593: New York Times Bestselling Author on How to Overcome Fear & Build Emotional Resilience (with Jim Murphy)

593: New York Times Bestselling Author on How to Overcome Fear & Build Emotional Resilience (with Jim Murphy)

In this episode, Jim Murphy, New York Times bestselling author, shares how leaders can build resilience, reframe fear, and operate at their highest level under pressure. His approach blends performance psychology, neuroscience, and spiritual discipline.

1. Identity Beyond Roles

Murphy emphasizes the risk of anchoring identity in professional roles or achievements:

“When I lost baseball due to injury, I felt like I lost everything. My whole identity was wrapped up in that role.”

For executives and consultants, this is a reminder: leadership requires identity that outlasts titles, deals, or short-term wins. Anchoring in deeper values creates long-term stability.

2. Fear as a Performance Constraint

Murphy defines fear as “a byproduct of self-centeredness.” The executive cost is high: constant comparison, judgment, and anxiety undermine decision-making.

He identifies three key obstacles to peak performance:

  1. Excessive, scattered thoughts

  2. Negative or judgmental self-talk

  3. Concern with others’ opinions

“When you’re at your very best … there’s no concern for self. You’re totally caught up in the moment.”

This mirrors what elite consultants and CEOs must practice: focus on the work, not the ego.

3. Rewiring Fear and Trauma

Murphy reframes fear and phobias:

“Phobias are your subconscious working perfectly to protect you.”

Through structured methods and neuroplasticity, leaders can “rewire” how they respond to past failures and pressure.

“You can have a phobia for 50 years, and it can be gone in less than an hour.”

For executives, the takeaway is clear: performance limits are rarely permanent, they can be retrained.

4. Freedom Through Surrender and Detachment

Murphy shares a practical mantra he learned from an athlete he trained:

“I expect nothing. I can handle anything.”

This principle strips away attachment to outcomes, freeing leaders to make bolder, less ego-driven decisions. As he puts it:

“The most powerful thing anyone can do is surrender their little strength for the power that grows the grass and spins the earth.”

For leaders, this translates into resilience, the ability to operate under uncertainty without fear of reputational or financial loss clouding judgment.

5. The Best Possible Life (and Career)

Murphy notes:

“The best possible life has one foot in joy and one foot in suffering. We can’t gain wisdom without going through hard things.”

For high performers, this is a critical leadership principle: growth requires discomfort. A career without setbacks yields little wisdom.

6. Practical Tools Leaders Can Use

Murphy provides several techniques executives can adopt immediately:

  • Breath control: slowing to 5–6 breaths per minute to stabilize thought patterns under pressure.

  • Structured reflection: gratitude, presence, and visualization as part of a daily routine.

  • Ego discipline: exercises that reduce the need for external validation and increase clarity in communication.

Here are some free gifts for you:

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131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#14), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

8 Feb 202132min

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#13), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

1 Feb 202137min

129: The nuances of a private equity strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #12)

129: The nuances of a private equity strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #12)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

25 Jan 202130min

128: How to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and bad excuses, with Martin Lindstrom

128: How to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and bad excuses, with Martin Lindstrom

Martin's book THE MINISTRY OF COMMON SENSE: https://amzn.to/3962pE9 Meet New York Times bestselling author Martin Lindstrom (one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People). We interviewed Martin about his new book THE MINISTRY OF COMMON SENSE: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS. Doesn’t your workplace drive you crazy when you get cc’ed on irrelevant email chains, invited to unnecessary meetings, or forbidden by company policy to do the exact thing your boss commands you to do?  These and many other frustrations stem from the same underlying cause: a lack of common sense! In an interview Martin discusses the most typical roadblocks to common sense: (Bad) customer experience Politics Technology Meetings and Power Points Rules, Regulations, and Policies Compliance and Legal And has remedies for all.  Martin Lindstrom is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, a global branding & culture transformation firm, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries. TIME Magazine has named Lindstrom one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People,” and for three years running, Thinkers50, has selected Lindstrom to be among the world’s top 50 business thinkers. Among the companies he advises are Burger King, Lowes, Boar’s Head, Beverly Hills Hotels, Pepsi, Nestle and Google. Lindstrom is the author of seven books including several New York Times bestsellers that have been translated into 60 languages. The Wall-Street Journal praised his book Brand Sense as “one of the five best marketing books ever published,” and his book Small Data as “revolutionary,” and TIME called his book Buyology “a breakthrough in branding.”

21 Jan 20211h 17min

127: Fear is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #11)

127: Fear is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #11)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

18 Jan 202130min

126: One of the biggest strategy shifts ever in the next 10 to 20 years (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #10)

126: One of the biggest strategy shifts ever in the next 10 to 20 years (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #10)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

11 Jan 202128min

125: Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. AppleTV vs. HBO Max (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #9)

125: Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. AppleTV vs. HBO Max (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #9)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

21 Dec 202030min

124: What Bob Dylan teaches us about digital strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #8)

124: What Bob Dylan teaches us about digital strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #8)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

14 Dec 202028min

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