The Practice Ground | A Self-Improvement Podcast with Ken Li and Kari Watterson

Ken Li and Kari Watterson

Most of us don't need more information -- we need more experience. Join confidence coach, Ken Li, and mindset and habits coach, Kari Watterson, for conversations that challenge how you think, encourage courageous experimentation, and inspire you to gather experiences that deepen your confidence—and your participation in your own life.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    Ep. 9 - What If You Removed the One Thing Slowing Everything Down?

    What if making progress isn't about doing more, but removing the one thing that's slowing everything else down? Our instinct may be to add something: more effort, another strategy, more information, another book or podcast, more preparation. But in Essentialism, Greg McKeown offers another possibility: What could you remove? In Chapter 16, “Subtract: Bring Forth More by Removing Obstacles,” McKeown uses the story of a hiking group to illustrate the power of identifying a system's biggest constraint. One boy, Herbie, is moving more slowly than everyone else. Making the faster hikers move faster won't get the group to its destination any sooner. But when Herbie's load is lightened, the entire group can move faster. It's a simple idea. Applying it to a human life gets more complicated. In this episode of The Practice Ground, Ken and Kari explore what it might look like to identify the “slowest hiker” in our own lives—the obstacle consuming disproportionate time, energy, or effort, or keeping us from making progress on something that matters. For Kari, that question became part of an ongoing experiment with her running habit. What if the biggest obstacle wasn't fitness, motivation, or knowing what to do—but the amount of mental chatter and resistance surrounding the behavior? What might happen if, instead of adding another strategy, she worked on reducing that? Ken brings another question to the idea: What if the obstacle we can see isn't the one actually holding us back? Humans are messier than production lines or hiking groups. We may think the problem is lack of time, information, preparation, or someone else's behavior when something less visible—perfectionism, self-doubt, lack of clarity, or another mindset obstacle—is helping keep us stuck. And because we're inside the system we're trying to understand, sometimes another perspective can help us see what we can't see ourselves. What you'll hear inside the episode: why trying harder at everything may not help if one major constraint is still holding the whole system backhow the “slowest hiker” story offers a different question when something isn't working: What could I remove instead of add?how Kari experimented with reducing the mental chatter and resistance surrounding running rather than adding more motivation or strategieswhy ideas that look simple on paper can become much messier when the “system” we're trying to understand is ourselvesKen's hypothesis that some of our biggest obstacles may have a mindset component—and why perfectionism can look deceptively like productive preparationwhy the problem we first identify may not be the problem we actually need to solvewhy getting clear about the desired outcome comes before deciding which obstacle to removehow lack of clarity itself can become a constraint—and what Kari's evolving business focus taught her about concentrating energy in one directionwhy giving ourselves some grace while experimenting can help us stay with the process long enough to learn whether we've identified the right obstaclewhen a mentor, coach, or other outside perspective might help us see the “slowest hiker” we're too close to recognize ourselvesOne question sits underneath the entire conversation: What problem am I actually trying to solve—and what is the biggest thing making it harder than it needs to be? The answer may not be immediately obvious. We may discover that our first hypothesis was wrong. But rather than automatically adding more effort, information, or strategies, McKeown's slowest-hiker principle gives us another place to look. What is the biggest obstacle you could remove that might make it easier to move toward what matters to you? Cited in this episode: Book | Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown Book | Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries, or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.

    Ep. 9 - What If You Removed the One Thing Slowing Everything Down?
  2. Oct 9

    Ep. 8 - Beyond the Four Laws: 6 Little Lessons for Life from Atomic Habits

    What if the lessons we learn from our habits could teach us something bigger about how to live? Near the end of Atomic Habits, James Clear shares 18 “Little Lessons from the Four Laws” — short observations about desire, emotion, motivation, action, and human behavior that extend well beyond building or breaking habits. In this episode of The Practice Ground, Ken and Kari each choose three lessons that caught their attention — not necessarily because they have them figured out, but because they gave them something to think about. And that leads to a conversation about much more than habits. What does curiosity have to do with confidence? Do our actions really reveal how badly we want something? What if we do want something badly, but keep failing to achieve it? Do we need a powerful “why” before we can move forward? And can we want to change something about our lives without first turning where we are now into a problem? Along the way, Ken and Kari do what they do on The Practice Ground: test the ideas against their own experiences, question them, look for contradictions, and see what happens when they put them into practice. What you’ll hear inside the episode: why peace may come from being able to observe something without immediately deciding it needs to be fixed — and why acceptance and improvement don't have to be oppositeswhy curiosity can sometimes get us to act when confidence can’t — and how asking “What can I learn from this?” can create a very different way into something that scares uswhy curiosity matters not only for personal growth, but also in our work and relationships — and what it may have to do with openness, humility, and our willingness to keep growinghow emotions drive behavior — and why the relationship also works in the other direction, with our actions helping shape how we feel and what we do nextwhy “desire initiates, pleasure sustains” can help explain why some habits stick while others feel like a constant exercise in willpowerwhat Ken’s after-tennis eating habit and Kari’s running practice reveal about designing behaviors around what we actually want and enjoy — rather than continually fighting ourselveswhy the idea that “your actions reveal how badly you want something” deserves some nuance: repeatedly trying and failing may not mean you don't want something badly enough; it may mean the system you're using isn't workingwhat happens when you believe a strong “why” can help you overcome almost any “how” — but you aren't completely sure what your why is anymorewhy our “why” may evolve as we do, and why we don't necessarily need to turn not knowing into another problem to solvehow all four laws — make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying — give us places to experiment when our behavior isn't producing the results we wantOne idea keeps resurfacing throughout the conversation: behavior isn't a verdict on who you are. When something isn't working, we can get curious about it. Maybe the desire isn't there. Maybe the behavior isn't satisfying. Maybe there's too much friction. Or maybe we deeply want the outcome, but haven't yet found a system that helps us get there. That distinction matters because it helps us stop blaming ourselves and start looking at the real problem to solve. The conversation eventually arrives at an idea from Atomic Habits that lands personally for Ken. Looking back on his own journey, James Clear reflects that what mattered most wasn't becoming a professional athlete, but believing he had fulfilled his potential. That becomes a larger question behind this episode—and, in many ways, behind The Practice Ground itself: How can we keep learning, experimenting, taking action, and discovering what we're capable of? Atomic Habits shows us that one way we can move closer to realizing our potential is by understanding how our own behavior works—and learning to work with it rather than fighting against it. Cited in this episode: Book | Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear Book | The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by don Miguel Ruiz Book | Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg Book | The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Book | Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal Book | Start With Why by Simon Sinek Book | Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Concept | Dan Sullivan — the idea that we can want what we want without needing to justify the desire Quote referenced | Friedrich Nietzsche — “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Confidence research | Dr. Richard Petty, Ohio State University — Ken references Petty’s work connecting confidence with moving from thought to action. Podcast | The End of the Day: A Mindset Podcast by Kari Watterson Episode 65 — Finding Your Worth Beyond Societal Expectations: A Conversation with Confidence Coach, Ken Li Episode 100 — 7 Life Coaching Strategies, Tips & Tools That Will Change Your Life with Special Guest Host, Confidence Coach Ken Li ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer) where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries, or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.

    Ep. 8 - Beyond the Four Laws: 6 Little Lessons for Life from Atomic Habits
  3. Oct 2

    Ep. 7 - Impostor Syndrome: What If Self-Doubt Isn't The Problem?

    What if self-doubt isn't always something we need to overcome? Impostor syndrome is usually framed as a confidence problem: something to conquer so we can finally believe in ourselves and move forward. But what if some amount of doubt can actually make us better learners, encourage us to prepare more thoughtfully, and remind us to ask for help when we don't know what we don't know? In this episode of The Practice Ground, Ken and Kari explore a different way of thinking about impostor syndrome, inspired in part by Adam Grant's Think Again. They unpack the difference between confidence and competence, Grant's idea of confident humility, and why the goal may not be eliminating self-doubt at all. Through stories ranging from Ken's own experiences with impostor syndrome to Reese Witherspoon's preparation for Walk the Line and Halla Tómasdóttir's practice of befriending her impostor thoughts, they explore a more useful question: What if doubt isn't always a signal to stop — but sometimes a signal that we're stretching into something we haven't learned how to do yet? What you’ll hear inside the episode: Adam Grant’s contrast between the “impostor” and the “armchair quarterback” — and what it reveals about the sometimes surprising relationship between confidence and competence how Grant’s concept of confident humility offers another possibility: enough confidence to move forward paired with enough humility to recognize what we still have to learn how to get curious about what impostor feelings might actually be telling us rather than automatically believing or dismissing themwhy preparation, practice, and experience can give us evidence we may not be able to think ourselves into beforehandwhat Reese Witherspoon’s experience preparing for Walk the Line can teach us about doing something before we feel confident we canwhy comparing our beginning to someone else’s expertise can distort the way we assess our own capabilityHalla Tómasdóttir’s practice of befriending her impostor thoughts rather than waiting for them to disappearhow self-doubt can sometimes point toward a growth edge rather than a reason to turn backwhy courage may need to come before confidenceReferenced in the episode: Book | Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant Book | The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin Book | The Gap and the Gain: The High Achievers' Guide To Happiness, Confidence, and Success by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Podcast | ReThinking with Adam Grant | Reese Witherspoon on Turning Impostor Syndrome Into Confidence (aired October 25, 2022) Podcast | ReThinking with Adam Grant | Befriending Your Impostor Syndrome with Iceland's President Halla Tómasdóttir (aired December 17, 2024) ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries, or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.

    Ep. 7 - Impostor Syndrome: What If Self-Doubt Isn't The Problem?
  4. Sep 25

    Ep. 6 - Dolly Parton on Confidence, Ambition, and Being Yourself

    One woman. So many different ways to be inspired by the way she lived.  In the days following Dolly Parton's passing, tributes from around the world reflected the extraordinary range of what she meant to people. Artist. Songwriter. Businesswoman. Philanthropist. Storyteller. Trailblazer. Beloved by family, friends, collaborators, and generations of people who never knew her personally.  Someone who seemed unmistakably, unapologetically herself.  In this episode of The Practice Ground, Ken and Kari reflect on the parts of Dolly's life and words that spoke most deeply to each of them — and the wisdom they hope to carry forward.  Ken is especially drawn to the congruence between who Dolly was and how she lived: the self-knowledge to recognize her own value, the confidence to define success for herself and carve her own path, and the humility to remain open to mistakes, criticism, and continued learning.  Kari is inspired by Dolly's ability to hold deep self-acceptance and enormous ambition at the same time: to know who she was without believing she was finished becoming, to do the sustained work required by what she wanted, and to keep finding new ways to develop her gifts and use what she'd built to contribute to others.  Their reflections aren't identical — and perhaps that's part of the point.  The same life can illuminate different things depending on where we're standing and the questions we're living. For Ken and Kari, Dolly's example offers a reminder that growth doesn't have to begin with rejecting who we are. We can know ourselves, want more for our lives, work for it, remain willing to learn — and use what we build to leave something meaningful for other people.  What you’ll hear inside the episode:  what Dolly's life and words can teach us about knowing who we are and recognizing the unique value we bring why self-acceptance and ambition don't have to be opposites Dolly's distinction between being a “professionalist” rather than a perfectionistwhat it can mean to define success for ourselves and have the self-determination to carve our own path why pursuing what we want may require developing some “calluses” along the way how confidence and humility can coexist — including in the way we respond to mistakes and criticism why knowing and accepting ourselves can also make room for other people to be themselves how developing our gifts and pursuing our ambitions can expand what we're able to contribute what Dolly’s life can teach us not only about living fully ourselves, but about the way we make other people feel along the way Cited in this episode: Podcast | WorkLife with Adam Grant | Dolly Parton is Burning Up Not Burning Out via TED Podcasts on YouTube Podcast | We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle | Dolly Parton: How to Make Decisions, Even If They Break Your Heart Book | Be: A No-Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self-Worth and Net Worth By Simply Being Yourself by Jessica Zweig ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries, or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.

    Ep. 6 - Dolly Parton on Confidence, Ambition, and Being Yourself
  5. Sep 18

    Ep. 5 - Two Quotes We're Living By | Ideas from Curt Cignetti & Brianna Wiest

    A good quote may make you stop. A great one might make you do something differently. In this episode of The Practice Ground, Ken and Kari each share a quote that has been guiding them lately.  More than just words they find inspiring, these are ideas they’ve been putting into practice — and discovering what can happen when something that resonates begins to change the way we live.  The quotes we’re presently living by Kari: Paraphrasing a principle she’s taken from Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti’s approach to preparation and success: “We’re not surprised by success.” Kari shares how Cignetti’s philosophy helped her recognize a shift in the season of personal growth she’s in. After years of learning to acknowledge herself instead of continually focusing on what she wasn’t doing, she’s now discovering a different kind of reward: becoming someone who decides what she wants, prepares the conditions for success, executes the plan, and does it again the next day. Her running habit becomes one example of a larger change — ordinary execution becoming less surprising, less taxing, and increasingly something she can expect from herself. Ken: Brianna Wiest: “Fall in love with the unknown, for the fact that it will almost always bring you things better than you could have imagined…” As a confidence coach, Ken deliberately looks for opportunities that stretch him beyond the places where he already feels confident — because that’s where courage, rather than certainty, is required. With Bronnie Ware’s The Top Five Regrets of the Dying also in mind, he shares why avoiding regrets of omission matters to him, and how Wiest’s words help him approach the unknown not only with fear, but with excitement about what might exist beyond anything he can currently imagine. What you’ll hear inside the episode: what Ken and Kari think makes a quote powerful enough to inspire action how Cignetti’s approach to preparation and success became part of Kari’s habit-training practice why a reward that once served us may not always match what we’re currently trying to train the insight that the reward itself can evolve as our identity evolves why growth often requires courage before confidence why Ken deliberately seeks opportunities that take him beyond what he already knows he can do how Wiest’s quote helps Ken get excited about the unknown by shifting his focus from potential detriments to possibilities greater than he could currently imagine  what changes when an idea we once had to take on faith begins to accumulate evidence from our own livesReferences for this episode: From Ken's quote Book | 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest Book | The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed By The Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware Article | Fall in Love with the Unknown: Create Something More Amazing Than You Could Possibly Have Imagined by Ken Li Article | Why Some Self-Help Books Help and Others Don't - Hint: It's Not the Books by Ken Li Article | What Preparing For a Podcast Revealed About How Far I've Come: Three Coaching Concepts I Lived Without Realizing It by Ken Li Article | "That's Boring!" Four Boring Lessons From My Workshop on Mindset by Ken Li From Kari's quote: Notes and Quotes from Coach Cignetti's Peach Bowl Press Conference via Hoosier Huddle (January 3, 2026) Transcript | What Curt Cignetti Said Before Indiana Football Plays Miami in National Championship via Sports Illustrated (January 17, 2026) Transcript | Cignetti Introductory Press Conference at Indiana University-Bloomington (December 1, 2023) Press Conference | What Curt Cignetti Had to Say as No. 23 Indiana Prepares for Northwestern (September 30, 2024) Press Conference | Indiana University Football Media Conference via ASAP Sports (February 5, 2025) ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries, or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.

    Ep. 5 - Two Quotes We're Living By | Ideas from Curt Cignetti &  Brianna Wiest
  6. Sep 11

    Ep. 4 - Habit Training Real-Time Case Study (Ken's After-Tennis Snacking Habit)

    What if a habit you've been trying to break isn't a failure of discipline — but a sequence you've become very good at repeating? In this episode of The Practice Ground, we take the cue-craving-response-reward framework from Episode 3 out of theory and into practice. Ken volunteers a habit he's wanted to change for some time: after late-night tennis, he often finds himself stopping for a burger, fries, or another favorite fast-food meal. As we unpack the habit, we discover that the craving isn't simply about hunger. Food — and certain foods in particular — has a long history for Ken as a reward after effort, stress, and experiences he'd rather not endure. Together, we examine the sequence he's already been training, the associations that may be helping keep it in place, and what it could look like to deliberately design, test, and train a different one — without turning the process into another referendum on willpower, consistency, or self-trust. What you'll hear inside the episode: how a behavior we want to change can make more sense when we examine the cue, craving, response, and reward already supporting itwhy understanding the associations we've built around a behavior can help us decide which new associations we want to trainhow Ken's history of food as a reward helped illuminate what his after-tennis snack may actually be satisfyingthe difference between trying to stop a behavior and deliberately designing a new sequence to practice insteadwhy testing, observing, and refining a sequence can replace the usual cycle of judgment when a habit doesn't go according to planwhy we can accidentally give one habit the enormous job of proving that we're disciplined, consistent, intentional, or finally able to trust ourselveswhat changes when we let the habit be the habit — and remove some of the emotional weight we've attached to succeeding at ittwo questions Kari now asks when training a habit: How much time do I want to spend training this? And how much energy do I want to expend training it?why “I've been trying to change this habit for years” isn't necessarily the same as having spent those years deliberately training a new sequencehow habit training can become an experiment in creating a sequence that's manageable and rewarding enough to keep repeatingCited in this episode: Book |  Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries, or visit her website at KariWatterson.com.

    Ep. 4 - Habit Training Real-Time Case Study (Ken's After-Tennis Snacking Habit)
  7. Sep 4

    Ep. 3 - Can Designing Habits Well Make Them Easier to Repeat? Atomic Habits + Case Study (Kari)

    What if struggling to stick with a habit isn't only about willpower or discipline — but how well the habit has been designed? In this episode of The Practice Ground, Ken and Kari explore James Clear's four-stage habit loop from Atomic Habits — cue, craving, response, and reward — and what it can look like to deliberately design and train that sequence in real life. Ken turns the conversation into a case study, asking Kari to deconstruct her experiment with running: Could she design the sequence well enough that running became not only easier to initiate, but rewarding enough that she wanted to keep repeating and training it?  Said differently: Can a desired behavior be trained until it becomes predictable? And what does designing a behavior even look like? What you'll hear inside the episode: how the cue-craving-response-reward habit loop can be used as a framework for designing and training habitswhy designing a habit and training a habit are two different parts of the processKari's real-life experiment with designing and training a running habitwhy Kari deliberately designed the response to include not only what she would do, but how she would respond to mental chatter and physical resistance before, during, and after the runwhat happened when she began training zero mental negotiation rather than allowing thoughts and resistance to determine whether she followed through why the reward may matter not only after a behavior, but in whether we want to repeat ithow repetition can begin changing what we expect ourselves to do when a familiar cue ariseswhy observing, testing, and refining a habit sequence can be more useful than judging yourself when it doesn't workCited in this episode: Book |  Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear Podcast |  The Diary of a CEO - Steven Bartlett's conversation with James Clear ----- Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries.

    Ep. 3 - Can Designing Habits Well Make Them Easier to Repeat? Atomic Habits + Case Study (Kari)
  8. Aug 29

    Ep. 2 - Three Wins Plus The Highest Leveraged Hour of the Day

    Can taking the time to record three wins each day really make that much of a difference? In this episode of The Practice Ground, we explore an idea from entrepreneurial coach Dan Sullivan and organizational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy: much of our dissatisfaction may be a measurement problem. In their book, The Gap and The Gain, Sullivan and Hardy distinguish between measuring ourselves against an ideal that is always somewhere ahead of us — “the Gap” — and measuring backward from where we are now to where we started — “the Gain.” We explore what can happen when we put that idea into practice by deliberately identifying three wins each day. Rather than continually noticing how far we still have to go, can we train ourselves to notice evidence of progress we've already made? What you'll hear inside the episode: the difference between measuring progress from “the Gap” and measuring from “the Gain”why continually measuring yourself against an ideal can leave you striving without ever feeling like you've arrivedwhy Dan Sullivan recommends identifying three wins each day — and three wins for tomorrowwhat can happen when you practice looking for evidence of progress day after daywhy the timing of the Three Wins practice may create benefits that carry into the next daywhy personally testing an idea can be more persuasive than simply learning about itKen's connection between “Gain thinking” and James Clear's idea of getting 1% better each dayhow the Three Wins practice can change the way we relate to our past, present, and future selveshow to begin turning Three Wins from an exercise into a habit you actually want to repeat  Cited in this episode: Article | Three Wins: The Most Important Habit You've Never Heard Of | Have you heard of making 1% improvement each day? This is how you do it by Ken Li Book | The Gap and The Gain: The High Achiever's Guide to Happiness, Confidence and Success by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Commencement Address | Admiral William H. McRaven - University of Texas at Austin (2014) Ken Li is a confidence coach. Connect with Ken on LinkedIn, where he regularly shares mindset tools, resources, and strategies to help professionals who second-guess themselves feel as confident inside as they look. Kari Watterson is a mindset and habits coach. Connect with Kari on Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer). where she shares her ongoing series, The Habit Training Diaries.

    Ep. 2 - Three Wins Plus The Highest Leveraged Hour of the Day
  9. Aug 21

    Ep. 1 - Why Making Decisions Feels So Hard and How Dr. Strange and the Gary Parker Rule Can Help Make Big Ones

    Why can making a decision feel so difficult — even when we know there may not be one “right” answer? In our first episode of The Practice Ground, we explore why decision-making can feel so complicated — especially when uncertainty, competing priorities, values, and the desire to make the “perfect” choice all enter the equation.  We talk about analysis paralysis, the temptation to keep gathering information, and what can change when we stop treating every decision as something we have to get “right.” Along the way, we explore: why getting clear about what you actually want can simplify a decisionhow uncertainty can keep us searching for more information instead of choosingthe difference between reversible and more consequential decisionswhy choosing not to decide is still a decisionwhat Cate Osborn calls the “Dr. Strange-ian quandary”: the awareness that choosing one path means letting go of other possible versions of our liveshow making decisions — including imperfect ones — can become something we practicethe Gary Parker Rulewhat changes when we consider the possibility that there may be no “wrong” decisionPart of our conversation was inspired by Cate Osborn’s interview with decision scientist Dr. Mark Shrime on the Sorry, I Missed This podcast. We were particularly struck by their conversation about uncertainty, values, and the “Dr. Strange-ian quandary” — and Dr. Shrime’s reframing of what it means to choose one path when we know other possible paths exist. Cited in this episode: Sorry, I Missed This Podcast Episode: Decisions, Decisions: ADHD and the Trap of Analysis Paralysis with Cate Osborn and Dr. Mark Shrime TEDx Talk | Putting Purpose Over Path by Dr. Mark Shrime Song | 100 Bad Days by AJR Find Ken Li on LinkedIn Find Kari Watterson at Instagram (@theadhdhabittrainer)

    Ep. 1 - Why Making Decisions Feels So Hard and How Dr. Strange and the Gary Parker Rule Can Help Make Big Ones

About

Most of us don't need more information -- we need more experience. Join confidence coach, Ken Li, and mindset and habits coach, Kari Watterson, for conversations that challenge how you think, encourage courageous experimentation, and inspire you to gather experiences that deepen your confidence—and your participation in your own life.