Rethinking Success

Amy Green

Rethinking Success is where Amy Green asks the questions that sit underneath everything else, about the stories we've inherited, the definitions we've never actually chosen, and what it would look like to build a life and a way of working that's genuinely fit for how we want to live now. This isn't a show about recovering from burnout or optimising your morning routine. It's a show for people who sense that something in the current model is fundamentally misaligned, and who are ready to think about what comes next. Bold, warm, and intellectually honest, Rethinking Success is a different kind of conversation about what it means to live and work well. Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox — a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work, life, and the systems that shape both.

  1. 2d ago

    The Power of Average: Why Society Needs to Embrace a New Normal

    You're tired. You're trying. And I think the world just keeps telling you it's still not enough. But what if the goal was never to be extraordinary? What if average was actually enough? Not a consolation prize. Not giving up. I think it's a choice. Average gets a pretty bad reputation, and this episode is here to change that. If everyone is chasing extraordinary, if every single person, every day, is oriented toward being above average, toward achieving more than everyone around them, that world can't actually exist. By definition, average is always going to be part of it. And yet somehow we've built an entire society that treats that reality like failure. Educational systems that shame the C grades. Workplaces that reward whoever climbs the highest. Social media that celebrates the highlight reel and quietly makes everyone else feel like they're not enough. A version of success built on the idea that what you have is never quite enough, that there's always another goal, another milestone, always something more. And that's why people are so exhausted. So this episode asks a different question. Maybe the only question that actually matters: What is enough for me, right now? Because when you get honest about that, really honest, something shifts. The noise quiets. The comparison starts to fade. And what you're left with is this ordinary, average, kind of beautifully mundane life that's actually rich in the ways that matter. This is the episode that gives you permission to put the extraordinary down. Because the power of average was never about giving up. It's about finally building something that fits, for you. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:18 - Why the pursuit of extraordinary is quietly making us miserable02:26 - What changes when we stop treating ordinary as something to be ashamed of04:26 - Why the relentless push to optimise, improve, and achieve more is making things worse for people who are already stretched06:34 - Why the season of life you're in should drive what you go all in on and what you consciously let be average10:20 - How the systems we live in are designed to make average feel like failure17:00 - What needs to change and how to build something that genuinely fits The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    The Power of Average: Why Society Needs to Embrace a New Normal
  2. Jul 13

    Rethinking Success: What Happens When We Let Go of the Old Definition

    You did the right things, followed the checklist, ticked all the boxes. And somewhere along the way, you realised the medal at the finish line isn't going to make you happy. So what now? What if letting go of your current definition of success isn't a loss, but the beginning of something better? After ten episodes unpacking the six paradoxes at the heart of The Wellness Paradox, Amy steps back and asks the bigger question. Not just what's wrong with the version of success we inherited, but what we actually replace it with. This isn't a rejection of society, or of ambition. It's about renegotiating the terms, interrogating the beliefs you've been carrying so long you've forgotten they were ever a choice, including the idea that society's version of success is the only one worth having. When you start questioning it, something interesting happens. The noise quiets. The decisions get clearer. You start to find out what you actually want, rather than what you've been told to want. This episode gives you permission to slow down, question, and design a version of success that's genuinely yours, starting now, not once you've ticked enough boxes to deserve it. Come back and share what landed. And listen to the next episode, where Amy unpacks the power of average. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:00 - Why the inherited definition of success has stopped serving most of us01:56 - Why this episode is different: shifting from talking about success to actually practising it05:20 - Why your definition of success needs to change as your seasons do07:36 - How the six paradoxes all point to the same problem11:41 - The beliefs worth letting go of right now19:44 - Why rethinking success has to happen at both an individual and systemic level The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    Rethinking Success: What Happens When We Let Go of the Old Definition
  3. Jul 6

    The Paradox of Belonging: What We're Really Searching For

    Belonging isn't something you find, it's something you create. And it starts with you. Most of us have been searching in the wrong direction. Looking outward for the right room, the right team, the right community. When the piece that actually makes belonging possible has been inside us the whole time. In this episode, Amy unpacks the paradox of belonging. Why we can be welcomed into rooms, included in gatherings, surrounded by connection, and still feel like we don't quite fit. Not because something is wrong with the people around us. But because we haven't yet figured out how to belong to ourselves first. Because if you're performing a version of yourself to fit in, you're not giving anyone the chance to accept the real you. Which means the belonging you're searching for was never going to arrive. Simply because you weren't really there. And in the workplace? Belonging isn't a program. It's not a morning tea or a social event or a new initiative. It's a condition. One that emerges slowly when people feel safe enough to show up as themselves without performing, filtering, or proving their worth. This episode will change how you think about belonging. In your life, your team, and the way you lead. Amy leaves you with one question worth sitting with. In the spaces you inhabit, are you showing up to be seen or to be approved of? That distinction is where belonging either lives or doesn't. And once you understand it, everything shifts. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:00 - Why belonging isn't something you find but something you create01:53 - Why belonging in the workplace exists in places most leaders aren't looking03:44 - How belonging is an inside job (and most of us are looking in completely the wrong direction)07:41 - What authentic belonging looks like and why letting go is sometimes part of it09:22 - Why programs and initiatives will never build belonging14:51 - Are you showing up to be seen or to be approved of? That's where belonging lives or doesn't. The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    The Paradox of Belonging: What We're Really Searching For
  4. Jun 29

    Why We Belong Less in a World More Connected Than Ever

    We are, in some ways, the most connected generation of humans to ever exist, and yet we have probably never felt more alone. That’s not really a coincidence, it’s a paradox. Because connection and belonging, she’d say, are not actually the same thing. And we’ve been so busy building the infrastructure for one that we’ve quietly let the conditions for the other fall away. Social media, emails, Zoom calls, Teams meetings, the endless pings and notifications. We have more access to each other than any generation before us. And yet the loneliness statistics keep climbing. People keep reporting that they don’t quite know where they belong. That they can’t find their people. That something feels missing, even when they’re surrounded by connection all day long. This episode gets into why. Not just at a personal level, but at a structural one. Because the way we’ve designed work, the way we’ve defined success, and the way we’ve built our digital lives has created a world that’s very good at generating transactional connection and not especially good at building the conditions where belonging can actually emerge. And belonging, it turns out, probably can’t be rushed. Can’t really be scaled. Can’t be performed. It’s built slowly, through safety, reciprocity, authenticity, and the freedom to show up as yourself without having to filter or prove or produce. Which raises an uncomfortable question. If your culture is built primarily around achievement, output, and performance, is it actually building belonging? Or is it, quietly, working against it? This episode might change how you think about connection, in your workplace, your team, your life. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:01 — Most connected generation in history, loneliest we’ve ever been. Here’s why.03:55 — The three levels of connection, and why most of us are stuck at the shallowest one07:30 — Why belonging can’t really be built at speed, at scale, or over a morning tea09:25 — Why a success-driven culture might be quietly eroding belonging in your team12:54 — The more we perform belonging, the less of it we actually have The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    Why We Belong Less in a World More Connected Than Ever
  5. Jun 22

    The Paradox of Resilience: Bouncing Back Was Never the Goal

    If bouncing back means returning to what depleted you in the first place, is that actually resilience? Or is it just an efficient path back to the same problem? That's the question Amy opens with, and it's the one that ends up reframing pretty much everything you thought you knew about what it means to be resilient. In this episode, she unpacks the resilience paradox and makes the case that the version of resilience most of us are carrying isn't wrong exactly. But it might be, she'd say, dangerously incomplete. Because bouncing back was never really the goal. It's a term borrowed from material science that somehow found its way into leadership frameworks, KPIs, and job descriptions, and along the way, quietly got stripped of everything that actually makes it useful for people. Real resilience isn't really about how fast you recover. It's about what you do with the experience while you're still in it. It's the renegotiation of identity, values, and priorities that happens when we're willing to sit with difficulty instead of just pushing through it. Maybe it's about asking, not where do I bounce back to, but where do I actually want to go from here. For business owners and leaders, this changes a fair bit. Because a team that bounces back quickly isn't necessarily a resilient team. In some ways, it might just be a team that's very good at absorbing problems and moving on, without ever stopping to ask what those problems were actually trying to tell them. And that distinction, between absorbing pressure and learning from it, is probably where the real conversation about resilience needs to start. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:06 - Why bouncing back might be the most expensive thing your team does02:06 - What we miss every time we celebrate a fast bounce back04:21 - The research that's quietly reshaping how we think about resilience08:51 - How to build systems that learn from pressure rather than just absorb it11:07 - Questions worth sitting with the next time you tell yourself to just cope The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    The Paradox of Resilience: Bouncing Back Was Never the Goal
  6. Jun 15

    Resilience Has Been Redesigned as Endurance, and That's the Problem

    Resilience is everywhere right now. In job descriptions, leadership programs, school curriculums and wellness strategies. It's the word everyone's using and almost no one is questioning. And that's exactly the problem. In this episode, Amy takes on one of the most celebrated concepts in the modern workplace and asks the question nobody seems to be asking. Not 'How do we build more resilience?' but 'Why are we asking people to be resilient in the first place?' What is going on that we need people to cope better? And what are we actually missing when we celebrate someone's ability to endure? The way we've been using resilience isn't building stronger people. It's building a more sophisticated tolerance for conditions that probably shouldn't be tolerated. And there is a very big difference between those two things. We've turned resilience into a performance standard. A hiring criteria. A KPI. The more you can handle, the better employee you are. The more pressure you absorb without complaining, the more resilient you're seen to be. And in doing that, we've quietly used resilience to silence the signal instead of addressing the source. The person who flags something is wrong? Do they have low resilience? The person who keeps their head down and pushes through? Are they the high performers? But what if the system is the problem? What if the conditions are the issue? What if resilience has been used against the very people it was supposed to protect? This is the conversation we're not willing to have but it’s the one that just could matter the most. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:01 – Why resilience has become one of the most misused concepts in the modern workplace02:12 – The difference between being resilient and being told to endure06:38 – How resilience became a KPI and why that's a problem11:02 – Why burnout keeps rising no matter how much wellbeing and resilience training you throw at it13:10 – What resilience was actually supposed to mean before we turned it into a coping strategy The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    Resilience Has Been Redesigned as Endurance, and That's the Problem
  7. Jun 8

    The Paradox of Energy: Why Rest Isn't the Answer We Think It Is

    If rest was the answer, we'd all be fine by now. But we're not. In this episode Amy unpacks the energy paradox, the one that explains why you can sleep eight hours, eat well, take the weekend off, and still wake up Monday morning feeling like you never stopped. The wellness industry has been quietly sidestepping this one for years. The exhaustion most of us are carrying isn't a rest deficit. It's a realignment problem. And no sleep supplement, recovery app, or digital detox is going to touch it. And it’s not about adding more to your wellness routine. It's about asking a completely different question. Not ‘How do I recover?’, but ‘What am I recovering from and where do I actually want to recover to?’ If you keep recovering and returning to the same conditions, the same work, the same pace, the same version of life, you're just going to deplete again. Further each time. Further from yourself. This is the energy conversation we actually need to be having, and it starts here. Share this one with someone who needs to hear it. The more we have this conversation, the more things can change. For ourselves and at a systemic level too. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:07 What the epidemic of exhaustion is really telling us about the way we're living and working04:00 Why quick fixes keep you stuck in the loop08:00 The four energy drains and why we only treat two12:00 How realignment creates the kind of sustainable energy that doesn't require constant rebuilding15:30 Questions worth asking the next time you feel completely depleted The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    The Paradox of Energy: Why Rest Isn't the Answer We Think It Is
  8. Jun 1

    Energy Isn't a Resource, It's a Signal

    You are not a mobile phone, you can’t just plug yourself in on Friday night and expect to be functioning at full capacity by Monday morning. And yet somehow, that’s exactly the model most of us are running on. Get through the week, recover on the weekend, do it all again, and wonder quietly why it never actually feels like enough. In this episode, Amy reframes everything you thought you knew about energy. Not the sleep-better-eat-well-take-a-supplement version. The real version. The one that asks why you're depleted in the first place, what that depletion is actually trying to tell you, and why the answer has almost nothing to do with rest and almost everything to do with alignment. The wellness industry won't tell you that low energy isn't just a signal that you need to recharge. It's a signal that something in your life, your work, your relationships, your values, might be misaligned. And no amount of magnesium, weekend recovery, or cold plunges is going to fix a misalignment. This episode isn’t about optimising your morning routine or tracking your sleep score. It’s about learning to read your energy as information rather than just managing it as a resource, and once you start doing that, everything changes. How you work, how you lead, how you design your days, and how you make decisions about what actually gets your time and attention. Your energy has been trying to tell you something, and this episode is about finally listening. It closes with one question worth sitting with: what is your energy trying to tell you that you have not stopped to hear? Once you start answering that honestly, everything shifts. If this one landed for you, the next episode picks up exactly where this leaves off and goes deeper into the energy paradox, including why rest is not always the answer we think it is. WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE: 00:03 - Why the way we think about energy is completely wrong03:30 - Why the wellness industry's energy fixes are missing the point entirely07:00 - What low energy is actually trying to tell you10:00 - The three types of energy drain nobody talks about14:00 - Redesigning your life for energetic sustainability The Wellness Paradox is Amy’s new book for everyone who is tired of being told to do more. Buy direct from Amy (signed copies available) or order on Amazon https://amygreen.com.au/thewellnessparadox-thebook ABOUT AMY GREEN Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox, a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work and life, and the systems that shape both. WHERE TO FIND AMY GREEN Website: https://www.thewellnessstrategy.com.au/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewellnessstrategyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amygreen/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_._green/YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@amygreenofficial

    Energy Isn't a Resource, It's a Signal

About

Rethinking Success is where Amy Green asks the questions that sit underneath everything else, about the stories we've inherited, the definitions we've never actually chosen, and what it would look like to build a life and a way of working that's genuinely fit for how we want to live now. This isn't a show about recovering from burnout or optimising your morning routine. It's a show for people who sense that something in the current model is fundamentally misaligned, and who are ready to think about what comes next. Bold, warm, and intellectually honest, Rethinking Success is a different kind of conversation about what it means to live and work well. Amy Green is a futurist, keynote speaker, and author of The Wellness Paradox — a book that interrogates the six paradoxes keeping us trapped in a version of success that was never designed to make us well. She is the founder of The Wellness Strategy and has spent years studying the intersection of work, life, and the systems that shape both.