The Kevin Miller Podcast

#959: In this episode, where therapy gives much focus to our past, modern day success coaching is focused primarily just on the future. A great fusion I found is what’s termed as “positive psychology.” As my guest, Niyc Pidgeon says, positive psychology looks at what is going right in our world, instead of what’s going wrong, but it also gives great gravity to our emotions and past traumas. The key however is harnessing it for our benefit instead of allowing it to diminish us. Niyc Pidgeon is an author, award winning positive psychologist, high performance coach, and investor and as you’ll experience in our following conversation, she’s an insightful and vivacious thought-leader who has had a profound impact on some big influencers, including Elon Musk. Niyc’s muse and the focus of her new book, Now Is Your Chance, is what perspectives will enable us to continue instead of quit? How will we better respond if we consider our commitments in regards to what will happen if we don’t do them versus if we do? Her perspective flies in the face of today’s negative media influences that are dragging much of the culture down and she gives us a breath of fresh air regarding how to turn our challenges into opportunities. You can connect with Niyc and get her book for free, at https://www.nowisyourchancebook.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#958: Mental health is a top trending issue, so this is what I asked the Ziglar audience, “Mental health problems are spinning out of control, led by anxiety and depression. What do you feel is to blame?” We got well over 100, in depth responses, and it’s of interest that this comes from an audience that is less likely to blame and more likely to take responsibility. Yet there is emotion behind the answers. My interest however was not a mere survey, but to assess how we see the culture regarding mental health, and how our perception is affecting us. I can summarize the results into two categories, lack of a personal foundation, and too much exposure to negativity. Before you brush it off thinking your foundation is 100% and your exposure is moderate or benign…I challenge you. As in talking here with Tom Ziglar and later with my Driven To Live members, I’m convinced I am no unscatched here. I feel this episode will inform you to help yourself and gain some quality insight to help others with… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#957: We’re back with Ron Friedman, renowned psychologist and author of Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success, where he takes aim at the concept greatness is made up only of talent and/or hard work, catch us discussing it in episode 955 of The Ziglar Show. Today we walk through his habits for success, which as you heard in the intro, showcase how he personally decodes his life and gets different perspectives on even this, his habits. It’s an interesting discussion to hear what perspective drove him to work for himself, as he assessed the risk was greater to work for someone else. We’ll be talking about this further over to kevinmiller.co in my Driven To Live Community. Go from listening to this podcast episode to discussing and implementing the principles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#956: What goals are we actually excited about? It’s the start of a new year and most aspiring people are taking time to think about goals for the new year. In this episode I wanted to address the emotions behind them, as this speaks to our motive and whether we’ll likely see the goals through, abandon them, or achieve them with collateral damage. I did a survey showcasing 12 categories of goals, from money to health to experiences and asked what people were actually excited about. I’ll tip you off by sharing the area of life people were most excited about is…experiences. What should that mean to our priorities? Tom Ziglar and I had a discussion on the results and what it means to our overall joy, fulfillment, and success when we are habitually not engaging in what excites us and instead in what does not bring us inspiration. It is not a call out to abandon anything that doesn’t excite you, but rather to consider how we could attach more joy to everything, and increase time spent in our greatest excitements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#955: The two primary ingredients we think of in regards to success, is talent and hard work. Greatness comes from having above average talent and putting in your 10,000 hours. Yet if we audit everyone who has achieved relative success, we find many, maybe even most, who do not have either of these. So what did they do? They just figured out what works and modeled it. Ron Friedman is an award-winning psychologist and from his research in neuroscience, human physiology and behavioral economics wrote a book on what he found in regards to this issue, called Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success. In this show I dig in and question Ron on how we can all use this reality to better embrace and accelerate our opportunities and success. For those who get the book, if you’ll go to decodinggreatnessbook.com and submit your receipt Ron will give you access to “The Reverse Engineering Success Masterclass” course. You can join like minded people in my Driven To Live private community to discuss how to decode your own greatness, come over to kevinmiller.co and go from listening to participating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#954: In our last show of 2021 Tom Ziglar and I take to task, goals. It’s time for New Year’s resolutions and goal setting for all the aspiring people of the world. Truth is, the idea of setting goals is a downer for many. It comes with guilt and doubt, and at the root is…what drives us. Or not. Our motive. My intent is to free you from some goals, and amp your motive for others. Naming a goal you have or a problem you want to solve is a beginning. It’s a map in front of you. But the journey is getting into something that will actually transport you there. This is your motive. Do you really want to achieve the goal? Why? What does arriving at it look like? Is it really that important to you? Conversely, what if you don’t make it? Is that ok? If so, maybe it’s not necessary. Are you driven by desire? Or is the better, more true motive, pain and fear? Some of my goals are driven by what I deem a healthy fear. The point is knowing why you have a goal and what is actually driving you and discerning which goals really matter and which you can be free of. If you want to join like minded people and get feedback and support on working out this topic I invite you to join our community of people devoted to making positive change in their life and work, come over to kevinmiller.co and join my Driven To Live Community. Go from listening to this podcast episode on goals and motives and engage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#953: We’re back with Jonathan Fields, host of the top podcast, the Good Life Project. He has a new work focused profile you can take at sparketype.com, just this morning I asked a couple friends to take it, as I wanted them to know if for themselves, and I was curious where they’d land. I really appreciate the profile, and Jonathan uncovers more about it in his new book, Sparked, which I also recommend. In this episode I walk with Jonathan through his personal habits for success, and as you heard in the intro, Jonathan is a deep and intimate thinker, which is what people love about him. I think you’ll be touched and inspired by what he shares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#952: The sales process is no longer what it used to be. In the past sales people were needed to inform and educate and fully showcase a product or service to people who came in with a desire, but were pretty ignorant. Today nearly all sales happen online with no need for a so-called sales person. With any product or service we can fully research it. Compare it. Get unbiased user reviews. All that’s left is deciding from which person or company we’ll make our purchase from. So how do we all adjust for this new scenario? That’s what Tom Ziglar and I discuss in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#951: There are key, intrinsic activities and aspects of work that truly make you come alive and within which are your greatest opportunities for top level success, and your greatest fulfillment and joy. But we don’t tend to realize what they are. We attribute them to a specific job or business and the roles we had, the product or service we were involved with, the people included. But nearly every job or business ends or significantly changes and we lose it and try to recreate it based on those external ingredients. And often can’t recreate it. Why? Because those are not the right ingredients. To showcase what the right ingredients are, I have Jonathan Fields back on the show. Jonathan was with me years ago and we talked about his book, How To Live A Good Life. He has a really big podcast called the Good Life Project, and now he’s put together a work profile you can take for free at sparketype.com, and he goes deep into what sparks us in our work, in his new book, Sparked. If you want to go beyond merely listening and join our community of people devoted to making positive change in their life and work, come over to kevinmiller.co and join my Driven To Live Community. Go from listening to this podcast episode with Jonathan Sparks and join us to talk and grapple with and apply the concepts to your life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#950: You have problems in your life that need solving. You have goals for your life that require decisions. The greatest minds of all time budgeted specific time in their days to simply…think. To really sit and without input or distraction, think. To use the machine of their brain to crunch the data and consider the options and do what nobody or nothing else could do for them. The great art and ideas we all benefit from and applaud came from someone who took the time to think them up. To fertilize the seeds of their mind, nourish and nurture, and come forth to bear fruit. If we want great solutions and ideas and actions, we must take time to sit and…think. Here is the concern. In his book, 2 Chairs, author Bob Beaudine who I recently had breakfast with, calls us to spend time listening to God. Setting a chair in front of us and trusting God knows what our needs are, then sitting to listen for his direction. What is the primary obstacle here? Trusting you’ll actually hear from God. My concern is when it comes down to it, we doubt that our thinking…our listening to ourselves, will actually result in anything. Instead we clamber to hear from others so they’ll tell us what to do. This isn’t a call for self-sufficiency. Just a budget. We take in input. We take in counsel. And…we think on it all. Deeply and with faith and expectation. Next Tom Ziglar and I have a conversation on this issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices