Nina’s Drive

Angelina Gozzi
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Figuring it out. A podcast about ambition, curiosity, redirection, and what makes a life interesting. More movement. More drive. More curiosity. More human. Nina’s Drive, hosted by Angelina Gozzi. A Red Beret Society podcast.

  1. 5d ago

    What if we never know?

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) The irony of life is that the only thing we can really count on is change. The certainty of uncertainty! A little something from this episode: Zivolife 30% off with code NINA: https://promocode.to/zivolife/nina-fo1 STRONG Coffee Company 20% off with code NINA20: https://promocode.to/strong-coffee-company/nina20-urk As always, more movement, more curiosity, more human.

  2. Oct 14

    Reaction and Observance

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) There are a lot of things we like to believe we can control. Timing. Outcomes. Other people. How we’re perceived. Whether something works out. Whether someone understands us. Whether the plan goes the way we imagined it would. Most of the time, we can’t. What we do have is a smaller, quieter kind of control: what we do next. I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between reacting and responding. Not in the sense of becoming emotionless or permanently calm, but in understanding that the first feeling that arrives does not always have to make the next decision. Anger can tell you that a boundary was crossed. Fear can tell you that something matters. Disappointment can tell you what you expected. Jealousy can show you what you want. Excitement can pull you toward curiosity. Emotion is information. It just doesn’t always need to become instruction. I think a lot of maturity happens in the space between feeling something and acting on it. Sometimes that space is five minutes. Sometimes it is five seconds. Sometimes you still decide to confront something. Sometimes you leave. Sometimes you say no. Sometimes you realize your ego was bruised and the response you were about to give had nothing to do with what you actually wanted. Being composed does not mean being passive. And being self-aware does not mean never reacting badly again. That would almost go against everything I talked about in the last episode about becoming “more human.” The goal is not to optimize yourself into a perfectly controlled person. You will still say the wrong thing. You will still act emotionally. You will still get scared, defensive, excited, impatient. The point is just to notice more often. This also feels connected to the question I keep coming back to on Nina’s Drive: What moves you? Because sometimes what moves us is curiosity. Sometimes it is genuine desire. And sometimes it is fear, ego, embarrassment, rejection, or the need to prove something. Not every emotion needs to become a compass. Compass was about direction. Intrinsic vs. external motivation was about why we want what we want. More Human was about what happens when we turn our lives into projects to constantly improve. This episode feels like the next question: When something happens along the way, who gets to decide your next move? Maybe not always you. Sometimes fear wins. Sometimes anger wins. Sometimes ego wins. But the more aware you become, the more often you get a say. You don’t always control what reaches you. You have much more control over what leaves you. Maybe self-control is not being unaffected. Maybe it is being affected without automatically becoming whatever affected you. So the next time something gets a reaction out of you, ask yourself: What is actually moving me right now? Feel it. Pay attention to it. Just don’t hand it the steering wheel before you know where it is taking you. NINA’S DRIVE more movement. more drive. more curiosity. more human.

  3. Oct 7

    Optimization

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) We optimize everything. Our protein, sleep, steps, time, emails, work, relationships, even our rest has to somehow make us more productive. But somewhere between efficiency and self improvement, have we started treating ourselves like machines that are permanently underperforming? This episode is about the things that don’t optimize well: getting lost, being embarrassing, wasting time, having weird interests, doing things with absolutely no ROI, and those tiny imperfect moments that remind you there’s an actual person underneath all the performance. Maybe the goal isn’t to stop optimizing. Maybe it’s remembering that efficiency is a tool, not the point of being alive.

  4. Sep 30

    What moves you?

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) We talk a lot about motivation. How to get motivated. How to stay motivated. How to become more disciplined, ambitious, productive. But I think there’s a question that should come before all of that: Why do you want it in the first place? Think of something you want right now. A goal, a career, a business, a body, a relationship, a certain kind of life. Now ask yourself what is actually driving it. Money? Curiosity? Ego? Fear? Recognition? Family? Insecurity? Obsession? Revenge? The need to prove something to yourself? And whatever your answer is, don’t stop there. Ask why again. I’ve realized that curiosity is probably one of my biggest driving forces. If I’m hiking and there’s a questionable looking path that seems like I probably shouldn’t take it, I need to know what’s on the other side. If there’s someone interesting I could meet, I’ll send the email. If there’s somewhere I haven’t been, I want to know what it feels like to be there. That instinct shows up everywhere in my life. I want to know what happens if I go. But not every driver is that easy to romanticize. Take recognition. Imagine you built a company, but nobody could ever know you founded it. Your name wouldn’t be attached to it. You couldn’t post about it. Nobody would congratulate you. Would you still want to build it? If the answer is no, that’s interesting. Maybe what you wanted wasn’t entirely the company. Maybe some part of what you wanted was being seen building the company. That doesn’t automatically make the desire bad. It just gives you another question. Why do you need the recognition? Do you like being congratulated? Why? Do you congratulate yourself enough? Maybe it’s ego. But then… why the ego? Fear? Expectations? Something you said you would accomplish and now feel obligated to prove? Something you absorbed from your family, professors, friends, social media? There is something incredibly powerful about telling yourself you’re going to do something and then actually doing it. Wake up when you said you would. Make your bed. Go for the walk. Answer the email. Go to the gym. Make your own coffee. Finish the thing you promised yourself you would finish. I deliberately put easy things on my to-do lists for this reason. I like checking things off. One accomplishment makes the next one feel a little easier. But more importantly, every time you keep a promise to yourself, you collect evidence that you are someone you can rely on. I think the important question is whether the driver evolves with you. Because movement alone isn’t necessarily progress. You can work, travel, create, consume, meet people and fill every hour of your life and still just be moving. There needs to be some direction. Not necessarily a perfectly constructed five-year plan. I don’t believe in over-planning your way through life either. But some sense of purpose. Something you’re moving toward, even if that thing changes. And this is where I think introspection matters. Wrestle with your answer. What moves you? What moved you yesterday? What is moving you toward whatever comes next? Is it intrinsic? Is it external? Has it changed? Is it something you actually want, or something you want people to know you have? And then, whatever answer appears: Why? Then ask it again.

  5. Sep 23

    Compass

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) I’ve been thinking a lot (recently especially) about having a map and having a compass. A map assumes you know where you’re going. There is a destination, a route, some idea of what comes next. A compass has much less certainty. You just need enough awareness to know which direction is pulling you. I think we’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have maps. What are you doing next? Where are you going? What do you want to be? What’s the plan? And there is nothing wrong with having a plan. But I’m starting to think that sometimes, the obsession with knowing exactly where we’re going makes us less aware of everything trying to move us somewhere else. RULE OUT EXPECTATIONS and rule in movement. because movement creates information. You can sit somewhere for months trying to think your way into clarity, or you can move. Go somewhere. Take the meeting. Try the thing. Talk to the person. Follow the strange interest that keeps resurfacing. Say yes to something without immediately needing to understand what it will become. And pay attention. “I liked that.” “I hated that.” “I want more of this.” “I never want to do that again.” You suddenly know more about yourself than you did before. That is why, despite my extremely curious nature, I have become even more interested in curiosity as a way of making decisions. When I don’t know what the “right” thing to do is, maybe the better question is simply - “What am I curious about?” Not everything that interests you needs to become productive. It doesn’t need to make money, fit your career, strengthen your identity, make cohesive sense on paper. Sometimes the little pull toward a person, place, subject, idea, project, or completely random invitation is enough reason to investigate it. but you have to be present in yourself and intuition to notice these pulls in the first place. Opportunities rarely introduce themselves as life changing. They look like a conversation, an invitation you almost decline, someone you happen to meet, a trip, project, something you keep returning to. You require participation. Follow a thought, answer a message, leave the house, have a conversation. This doesn’t mean abandoning ambition or floating around waiting for the universe to decide everything for you. I still want direction, I still want discipline. I still want to move intentionally. Being intentional DOES NOT require you to know the outcome. You can be over ambitious without over engineering your future. You can change direction without deciding the previous was a mistake. Maybe we built our lives less through perfect decisions and more through hundreds of small movements. So Right now I am trying to ask myself less of What is my exact plan, and more What is pulling me forward? You don’t always need a map. Sometimes you just need the compass. Moving with awareness, an open mind, tuned to invitation. Rule out expectations, rule in movement through curiosity.

    Compass

  6. Jun 19

    Dealing with uncertainty

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) Dealing with the uncertain

  7. Feb 7

    Life advice straight from my notes app

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) No exact theme nor topic here, just covering points and mindsets I come across daily and would like to share with the people.

    Life advice straight from my notes app

  8. 11/12/2024

    peace with presence

    SEND VOICEMAIL BACK :):) balance of the right now. being present brings peace, clarity, and focus.

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About

Figuring it out. A podcast about ambition, curiosity, redirection, and what makes a life interesting. More movement. More drive. More curiosity. More human. Nina’s Drive, hosted by Angelina Gozzi. A Red Beret Society podcast.

Information

  • Creator
    Angelina Gozzi
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    49
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Angelina Gozzi 2023
  • Show Website
    Nina’s Drive