#283 Elizabeth Day: Life Lessons on Failure, Shame and Infertility
Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Exploring Failure: Perspectives and Privileges
This chapter explores personal experiences with failure, examining societal expectations and the differing perspectives between men and women. It also highlights how privilege and background influence one's ability to cope with and understand failure.
CAUTION: This episode contains mild swearing and themes of an adult nature.
A few weeks ago, I hosted my first ever Feel Better Live More LIVE show, which took place in a beautiful theatre in London. I’m really excited to share a recording of that conversation with you today.
My guest was the brilliant author, journalist and podcast host, Elizabeth Day. Elizabeth hosts a podcast called ‘How to Fail’ which celebrates the things that haven’t gone right. She has also written two books on the subject of failure and so it seemed fitting to begin our conversation talking about this thought-provoking topic.
Life is full of uncertainty but Elizabeth believes that if anything is certain in life, it is that we will all fail. But what is important, she says, is how we respond to that failure - if we allow it to be, failure can be the key to growth, strength and self-awareness.
We covered so many important topics that I am sure will strike a chord with you. We spoke about the importance of authentic connection and how important being vulnerable and sharing our failures with others is. We also discussed how shame often holds us back from doing this. In fact, Elizabeth shares her own experience of this during the breakdown of her marriage and how she was ashamed of admitting her feelings to others but how when she did, she was astonished by how people around her responded in a positive way.
We also talked about competitiveness and people-pleasing, and Elizabeth very candidly talks about her own journey through IVF and what it taught her.
Elizabeth is a firm believer in the idea that life will generally teach us the lessons that we need to learn and we discuss how this way of thinking can be beneficial when we come across conflict and obstacles in life.
This is a beautiful, deep and honest conversation - I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to Elizabeth and I know that everyone in the audience that evening felt part of something really quite special. I hope you enjoy listening.
Thanks to our sponsors:
http://www.athleticgreens.com/livemore
https://www.vivobarefoot.com/livemore
Order Dr Chatterjee's new book Happy Mind, Happy Life: UK version: https://amzn.to/304opgJ, US & Canada version: https://amzn.to/3DRxjgp
Show notes available at https://drchatterjee.com/283
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