5 Podcast Episodes for Personal Growth

I love, love, love listening to podcasts. If you have not yet jumped on the podcast bandwagon, you can thank me later.

The great thing about a good podcast is that you can learn something new (or, just be entertained) while doing the most mundane activities of daily life. Long road trips, doing housework, working out, and morning commutes are now welcomed opportunities to dig deeper into my own personal growth and learning.

There are so many great episodes that I would love to share with you but here are 5 that I have carefully selected to inspire a new way of thinking about some of our most common struggles that we all inevitably trip up on in our pursuit of personal growth; relationships, money, meeting our core needs, making mistakes, and challenging self-deception.

PLUS, one bonus episode on the meaning of life and finding our greater purpose.

1.     Good Life Project – Stan Tatkin: Love, Danger, Deviance and Conflict

“You can’t learn outside of a relationship. You have to be in one.”

Dr. Stan Tatkin, developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy®(PACT), and skilled Psychologist discusses his own relationship failures and how he came to understand his attachment patterns and fear responses that contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage.

Through his research on adult relationships and “pair bonding,” and more importantly, his own relationship experiences, Dr. Tatkin made some insightful discoveries about what makes a relationship last.

2.     Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations – Lynne Twist: The Soul of Money

“When you actually pay attention to, nourish, love, and share what you already have, it expands.”

Lynne Twist, author and philanthropist, challenges us to think about the ways we give money power, our relationship to money and the “scarcity myth.” Lynne questions the assumptions that we have about the world and money providing a new perspective that allows us to change our relationship to money and, in turn, our lives.

3.     Tony Robbins – Why We Do What We Do: Tony Explains the 6 Human Needs

“People will give up their goals and dreams to meet their needs.”

Tony Robbins, world-renowned author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach, describes the 6 human needs we all have, providing concrete examples of how these needs drive our behaviour and choices, sometimes in direct contradiction to our values and true desires. Tony argues that understanding the needs that drive our behaviour will allow us to leverage these needs to achieve our greatest potential.

4.     Terrible, Thanks for Asking – 2: I’ve Made A Huge Mistake

“It had never occurred to me that a response would be compassion because I had no framework for compassion for anyone including myself.”

Eva Hagberg, a former New York Times journalist, discusses one of her most shameful mistakes, describing the ways it positively and negatively shaped her view of herself and the following 7 years of her life. Eva tells her story while sharing how she was able to overcome this life-altering mistake.

5.     Where There’s Smoke – Living Our Lies (Truth) w/ Dr. Cortney Warren

“Humans are masters of self-deception. We don’t like to think of ourselves as liars; it hurts us too much to admit. So, we lie to ourselves about that, too. Unless we actively choose honesty."

The author of ‘Lies we tell ourselves: The Psychology of Self-Deception,’ and renowned psychologist, Dr. Cortney Warren, discusses both the benefits and costs of self-deception and the questions we should all be asking ourselves to challenge our own lies and live in our truth.

6.     Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations – Paulo Coelho: What if the Universe Conspired in Your Favour?

“You know when you are betraying your personal legend when you are doing something without enthusiasm.”

From being institutionalized 3 times by his parents for his unconventional thoughts and behaviour to writing an international best-seller, ‘The Alchemist,’ that made the New York Times Bestseller list for more than 400 continuous weeks. Paulo Coelho’s story is both inspirational and a lesson in persistence in pursuit of your life’s purpose and being true to yourself first and foremost.

I hope you enjoy these episodes as much as I did. If you have any favourite episodes of your own, feel free to send them my way.

Happy listening!