The Double Win

Most of us know we’re moving too fast, but can’t figure out how to stop. In this episode, journalist and author Carl Honoré joins Michael and Megan to explain how we got addicted to speed, what we’re missing out on as a result, and why slowing down is a skill that requires practice. They dig into the warning signs that you’re living too fast and the hidden math that makes quick fixes more expensive than slow ones. Our world moves fast. The good news is, you don’t have to.Memorable Quotes“There’s an intimate bond between slowness and remembering… Everything just moves very fast, nothing sticks, and you don’t remember anything.”“Slow is a byword for lazy, boring, stupid, unproductive, all the things nobody wants to be associated with. And this taboo works like this: It means that even when we can feel in our bones that it’d be good for us to put on the brakes, even when we’re yearning to slow down, we don’t do it, because the taboo makes us feel ashamed, guilty, afraid.”“People often say, ‘We don’t have time for a slow fix. We only have time for a quick fix,’ right?... But then later on, when the quick fix proves to have failed and blows up in our face, we always find time then to pick up the pieces and deal with the fallout, don’t we?”“In this road runner culture, we are all marinated in adrenaline… I think we are now chemically, emotionally, physically, and biologically addicted to the rush of speed, and that drives us into the arms of the quick fix.”“We need to build in little rituals—whether it’s meditation, reading a bit of poetry, sketching, whatever it is—that reacquaint us with slower, deeper rhythms… It kind of inoculates you against the virus of hurry… and allows you to come back into the fray with a mindset that is more still, more calm, more focused, more able to see the big picture.”“It’s about doing things at, at the right speed. Musicians have a beautiful term for this. They call it the tempo giusto, right? The correct tempo for each piece of music… It’s putting quality before quantity. It’s being present, being in the moment… Slow is about doing everything not as fast as possible, but as well as possible.”“One of the best ways to find that deeper, slower, healthier, richer rhythm, is spending time in nature. Because nature is the ultimate cradle of slowness. Everything happens in nature at the right pace.”“Judiciously applied slowness can fire up creativity, can supercharge innovation, can deepen communication, and can avoid costly mistakes.”Key TakeawaysLive in Tempo. There’s no one right speed, and slower isn’t always better. Musicians have a word for what we’re after: tempo giusto, the correct tempo for the piece. Sometimes, that tempo is fast! The skill is discerning the right speed, and moving at that pace.Your Body Sends the Bill. Constant exhaustion, sloppy mistakes at work, and weeks you can’t quite recall are all symptoms of a life lived in overdrive. Your body isn't built to sustain that pace. Sooner or later, the bill comes due.Quick Fixes Are Expensive. We reach for the fast solution because we believe we don’t have time for the slow one. But quick fixes usually create costly problems. Investing in slowness up front saves us hours and dollars.Pull the Andon Rope. In Toyota factories, any worker at any rank could pull a rope and stop the entire production line when they spotted a problem. Everyone had permission to slow down and go find the root cause. What would that make possible in your company?Slowness Requires Practice. Deciding to slow down won’t undo decades of speed. Slowing requires intentional practice. Choose hobbies or activities that require you to downshift—and don’t be surprised if you feel restless at first.ResourcesIn Praise of Slowness by Carl HonoréThe Slow Fix by Carl Honorécarlhonore.info This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound

This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound

Why do so many high achievers secretly struggle with anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm? Dr. Elizabeth Stanley, Army veteran, Georgetown professor, and author of Widen the Window, joins Michael Hyatt to explain the hidden science behind stress and resilience. Drawing on her personal story of trauma, her background in the military, and her training in somatic therapy, Elizabeth reveals why talk therapy alone often falls short—and how body-based practices can change everything. This conversation is honest, practical, and deeply hopeful for anyone who feels stuck in patterns of stress.Memorable Quotes“We're all in it together and we're all experiencing the particular lawful ways that this human mind and body works in this particular poly-crisis world. Of course, people are struggling. It's kind of why it's my passion to help people understand ‘You're not alone in this.’”“We are wired organically to be able to mobilize the energy to manage a crisis or a stressful situation, and then recover. Our ancestors that shared the same wiring that we have did not have 24/7 constant activation and constant demands the way that we do in modern life today.”“The science term there is allostatic load, and the more our stress load grows, the less capacity we have in our mind and body to meet the next challenge, so that it becomes a bit of a vicious cycle, and we know that we're on the edge of our window or outside of our window of tolerance.”“We are built so that we learn the downregulation through the soothing we receive from our parents and other early caregivers. And that presumes that our early caregivers and parents were regulated enough to do that for us.”“If we're redirecting it somewhere that the survival brain perceives as safe, that actually starts conditioning. A process that makes the system move back in the way that we're organically built, which is to go through stress and recover naturally.”“When we don't perceive agency, when we feel powerless or helpless, that actually leads to higher levels of arousal and it really resolidifies the prior conditioning. So being able to access that choice point is really critical in beginning to shift it.”“If our parents had narrowed windows, if they were coping with a lot of stress and trauma, or if they were absent, if they had mental illness or they were incarcerated, they aren't able to help us wire those things. It's one of the ways that narrowed windows get transmitted intergenerationally and why trauma can become intergenerational.”Key TakeawaysYou’re Not Broken. Chronic anxiety and overwhelm are signs of dysregulation, not defects. They’re the evidence of what you’ve walked through—but don’t determine what’s ahead.Your Body Knows the Way. Healing starts by listening to the signals of your nervous system. The key is not to minimize our reactions, but to listen and practice strategies that help us return to baseline.Talk Therapy Isn’t Enough. True healing requires engaging the body and nervous system. Trauma-informed, body-based therapy can lead to breakthroughs when just thinking and talking isn’t enough.Agency Is Key. Learning to notice choice points rewires the brain toward safety. The quickest way out of powerlessness is regaining a sense of agency.Resilience Can Be Trained. Simple, repeated practices expand your “window of tolerance.” It takes time and intention, but you can widen your window.ResourcesWiden the Window by Elizabeth StanleyElizabeth Stanley’s Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT)Watch on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/Z607BPgbxi4This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound

What if the key to thriving isn’t managing your circumstances perfectly—but rooting yourself in the connections that matter most? In this heartfelt conversation, Michael and Megan talk with Elizabeth Oldfield, author of Fully Alive, about reclaiming depth, community, and soul-level steadiness in a culture addicted to speed and distraction. Elizabeth draws on ancient wisdom, modern insight, and her own experience living in intentional community to offer a hopeful path forward.Memorable Quotes“You need to put your roots down deep into love and work out how to find some steadiness.”“When we are honest about our full humanity, we give other people permission to do that, and that's a necessary starting point for actually growing up our souls rather than pretending that we all know what we’re doing and we’re holding it all together.”“Where we put our attention is essentially who we become.”“I have this sense that fully aliveness is in connection, deep connection, horizontally and vertically.”“Hurrying and destruction are not how we flourish, and we’re constantly being encouraged to do those things. So we need to provide some counter pressure towards slowness and steadiness and presence.”Key TakeawaysConnection Is the Core of Flourishing. Relationships—messy, costly, inconvenient—are where we become more fully human.Attention Shapes Who You Become. Distraction isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a soul-shaping force. Guard your focus.Structure Time Around Your Values. A “rule of life” puts what matters most in place first, so the rest fits around it.Commitment Fuels Depth. Vulnerability without commitment fizzles; together they form lasting community.Ancient Practices Still Work. Sabbath, liturgy, and shared rhythms anchor us in what endures.ResourcesFully Alive by Elizabeth OldfieldThe Sacred podcast by Elizabeth OldfieldWatch on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/-anckhHSdHMThis episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound