Everyday Better with Leah Smart LinkedIn

This week on Everyday Better, we’re featuring an episode from a new bonus series from our sister podcast Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel. “Hello Monday Master Class” is a distillation of hundreds of Hello Monday conversations, broken down into five essential rules for navigating and thriving in an ever-changing professional landscape. The first episode in the series is all about defining your values. 
Tune in each Thursday through the end of June for more actionable insights and collaborative exercises to elevate your career. And for more from Jessi, join the Hello Monday Group on LinkedIn by clicking here.

Thomas Curran is a Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics. His first book, The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough, charts the recent rise in perfectionism among young people, exposes the paradoxical effects of perfectionism on everything from work performance to relationships and argues for a “good enough” approach to work that prioritizes sustainability over growth.
On this episode of Everyday Better, Thomas joins Leah to talk about where perfectionism comes from, why it’s so harmful and how to break free from the internal and external pressures we feel to be perfect. They also take a critical look at the “growth mindset” and reflect on their own journeys towards overcoming perfectionism in their professional and personal lives.
Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn.
Follow Thomas Curran on LinkedIn.
For more on perfectionism, check out Thomas’s book The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough.
Sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

Myisha Cherry is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside and a self-proclaimed “public defender of anger and proud withholder of forgiveness.” In her second book, Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better, she argues that forgiveness – a much-lauded moral good in American culture – rarely achieves what we think it does, and that in reality, forgiveness often does more harm than good. She puts forth her own, broader definition of forgiveness that holds space for anger, repair and accountability for the wrongdoer.
On today’s show, Myisha and Leah dive deep into forgiveness to understand its role at work and in society, as well as how race and gender complicate the act of forgiving. Myisha explains why withholding forgiveness can actually be a moral good, both for the wronged and for the wrongdoer. She also shares her revised definition of forgiveness and explains how to get better at asking for and receiving it.
For more on forgiveness, check out Myisha’s book Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better.
Sign up for Leah’s weekly newsletter to get practical tips on how to level up with small steps every day.

Dr Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, leadership adviser and best selling author. She works with executives and leaders all over the world to help them achieve mental resilience and peak brain performance, helping them to manage stress, regulate emotions and retain information. Her scientific knowledge and expertise helps people optimize their brain health and achieve their full potential.
Tara joins Leah to discuss the brain-body connection and the importance of emotional well-being. She explains how chronic stress can impact the brain and body, leading to physical and mental health issues, and emphasizes the power of intention and visualization in shaping our brain's interpretation of reality. 
Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn
Follow Dr. Tara Swart on LinkedIn

Dr. Casey Means is a physician, tech entrepreneur and the author of Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. She is passionate about metabolic health and dedicated to helping people better understand their bodies. 
Casey joins Leah to highlight the interconnectedness of various symptoms and diseases, all of which she sees as stemming from metabolic dysfunction. She discusses the impact of the modern environment on our metabolic health and offers practical strategies for optimizing our metabolism through sleep, movement, stress management techniques, toxin reduction and light exposure. By adopting a metabolic framework and focusing on cellular health, we all can cultivate good energy and live happier, healthier lives.
Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn.
Follow Casey Means on LinkedIn.
For more on how to improve your metabolic health, check out Casey’s book, Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health.

In part II of our conversation with Stephanie Harrison, author of New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That's Got It Wrong, we explore what it looks like to apply Stephanie’s New Happy philosophy to personal and work areas of our lives. We discuss strategies for setting and achieving your big goals, what the research suggests about the role of helping others in the context of happiness and how privilege and oppression shift our approach to and experience of happiness. We also contemplate the notion of the “best self” and take a hard look at wellness culture to better understand how mainstream ideas of happiness and well-being hold us back from achieving true contentment. 
Follow Leah Smart on LinkedIn.
Follow Stephanie Harrison on LinkedIn.
To learn more about Stephanie’s philosophy on happiness, check out her book, New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That's Got It Wrong.