.

But that’s just the content of the manager-employee relationship, as well as the parent-child relationship, which is when most of us first encounter supervision.

So, today, I’m going to set up the context of this relationship dynamic through the lens of something we can probably all relate to: not wanting to do our laundry when we were children.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

226 - Management Vs. Supervision - Part 1 - The Art of Self-Management

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Over the next three episodes, we’re going to explore one of the most critical dynamics in management: the differences between management and supervision and how the tension between these two causes most of us to experience some combination of lost productivity and existential angst.

We’ll start things off today with some definitions and, by the end of this series, connect these concepts to the art of self-management through an exercise that can help you identify and reduce the amount of supervision in your life.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

225 - Finding Your Passion Path - Part 4 - Gritty & Immediate Engagement

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we explored the correlation between finding your passion path, finding your soulmate, and surrendering, and how our natural inclination to be in control can cause us to stray from the passion path.

Honing our awareness of this, as well as our awareness of our core values, is all a necessary part of the process.

Today, we will dissect a pivotal question that can both cause friction and propel you further into a life of fulfillment – a question that we live every day, especially at work.

And after you are done listening to this episode, I encourage you to block off some time to delve more deeply into what your soul-level values are because you have to have clarity on that before you can engage with any other part of this process. Take a few moments to examine the gap between your deepest values and your day-to-day actions, particularly where and how you work.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

224 - Finding Your Passion Path - Part 3 - The Surrender Correlation

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Last week, we established that finding your Passion Path is a journey, not a mission. There is no singular end goal that you’re ultimately working towards.

And like any good journey, we can’t control everything that happens. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from trying. We’ve discussed this common delusion before – the shared delusion that people know how reality tends to operate and, as such, can manipulate the outcomes – but time and time again, reality proves us wrong and punishes us.

So, today, we’re going to talk about meeting reality where it is on the passion path and how our old friend surrender, which is always an important tool in our self-management toolbelt, will help us make progress on our journey.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

223 - Finding Your Passion Path - Part 2 - It’s an Adventure, Not a Mission

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

If you didn’t have to work and you weren’t being paid, what would you do that creates value in the world?

That’s the question I asked at the end of the last episode, and it is the question that will help you find your Passion Path, or the day-to-day expression of your values, whereby you serve yourself as you serve others with your greatest gift.

And this Passion Path is half of the equation that adds up to human fulfillment. So in this episode, we’ll relate the passion path to the second thing you need to have clarity on in order to be fulfilled – and during this process, I hope you will consider where you are on your own journey to clarity and fulfillment.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

222 - Finding Your Passion Path - Part 1 - The Root of All Disengagement

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

We start today’s episode with some reflections on the previous series about Desirable Difficulty. So, if you haven’t already listened to episodes 218 to 221, I recommend going back and listening to them first. It’ll be relevant later in this series as well.

We then segue into our topic for the next four episodes: your Passion Path.

We will view the nature of work from a historical point of view, revealing how things like slavery and unregulated factory work left scars on our language and cultural perspective, so that we can start identifying and working to change the cultural conditioning that all of us have undergone. In doing this, we can start engaging with work on a more productive and fulfilling level.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

221 - Desirable Difficulty - Part 4 - That Which Does Not Kill You

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Life isn’t about comfort. It’s easy to be tricked into thinking that, with all the ways humans have designed a world catering to comfort, but life doesn’t seem to agree.

Because life, again and again, comes back to bite us in the butt when we attempt to pursue lives that embody happiness and comfort.

On the other side of the coin, life always rewards us for choosing difficulty. It may not be what we want, but it always ends up being what we need.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

220 - Desirable Difficulty - Part 3 - The Fear of Being Powerful

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 10:00:00 -0400

On the surface, a lot of us fear that we’re inadequate, not good enough, or powerless – but that’s just on a superficial level.

Underneath that, in the core of our beings, we are afraid of being powerful; we are making excuses to avoid the responsibility and expectations that come with our true potential.

Because where you are now is safe. It’s comfortable. And most of the human race is standing right beside you, choosing comfort.

But where could you be if you started diligently practicing self-management? if you started choosing the courageous act of subjecting yourself to difficulty? Well, that’s risky, and it can be lonely – and avoiding that fear is ensuring most people stay stuck in mediocrity.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

219 - Desirable Difficulty - Part 2 - The Art of Self-Management

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I introduced you to the concept of Desirable Difficulty, or the idea that personal growth and evolution only happen as a result of butting up against and working your way through a difficult problem or situation.

Is it fun? No. Is it necessary? Again, no.

But is it necessary if you want to achieve greatness? Absolutely.

So, today, we’ll be learning how this concept relates to The Art of Self-Management and how you can make a practice of choosing courage over comfort.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

218 - Desirable Difficulty - Part 1 - Make it Stick

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

How engaged were you in school?

When you were taught a new principle in class and then given a homework assignment to do before the next class, were you engaged?

What if, instead, you were assigned the homework first? What if you were asked to do something really difficult, something that challenges your ability to think critically and solve problems? You would probably fail and you probably wouldn’t enjoy it – and you would probably be a lot more engaged in the learning process.

It might not be as easy as the way we are usually taught things. In fact, it might be downright unenjoyable. But there is a level of difficulty that is desirable if you want to develop and grow as a human being.

So, over the next four episodes, we’ll be exploring this concept of desirable difficulty and why we are likely all being disserviced by the increasing convenience of society.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

217 - Good Vs. Less Bad - Part 4 - Becoming an Engaged Manager

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Throughout this series, I’ve come back to the question, “Who do you want to become and how are you using your job to become it?” If you don’t have the answer to this question, then you are, by definition, not engaged at work – and if you don’t have an answer to this question, I’d venture a guess that the people who you manage probably don’t have an answer, either.

Because engaged managers produce engagement.

And if, after this episode, you don’t choose to take action and figure out the answer to that question, which won’t be easy if you’re honest with yourself, then you will just perpetuate the broken system of disengagement in your life and/or work. Anything else you try to do will just make things a little less bad.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

216 - Good Vs. Less Bad - Part 3 - Closing the Embodiment Gap

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

If you normally listen to these episodes as a fly on the wall, I’d like you to approach today’s episode a little differently. I want you to put yourself in the seat of a person on this coaching call and imagine that I am asking you the questions that I ask in this episode.

These questions are meant to help you identify where the embodiment gap is in your life, or where your actions don’t express your deepest values – and then, possibly, close it, if you choose to take action.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

215 - Good Vs. Less Bad - Part 2 - The Less Bad Mindset

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I introduced you to the Good Vs. Less Bad paradigm. We often have the option to make a system in our life good or less bad, and more often than not, we choose to make it less bad because making it good comes with costs that we don’t want to pay: emotional discomfort, facing the unknown, and actual change.

Today, we apply a critical lens to some real-life problems, reveal the underlying systems that contribute to those problems, and consider the long-term impact of living with a “less bad mindset.”

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

214 - Good Vs. Less Bad - Part 1 - The Price of Good

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

If you’re consistently getting results that you don’t want, a system in your life is either broken or not working the way you think it is – and you will continue to get undesirable results until you know how the system works AND change something.

Otherwise, anything you do is just going to, at best, make things less bad. And we are all faced with this decision, over and over again, throughout our lives: do we want to make a situation less bad or do we want to make it good?

Today, we’re going to get to the bottom of why “Less Bad” is such a popular choice – and what it costs to actually make something good.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

213 - On Hunger - Part 4 - Managing Evolution

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

I’d like to start the episode by going back to the question that started this series on hunger: Can we teach someone to be hungry? Can managers teach someone to want to be awake, to pursue excellence, to evolve, to learn, to grow?

Not exactly. You can’t make a horse drink water. However, you can make it as easy as possible for a horse to find water. You can help people navigate The Competence Paradox and realize that they are doing the best they can do, at least today – and, tomorrow, they can do a little bit better.

So, today, we’re going to go through a crash course on managing evolution and inspiring your team.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

212 - On Hunger - Part 3 - The Journey is the Destination

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we touched on the value of intrinsic value hunger... although, if you have experienced drive or motivation in your life, it probably didn’t take a lot to convince you that it’s a powerful and important element to not just achieving success but undergoing self-development.

And that, really, is the crux of this series on hunger – it’s a tool for self-development, not a means to an end, and as such, it’s an important tool in the manager’s toolbox.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

211 - On Hunger - Part 2 - Excusing Away Our Destiny

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 30 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I introduced you to The Competence Paradox.

This is the idea that, on one level, people are always doing the best that they can with what they have; the incentives, resources, and awareness that they are equipped with, in that moment. However, in the next moment, that can all change – and that means “your best” is conditional.

But our best also has an arch-nemesis, and it’s a pervasive enemy that we foster and cultivate throughout our lives – excuses!

So, today, we’re going to consider how we use excuses to cripple ourselves and avoid our destiny, what a human might look like with no excuses, and how motivation or hunger can cut through them.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

210 - On Hunger - Part 1 - The Competence Paradox

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

What’s the most that you are capable of? How do you know?

The truth of the matter is that, whether you think you’re capable of quite a lot or nothing at all, you’re probably wrong. People are terrible at self-assessment, especially when it comes to assessing their own skill and ability, and this one of the reasons people need management at various points in their life.

So, today, I am going to introduce you to The Competence Paradox – something that every manager needs to be aware of if they want to get the most out of their team and help their team grow.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

209 - Embracing Being Tested - Part 4 - Surrendering to Life

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 23 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Leaders generally become leaders because they are predisposed to choosing challenges – and if you are choosing to listen to this podcast to better yourself as a leader and a manager, then you are probably predisposed to this way of framing life as well.

That means, as a manager, you have a valuable perspective to offer the people who follow you, and you should give it to them. So, to conclude this series on embracing being tested, we’re going to learn how managers can help others dig deep into discomfort and surrender to life.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

208 - Embracing Being Tested - Part 3 - Dig Deep into Discomfort

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Over the last two episodes, we’ve established that there’s no mystery shrouding the path to greatness – either you choose to test yourself, or you don’t. It’s a rigorous choice to choose one practice and make it more important than anything else, and when you do, you’ll find that what you learn about yourself is far more valuable than what you accomplish.

Today, we will examine how this dynamic of embracing or not embracing challenges shows up in the workplace, and we’ll consider the role that managers and leaders have to take on to cultivate greatness in their teams.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

207 - Embracing Being Tested - Part 2 - The Difference Between Ordinary & Extraordinary

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 16 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I extended an invitation to all of you:

When you want to accomplish something great, when you look at a challenge in front of you, don’t just look at the content of it; don’t just look at the skills, learning, and actions that doing the thing requires.

Instead, ask yourself, “How is this challenge testing me? How is life inviting me to be a bigger version of myself here?”

Because, if you don’t consider the context of the challenge and choose to test yourself, then you’ll wind up on the receiving end of what life has to offer.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

206 - Embracing Being Tested - Part 1 - Framing Your Life

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Are you great at anything, or do you want to be great at anything?

We’re all good at some things, but only a select few of us are willing to do what it takes to experience greatness – and if you ever have experienced greatness, in anything, you know that it only comes as a result of being tested.

So, in this four-part series, we’ll be looking at life through the frame of being tested, and we’ll start today by analyzing the content of a test versus the context of a test.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

205 - Surrendering the Illusion of Control - Part 3 - Trusting the Surrender

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 09 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I shared a story about a delightful day I had at the beach – and why getting to that point of contentedness required accepting that I had no control over the arising phenomenon that I experienced, like rain or even my initial frustration.

Today, I want to help you take that practice of acceptance and apply it to the situations that arise in your life and in your business, so that you can then focus on managing the things that you actually do have control over.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

204 - Surrendering the Illusion of Control - Part 2 - The Price You Pay for Serenity

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I presented the idea that the pursuit of happiness, the conditioning that happiness is something we will achieve after we accomplish XY and Z, lies at the root of our illusion of control.

It’s a seductive illusion that gives us the comfort because, in one sense, we feel like we have control over our experience. But in another sense, it means we’re also responsible for failing to accomplish XY and Z to achieve happiness, and that can lead to an endless cycle of suffering.

Today, I present to you a path to end that cycle of suffering and find serenity – but I warn you, it doesn’t come without a price.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

203 - Surrendering the Illusion of Control - Part 1 - Resisting Reality

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 02 May 2019 10:00:00 -0400

You have no control over your life. Also, you have total control over your life.

Both of these statements can be considered true, and that paradox lies at the heart of this three-part series on Surrendering the Illusion of Control.

This isn’t an entirely new concept for the podcast. We’ve discussed, in the past, our collective, innate desire to control reality; this shared delusion that we know how reality works and how it will continue to work, usually resulting in suffering and shame. You can learn more about this in the four-part series Conclusion: Waking Up, which released in March 2019.

But while that series focused on breaking the delusional assumption of control and the resulting shame spiral, this series focuses on the paradox of control in the context of self-management and happiness.

So let’s dive in.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

202 - Mission Vs. Adventure - Part 4 - Engaging in Adventure

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Last week, we discussed how both the mission and adventure mindsets are equally valuable and dangerous. They come from a place of either trying to take total control over your life or accepting that you have no control whatsoever, but both of those perspectives are incomplete.

The apparent truth is that you are not always in control and you are not always helplessly experience what life throws at you; you and reality are co-authoring your experience of life.

One needs to have intentions, goals, and desired outcomes – and one needs to be able to let go of those things when life is calling them to adventure, to uncertainty.

So, to finish this series on Mission Vs. Adventure, we’ll share a couple stories about when and how people strike that balance, and how being aware of this duality will benefit you as a manager and self-manager.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

201 - Mission Vs. Adventure - Part 3 - Co-Authoring Your Life

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I invoked a modern proverb – Life is a journey, not a destination – but you’ve likely heard this at some point earlier in your life, too. Although this is often interpreted as a suggestion to slow down and smell the roses, this helpful saying can also be viewed as a rebuke to the mission mentality that dominates our society, especially in business.

We are too focused on the objective as our goal, in part because we’re conditioned to relate to things at the level of knowledge. So, we fail to see that the transformation we undergo during the journey is more necessary than the actual thing we are trying to achieve.

Now, you may be thinking that I’m trying to persuade you that there is no use for the mission mentality, but that’s not true either.

Today, we’ll delve deeper into the story of Josef and the Lawnmower, and I’ll share the moment when I accepted the call to adventure – and I’ll share why both the ability to adopt a mission mentality AND the ability to identify and accept that call to adventure are important skills for management and self-management.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

200 - Mission Vs. Adventure - Part 2 - Life is an Adventure

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we defined the difference between a mission and an adventure.

A mission is like in a heist film: there’s an objective, a plan, and coordinated execution of the plan – and if the plan is not executed appropriately, the objective can not be completed.

On an adventure, on the other hand, you have a sense of your objective, but you do not need to execute on a meticulously crafted plan to accomplish that goal; you either purposely don’t make a plan or you surrender to the adventure not being plannable.

So, when I approached fixing my lawn mower with a mission perspective, I had certain expectations about how things would go. When those expectations weren’t met, there was suddenly a problem – but I created the expectations that birthed the problem that, then, caused my suffering... so I created my own suffering!

And we all do this. We all crave control and create expectations, then we get upset when they’re not met – but, the vast majority of the time, things don’t go the way we plan! Yet, we keep approaching tasks with a mission mentality, and we keep suffering as a result.

So, today, let’s try contextualizing life as an adventure.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

199 - Mission Vs. Adventure - Part 1 - The Mission Begins

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Over the next four episodes, we’re going to engage in a conversation about how we, as people and managers, approach tasks and getting things done – and today, we’re going to frame that conversation by defining the difference between a mission and an adventure.

But, to start off today’s conversation, I invite you to join me in a brief meditation so that we can all approach this discussion with a similar mindset.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

198 - Being What's Called For - Part 3 - What’s Your Inner Identity Crisis?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

I ended the last episode by sharing my inner identity crisis, and now I want you to consider your own. When is life calling you to be something different than your self-prescribed identity suggests you are?

Take a moment to think about that question before we get into today’s conversation about how our skewed perception of identity affects our ability to be managers.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

197 - Being What's Called For - Part 2 - Who Are You Being Called to Be?

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Most of us embody identities built on our interpretations of the past, but there’s a huge gap between saying “I’m funny” and believing “I’m a funny person” – and it’s one our minds are happy to bridge through a healthy dose of delusion.

Understanding who or what you are being called to be, in any given moment, requires a degree of meta realization that few people have.

So, today, we are going to expand the practice of realization that we started in the last episode by exploring that question: Who am I being called to be, in this moment?

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

196 - Being What's Called For - Part 1 - What Is Vs. What I Think Should Be

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Today, I want to bring your attention to a paradigm that causes everyone suffering, almost every day: What Is Vs. What I Think Should Be.

Everybody shoulds. We are all naturally included to think things ought to happen a certain way because... well, because that’s the way we think it ought to be. But when we impose these delusions about reality onto ourselves, we’re just choosing to suffer.

Realizing the suffering caused by your self-inflicted delusions is a practice, which means you have to practice it every day, and today is as good a day to start as any.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

195 - Managing Disappointment - Part 4 - Denormalizing Disappointment

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Most of us are conditioned to normalize disappointment, from a very young age, but that behavior has a dark shadow: normalizing our reactions to disappointment.

So to wrap up this four-part series, I want to help you denormalize disappointment in your life so that you have a frame to start managing it better.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

194 - Managing Disappointment - Part 3 - What Would Josef Do?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I shared a story to illustrate how we fall into the trap of disappointment, and how we can ultimately start managing disappointment.

So, to recap, there are four steps to managing disappointment:

Notice the disappointment.
Notice the resistance to disappointment that is inevitably within us.
Accept the disappointment as being part of life.
Then operate inside of the parameters that you have.

Today, I will delve deeper into this process, as well as the internal needs and fantasies that can inhibit our ability to go through it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

193 - Managing Disappointment - Part 2 - You Can’t Choose Your Neighbors

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Today, I want to share a story about my neighbor and I.

It’s the story of how I first started managing my disappointment, at least intentionally, and accepting the truth in the idiom “you can’t choose your neighbors.”

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

192 - Managing Disappointment - Part 1 - Inevitability

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 10:00:00 -0400

Disappointment is inevitable. You could even plot it on a graph, with time on the X-axis and the likelihood of disappointment on the Y-axis. Given enough time, everyone you ever meet can be plotted onto this graph.

However, we have a choice when it comes to how we relate to disappointment.

So, to start this four-part series on managing disappointment, we will discuss how people usually experience disappointment and how we can start bringing more awareness and intention to our relationship with disappointment.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

191 - Conclusion: Waking Up - Part 4 - Your Most Important Assignment

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:00:00 -0400

As we wrap up this four-part series, we also reach the end of my online course, “Accountability, Metrics, Money, and Shame,” which is free for Clear and Open members.

But unlike most classes you’ve probably taken, this isn’t where your work on accountability, metrics, money, or shame ends – at least, I hope it isn’t. The choice is up to you.

Today, I have an assignment that will help you take this course forward into your life, and it’s the most important assignment from the entire course.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

190 - Conclusion: Waking Up - Part 3 - The Power of Not Knowing

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:00:00 -0400

We’ve discussed the Dunning–Kruger effect on the show before: the psychological phenomenon in which people who are not good at something tend to think they’re better at it than they really are. So the less you know, the more you think you know.

But this cognitive bias can only exists in relation our misguided assumptions about reality – namely, our assumption that we know how reality works and will continue to work. And at this point where our assumptions and biases meet, it creates delusion.

When we start chipping away at this delusion – and in the process, start chipping away at our resistance to change – we can actually find a lot of power in the act of not knowing, and today I want you to embrace that power.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

189 - Conclusion: Waking Up - Part 2 - The Shame Dynamic

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I asked a question: What universal, daily part of the human experience is irrefutable proof of how deluded human beings are?

The answer is dreams – we all dream, and while we’re dreaming, we usually buy into that reality. Then we wake up and we’re confronted with a contradictory reality.

But despite the fact that we experience this delusion every morning, we go through the day assuming that our mind couldn’t possibly have the capacity to fool us while we’re awake; we assume to know who we are, how life works, and that tomorrow will be just like today.

But if we look back at the evidence we have from our own lifetimes and all of recorded history, what’s really real is that reality is constantly changing and constantly telling us, as individuals and as a society, that we’re wrong.

However, we don’t like being wrong, and when reality holds us accountable by showing us we’re wrong, we often feel shame. So today, we’ll start to explore this complex dynamic between ourselves, reality, and shame.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

188 - Conclusion: Waking Up - Part 1 - Delusional Acceptance

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 10:00:00 -0400

We live in a state of delusional acceptance. We accept that reality is the way we believe it is, in spite of a universal, daily experience that directly contradicts that assumption.

What is that experience? Let’s figure it out together – and on the way, we’ll learn how we can use this knowledge to become more accountable to reality as it really is.

This four part series is an excerpt from the conclusion of my online course, “Accountability, Metrics, Money, and Shame,” which is free for Clear and Open members.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

187 - Self-Management, Surrender, and The Great Mystery - Part 4 - Omnipresence

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 11:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I invited you to make two assumptions about The Great Mystery: One, everyone can experience it and that does not require belief or being special. Two, it is always there. There’s no more of it in a church than in a gutter.

So if it’s always there, what stops you from being with it? That’s the question we’re going to explore today.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

186 - Self-Management, Surrender, and The Great Mystery - Part 3 - The Ultimate Authority of Life

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 11:00:00 -0400

We often talk about wrestling with our own authority issues, namely the issues we have with our parents. This isn’t due to some Freudian hang up – this is because you can’t truly practice self-authority until you do the work to stop unconsciously or consciously submitting to your parents’ will.

And when you make this shift, something incredible happens – you start to relate to life itself, to the Universe, to The Great Mystery.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

185 - Self-Management, Surrender, and The Great Mystery - Part 2 - A Radical Understatement

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Your shadow is running your life.

Maybe not all the time, but your shadow is calling the shots more than you realize, and that’s why it’s so important to recognize those seemingly unimportant moments that we discussed in the last episode: when your shadow feels comfortable coming out into the open and you have the opportunity to make a choice and, with confidence, take charge of your own life.

People think of their shadow as some part of them that drags them down – this cliche of holding yourself back – but today I want to discuss why this is the understatement of the century, and a few small ways you can relieve that burden.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

184 - Self-Management, Surrender, and The Great Mystery - Part 1 - Moments of Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

The moments when change actually happens aren’t the big life moments you might think they will be. They’re these seemingly insignificant moments when your shadow rears its head in broad daylight because it doesn’t feel compelled to hide.

These moments offer an opportunity to practice self-management, to practice being your true and authentic self in the face of an emotionally difficult choice – and if you train that muscle, you’ll be able to use it when it really matters.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

183 - Deconstructive Path to Awareness - Part 3 - Orienting Towards Reality

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

In the last couple episodes, we discussed how our natural inclination is to orient towards happiness – and why this is, ultimately, a problematic cultural agreement that almost all of us are contributing to.

Today, I suggest a new and more beneficial social contract, albeit a more challenging one: a cultural agreement to orient towards realness. This requires a certain level of awareness, which in itself requires a significant level of mutual accountability, but the end reward is a genuine, real happiness that can’t be altered by personal experience.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

182 - Deconstructive Path to Awareness - Part 2 - Shattering Delusion

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

When you try to negotiate with reality, when you try to dictate your delusions onto your experience, reality will always win.

Because life doesn’t care about your happiness – but it does care about your perception of reality.

So in this episode, we discuss the role of accountability, for ourselves and others, in shattering our delusions. If you trust the process, trust the outcome, you can trust that life will take care of you.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

181 - Deconstructive Path to Awareness - Part 1 - The Pursuit of Realness

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

The pursuit of happiness is one of the three “unalienable rights” suggested by the the United States Declaration of Independence – but the very act of this pursuit is problematic, and the single most destructive element in your relationship to truth.

Because real happiness isn’t some destination that you can get to by constructing a long enough bridge. This false happiness is built on illusion, and eventually, life will catch up to you and set you straight.

Real fulfillment is already and always there – and through awareness, we can deconstruct our blocks to it and experience it, regardless of the content in our lives.

So today, I suggest that we have to make the pursuit of truth, of realness, more important than everything and anything else, especially happiness, so you can discover how happy it will make you.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

180 - Management in Action: An Interview with Trey Lewellen

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

To learn more about Trey’s enterprise, go to Kommercekings.com

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

179 - Navigating Shame With The Accountability Path - Part 4 - The Opportunity to Take Control

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

To wrap up this series, we’re going to discuss the optimal and non-optimal outcomes of accountability – and how navigating the accountability path will allow you to get the optimal results more often.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

178 - Navigating Shame With The Accountability Path - Part 3 - Holding Up The Mirror

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 11:00:00 -0400

If you want to build a strong foundation of accountability, you can’t wait until someone screws up to hold them accountable. You will find the accountability path much easier to navigate if it’s forged through deep reflections of goodness, creating a context where accountability is viewed as more positive than negative.

The best part is that, unlike some of the other aspects of leading with accountability that we’ve discussed in this series, it isn’t difficult to hold up a mirror and show someone a reflection of the goodness of their being!

So today, we’re going to talk about how leaders can hold up the mirror for the people they manage before they take a step on the accountability path.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

177 - Navigating Shame With The Accountability Path - Part 2 - Seen & Safe

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Great leaders help the people they manage embrace rigorous accountability – but to do that, the people they manage have to feel seen and safe.

However, most of us don’t choose to be leaders, and we weren’t taught how to be leaders in school, so we reluctantly end up learning on the job; we are thrust into a position where we have to learn how to be vulnerable with ourselves and put others in a situation where they feel safe being vulnerable... or we can fail.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

176 - Navigating Shame With The Accountability Path - Part 1 - Courage

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

When we think of courage, we often think of braving some sort of life-threatening situation. But almost every day, even the people who jump out of planes work to avoid holding others accountable or being held accountable because it invites emotional difficulty.

If you really want to be courageous, try intentionally confronting and amplifying your emotional discomfort – now that’s difficult, but it’s also required to start navigating shame with the accountability path.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

175 - Leadership as Spiritual Teaching - Part 4 - Becoming a Spiritual Teacher

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

To wrap up this series on Leadership as a Spiritual Teaching – in which we’ve discussed the definition of consciousness, how societal conditioning clouds our perception of reality, and how this prevents us from solving problems – we’re going to learn how leaders and managers can start solving problems by learning and teaching a greater sense of consciousness.

The problem is that you can’t just change a person’s conditioning without upsetting them because that’s the lens through which people look at reality. The more it stays the same, the more people feel safe and secure... but we’re lying to ourselves when we insist that life is safe and secure.

The role of a leader or a manger is to take in new information and challenge existing conditionings, to become a kind of spiritual teacher, so that’s what we’re going to do.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

174 - Leadership as Spiritual Teaching - Part 3 - Learning Consciousness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

Our society operates using the framework that problems get solved through intelligence – but I argue that problems get solved through consciousness, which has nothing to do with intelligence or skill. It is, fundamentally, the ability to step outside of your conditioning and see reality through a lens other than the one created by your own conditioning.

More often than not, we’re just missing a piece of information we can’t see, or aren’t willing to see, due to our conditioning.

So really, solving your own problems, your organization’s problems, and our society’s problems comes down to teaching people a greater sense of consciousness. Today, we discuss where to start this process.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

173 - Leadership as Spiritual Teaching - Part 2 - Metaperception & Awareness

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we started a metaphysical dialectic on consciousness. We established that consciousness requires an awareness of self because reality and our perception of it are not always the same.

Today, we’ll clarify the metaperception required to identify this gap between your story about reality and reality itself, and how the way you are conditioned clouds your perception.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

172 - Leadership as Spiritual Teaching - Part 1 - A Metaphysical Dialectic

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

To start this four-part series on Leadership as Spiritual Teaching, we’re going to go on an exploration of consciousness.

What is consciousness, how does it affect you as a leader, and how can a lack of awareness hurt the people you manage? We’re going to delve deep into the metaphysical to answer these questions, so let’s take a deep breath and dive in.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

171 - Frustration-Free Living - Part 2 - The Belief that Change is Hard

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

I am going to say something that might be simultaneously freeing and uncomfortable to hear: living in frustration is completely optional.

If you are frustrated, it is likely due to your expectations of and relationship with change, as we discussed in the last episode.

So today, I invite you to practice a frustration-free existence – which won’t be easy, and definitely won’t happen overnight – and it starts with confronting the belief that change is hard.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

170 - Frustration-Free Living - Part 1 - Your Relationship to Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

People want change, or they say they want change, but really they want to be told how to change – and then they want that process to be easy.

This reflects our skewed and unhealthy relationship with change; we want acute control over when and how change happens to us and in our lives and then, inevitably, we get frustrated because that’s just not how life works.

When we start looking at reality with the assumption that change is predictable and we can exert control over it, what we are really doing is creating the perfect storm of cognitive dissonance and discomfort. Today I want to explore this relationship, how it creates frustration in our loves – and, ultimately, how awareness of this relationship can put an end to that unproductive cycle.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

169 - Shame: The Elephant in the World - Part 4 - Empathy, Courage, & Vulnerability

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 11:00:00 -0400

The culture that you live and work in has a tremendous impact on what you feel. And as a manager, you are responsible for cultivating the culture in your organization – and as a self-manager, you are responsible for cultivating the culture in your everyday life.

Today we’ll look at three things you SHOULD be cultivating in your culture and how doing so can radically improve the lives of the people you manage.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

168 - Shame: The Elephant in the World - Part 3 - The Backfire Effect & The Dunning–Kruger Effect

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

When someone is emotionally invested in an idea or a group, it’s almost impossible to persuade them to question their beliefs – even if you provide factual information that really should cause them to question their beliefs. Why? It challenges their identity and, as a result, they feel shame.

So, as we discussed in the last episode, people distort reality to protect themselves and their identity, and you can see this playing out every single day, especially online, in the increasingly divided political climate in the U.S.

Today we will examine this phenomenon, how it contributes to shame, and what you can do to prevent it from creeping into your life.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

167 - Shame: The Elephant in the World - Part 2 - Shame, Remorse, & Embarrassment

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 27 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Shame is dangerous because, in our efforts to avoid it, we often end up distorting reality so that we don’t feel accountable – like, as we’ll discuss more in this episode, the man who sued United after HE knocked out a passenger – but confronting our negative feelings and the realities that cause them is a healthy and important part of personal development.

So in this episode, we will take our first step towards healing from shame and building our shame resilience.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

166 - Shame: The Elephant in the World - Part 1 - Shame Defense

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Today, I want to talk about what makes the whole world go ‘round – not money, not love, but shame.

It’s always been a huge factor, and if you look through a history book, you will pretty much find a list of times powerful men tried to cover up their shame. But today, social media magnifies the role that shame plays in everyone’s lives. We’re practically spoon feeding it to ourselves every time we pick up our phones.

So over the next few episodes, we’re going to examine our relationship with shame, the important differences between shame and its cousins like remorse and embarrassment, and how you can start healing from shame.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

165 - Finding Your Resolve - Part 4 - Transcending Mediocrity

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Are you doing the best that you can?

What if I give you a million dollars to do better... were you still doing the best that you could? Or does your best change?

The more aware you are of your discipline and engagement, the more difficult it is to accept the excuse that “you’re doing the best that you can.”

We naturally shrug off a challenge, striving to do the minimum required to get by – but we only improve when we embrace challenges, acknowledging that we have the potential to grow. So I want you to challenge yourself today, and then I want you to challenge the people you manage. It won’t be comfortable for anyone, but the continuation of the human race depends on us transcending mediocrity.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

164 - Finding Your Resolve - Part 3 - Surrendering to Accountability

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

If you haven’t already, take some time right now to do the exercise I described in the last episode:

Consider what you want that you don’t have, and frame it as an engagement problem; the source of the gap between what you want and you don’t have lies at the level of your engagement.

After you give this some deep thought, please continue with the episode and join us as we start surrendering to accountability. Because dedication and commitment don't come without accountability.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

163 - Finding Your Resolve - Part 2 - Managing Engagement

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we discussed the first step towards finding our resolve and becoming more engaged: acknowledging just how disengaged we usually are.

With that awareness, we can now start flexing our engagement muscles and practicing this skill, as both managers of others and managers of ourselves.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

162 - Finding Your Resolve - Part 1 - Conditioned for Instant Gratification

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

When in your life have you wanted something so much that you were willing to do whatever it takes to attain it?

For some of you, the answer might be never, or at least not recently. Because we can have almost anything we want whenever we want it, and as a result, our society is collectively losing its resolve; commitment and dedication are dying... and this could be a dangerous trend.

So over the next few episodes, I will help you engage with life and find your resolve – if you are willing to join me.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

161 - The Nothing That Isn't Nothing - Part 4 - The Power of Zero

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Zero looks like nothing – but it’s NOT nothing, and something magical happens when you learn to let go and embrace zero.

Because all of our suffering is dependent on an initial assumption about the kind of experience we’re supposed to be having; a vain attempt to control reality by projecting something onto a situation.

So today we’ll examine the power of zero and what it looks like when you embody nothing.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

160 - The Nothing That Isn't Nothing - Part 3 - Radical Responsibility

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Have you ever said to yourself or out loud, “You’re driving me crazy?”

This is a really common saying, but it’s never true. No one else has the power to control your emotions. And when we say this, we’re diminishing our own role in what we’re experiencing – and our own power.

It’s definitely not easy to remain peaceful when we are challenged by other people and difficult situations, but learning to do so will help you manage yourself and others. So today we’re going to talk about the importance of practicing radical responsibility, even when it’s difficult, and how this will help us embrace reality.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

159 - The Nothing That Isn't Nothing - Part 2 - Your Ruby Slippers

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Anyone can lay in a sensory deprivation tank and find peace – but what about when someone cuts you off in traffic, when you are in line at the DMV, or an employee makes a mistake? Then, finding silence is hard work.

But like Dorothy in Oz, you’ve had the power all along. Today I’m going to teach you how to find it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

158 - The Nothing That Isn't Nothing - Part 1 - The White Canvas

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

In our increasingly noisy world, an industry has popped up selling silence by the hour through things like sensory deprivation tanks and a variety of meditation practices. These can be useful tools or shortcuts, but that silence is always there – it’s the canvas on which our experiences are painted.

Over the next four episodes, I’m going to explore the power of abiding with that silence, and how you can start accessing that silence whenever you want.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

157 - Don't Solve the Wrong Problem - Part 4 - Managing Others So They Can Solve Their Own Problems

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

As a manager, you can’t step in and solve someone else’s problems, but you can hold up a mirror so that someone can see the problem and start solving it themselves.

And one of the best ways to help someone confront reality and start addressing a problem is by asking a question based in genuine curiosity. The danger here is triggering someone’s fight, flight, or freeze response, which will stop your efforts dead in their tracks.

Today I discuss what you need to consider and pay attention to in these delicate situations so that you can manage lovingly, carefully, and successfully.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

156 - Don't Solve the Wrong Problem - Part 3 - Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

When you identify the thing that is really causing a problem in your life or business, it’s usually not very difficult to solve – but many of us waste time and money barking up the wrong tree because there is some uncomfortable aspect of reality that we’re trying to avoid.

However, all the effort we put into avoiding reality causes disproportionately more discomfort than just looking reality in the face and accepting it as truth.

Consider this episode your invitation to stop resisting the process and start solving real problems before they eat away at your life or business.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

155 - Don't Solve the Wrong Problem - Part 2 - Our (Lack of) Commitment to Reality

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

We’re often more committed to things in our life being nice and cozy than we are to reality, even if that coziness is causing problems in our family, our relationships, or our businesses. However, there’s a real danger here because lacking a commitment to truth obscures real problems and creates obstacles that hinder personal embodiment and organizational success.

So in this episode, I want to share a self-awareness practice that will help you identify embodiment gaps in your life and management deficiencies in your organization.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

154 - Don't Solve the Wrong Problem - Part 1 - Resistance to Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

What are you resisting?

If you need help tracking it down, first find the most significant chronic pain in your life.

So often, we are unconsciously resisting some aspect of reality that we don’t want to accept as true until this frustration causes so much pain that we can’t ignore it anymore and we are forced to either change or suffer.

Today we’ll analyze where this resistance comes from, including our shared assumption about solving problems that, ultimately, causes us to experience shame – a feeling that only dilutes our problem-solving efforts.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

153 - The Being Aspect of Learning - Part 4 - Learning to Be a Leader

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

The role of leadership can make you feel unappreciated, lonely, and exposed – but it does get more comfortable if you learn to BE a leader. The process isn’t easy, but nothing in life worth doing is.

So today we are going to explore the ways you can practice embodying leadership and the care you have to give yourself so that you don’t end up compromising during the learning process.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

152 - The Being Aspect of Learning - Part 3 - Embodying Philosophy

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 11:00:00 -0400

A few episodes back, we discussed how subjectivism became extreme in our society, which is apparent when we see the popularization of terms like ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news.’ And we can thank Descartes for that.

However, even with this subjectivist approach to life, people are not living in accordance with Descartes’ philosophy and examining their perception of the world. Instead, we settle into our beliefs in early adulthood and steadfastly resist being anything different, even for a little while.

Today I present to you a different model for living life; a model characterized by the embodiment and sampling of different philosophies and ways of being.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

151 - The Being Aspect of Learning - Part 2 - We Don’t Do Leadership

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:00:00 -0400

As we mentioned in the last episode, our education system is not designed to teach us how to embody what we learn and change at the level of being. It’s a formulaic system of tests and regurgitation. Then by the time we reach early adulthood, we tend to crystallize and never change again.

That’s not what we offer at Clear and Open. We offer you the opportunity to try on and use different forms of being, and perhaps break free of the system of doing that you have settled into over time.

Why is this important? Well, we don’t learn how to do great leading – we have to learn how to be a great leader. So let’s get started.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

150 - The Being Aspect of Learning - Part 1 - Regurgitation VS Embodiment

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In this four-part series, we will reframe and expand our definition of learning. To start, we will focus on the difference between learning to become something and learning a set of knowledge in order to do something.

Traditional schooling and education invite students to find the formula that works and then regurgitate specific information at the appropriate times. So from a very young age, we are primed to look at learning through this formulaic lens where knowledge is collected and used at the prescribed times but never embodied.

I invite you to learn with an orientation towards embodiment – because by doing so, you will find it easier to change and evolve who you are.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

149 - Descartes, Money, Meditation, and Subjectivism - Part 4 - Holding Ourselves Accountable to Reality

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Subjectivism has, in many ways, caused the steady decay of the economy, the news, and our shared reality – But there is a common solution to all of those problems.

To conclude this series, I will outline the one brave step you can take to help yourself and the people you manage to escape the distortions of our subjective reality.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

148 - Descartes, Money, Meditation, and Subjectivism - Part 3 - Management as a Spiritual Practice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Over the past couple episodes, we’ve discussed how the United States has developed a dangerous relationship with reality.

Today we’ll be talking about why businesses are responsible for bringing our society back into truth, and how framing management and leadership as a spiritual practice, like meditation, can help us create companies that can accomplish this.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

147 - Descartes, Money, Meditation, and Subjectivism - Part 2 - Alternative Facts, Fake News, & Ethical Subjectivism

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

With the rise of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news,’ we have entered an era characterized by ethical subjectivism. It is the idea of individual rights, which the United States was founded on, taken to a dangerous extreme.

It is my truth that when you commit to living in reality, it will support you – and this becomes a challenge when there is no generally agreed upon reality.

So today we will explore what it might take to pull us out of this dangerous paradigm.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

146 - Descartes, Money, Meditation, and Subjectivism - Part 1 - Making Money Vs. Earning Money

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Here in the United States, especially when it comes to our economy, we live in a false reality.

Today we will establish how mediocrity perpetuates this paradigm and what it looks like in practice, laying the foundation for our discussion about Descartes, Money, Meditation, and Subjectivism over the next few episodes.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

145 - People Quit Their Bosses - Part 5 - The Honesty Embodiment Gap 10/11

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

As a society, we put a premium on honesty – but there’s a massive gap between how we value honesty and how people tend to embody it.

In reality, most of us want harmony more than we want honesty. However, a business culture won’t grow or improve without critical and constructive feedback, for both employees and managers.

So for the conclusion of this series on why people quit their bosses, not their jobs, I want to help you bridge the honesty embodiment gap so that you can inspire productive change in your organization.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

144 - People Quit Their Bosses - Part 4 - False Personas & Authentic Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

It is my truth that life wants you to change, and it’ll hint, prod, and push you until something starts to give.

When you choose to respond to life’s prodding, you have two options: manufacturing personality traits to strategically achieve a particular outcome or pursuing authentic change. I argue that the former will only work for so long before life responds accordingly, thus reaching the result you desire will require a shift in your being.

The inherent challenge here is that you don’t know what you don’t know. So if you’ve never tried on a certain quality of being, you don’t know whether or not it is compatible with “the real you.” Shame will prevent most people from ever considering the qualities of being that will help them achieve their goals, but you have to get over this hump to stop perpetuating mediocrity in yourself and the people you manage.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

143 - People Quit Their Bosses - Part 3 - The Quick Fix

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

You can find people online who are offering what appear to be easily accessible and digestible solutions to almost any problem. These articles and videos are effective at pulling people in because it’s natural to crave a quick fix, but no 10-item listicle is going to provide a realistic and long-lasting solution to management.

Sometimes you have to change who you are to make progress, not accrue more knowledge or skills.

Today I want to make it okay for you to feel stupid – for you to accept not knowing as an opportunity, not an indictment of your self-worth – and help you do this for the people that you manage so that you become a boss that people won’t quit.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

142 - People Quit Their Bosses - Part 2 - Experiencing a Challenge-Free Life

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Many of us idealize a lifestyle devoid of responsibility or challenge. But if you ever pursue the dream of spending every day eating pizza and drinking mai tais on the beach, or whatever your fantasy looks like, you might be surprised by how unfulfilling a challenge-free life is.

So while you're listening, I want you to be curious: consider what your current perception of a challenge is and how embracing challenge may affect your ability to manage.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

141 - People Quit Their Bosses - Part 1 - The Ability to Not Know

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

When were you taught how to be a good boss and manager? I know that didn't come up for me in public school, or even secondary education.

Instead, we were conditioned and trained to be individual contributors, often rewarded for the poor project management habits that we developed in the process. Nothing was more important than knowing the answer to a problem, even if we only retained it for a couple of days.

Today, I want to challenge this assumption that the act of knowing is the pinnacle of learning and that not knowing represents an inherent deficit – because there is incredible power in developing the ability to not know.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

140 - How to be Managed - Part 3 - What are You Resisting?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We’re all resisting something – and a lot of us are resisting help.

A good manager will help you change for the better; your sherpa on the road to excellence. So when we resist management by throwing up our authority projections and shame issues, we aren’t sticking it to the man. We’re really sticking it to our own self-development.

But you always have the opportunity to stop resisting, and today’s episode will arm you with the questions, practices, and mindset you can use to get into alignment with your manager and make the most out of their help.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

139 - How to be Managed - Part 2 - Stop Dreaming of Excellence

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Do you think of excellence as a noun, something that can be pursued and earned through enough effort, or as a verb, something you practice and strive for every day? I’d argue it’s the latter; an orientation to life rather than an achievement.

But our society isn’t conditioned to practice excellence – we’re watchers and dreamers, and for the most part, people are content with simply dreaming about and spectating excellence. But I don’t want to just dream of excellence, and I don’t want you to either.

I also don’t want you to walk the road of excellence alone. As we discussed in the last episode, good managers facilitate change – so in the practice of excellence, we have to learn how to be managed.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

138 - How to be Managed - Part 1 - The 3 Pillars of Eliciting Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We’ve spent the last few weeks learning the ins and outs of managing others. And now that we have that context for what exactly good management looks like, we can start the process of setting aside our shame issues and authority projections so that we can also be managed effectively.

Although cooperating may not be our first inclination when confronted with an authority figure, it really is in our best interest, in most situations, to help someone manage us. Because good managers are, in practice, facilitating change in others – and don’t you want to be an active participant in your own evolution?

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

137 - The Shadow Side of Adaptability - Part 4 - Let’s Make Change Happen

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Over the past few episodes, we’ve gone through the process of examining what’s “normal” in our lives. For many of us, normal is chronic overwhelm, emotional conflict, or physical discomfort.

And the only reason we accept that reality, a normal we don’t even like, is that we’re even more terrified of change than we are uncomfortable.

Today we’re going to start making change happen, in spite of our fear – and it all begins with acknowledging and rejecting where we are right now.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

136 - The Shadow Side of Adaptability - Part 3 - The Fear of Change

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We like to tell ourselves that we don’t like difficulty, that we want things to be different... but we sure don’t act like it. In reality, humans are terrified of change, and often we’re more terrified than we are made uncomfortable by our current situation.

We just accept that the current dysfunction is better than not knowing – and every problem in the world, every problem within a person, can be traced back to that fear of change.

But whatever you want in life will require you to change in some way, and that change will require you to depart your current normal and create a new one. The only obstacle you have to overcome is your own inclination to adapt – although I admit it likely won’t be as easy as that sounds.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

135 - The Shadow Side of Adaptability - Part 2 - What’s Your Normal?

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Last week we discussed why one of our greatest strengths as human beings – our ability to adapt to almost any situation – doesn’t always serve us or the people we manage.

And really, as a species, we’ve allowed an entirely dysfunctional normal to take root, characterized by a constant state of war and conflict

So today we’re going to look inward and interrogate what we’re accepting as “normal” in our daily lives – and if your current paradigm isn’t serving you, or if it is contributing to the dysfunctional normal of humanity, this is your opportunity to decide that’s not okay and start envisioning a new normal.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

134 - The Shadow Side of Adaptability - Part 1 - The Weather

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 10:00:00 -0400

It’s amazing how human beings can live in any climate in the world, learn to cope with physical discomfort on a daily basis, and go through the day in a constant state of overwhelm – and, quite often, we do!

Adaptability is undeniably one of our greatest strengths as animals on this planet Earth, but there’s a shadow side to that... because we tend to normalize even those things that are against our self-interest.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

133 - Development Meetings that Work - Part 3 - Drafting the Story Arcs of Your People

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Do you see the pure potential of every human being that works for you? When you can see something greater than even they can see, and you hold that for them, you are taking responsibility for your role in developing them.

To help you do that, we’re going to frame each of your employees as a TV show, and that pure potential you see is the end of the series. How can you use your curiosity, your questions, and your meetings to develop a story arc that leads to that final destination, allowing each person to ultimately experience what you see in them?

This may be a long story arc – that person may have a long way to go or you may see exceptional potential – but you always have the opportunity to tell an empowering story.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

132 - Development Meetings that Work - Part 2 - Development Meetings that DON’T Work

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

One of the most important and underutilized aspects of developing a new practice is examining the obstacles that tend to get in the way. So before we start exploring how to run development meetings that do work, we’re going to use this episode to acknowledge why most development meetings actually DON’T work.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

131 - Development Meetings that Work - Part 1 - Maintain Your Curiosity

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we discussed the power of embracing curiosity as a spiritual practice and personal value. I want you to keep that in mind over the next three episodes (or go back and listen if you haven’t already) because being curious and asking questions are integral components of development meetings that work.

In any leadership position, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of telling and not asking. But that’s enabling behavior and, when you do it, you’re not fulfilling your role as a manager. We should want to hold a space for our people to grow, and we have to be curious to figure out where that space is, to begin with.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

130 - The Art of Asking Questions - Part 4 - Curiosity as a Spiritual Practice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we revealed the Why behind asking great questions: it’s a tool that helps people get to where you want the to be, without telling them how to do it.

And today we’re going to explore how you actually use this tool more effectively by embracing curiosity as a practice. Being curious is a powerful way of being, and questions are powerful tools, but unless you embrace all of this as a deep, personal value, your results will be limited.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

129 - The Art of Asking Questions - Part 3 - Open-Ended & Close-Ended Questions

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We discussed the Zen story of the monk two episodes back, which demonstrated the way your actions elicit the behavior of the people around you and the way you experience life. So if you play the role of a supervisor (as opposed to a manager) and just tell people what to do, they’re just going to do what you say.

But is that really who you want working for you? Is that really how you want to behave yourself? Great managers crave people who take ownership over their job, and most people also crave that agency in their lives.

When you ask great questions, you make people think. When you make people think, they become more responsible. When they become more responsible, they do a better job. Alternatively, when you tell people what to do, they become order-takers and think less. When they think less, they become less responsible. When they become less responsible, they do a worse job. This is the difference between managing and supervising.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

128 - The Art of Asking Questions - Part 2 - Illuminating the Excuse

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Really good questions are like spotlights: they reveal what’s hiding in the darkness, or what a person can’t see about themselves. As a manager, this is an invaluable tool for creating accountability and helping employees learn how they show up in the world – in particular, how they make excuses.

Excuses stand in the way of dreams – and don’t you want to help the people you manage, including yourself, accomplish their dreams?

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

127 - The Art of Asking Questions - Part 1 - You Elicit Your Experience

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We’ve lost the art of asking great questions, but over this four-part series we’re going to get back into practice.

Why is the art of asking questions important? Asking great questions is an expression of curiosity and the desire to learn. You don’t grow without being deeply curious. And you’ll find that your curiosity elicits curiosity in others and inspires them to grow as well. For managers, this is absolutely key to developing people.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

126 - What People Really Want - Part 4 - Breaking the Slave Labor Mentality

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Our workforce and society is in the process of revolution: casting off the archaic slave labor mentality that has been chained to work throughout most of human history.

And this cycle of conditioning only breaks when the manager says no, instead offering the deeply-craved but seldom-asked-for salve of accountability to their people.

Today we’re going to wrap up this series on what people really want by asking a bigger question – what is something your people really need to grow, even if they don’t want it, and how can you give it to them?

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

125 - What People Really Want - Part 3 - How Managers Nurture Mediocrity (& How You Can Stop)

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 10:00:00 -0400

As managers, it’s important to get a little insight into what the people you are managing want, whether those people happen to be employees or yourself.

And right now, I can tell you one thing that people don’t actually want: to stay the same and be complacent. So today I want to talk about the manager’s role in giving people what they really want, even if they don’t know it themselves.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

124 - What People Really Want - Part 2 - Money? It’s a Gas

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

I offer weekly member webcasts, online courses, and mentorship at Clear And Open.com because it’s my truth that, with the right tools, anyone can eliminate the people, money, and time problems holding them back in business. And I share parts of these webcasts and courses on this show because I want to help you, too.

If you’re enjoying the show and learning from it, I’d love your feedback. If you are listening to the show on an Apple device, all you have to do is open the podcast app, view the full description of this episode, and click the link to leave a Rating & Review for the show.

Thanks for listening. Let’s start the show.

123 - What People Really Want - Part 1 - What Marketers Know About You

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Marketers know a lot about how human beings think and operate, some of which you may not even know about yourself. For example, most people have no idea what they really want – or, more accurately, most people have some ideas about what they want, but they don’t really know.

Marketers also know that humans make purchasing decisions emotionally and then rationalize them afterwards – but, for some reason, we rarely talk about how to apply that knowledge to any area of life outside of commerce.

Today I want to talk more about the insight that marketers have on human behavior, especially when it comes to what people really want, and how we can apply that knowledge to managing ourselves and others.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

122 - Management, Supervision, and Meta-Supervision - Part 4 - Learning How to Meta-Supervise

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Over the past three episodes, we’ve established how the cycle of disengagement leads to supervision and why supervision is a completely unnecessary waste of resources that enables mediocrity.

To conclude this series, I want to offer you the antidote to this problem – meta-supervision – and discuss how it will help you better manage yourself and others.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

121 - Management, Supervision, and Meta-Supervision - Part 3 - Defining Supervision & Its Impact

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We internalize our points of view on the world, turning perception into identity. So when we hate working for the man and think work sucks, we become a person who works for the man and resents it.

That’s the context I want you to understand as we start defining what supervision really is and creating more awareness around how it negatively impacts our lives.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

120 - Management, Supervision, and Meta-Supervision - Part 2 - Disrupting the Cycle of Disengagement

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, I shared my theory on the cycle of disengagement. Today we’re going to go over the unique ways disengagement manifests in our lives and how we can start creating a new, more productive dynamic to disrupt that cycle.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

119 - Management, Supervision, and Meta-Supervision - Part 1 - The Cycle of Disengagement

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Society conditions us to crave supervision… and hate it. School, work, authority figures – they all contribute to disengagement in various forms, priming us to both invite and resent “the man” for watching over us.

So to start this four-part series on management, supervision, and meta-supervision, I want to share my theory about how disengagement works, and why I think this cycle of disengagement is a multi-billion dollar worldwide problem.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

118 - Learning is Not What You Think - Part 4 - Learning, Teaching, & Your Shadow

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

To conclude this series, I want to talk about the gradual and constant nature of learning – even for teachers. You can know a heck of a lot about something, even be considered an expert on a subject, and still be learning it.

Learning is not binary, and it doesn’t serve us to think about it that way.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

117 - Learning is Not What You Think - Part 3 - Where Are You Pretending That You Know Something?

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

We’re conditioned to believe that knowing equals change. However, knowing is just the first step towards change. In this episode, I deconstruct this conditioning so that we can build a better understanding of the learning process.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

116 - Learning is Not What You Think - Part 2 - Personal Development

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we established that learning is not just about memorizing knowledge – it’s also about developing new skills and achieving greater awareness, and this kind of learning, this personal development, is much more effective at preparing us to overcome life’s challenges.

But over the last few decades, personal development has pretty much become mainstream, and as a result, a huge industry has grown around it… and not everything being sold by the industry will actually help you. Today I want to get into these problems, and how you can avoid them.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

115 - Learning is Not What You Think - Part 1 - The Problem with School

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

As children, we are taught that schooling is learning – all memorization and regurgitation. But when we grow up, we find out that there’s a lot more to learn if we want to develop relationships and succeed in business.

Today, I want to untangle this confusing mess and separate the process of memorization from the concept of learning – and discuss the consequences of conflating the two.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

114 - Why Annual Plans Don't Work - Part 4 - Plans That Do Work

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

If you’ve listened to the past three episodes, one thing should be painfully clear: annual plans don’t work, and we’re wasting our time and energy when we try to make them work. But we have big goals and big things we want to accomplish, so we do need some sort of plan!

To conclude this series, let’s take a look at plans that do work – and the prices you will have to pay to make them happen.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

113 - Why Annual Plans Don't Work - Part 3 - The Difference Between Goals & Plans

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

For part three of this four-part series on why annual plans don’t work, we’re looking at the difference between a goal and a plan (and, really, why successfully executing a plan as it was planned isn’t the most important thing).

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

112 - Why Annual Plans Don't Work - Part 2 - The Holy Grail in Planning

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we discussed why it’s more effective to plan using the “12-week year,” as opposed to the 52-week year. 365 days is just too much time, and your plans will get lost. 12 weeks, however, creates pressure for you to do something.

Today, we get into some of the tactics that a good manager can use, every single day, to keep themselves accountable and turn their plans into a reality.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

111 - Why Annual Plans Don't Work - Part 1 - New Year’s Lie

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

When it comes to the passage of time, the beginnings and endings are all made up. The weekend, the New Year: these things don’t REALLY exist. Human society, however, is hyper annualized. Memberships, resolutions, taxes – almost everything is constructed around a 365-day cycle.

But when we try to plan our lives around a 365-day cycle, it just doesn’t work. So, to start this series on Annual Planning, we’re going to explore why the structure really doesn’t serve us in the planning process.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

110 - Surrendering to Change - Part 4 - A Meditation

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

To conclude this series, I want to share an active meditation that is designed to make you more aware of your experience and help you surrender. After the meditation, we will look closely at what that experience reveals about our relationship with addiction, craving, and desire.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

109 - Surrendering to Change - Part 3 - One Small Change, Big Results

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

For part three of our four-part series on Surrendering to Change, we explore how choosing to surrender to the practice and making one small change can result in a domino effect that produces profound change in other areas of your life.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

108 - Surrendering to Change - Part 2 - Surrendering to the Practice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we discussed the two orientations of change. You can either choose to stay who you are and change your behavior – like eliminating your morning cup of coffee – or you can choose to surrender to the process of changing, allowing it to teach you something about yourself – like discovering the reason you keep telling yourself that you can’t do anything in the morning until you’ve had caffeine.

Today we’re going to go even deeper into that second orientation, which allows us to not just change what we’re doing, but change ourselves and, ultimately, evolve from one stage of engagement to the next.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

107 - Surrendering to Change - Part 1 - Two Orientations of Change

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 31 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Today we look at addiction and change through the lens of a morning cup of coffee. We end up identifying with certain habits and routines related to our addictions, incorporating this assumption that it’s part of us. We say things like, “I’m a coffee person.”

And some of us also have this relationship with overwhelm – because, like anything else, being busy can be used like a drug.

So, for part one of our four-part series on Surrendering to Change, we’re going to look at the two primary ways that we can orient towards changing something in our lives.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

106 - How to Let Reality Win - Part 4 - The Parental Barometer

Josef Shapiro — Sun, 27 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

To wrap up this series on letting reality win, I want to share a tool you can use to develop meaningful metrics for personal progress: The Parental Barometer. If you pay attention, you can learn a LOT about yourself, and what you think about yourself, from a quick conversation with your parents.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

105 - How to Let Reality Win - Part 3 - Stress is a Thought

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 24 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode we discussed how, through our choices, we create our own empowerment – this can be hard to realize, but it’s always true. However, this isn’t easy. It can require tremendous self-management to, in the briefest moment, overcome your negative thoughts and choose to do something, instead of reacting.

To continue our series on letting reality win, we discuss the techniques you can use to slow down and give yourself that opportunity to take control.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

104 - How to Let Reality Win - Part 2 - One Heroic Choice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 21 May 2018 16:00:00 -0400

For part two of our four-part series on how you can let reality win (and stop getting in the way), we focus on the profound impact of making just ONE heroic choice – a choice in defiance of your shadow – every day.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

103 - How to Let Reality Win - Part 1 - Interfacing with Progression

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 17 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

There is no perfection in progress, and you’re never going to go anywhere trying to achieve it.

We like to tell ourselves the story that we aren’t doing enough, or haven’t gotten far enough. We like to focus on the one time we fail over the many times we take a small step forward. For some reason, we like to pursue perfection as a goal – and then we give up when we fail, but that’s not being fair to ourselves.

This episode starts a new four-part series on how you can stop getting in the way and just start letting reality win, beginning with your relationship to progression.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

102 - Self Vs Other - Part 4 - Making the Smaller Self Smaller

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 14 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In the last episode, we reframed the Self vs Other problem as a conflict between your small self and your Big Self – your ego-driven needs VS your soul-level values. Today, to finish this four-part series, we go over an exercise that will help you self-manage your smaller self, leaving more room for your values.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

101 - Self Vs Other - Part 3 - The Root of the Problem

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 10 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Today we dig to the real problem at the root of the Self vs Other problem: the needs of your shadow (or your ego) versus commitment to your soul-level values.

If we really want to solve this millenia-old issue – and become better managers in the process – we have to kick the scapegoat out of the room, take a long look inward, and make ourselves accountable for the solution.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

100 - Self Vs Other - Part 2 - Soul-Level Values

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 07 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

Today, for part 2 of our series about Self vs Other, we ask an important question: How is the self different than the other? We break down the metaphysical barriers between these concepts to find the universal connection rooted in our soul-level values.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

099 - Self Vs Other - Part 1 - The Game of Incentive

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 03 May 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode starts a new four-part series about one of the biggest sources of conflict throughout human history: the relationship between self and other. You can still see it everywhere today, especially in business.

In part one, we explore how this conflict plays into workforce hierarchy, resulting in The Game of Incentive.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

098 - What is Meaningfulness? - Part Four - Meaningfulness in Business

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This is the last episode in our four-part series on meaningfulness, and we are wrapping this topic up by exploring how you can facilitate more meaning in your business.

The best employees are those that resonate with your deeply held values, or your organization’s values – but sometimes there is a disconnect that needs to be managed before your employees are bought-in and engaged. We’re fighting years of conditioning on authority figures that have taught our employees that they are victims of “the man,” so it’s definitely not going to be easy – but if you can create and prioritize a connection, you can do it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

097 - What is Meaningfulness? - Part Three - Creating Change

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

You might have heard the phrase ‘if you think what you’ve always thought then you’ll do what you’ve always done and you’ll have what you’ve always had’ – but I think there’s one more, earlier step: if you be who you’ve always been, then you’ll never change.

Continuing our series on meaningfulness, this episode focuses on how you can better align yourself with your soul-level values to create change at the level of being, and how you can begin cultivating meaningfulness in the people you manage.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes

096 - What is Meaningfulness? - Part Two - Creating Meaningfulness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two of a four-part series on meaningfulness. In the first part, we defined meaningfulness – and today we’re going to learn a process for creating it.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

095 - What is Meaningfulness? - Part One - Definition

Jose Shapiro — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode starts a new four-part series exploring meaningfulness.

We all experience meaningfulness from time to time... but what exactly is it? For such a universal phenomenon, it can be surprisingly difficult to pin down. So in this series, we will break down this cliché and overused word to turn it into something more concrete and attainable – starting with a definition.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

094 The Five Stages of Engagement - Part Five - Flow

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This is the final episode of our series on The Five Stages of Engagement. In stage four, Thrival, people tend to become high achievers and achieve financial success – but in doing so, they generally don’t find happiness. In stage five, Flow, we transcend success to find ease and fulfillment.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

093 The Five Stages of Engagement - Part Four - Thrival

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part four of a five-part series on The Five Stages of Engagement. When we decide that life being “good enough” isn’t good enough – or we just get bored with the sameness of Security – we ask ourselves, “What else?” Asking that question is the door to stage four: Thrival.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

092 The Five Stages of Engagement - Part Three - Security

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

In part three of our five-part series on The Five Stages of Engagement, we discuss how you can get out of the patterns of Crisis or Survival to reach stage three: Security. At this stage, you’ve taken more responsibility for your personal power, and you understand your agency in what happens to you. Life is “good enough,” but is that enough for you?

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

091 The Five Stages of Engagement - Part Two - Survival

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two of a five-part series on The Five Stages of Engagement. Stage two is Survival – when we experience chronic, moderate levels of difficulty, and just getting through the day might feel like a battle. But even if feels like a challenge, but there is a way out.

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

090 The Five Stages of Engagement - Part One - Crisis

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode starts a new series on The Five Stages of Engagement, a model we can use to identify our level of engagement with life and move towards a more engaged state of being. Today we are focusing on the first stage, Crisis, which is characterized by acute overwhelm, drama, and fight or flight response. We discuss its value in certain situations, and the problems associated with living in Crisis for an extended period of time.

Sign up for my new course, Accountability, Metrics, Money, and Shame: Get Better Results by Living in Reality: www.clearandopen.com/amms

I’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a rating & review for the show on iTunes.

089 - Surrender to Problem Solving - Part Four - A Case Study

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode wraps up a four-part series about how to relate to problem solving productively, on a spiritual level. We examine a real-life case study of someone who is struggling to engage with problem solving and consider: Are you being courageous or cowardly? Is that fear holding you back? Are you thinking about your feelings, or experiencing them? Is there a lack of stillness in your life?

This recording came from the live teaching of the course called CLEAR the Issue, in which we discuss these and other issues around how you relate to problem solving. For more information about the many benefits of a Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

088 - Surrender to Problem Solving - Part Three - The Problem of Good Fortune

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is the third of a four-part series on how to relate to problem solving productively at an existential level. Is happiness one of your deepest values? What if it interfered with your ability to solve your problems? Paradoxically, what if your need to be happy is precisely what’s making you not? We talk about this and other issues around how you relate to problem solving in this final episode.

087 - Surrender to Problem Solving - Part Two - Surrendering to Change

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two of a three-part series from the live teaching of the course called CLEAR the Issue. What if Life itself was talking to you through your biggest challenges? Would you relate to your problems the same way? Would you still be frustrated, exhausted, and cranky?

086 - Surrender to Problem Solving - Part One - The Journey of Problem Solving

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode starts a three-part series pulled from the live version of the course called CLEAR the Issue. We talk today about an aspect of problem-solving seldom talked about: how you relate to problems on a spiritual level. What stops many people from solving their problems is not a lack of skill or knowledge, but rather an unwillingness to give themselves over to the process. What does that mean and how on earth do you use it to solve problems?

085 - Are You Doing the Best You Can? - Part Three - A Look into Self Interest

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is the final one of a three part series on the subject of work ethic and the dubious and elusive concept called “doing your best.” What is the antidote for mediocrity? There’s plenty of it in our world isn’t there? Would you like to know the counter-intuitive, simple solution?

084 - Are You Doing the Best You Can? - Part Two - Where Is Your Work Ethic?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two of a three-part series discussing the idea of doing the best you can when working to achieve your goals. Specifically, we talk about having a solid work ethic and what to do when you have a job that you hate or may not see yourself doing forever.

Where is your work ethic and does it matter? The true test of a human being is how they relate to being inconvenienced when the work is something they don’t necessarily want to do. Believe it or not, how you relate to your work ethic and the job you are in now has an effect on performing at your dream job later.

083 Are You Doing the Best You Can? - Part One - The Dynamics of Growth

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 11:00:00 -0400

This episode is the first of a three-part series discussing the idea of doing the best you can when working to achieve your goals. Specifically, we talk about the dynamics of growth and how taking an occasional look back at your former self is key to change.

What does your work ethic look like? Do you realize that you can always do more than what you’re doing now? The true attitude of excellence is to understand that—despite claiming you’re doing the best you can in the moment—you’re always trying to do better and can look back at the former version of your behavior in healthy embarrassment over what you once were.

082 CLEAR Your Way to Productive Remorse - Part Three - The Anatomy of Apologies

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:00:00 -0400

We’ve already covered non-apologies and the emotional role of shame in the process. Now, we discuss the anatomy of apologies—specifically, the dynamics of a good apology.

This doesn’t include just apologies to others. We also discuss a personal lack of ownership for our own effort and the importance of taking responsibility for our actions when holding ourselves accountable.

The episode is the final one of a three-part series.

081 CLEAR Your Way to Productive Remorse - Part Two - CLEARing the Way

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 11:00:00 -0400

As we already know, people are terrible at apologies. Why? Remorse is a strong emotion. The key to a heartfelt apology is to work past the discomfort and remorsefully admit guilt while accepting the consequences. How do you get there? That’s where the CLEAR process becomes important. This is the second episode in a three-part series on how to apologize.

080 CLEAR Your Way to Productive Remorse - Part One - The Anatomy of Non-Apologies

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

We don’t learn about the art of apologizing as children in school. In fact, the process still evades most grown adults—maybe even including your employees, business associates, or significant other, too. Here, we discuss specific examples of non-apologies in the media and across the political spectrum. This is the first episode in a three-part series.

079 Organizational Enlightenment - Part Two - The ‘To Be Filed’ Pile

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

This is the final episode in a two-part series on the power of organization and the epidemic of chronic overwhelm. We cover how getting organized might truly be the game changer you’re looking for; it doesn’t matter if you want to be more creative, intelligent, or attentive. Organization works to clear the space and make you more open to other things in your life.

078 Organizational Enlightenment - Part One - The Ins and Outs of Organization

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

This episode starts a two-part series on the power of organization and the epidemic of chronic overwhelm. We also discuss the being and doing aspects of being organized, it’s critical to work on both.

As you listen, remember that getting organized is a means to an end. There’s a ton of great reasons to clear off your desk or empty your inbox, but the most important one people rarely get. There’s far more to it than just moving stuff around.

077 The Necessity of Exposure - Part Four - The Force of Shame

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

This episode concludes a four-part series on the necessity of exposure and the factor of shame on the journey of change. It is a fascinating look at the emotional root issue of seemingly complex world problems, the power of exposure, and how understanding shame makes everything both simple and solvable.

We also talk about the endless supply of bad apologies in the media today, the metaphysics of Star Wars, the BP Oil Disaster, and disgraced evangelical leaders. Shame and how it prevents real responsibility is everywhere.

076 The Necessity of Exposure - Part Three - Remorse 101

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

How do you react when an employee does something wrong? The job of a skilled manager is to help others express remorse and encourage positive change—but there’s a fine line between ensuring someone feels appropriately bad and justifying abuse or harassment.

In this episode we discuss the power of using emotional discomfort as a positive tool for personal and professional growth. It is a hot topic that you won’t want to miss!

075 The Necessity of Exposure - Part Two - Belief vs. Experience

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Beliefs are quite problematic in our world. Think about how many arguments, misunderstandings, and even wars start because of them. It’s often cited that more people have been killed in the name of God than anything else, but more specifically, it’s people’s belief in God that they kill for. Why? Direct experience doesn’t happen in the mind, any more than your picture of the beach is your vacation. The mind is powerful, and can be powerfully flawed. Our perception is easily distorted by what we think we know but haven’t actually experienced; in other words, what we believe.

074 The Necessity of Exposure - Part One - The Root of All Incompetence

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Have you ever found yourself caught in a lie or made an excuse for dropping the ball? Or have you ever been in a position of leadership and confronted your employees for doing these things? The distinction between doing a bad thing and being a bad person is large, but being able to admit that you did wrong is an important part of being a mature, responsible human being. This podcast episode is the first in a new series returning to the topic of shame. It is a great conversation that really shows how we relate to each other and ourselves when something has gone wrong in nearly every relationship in our lives including those outside the workplace.

073 The Tragic History of Work - Part Two - The Antidote of Self

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 11:00:00 -0400

I’ll let you in on a little secret—nobody has to work. But, most of us if not all of us have an inner critic or the voice of our manager or supervisor in our head telling us we have to do the job that we do. How do you work through this and relate to your job as fully your choice? How do you get over thousands of years of conditioning in thinking self-interest is a negative thing? This is the second episode in a two-part series.

072 The Tragic History of Work - Part One - A History Lesson

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Is hard work really a virtue? When did humans start believing this and why? This episode is the first part of a two-part series on the history of work and the events throughout time that led us to where we are now. We also discuss the etymology of the word work and tie in things like the pyramids, religion, slavery, and even the Romans and Greeks for good measure.

071 Remorse - Your Ally in Personal Accountability - Part Four - Using and Embracing Remorse

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

How do you start the practice of using what we’ve discussed in your conversations and relationships? The answer to getting the other person to hear you is really rooted in your delivery and your knowledge of your communication strengths.

This episode is the final installment of a four-part series and is another lesson in how discomfort—be it a deep shame, heavy remorse, or just light guilt—plays a huge role in creating change.

070 Remorse - Your Ally in Personal Accountability - Part Three - Using Remorse in Accountability

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

No matter where you stand on politics, it is important to understand how our current leadership offers many teachable moments about what lack of personal accountability in a person of power looks like.

This episode is the third in a four-part series about the link between remorse and personal accountability. We tackle the presidential office, the importance of squats, and how that all ties into the emotional landscape of feeling bad for something that happened—a mishmash of topics that have a surprising link.

069 Remorse - Your Ally in Personal Accountability - Part Two - Shame vs Guilt

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

You’re only as good as your last choice, but that isn’t where the connection ends. There’s a huge distinction between being a so-called bad person and simply doing a bad thing. What managers and business owners need to know is how to understand this and be a responsible authority figure by implementing enforced regret appropriately.

This episode is the second in a four-part series about the link between remorse and personal accountability. Specifically, we will discuss the difference between shame versus guilt. It is a must-listen recording for anyone who is a manager, friend, spouse, parent, or just simply a human being that relates to others. You won’t want to miss it.

068 Remorse - Your Ally in Personal Accountability - Part One - Being Responsible

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Being responsible means proactively looking at how you are being irresponsible. Remorse is the discomfort and regret you feel, which is crucial because produces learning. This episode kicks off a four-part series about the link between remorse and personal accountability. Plus, I’ll explain how you can utilize this as a management tool that helps your employees see what they’ve done wrong through and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

067 Procrastination and the Code – Part Four – Using the Code

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

How do you start implementing the Clear and Open code in your business and your life? In this final episode of a four-part series, we hear examples of how the Clear and Open Code can be applied in both a workplace setting or management situation and your personal relationships.

066 Procrastination and the Code – Part Three – Communication

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 17:00:00 -0400

Do you consistently find yourself delaying replies to emails or texts? Are you putting off talking to employees or clients because you either don’t have an answer to their question or are avoiding the discomfort of the conversation?

In this third installment from a four-part series on procrastination, we talk about communication and how it relates to integrity. After listening to this, you won’t look at customer service or the expectations you have for employees and business colleagues the same.

065 Procrastination and the Code – Part Two – Integrity

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

Are you sick and tired of having to remind your team to get something done on time? In this second installment of the series, we take a look at how being a consistent procrastinator goes against the basis of integrity. We also delve into what you need to know as a supervisor to ensure your employees hold up their end of the deal by doing what they say they are going to when they say they will do it.

064 Procrastination and the Code – Part One – Procrastination and Fear

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 11:00:00 -0400

What are you procrastinating? In this first episode of a four-part series, we will discuss the two elements of procrastination—fear and control—and how they come together to form this mess so many people suffer from. Plus, we’ll look at how to undo or unlearn this behavior. It’s a good listen for just about anyone, both managers and employees alike.

063 What is Maturity? – Part Three – Offense as a Defense

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

What does this mean and how does it relate to immaturity? Well, in the podcast we discuss how being offended is generally related to your own personal embarrassment or shame. It is a protection mechanism that many people rely upon and one that comes up in just about every type of situation in life, not only in business. This is yet another truth bomb session from this must-listen series.

062 What is Maturity? – Part Two – How Are You Immature?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

This is the second part of a three-part series on maturity. In this episode, we take a look at happiness and the lies we tell ourselves to protect our need to be comfortable. Then we dig deeper to discover different ways in which we are all immature and what you can do change it. This is a must-listen episode full of tons of information, truth bombs, and discomfort. You’ll definitely want to listen in.

061 What is Maturity? – Part One – Defining Maturity

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

This is the start of a three part series on maturity—or, in some cases, the lack thereof. Just like the words integrity and responsibility, the term maturity is thrown around quite a bit. Over the next few episodes, we are going to look deeper and discover that the whole concept is about a willingness and ability to live in reality and accept the consequences that happen when you don’t. Keep listening to learn more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like
this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

060 Trying vs. Doing pt 4 – Trying or Not Caring

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

This is the finale of the Trying vs. Doing series and we’re going to get real. If you’re trying at something and failing, getting real means honestly considering that maybe you just don’t care. Many people waste a ton of time and energy pretending that they care about something. Often we unconsciously deceive ourselves and others with “good intentions” that won’t ever pan out because fundamentally we don’t care. What happens when you embrace that? What happens if you get curious about exploring what you really care about? Keep listening to find out.

Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like
this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

059 Trying vs. Doing pt 3 – Busyness or Overwhelm

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

This episode is part three of the spontaneous discussion that erupted when a handful of my members showed up late to a webcast and I decided to make a teaching out of it. Timeliness is usually about everything except timeliness. It’s about all the choices you made up to the point where you’re suddenly running late. People who are willing to examine those choices that get to excellence. Are you one of those people? Do you want to be? Keep listening?

058 Trying vs. Doing pt 2 – Less Bad or Good

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

The episode continues using the tardiness of my leader group as a way to explore the paradigmatic difference between trying and doing. Most people “try” and create “less bad” results. If you want great results, trying doesn’t cut it. It’s not semantics, it’s about attitude. Are you ready to get yours adjusted?

Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like
this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

057 Trying vs. Doing pt 1 – In Time or On Time?

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

Want to hear me hold my leader group accountable for showing up late and make them squirm? Here’s your chance! Oh, and you can learn something critical about how to change anything as well. As Yoda said, “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” He was right and people love to quote him. Want to actually learn to embody that jedi wisdom? Or do you just want to watch movies about other people doing it?

Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like
this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

056 Managing to Self-Interest - Part Three - Your Workplace is Your Dojo

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 11:00:00 -0400

Let’s face it, most people spend most of their time at work. And this includes both managers and employees. When you experience the paradigm shift that the things you do throughout your day are designed to help you improve, you realize that getting up and going to the office isn’t just about collecting a paycheck. It’s really allowing you to go to a place where every day you get to work on becoming a better version of yourself—your own personal dojo.

Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like
this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

055 Managing to Self-Interest - Part Two - Finding Meaning in Work

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

Who are you wanting to become as a person and how are you using your job to become that? In this episode, we are going to explore how you relate to your job and why this matters in terms of healthy self-interest. We are also going to take this thought process one step further by exploring why meaning trumps money for your younger employees and what you can do to help them become fully engaged in what they do for your business. This is the second episode in our thought-provoking series on managing to self-interest and you won’t want to miss it!

Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. Members get a ton of different ways to become better professionals, including attendance to the live courses I teach. Beginning January 11, 2018, I’ll begin teaching an eleven week course called How to Manage and Be Managed: The Missing Manual.

Management is like parenting: many people do it and they mostly have no idea what they’re doing, but they somehow make it work. The result? Stress, wheel-spinning, overwhelm, and millions of dollars in lost opportunity.

This course is the missing manual–what we all should have been taught in high school. Forget everything you’ve learned about management. You don’t have to “motivate” your employees. You don’t need to “empower” them. And you definitely shouldn’t be “supervising” them.

The course trains you in the basics of the Clear and Open Model for management. Increase engagement and productivity, eliminate supervision and wasted resources. It’s a counter-intuitive approach I’ve been training leaders in one-on-one for over fifteen years, offered now for the first time as an affordable course. While the course is about training management skill, it’s also perfect for non-managers because it gives employees what they need to understand what a manager is doing with them and why it’s in their best interest to help.

For more information about the course, please go to clearandopen.com/how-to-manage.

054 Managing to Self-Interest - Part One - Does Selflessness Exist?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

Contrary to popular belief, the younger generation of employees isn’t necessarily worse or as different as you might think they are. Instead, they an enviable sense of self-interest. In this episode, we will discuss why there’s no such thing as a selfless act and the distinctions between serving needs in a healthy way and greed. This is a game-changing way of looking at the world that will affect not only your management style, but your perception of every charitable act you’ve ever seen.

Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

053 The Moments of Excellence pt4 - Excellence Isn’t Yours

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

One of the reasons excellence is so rare and elusive in our world is because it’s so deeply misunderstood. Consider that you don’t create excellence any more than you grow a plant. If that were so, then where is your power and influence over excellence? What orientation toward excellence is best to precipitate it?

I’m very excited to announce the release of my ebook, “Cut the Bullshit: Solve Your Problems By Getting Real.” It’s full of direct, practical advice related to getting employees engaged, hiring right the first time, how to create a culture of radical responsibility, and a lot more. For a limited time, I’m giving this ebook away for nothing. So if you have some spare nothing, go to clearandopen.com/ctb to download it. That’s CTB standing for Cut the Bullshit, a free ebook to reward and support my loyal listeners.

052 The Moments of Excellence pt3 - Accountability and Sacrifice

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

This is part three of our four part series taken from a member webcast where I was teaching the live version of the Open to Excellence course. Production is currently underway to turn this into an online course in near future.

What does sacrifice mean to you? Are you sacrificing something to get something else? Is that really a sacrifice, or a means to an end? And what about accountability? Do you relate to it as a tool or a burden? What if you had to change your relationship to sacrifice and accountability to achieve excellence?

051 The Moments of Excellence pt2 - Defining the Moment

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

What is excellence, anyway? We have beliefs and ideas about it, but are they true? Are they productive? We all want the rewards of excellence, but what about the willingness to do the work? What if your picture of what excellence looks and feels like is actually in your way of embodying it?

This episode is from a member webcast where I was teaching the live version of the Open to Excellence course. Production is currently underway to turn this into an online course, so stay tuned about that.

050 The Moments of Excellence pt1 - Where Do We Learn Responsibility?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

Your conditioning about responsibility is inextricably intertwined with your ability to be excellent, because it’s in the critical moments where radical responsibility is called for, that we either rise to excellence or not. How do you muster the strength you need in those moments?

049 Hidden Root of Incompetence pt4 - Turning Towards Your Weakness

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

In this episode, I tell the story of the most embarrassing moment of my teenage years and how I survived to learn from the experience. And if that isn’t reason enough to listen, we explore the power of turning toward discomfort and being strong enough to undergo and overcome shame. What if the feeling of shame was actually a reason to engage in something, not avoid it? What if subjecting yourself to embarrassment, when there’s a good reason for it, is actually a powerful way to learn?

048 Hidden Root of Incompetence pt3 - No Pain No Gain

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0400

Talking about one’s weaknesses is uncomfortable, right? But why? Is it inherently uncomfortable? What if that’s a belief that could change? What if we’re actually making it difficult in a way it doesn’t have to be? What would your life look like then? What would be possible that isn’t now?

047 Hidden Root of Incompetence pt2 - Willingness to Accept Change

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Change sometimes is hard. Maybe you’ve noticed. What if how you relate to shame is part of what makes it difficult? You can’t turn toward a weakness and address it if you can’t bear the shame that comes up when you try. But shame is a deeply personal issue, maybe the deepest. So how can it be responsibly and appropriately addressed in a workplace? Keep listening to find out more. Today’s podcast is part two of this four part series on the critical subject of shame in the workplace.

046 - Hidden Root of Incompetence pt1 - The Effects of Shame

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

What is the most upstream root of all forms of incompetence? If you’re into excellence, and especially if you manage people, this may be the most important question of your life. The answer is what silently and secretly runs most people’s lives until they realize it, and it’s probably running your life too, cutting you off at the knees whenever you get close to deep fulfillment. What on earth am I talking about?

This episode is the first of four parts from a recent weekly member webcast.

045 Departing From Reality pt4 - Why You Should Love Being Wrong

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Most people spend an inordinate amount of energy avoiding being wrong. Lying, arguing, excuse-making, etc. The irony is that being wrong is one of the best things that can happen to you, because it’s the moment you learn something totally new. What if after listening to this podcast, you could celebrate every time you discover you’re wrong? It takes some practice, but it could change your life, and put you on the fast track to growth. Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

044 Departing From Reality pt3 - Why is Accountability So Uncomfortable?

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

The most common root business problem is missing accountability. There is no single more misunderstood and underused tool in small and medium sized businesses than accountability. And in large businesses, it’s used in ways that generally ignore the self-interest of the individual, rendering it impotent. In short, accountability is always part of the answer to any problem, because it’s about facing reality. And that’s precisely why we avoid it like the plague. It puts us humans in quite a pickle: the problem is in reality, and so is the solution–but the pain is also in reality and we don’t want to face that. How do you resolve your inner conflict so you can face the pain productively and get the solutions you need? Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

043 Departing From Reality pt2 - Stress as an Illusion

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode continues our four-part series on departing from reality with part two. Here we address something you might be a little familiar with: stress. What if stress were an illusion and an entirely optional experience? The idea should excite you, because it means you could be liberated from stress forever. How could that be? Listen to find out more.

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

042 Departing From Reality pt1 - A Denial of Reality

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode begins a four-part series about our relationship to reality. It’s easy to see that we humans have a push-pull relationship with reality. In each of us is a deep desire to know the truth, and in many moments we run from it. Your life, your work, and ideally your dreams happen in reality. What if being able to track when and how you depart from reality was key to your fulfillment?

This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

041 Listening To Life’s Lessons

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Businesses grow when people do. And one of the most important predictors of your ability to grow as a person is your relationship to pain. What is your relationship to pain? Do you have the strength to embrace it? To investigate it? What if your ability to learn from life’s lessons is entirely dependent on your relationship with pain?

040 Principles of Right Speech pt2 - Timing and Reception

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Think your people don’t listen to you? Think again. There’s no power in whining about people not listening. There is power in working to improve your communication so that people are more likely to hear you. This is the second and final part on the Buddha’s four principles of right speech, and it is universal to serve anyone, but especially managers.

039 Principles of Right Speech pt1 - Truth and Usefulness

Clear & Open — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Leaders and managers I talk to constantly complain their people don’t listen to them. But paradoxically often the case is they’re listening quite carefully, and it’s the manager who’s not communicating well. Your people hang on your every word, whether you realize it or not, so choosing those words carefully is critical. What if you have more power than you realize to get your people to listen? Making speech a mindfulness practice is the path to discovering this. This is part one of a two part series on the principles of right speech.

038 Being Bigger Than Your Shadow Pt. 4 - Receiving vs. Believing Feedback

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is the fourth and final part of our series on being bigger than your shadow. You’ve probably had the experience that someone knew you better than you knew yourself, yet taking in feedback from others can be difficult, especially when it doesn’t fit with your self-image or your conscious intentions. How do you take advantage of the wisdom that others can offer you without selling out on your own truth? Listen to find out more.

037 Being Bigger Than Your Shadow Part 3 - Beyond Struggle and Frustration

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part three in the being bigger than your shadow series. We don’t like struggling and being frustrated, so why is there so much of it? What if your shadow is not only okay with struggle, but actually seeks to maintain it? Why would that be and what can you do about it? Not only your problems, but the quality of your entire life may hang in the balance.

036 Being Bigger Than Your Shadow Pt. 2 - Showing Your Shadow Who’s Boss

Mon, 25 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two in our series on how to be bigger than your shadow. Many people hear the unproductive beliefs in their head throughout the day and think they’re taking the high road by just looking the other way. But you notice the thoughts and sometimes behaviors don’t go away just by you ignoring them. How do you show your shadow who’s boss in a way that creates real change?

035 Being Bigger Than Your Shadow Pt. 1 - The Beliefs of Your Shadow

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Shadow is a term used to encapsulate our unconscious motives and hidden agendas. Everyone has a shadow, and it’s usually the root of all your problems, because it maintains, even creates your problems in ways that are completely off your radar.

This episode begins a four part series on how to be bigger than your shadow, the basis of creating any kind of change. All of western philosophy is founded on the ancient idea, “Know thyself.” But how do you know the corners of your unconscious that get you into trouble so often, and what do you do when you find something?

034 How To Help People Be Helpable

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is short, sweet and gives you some very simple ways to help anyone more effectively. Have you ever had the experience that someone asks you for help and then they don’t use what you give them? Get ready to never have that experience again, because you’re going to discover what you’re doing to support that behavior, and what to do instead.

For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

033 Leadership vs. Supervision

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

People have hated managers for as long as work has existed. But what if the issue is not inherent in the manager role, but rather the way billions of people for thousands of years have related to it? In this episode, you’re going to learn the single most important thing for any manager to learn: the difference between management and supervision. And the result, determines whether your people hate you or love you. Keep Listening. This concept is part of the core of Clear and Open’s teachings, and I’m very excited to offer it to you.

032 Excellence Part 4: Turn Towards the Darkness

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part four of the series of excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. Emotions are some of the most powerful influences of our lives. Love, joy, passion. But what about the ones we don’t like feeling? Depression, anxiety, fear, etc.? What if all your conditioning has been about pushing those feelings away and the result is that it only holds them in place. What if turning toward those challenging emotions were the secret to moving through them?

For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

031 Excellence Part 3: Responsibility

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part three of the series of excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. If you look at any persistent problem carefully enough, you will find a lack of responsibility, yet honest, curious conversations about responsibility and the lack thereof are few and far between. We live in a world of excuses and deflections. If you’re looking to make a change in your world, or manage someone who is, you need to understand irresponsibility inside and out: how to spot it, how to name it, where it comes from, and what you can do about it. That’s what this episode is about.

For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

030 Excellence Part 2: Being At Choice With Yourself

Mon, 04 Sep 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part two of the series of excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. What if the majority of your suffering came from where you don’t realize you have choices? Responsibility means owning your choices, but it also means looking for where you are pretending you don’t have choices. You’ll discover some choices you didn’t even know you had.

Speaking of courses, I’m very excited to announce that the next live course, entitled CLEAR the Issue, begins on September 7th. I’m going to teach you how to solve any problem–no joke. Think it’s impossible? I’ll prove it to you in eleven weeks. For more information, please go to clearandopen.com/clear-the-issue. The course is free to current members, so if you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, now is a great time to jump in. The live course starts soon, and I really don’t want you to miss out.

029 Excellence Part 1: Shifting Between Mindsets

Thu, 31 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

People talk a lot about shifting mindsets, but is it possible to change your mindset too often, or in ways that get in your way? In our technologically enabled busy world, most people find themselves not only doing a lot of different things, but doing things that require different mindsets. In this episode, you’ll learn about one of the common and invisible causes of chronic overwhelm and what you can do to eliminate it.

This episode begins a four part series that are excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. In the beginning of the conversation there are references something called “ABE lists.” That’s a list of Attitudes, Behaviors, and Energies. It’s a tool that was part of the course. The process of turning the recordings into an online course is underway, so stay tuned to hear more about that release in late 2017.

Speaking of courses, I’m very excited to announce that the next live course, entitled CLEAR the Issue, begins on September 7th, 2017. I’m going to teach you how to solve any problem–no joke. Think it’s impossible? I’ll prove it to you in eleven weeks. For more information, please go to clearandopen.com/clear-the-issue. The course is free to current members, so if you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, now is a great time to get started.

028 The Essence of Meditation Part 4: Attempting to Define Meditation

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Whatever your challenges, awareness is usually what you need to surmount them. And meditation is one of the primary tools to develop that awareness. However, meditation is widely misunderstood, sometimes even tragically misused. This episode concludes our series on meditation with part four, giving you some concrete tools to make meditation work for you. As you’ve learned so far, real meditation isn’t necessarily about enjoying your experience. You can make it feel good, but it doesn’t necessarily expand your awareness much. No pain no gain, right?

This series is from a recent webcast that happens each week for members. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

027 The Essence of Meditation Part 3: Surrendering to Reality

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Whatever your challenges, awareness is usually what you need to surmount them. And meditation is one of the primary tools to develop awareness. However, meditation is widely misunderstood and often tragically misused. This episode continues our series on meditation with part three. We return to the question of “What is meditation?” from the perspective of awareness as subtractive in nature. This frames meditation as a challenge you’ll be able to face head-on, and get the most out of your efforts, by paradoxically being willing to get nothing at all.

026 The Essence of Meditation Part 2: Accepting the Subtraction

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Whatever your challenges, awareness is usually what you need to surmount them. And meditation is one of the primary tools to develop awareness. However, meditation is widely misunderstood and sometimes tragically misused. This episode is part two of the series on meditation. In the last episode we showed how subtraction is the governing dynamic of awareness. What are the implications of this? What can we do with the discomfort related to practicing skills and the losses related to awareness. Today we go on to examine the implication of how hooked we all are on the more comfortable knowledge and skill acquisition, and how we avoid awareness. The result is that, in the name of comfort, we self-sabotage in the most profound and fundamental way possible.

025 The Essence of Meditation Part 1: Awareness is Subtractive

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Meditation becomes increasingly popular in the western world, but it’s largely completely misunderstood. The tragedy is that the widespread misconception of meditation creates stagnation and missed opportunities in people that can span an entire lifetime. It’s not about relaxing, it’s not about clearing your mind, and it’s not about controlling your thoughts. Even if you’ve been meditating your entire life, you may have been going in circles without this key distinction, that has to do with the nature of awareness itself. And if you’re just getting started with meditation, then you definitely don’t want to miss this series.

024 Facts and Caretaking in Business Part 2: Challenging Your Boss is Professional Confidence

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Managers often complain they want their people to step up, or be more engaged, or take more risks. In this episode, you’ll learn one simple question you can use to make that happen. You’ll be surprised to find out it’s more about undoing something than doing something. What if your people know more than they let on, and are just afraid to share what they really think? How do you change that?

023 Facts and Caretaking in Business: Are You Caretaking Your Coworkers?

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

One of the most common and unseen excuses in our world is caretaking. Caretaking comes from a caring place, but lets someone off the hook or otherwise serves an other in a way that hurts everyone involved. Caretaking is fundamentally about the caretaker, who is avoiding confrontation, wanting to be liked, or has some other understandable self-interest that they hide by making it about the other person. How does this affect a workplace and what do you do about it?

022 Cowardice Part 4: Objective Standards

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

We live in a world where the existence of “alternative facts” is now accepted by many. How do you manage someone when they’re seeing a situation so differently, that you just can’t see eye to eye? It’s related to a philosophical question humans have struggled with since our civilization began, but fortunately there’s a simple way through it.

021 Cowardice Part 3: Pushing Through Discomfort

Thu, 03 Aug 2017 10:00:00 -0400

How does a manager insist on accountability and results, and still give someone the emotional support and room to process a change for themselves? In other words, how do you balance supporting someone to explore their own limitations while making sure the customer gets what they bought? It’s a tricky balance, but it can be done. Most managers err on the side of either caretaking, allowing for employees to not reach their potential, or become task masters who lack curiosity about the internal worlds of their people.

020 Cowardice Part 2: Management vs. Supervision

Mon, 31 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Do your government given rights related to freedom apply in the workplace? Tricky one, right? How far can an employer go in pushing someone into discomfort? What responsibility does a manager have to make an employee’s work experience comfortable? How should one think about this?

019 Cowardice Part 1: Using Emotion as an Excuse

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

What place is there for compassion in the workplace? How do you balance your sense of humanity and care, and the need for results when money is on the line? We’ve come a long way since the 1950s bringing emotional intelligence into the work environment, but in what ways has it gone too far, and what’s a manager to do about it?

018 Moving to a ‘Thrival State’ Part 3: Communication and Accountability

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

What’s your communication turnaround standard? Do you have one? Does your department or company have one? Part of integrity and thrival is getting back to people in a timely fashion, and organizing your life so you can do so easily. How do you make sure integrity expresses in all of your communication?

017 Moving to a ‘Thrival State’ Part 2: Integrity

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

We all know that integrity is important, but what is it, exactly? You may be surprised to discover that you don’t have the integrity you tell yourself you do, and therein lies the opportunity. The most basic expression of integrity is keeping your word, and most people don’t do it nearly as often as they think. The result? Broken agreements are bad business. They hurt you and those around you in ways you may not have appreciated until now.

016 Moving to a ‘Thrival State’ Pt1: The Context of Agreements and Self-Image

Mon, 17 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

What is the essence of business? Understanding that business is fundamentally made up of agreements is critical to success in anything. Most business problems can be reduced to where agreements were unclear and/or broken; therefore, the clarification of agreements and the rigorous pursuit of keeping them is the simplest way to greatness. Simple is not, however, necessarily easy. But when you understand just how important it is, it gets easier.

For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

015 Responsibility Paradox & Accountability

Josef Shapiro — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

How well do you know yourself? Is it possible to know yourself too well? And do you identify yourself as being a responsible person? What if the idea that you’re a responsible person is actually in your way? Most people problems inevitably come down to responsibility, and most responsibility problems come down to the illusions we tell ourselves. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

014 Illusion of Frustration Pt. 4: Who Am I If I’m Not Frustrated?

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This is the finale of our Illusion of Frustration series, excerpts from a particularly powerful Clear and Open Leader’s webcast. We’re all over-identified with one thing or another, and in this segment we look at how one can be over-identified with frustration. What if frustration was filling a hole inside you? What if you would become someone quite different if you let go of frustration? Are you willing to find out? This series is from a recent leaders webcast that happens each week for members. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

013 Illusion of Frustration Pt. 3: Changing Your Perspective On Problems

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part three of our Illusion of Frustration series. In this episode, we reveal the meta-false-assumption that underlies frustration–a lens you look through all the time without realizing it. The bad news it’s causing a huge portion of your suffering. The good news is that it’s a simple shift. This series is from a recent leaders webcast that happens each week for members. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

012 Illusion of Frustration Pt. 2: Relating To Frustration

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode continues our exploration into frustration. So if you accept that the arbitrary expression of frustration at work is not good, what do you do when it comes up in you? How do you manage the frustration inside you and do the right thing to help yourself and those around you? What’s the difference between having frustration and becoming it? That’s what we explore in this segment. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

011 Illusion of Frustration Pt. 1: When Should A Manager Express Frustration?

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode begins a four-part series on the subject of frustration. Many would say we live in a frustrating world, but is the frustration really in the world, your work, or in your employees? What if letting yourself express that frustration is mostly making things much worse? Join these segments from a recent leader webcast and unpack frustration with us. Believe it or not, this is a path to an entirely different relationship to reality, as well as a way of helping your business grow. For more information about all the benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

010 Heart-Centering Part 5: Writing Your Own Eulogy

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part five of the series on heart-centering and is an assignment from the Open To Excellence course available to Clear and Open Members. To find out how to join the conversation and become a member, go to clearandopen.com. This is a short, but powerful piece on how to write your own eulogy. I know of no other exercise that goes right the core of what matters to you, and forms a powerful foundation for goal-setting, planning, or any kind of pursuit. The more difficult the path ahead of you, the more important you know why you’re doing it.

009 Heart-Centering Part 4: Knowing vs. Becoming Who You Are

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode is part four of the series on heart-centering. This series is made up of excerpts from the Open To Excellence course available to Clear and Open Members. To find out how to join the conversation and become a member, go to clearandopen.com. What if being too sure about who you are is exactly what’s in your way? If it’s the design of Life that you must evolve to have your dreams come true, then being too sure of who you are could be your obstacle. How do you hold that loosely? How can you use not-knowing to get where you want to go, or find out where you want to go?

008 Heart-Centering Part 3: The Guilt of Success

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

This episode continues the heart-centering theme of the last two episodes and deconstructs guilt, a pervasive theme in our society often not seen for what it is. This is another excerpt from the Live, Open To Excellence Course currently in progress. Many people use guilt as a kind of fuel-source without realizing it. It’s sort of like running your car on a mix of gas and oil. It’ll work, but it’s limited and can have some serious side-effects. Discover how guilt and unhealthy caretaking may be unconsciously holding you back, and a deeper place to fuel your excellence from. To find out how to join the conversation and become a member, go to clearandopen.com. Thanks for listening!

007 Heart-Centering Part 2: Listening To Your Heart-Centered Goals

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Today’s episode continues the conversation from episode six. There’s plenty of information and teaching out there about creating goals and that’s useful. What tends to get left behind, though, is the heart-centered dreams that were always there. They don’t need to be created so much as uncovered. If the Clear part of goals is creating your plans, this episode is about the Open part we usually leave behind--expressing the desires and compulsions that have always been in your heart. It’s a journey deeper into yourself so you can find your path through the world. Here we go.

006 Heart-Centering Part 1: Freedom To vs. Freedom From

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Everybody knows they “should” have goals, but few know how to do it well, so most avoid it. What’s the difference between pursuing the absence of a negative and pursuing the presence of a positive? The distinction has the power to change your life. What if you’re so concerned with pushing away bad, that you’re not focused on the good? Many people live their entire lives needlessly stuck in this kind of survival mentality. Let’s dive into the conversation.

005 Meditation The Wrong Way

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Meditation becomes more popular every day in the western world, even in business settings. But like so many spiritual teachings that become popular, there’s a dramatic misunderstanding that can severely limit the practice. Sadly, many meditators can waste years not knowing this simple, but commonly unappreciated principle that will change your meditation practice forever.

004 How Your Mind Fills In The Blank

Mon, 29 May 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Ever wonder why your mind is a constant stream of mostly unnecessary, and often troubling thought? Understanding how and why your mind fills in the blank is part of the path of perceiving reality more accurately, and when you’re seeing things more clearly, you make better decisions, and enjoy your life a whole lot more. Leaders and managers in particular can’t afford to be distorting reality–there’s too much riding on your ability to see clearly. Are you ready to learn what to do about it?

003 Deconstructing Trust

Mon, 22 May 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Is being a trusting person a good thing? Or does someone have to earn your trust? Managers who give trust when it’s not earned get everyone into trouble. Know the difference between belief, trust, and experience. A good manager operates in reality, and is constantly checking themselves and others against it. This episode, an excerpt from a recent leader webcast continues the conversation from the last two episodes.

002 Listening From Your Highest Attention

Mon, 15 May 2017 10:00:00 -0400

What if ten times more information were available to you than you realized in any moment? How can a manager hear between the lines of what people say to extrapolate how they’re operating? It’s a skill that takes time to learn, and it starts with some basic principles that you can implement right away. Today another segment from a recent leader webcast, where we discuss some of the principles of extreme listening and how you can use it to gain X-Ray vision.

Why You Shouldn't Believe In Your People (MTE01)

Josef Shapiro — Mon, 08 May 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Should you “believe” in your people? Does seeing the best in people make you a good manager? What about seeing the reality? What about also seeing the worst? Join us for some live coaching already in progress for the deconstruction of belief and learn how believing in people gets you into trouble.

Learn more at: ClearAndOpen.com