Self-Help Vs. Real-Help: How to Actually Improve Your Life
What does psychology say about the role of information in building wisdom and lasting change in our lives? There is an explosion in self-help content. From gurus on Tik Tok to 85,000 self-help books being published a year. But what actually works? This episode explores the psychology of learning and how to put information into practice: How to identify time-wasting nonsense? 3 steps to build a healthy content diet The best forms of content for retention and lasting changes? Take home strategy to build deeper wisdom You'll come away with an improved growth mindset that doesn't fall for promises of instant results and is ready to put time and effort into cultivating wisdom instead of consuming it. Recommended Books: Slow Productivity - Cal Newport The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg Pachinko - Min Jin Lee Wild Swans - Jung Chang Replay - Ken Grimwood Dalai Lama's Cat - David Michie And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini The Mood Of Future Joys - Alastair Humphreys Siddartha - Herman Hesse Science References: Dr Robert Sternberg - What is Wisdom and How Can We Develop It Dr Patricia Alexander - The Development of Expertise: The Journey from Acclimation to Proficiency Dr Paul Zak - The Neuroscience of Narrative Transportation: Why Inspiring Stories Make Us React Dr Keith Oatley - Fiction: The Narrative Simulation of Social Worlds Dr Richard Nisbett - The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors: 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset 🐏 Unbound Merino - Highest quality Merino wool clothing 10% off with code 'PSYCHOLOGY' UnboundMerino.com Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - Growth Mindset Chapters: 00:00 How to actually help yourself with self-help 01:18 The Paradox of Modern Self-Help 02:36 The Slow Wisdom of Ancient Cultures 03:06 The Harm of Fast Advice & Illusion of Instant Mastery 05:01 Cal Newport's Framework for Personal Development - Three Types of Self-Help Content 06:17 The Candy Bar of Self-Help: Social Media 07:06 The Protein Shake: Longer Form Content 07:50 The Full Meal: Books 10:08 The Power of Narrative Transportation 19:27 The Value of Diverse Perspectives 20:56 Building a House of Personal Growth 22:08 A Balanced Approach to Content Consumption 24:13 The Danger of Overwhelming Amounts Information and Instructions 27:07 Conclusion: Cultivating Wisdom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
17 Dec 202432min
The Psychology of FOMO - Why it's Getting Worse and What To Do About It
Modern technology amplifies our fear and emotions. FOMO is on the rise. Whether you are worried about being invited to a party, checking social media, or finding it harder to make decisions. FOMO is increasingly driving our emotions and actions. It is a deeply natural feeling built into us through hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. But it hasn't kept up with our incredible pace of technological change. Part of the reason we have such a decline in mental health is we can compare ourselves to the perfect lives all around us in the digital world and feel we don't stack up. This episode will help you understand what's really going on: The evolutionary roots of FOMO How our modern world is making us anxious Why ADHD is on the rise Where to take back our focus What to celebrate and look up to. Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors: 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset 🐏 Unbound Merino - Highest quality Merino wool clothing 10% off with code 'PSYCHOLOGY' UnboundMerino.com Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - Grow Chapters: 00:00 Psychology of FOMO 04:03 Evolutionary Roots of FOMO 08:15 Modern Technology and Social Media's Role in FOMO 10:18 Consumer Culture, Crypto and Parasocial Relationships 14:31 Psychological Costs & Impact on Mental Health 15:50 FOMO and Decision Making 17:17 The Rise of ADHD 18:54 Abundance vs. Scarcity Mindset 21:09 The Joy of Missing Out (JOMO) 21:36 Practical Tips to Overcome FOMO 25:17 Conclusion: Embracing the Present Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
13 Dec 202430min
14 Habits Keeping You Poor
The small but very real problems that hold you back in a big way. Personal finances feel just that, personal. Yet most of our issues are fundamentally quite predictable and universal based on different mindset patterns and beliefs we pick up. Money isn't a completely natural tool; it is a human invention that helps us overcome trade and resource accumulation problems. Learning the basics of how to think about money and deal with it allows for us to become a master of our own future. From Lifestyle inflation to investing strategy or the issue of inaction feeling you have to learn more first This episode covers the 14 biggest mistakes we make when we think about money. Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors: 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset 🐏 Unbound Merino - Highest quality Merino wool clothing 10% off with code 'PSYCHOLOGY' UnboundMerino.com Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - GrowthMindsetPodcast.com Chapters 00:00 14 habits that keep you poor 00:24 1st bad habit - Starting tomorrow 00:52 2nd - Starting too many and not finishing any 01:45 3rd - Paying yourself last 02:51 4th - Not investing in yourself 03:34 5th - Reading a lot and not doing 04:27 6th - Not knowing your income or expenses 06:02 7th - Getting comfortable with bad debts 07:28 8th - Not having an emergency fund 08:44 9th - Lifestyle inflation 10:17 Ad break 10:28 10th - Hanging with the wrong crowd 12:02 11th - Blaming your circumstances 12:35 12th - Focusing purely on saving now 13:16 13th - Investing without a strategy 14:38 14th - Waiting for perfect conditions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
10 Dec 202418min
Free Will and the War Against Our Minds - Are We Becoming NPCs?
The Psychology of the 5 Types of Non-Player Characters - How to Fix Them and Be a Main Character Thinker. The same story plays out online every day. The same people are getting outraged about the same things again and again. Like Clockwork. The human brain is highly optimised to rely on heuristics and simplistic decisions. Modern media hijacks this system to control our beliefs and emotions based on the agenda of other people. This episode helps listeners build autonomy over their beliefs and emotions by learning the different types of Non-Player-Character: The Conformist NPC - Believes the consensus politically correct ideas The Contrarian NPC - Believes the opposite of the consensus and seeks conspiracy The Disciple NPC - Believes their preferred leader The Tribalist NPC - Follows the tribe and us vs them mentality The Averager NPC - Seeks the middle ground without understanding the merits of an argument. Learn the psychology of the processes behind each NPC type and how different types of critical thinking systems or defence systems get turned on and off based simply on who delivers the message. Building your own worldview is one of the most important things you can do in an increasingly confusing and polarised world. Sources: Gurwinder - Why You Are Probably An NPC People Shot to Death by US Police By Race FBI Crime Data USA National Suicide Data Journal Review: Health of Vaccinated vs Unvaccinated Children Vaccine Research Overview: The Vaccine Question Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors: 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset 🐏 Unbound Merino - Highest quality Merino wool clothing 10% off with code 'PSYCHOLOGY' UnboundMerino.com Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - GrowthMindsetPodcast.com Chapters: 00:00 Psychology of Modern Culture and Predictability of Crowds 01:24 The Brain's Information Processing Shortcuts 03:09 Gurwinder on NPC's 04:48 System One and System Two Thinking 07:08 The Influence of Social Media and Algorithms 07:56 #1 The Conformist NPC 14:38 #2 The Contrarian NPC 21:49 #3 The Disciple NPC 26:03 #4 The Tribalist NPC 30:29 #5 The Averager NPC 36:51 Strategic Cognitive Resource Allocation 38:12 Recap of NPC Types and Strategies 39:31 The Importance of Selective Deep Thinking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
6 Dec 202443min
How To Be More Interesting
The surprising techniques to be more yourself - that also make you more interesting. There are endless self-help books and blogs about how to increase your charisma. In the same way you can increase your sales skills by following a checklist but there is something fake about it. Instead, we look at little-known ways you can naturally get better at being yourself. We can then expand on our own natural tendencies and be more interesting to the people we are inherently interested in. Some lessons in the episode: Increasing the depth of your interests Stop trying to 'fit in' to other peoples standards Prioritise your areas of effort Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors: 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset 🐏 Unbound Merino - Highest quality Merino wool clothing 10% off with code 'PSYCHOLOGY' UnboundMerino.com Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - GrowthMindsetPodcast.com Chapters 00:00 Why fit in when you were born to stand out? 00:59 Create more interesting interests 02:31 The maths of interest - 10x depth = 100x more interesting 03:38 Examples of geeking out that are fascinating 09:10 When to stand out 14:31 When to chill out 16:14 Conclusions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
3 Dec 202421min
Identity, Power & Narcissism: The Hidden Psychology of Mean Girls & Regina George
The Art of War: High School Edition Mean Girls was one of the biggest movies of 2004 - Twenty years later it still touches the themes that teenagers struggle with the world over. Navigating cut-throat social hierarchies and the urge to morph our identity to fit in. Regina George is the villain of the movie. She is always ready to take others down and manipulate anyone around her to retain power. But there is more going on than meets the eye. In this episode: Where narcissism comes from How high-school screws with our morals Why do we become submissive to mean people What people get wrong about Mean Girls and Regina George By revisiting the story of Mean Girls and examining the character of Regina George in detail we can learn a lot about how we navigate the world ourselves. This movie is full of psychological goodies for those looking for them and totally worth a re-watch for the curious amongst us. Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - GrowthMindsetPodcast.com Chapters: 00:00 Psychology and Writing in Mean Girls 01:27 Relational Aggression in Adolescence 03:34 Regina George: The Rulebook 06:47 Social Dynamics Manipulation Tactics 10:17 Diagnosing Regina George's Personality Disorder 10:51 Antisocial Personality Disorder 11:48 Borderline Personality Disorder 13:27 Histrionic Personality Disorder 14:38 Narcissistic Personality Disorder 17:38 Understanding someone through their Relationships 21:22 The Real Tragedy of Regina George 25:52 Final Thoughts and Trivia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
29 Nov 202431min
The Psychology of Black Friday - Social Contagions, Deal FOMO & Retail Rage
What are the secret drivers behind the year's biggest shopping day, and why is there so much fighting? Black Friday has become an inescapable part of life, with a deal notification even popping up as a type this... (thanks Grammarly I don't need 50% off) But it wasn't always this way. In the early 1950's Philadelphia after Thanksgiving, a flood of traffic would swell for the local football game and downtown shopping. Cops called the gridlock "Black Friday" as a derogatory term. It was slowly adopted by shops and morphed into the retail phenomenon we know today. We pull the curtains back on this crazy day: Psychological levers that get us to spend Case studies of different fights and drama How shopping impacts our emotions What are we really seeking from a deal Learn about why our rational thinking gets turned off as shops manipulate our minds to get us into a buying frenzy and how it can turn violent. And whose fault is it? Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - GrowthMindsetPodcast.com Chapters: 00:00 The Contradiction of Black Friday 02:20 A Brief History of Black Friday 05:01 The Perfect Storm of Psychological Triggers 07:12 Case Studies of Black Friday Madness 09:29 Deindividuation, Competition, Social Contagion and Polyvagal Theory 11:34 Cyber Monday and Online Shopping 15:41 The Financial Costs of Black Friday 17:45 Global Perspectives on Black Friday 19:31 Human Nature Revealed by Black Friday 20:49 Social Dynamics & the Irrationality of Value 21:32 Final Thoughts on Black Friday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
26 Nov 202427min
How To Gracefully Deal With Life Problems
A 3 part decision framework to understand and solve any frustration. Ultimately all problems are a perception of the mind. Sometimes there is a way around or through the problem that we can't see. This episode Sam Webster explores a framework to help us diagnose the problem we are experiencing so we can correctly deal with it. Problems we want to have - Small problems that are connected to a bigger goal we want (see the last episode) Problems we can't change - Realities of life we need to accept Problems we don't want to have - Actual problems we need to creatively and logically solve This episode covers the whole framework with details on steps 2 and 3. To listen to the full set of ideas for part one see the last episode on real advice to build gratitude that doesn't suck. Upgrade to Premium: 🏖️ Ad-free listening 🤘 Support the show 🔓 Exclusive AMAs and bonus content 💬 Community Discord GrowthMindset.Supercast.com Sponsors 🥙 Hello Fresh - America's #1 meal kit provider 10 free meals across 7 boxes HelloFresh.com/FreeGrowthMindset Get in Touch 👋 Free Call - Schedule Link - https://cal.com/samwebster/mindset 📧 Email - GrowthMindsetPodcast (@) gmail,com Growth Mindset Psychology: Sam Webster explores the psychology of happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and growth through the lens of self-improvement. 📺 Watch - YouTube (Growth Mindset) 🛜 Website - GrowthMindsetPodcast.com Chapters: 00:00 Problems are illusions of the mind 01:22 3 types of problems you might complain about 02:02 #1 The problem you want to have 02:39 #2 Problems you have to accept 03:56 Our issue with dreaming of what isn't 08:05 #3 - the problems you dont want to have 08:51 The right mindset towards what can and can't be changed 09:58 Priorities to get right in life 11:16 Our plague of too many desires 14:29 Determining if a problem is worth dealing with 15:56 Growing up and wisdom 17:00 Using complaints as tools to reflect, learn about, and improve yourself 18:57 Wise words to leave you with Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
22 Nov 202422min
