Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of Self-Improvement
Self-Improvement
About
Most self-help advice is guesswork dressed up as wisdom. We dig into psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral science to find what actually changes lives. WHY LISTEN? Over 8 million downloads because we answer the questions that matter: How do I build mental strength? What creates lasting motivation? How can I understand my own mind well enough to work with it, not against it? This podcast is for curious skeptics who want frameworks backed by psychology studies, not Instagram quotes. Whether you're navigating procrastination, building self-discipline, or designing your own philosophy for a life well lived—we explore the hidden psychology behind real ch...
Episodes
- Why "Bad" Emotions Are an Illusion: Dr Stephen Porges on Free Will and the Psychology of Pain
Dr. Stephen Porges explores the psychology of emotional regulation and the biology of threat, discussing free will and the idea that emotions are signals rather than commands. The conversation focuses on shifting perspectives on stress, pa…
- How to Finally Commit to One Thing When Everything Feels Important
This episode discusses the psychology of focus and commitment, exploring how curious individuals can struggle to commit to one thing. It covers insights from neuroscience and philosophy on sequencing ambitions and building a focused life.
- How to Be Genuinely Interesting - Without performing, pretending, or people-pleasing
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology explores how to be genuinely interesting without performing or people-pleasing. It delves into the ideas of pursuing depth in topics and being authentic as strategies for personal growth.
- Your Nervous System Has Been Running Your Life - How to finally take control with Stephen Porges (Inventor of Polyvagal Theory)
Stephen Porges, inventor of Polyvagal Theory, explains how the vagus nerve impacts human behavior, including anxiety and burnout. He describes how understanding this ancient wiring can help individuals take control of their lives and achie…
- The Illusion of Panic: How to Master Your Nervous System When It Invents Danger
This episode discusses how the nervous system can create an "illusion of panic" through neuroception, often misinterpreting non-threatening situations as danger. It explores Polyvagal Theory and offers techniques like box breathing and soc…
- The Psychology of Risk: How Near Death Experiences Help you Quit a Good Life to Pursue a Great One - w. Talia Lazarus
This episode features Talia Lazarus, who shares her experience of how a near-death event led her to re-evaluate her life choices. The discussion focuses on embracing personal growth and overcoming self-imposed constraints to pursue a fulfi…
- The Comfort Zone Trap - How Failure Builds Courage, Confidence, and an Interesting Life
This episode discusses how humans avoid discomfort while seeking growth. It explores three methods to make peace with failure, drawing on psychology and neuroscience. The episode emphasizes redefining failure as information and practicing…
- Chemistry Isn’t Compatibility: How to Choose Better Partners in Love and Work - w/ Matt Higgins
This episode explores the psychology of healthy relationships in love and work, featuring investor Matt Higgins. It discusses why "thrilling friction" is often mistaken for compatibility, and offers insights into how overlapping values con…
- The Psychology of What Matters: How to Stop Wasting Time
This episode explores the psychology of choosing priorities, resisting urgency, and spending time well. It discusses why people often chase the wrong goals and how to focus on what truly matters to create a meaningful life.
- The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset: How to rewire your brain
This episode explores the neuroscience of growth mindset, examining how the brain can be rewired. It discusses neuroplasticity, executive function, and repeated effort, suggesting that failure can be a valuable tool for learning and reshap…
- Are You Thinking Your Thoughts, Or Are They Thinking You?
This episode explores how ideas can influence behavior, connecting evolutionary biology, genetics, and natural selection to human psychology. It examines how social media, advertising, and religion utilize cognitive vulnerabilities, simila…
- The Psychology of Never Feeling Good Enough (Even When You Clearly Are)
This episode explores hedonic adaptation, perfectionism, and the inner critic, explaining why individuals often feel they are never good enough despite their achievements. It discusses how these psychological factors can diminish the recog…
- 7 Weird Life-Changing Skills that are Strange to Work On
Growth Mindset Psychology explores five traits: deep thinking, curiosity, uniqueness, humor, and enthusiasm. The episode frames these as practical, buildable skills that, when developed, can lead to personal change.
- Why Having a Backup Plan Is Making You Fail - Burn the boats with Matt Higgins
Matt Higgins discusses how removing escape routes can lead to success, referencing Hernán Cortés. The episode explores how having a backup plan might reduce motivation and the likelihood of achieving goals.
- Why You Have Great Ideas but Never Actually Do Anything With Them
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology discusses the common challenge of having ideas but failing to act on them. It highlights that bringing an idea to fruition is a complex process requiring persistence, feedback, and consistency, cit…
- You Didn't Choose Your Attachment Style, but Here's How You Can Change It - With Jessica Baum
This episode discusses attachment styles and their impact on relationships. Jessica Baum explains how these styles, formed in infancy, can be understood and changed to foster healthier connections.
- From Reactance to Resilience: How to manage psychological triggers and create freedom
This episode discusses how to manage psychological triggers and develop resilience. It focuses on transforming anger into an opportunity for self-improvement by examining unmet expectations and changing reactions.
- How To Train Your Mind: The surprising benefits of play
This episode discusses how play can improve learning and cognitive function, suggesting that the brain upgrades through meaning, novelty, and attention rather than stress. It also explores turning tasks into games and finding enjoyable ent…
- The Weird Psychology of Communication, Self-control, and Gossip: What evolution teaches us about communicating your needs clearly
This episode explores the evolution of communication, self-control, and gossip, examining how these concepts have shaped human interaction from ancient times to the present. It delves into the psychology behind reputation, shame, and statu…
- Hidden Potential: The Psychology of self-sabotage and changing what's possible - Heather Moyse (2x Olympic Gold)
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology features Heather Moyse, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, discussing the psychology of self-sabotage and how to unlock potential. The conversation covers behavioral inertia and the impact of enviro…
- The Feynman Technique: The 4 Steps to Learn and Master Anything
This episode explores the Feynman Technique, a four-step method for effective learning. It delves into how to utilize curiosity and emotion to master new concepts, moving beyond traditional cramming methods. The discussion also covers the…
- How to Stop Wasting Time with the Wrong People - Emotional maturity with Jonathan Aslay
Jonathan Aslay explains how to identify emotional maturity in potential partners. He discusses how to avoid wasting time in relationships by recognizing incompatibility and focusing on shared values.
- Surrounded by Conformists: How to spot the 5 types of NPC and think your own thoughts - [Psychology of non-player characters]
This episode discusses the psychology of conformity and how individuals can maintain independent thought in a world influenced by algorithms. It explores the concept of "NPCs" and the importance of developing one's own perspective.
- How To Build Free Will
This episode examines the concept of free will, exploring psychological experiments and philosophical ideas that suggest much of human behavior is automatic. It discusses how to cultivate the ability to choose responses to thoughts and imp…
- 5 Surprising Truths About Independence and Being Yourself: What really impacts who you are
This episode discusses autonomy versus assimilation in the growth mindset, challenging the idea that individuals are a blend of the five people they spend time with. It emphasizes treating influence like a buffet and being a selector of tr…
- Life's Infinite Games: How to play by your own rules
This episode discusses how individuals can navigate life's challenges by playing by their own rules rather than adhering to societal expectations. It explores seeking independence and focusing on personal well-being. The episode touches on…
- 4 Steps to Become Remarkable: A guide to overhaul your life
This episode discusses a four-month process to live a remarkable life. It covers creating a personal operating system, operationalizing dreams, and taking control of obligations to design a unique life.
- Working with Time Instead of Against It - How to enjoy this year and every year of your life
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology discusses how to work with time rather than against it, addressing modern time-panic. It explores why efficiency can lead to feeling rushed and offers strategies like cultivating calm and using med…
- 5 Rules for Mental Health and Clarity - Andrew Huberman's simple formula for success
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology discusses five fundamental, science-backed practices crucial for maintaining good mental health and achieving clarity. The segment emphasizes the importance of these core requirements for optimal p…
- Leaving a Legacy: What do we actually get remembered for - Lessons on family and life - [Storied Recipe]
This episode explores how to leave a legacy through consistent nurturing, drawing lessons from a grandmother's life and the pineapple upside-down cakes she made. It emphasizes supporting individual strengths over forcing compliance and cre…
- The Regret Minimization Framework: How to make life decisions
This episode introduces the "Regret Minimization Framework," a tool for navigating future uncertainty and making life decisions. It differentiates between "peak experiences" and "plateau experiences" and emphasizes living with urgency to a…
- Cognitive Rigidity: 5 Lessons to build a flexible mind - [Cognitive Biases #6]
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology discusses cognitive rigidity and how understanding biases can help build a flexible mind. It covers five mental traps, including the Endowment Effect and Hyperbolic Discounting, along with actionab…
- The Illusion of Control: 7 Ways we lie to ourselves that even defeated Napoleon - [Cognitive Biases #5]
This episode examines how cognitive biases influence our perception and understanding of reality. It discusses how concepts like the placebo effect and the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon demonstrate the power of subjective interpretation, refer…
- Why You Make Bad Decisions: Confirmation Bias and the 7 Sins of Lazy Thinking [Cognitive Biases #4]
This episode discusses how cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and availability bias affect decision-making. It explores seven cognitive biases that highlight the conflict between comfort and truth, offering insights on how to make…
- Why We Don't Understand Money: How to fix your thinking flaws - [Cognitive Biases #3]
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology explores how cognitive biases and psychological pricing traps affect financial decisions. It covers concepts like the Decoy Effect, Sunk Cost Fallacy, and Information Bias, offering strategies to c…
- Ego Blindspots: Common cognitive distortions of the self - [Cognitive Biases #2]
This episode discusses ego blindspots and common cognitive distortions, such as confirmation bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect, that impact decision-making. It offers strategies to identify and address these biases for self-improvement.
- Thinking Fast and Slow: How to make better decisions and avoid hidden mind traps
This episode explores Daniel Kahneman's work on cognitive shortcuts and decision-making. It discusses how to identify and avoid common mental traps to make better choices in life.
- Who are you VS. Who do you want to be? - How to align your actions with your desires
This episode explores the question of aligning personal actions with desires, examining motivation from psychological and philosophical viewpoints. It discusses the differences between what one wants to do versus what one wants to have don…
- The Hidden Psychology of Black Friday - How do shops manipulate us (and make calm aunties fist-fight over PlayStations)?
This episode examines the psychological methods retailers employ during Black Friday to influence consumer behavior. It discusses how tactics like scarcity, anchoring, and anticipation affect shoppers and offers strategies for making more…
- Systems Thinking: How to understand the deeper reality of the world around us
This episode explores systems thinking, a fundamental concept in various fields, to understand how interconnected systems drive global changes and influence our lives. It discusses applying this approach to identify root causes, leverage p…
- Die With Zero Regrets - Stoic ideas to make the most of your life
This episode discusses stoic ideas for living a life without regrets. It emphasizes that "enough" is a moment, not a number, and explores how to make the most of life by focusing on generosity, timing, and intention.
- The Psychology of Podcasting: Lessons in self actualisation, intrinsic motivation and how to enjoy yourself - w/ Paul Davies
This episode of Growth Mindset Psychology features an interview with Paul Davies on the psychology of podcasting. The discussion covers intrinsic motivation, self-actualisation, and the reasons why podcasters continue to create content, of…
- How to Defeat Your Shadow Life and Face Your Calling: Lessons from Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield,
This episode discusses how individuals can overcome "shadow callings" that lead them to professions close to, but not exactly, their true passions. It examines the differences between amateurs and professionals, drawing lessons from Steven…
- Tips on Getting Better Today Than Yesterday - w/ Olympic Coach Frank Dick OBE
In this episode, Olympic Coach Frank Dick OBE shares his "Four Rs" framework for personal growth: Reason, Reality, Reflection, and Response. He discusses strategies for self-improvement and developing mental strength.
- Moments Where Character Forms: Stop being a Victim and build a Victor Mindset - w/ Olympic Coach Frank Dick OBE
In this episode, Olympic Coach Frank Dick OBE shares insights on character formation, developing a victor mindset, and the psychology behind mistakes. He discusses mental strength, growth mindset frameworks, and extracting wisdom from expe…
- What is a MINDSET Exactly? (and how do you spot a bad one)
This episode clarifies the concept of mindset, distinguishing between growth and fixed mindsets and explaining the benefits of an abundance mindset. It explores how Carol Dweck's research provides a psychological perspective on mindset, mo…
- Make Time Your Friend: Build a positive mindset with a little existential psychology (and stoicism)
This episode explores building a positive mindset towards time, managing expectations, and reducing frustration. It discusses developing a deeper awareness of time and improving your relationship with it to enhance well-being.
- Questions to Build a Life of Substance & Let Go of What is Holding You Back - w/ Jodi Wellman
This episode features Jodi Wellman, author of "You Only Die Once," who explores questions from existential psychology. The discussion focuses on how to build a life of substance, define one's direction, and let go of what holds one back.
- The Real Problem with Work Life Balance and the Mental Model to Fix It
This episode discusses rethinking work-life balance, suggesting that the problem might be the metaphor used to describe it rather than the schedule. It explores how words shape reality, the benefits of integration over balance, and how to…
- Shame, Addiction, and How To Focus On Who You Are Becoming
This episode discusses how shame can serve as a signal for personal misalignment, guiding individuals toward self-improvement rather than inadequacy. It explores changing patterns that keep individuals in comfortable mediocrity and emphasi…