Work Life Play With Aaron Mchugh

I have this theory that all of our experiences, our misfortunes, our victories, our relationships, our shortcomings, our unexplained mysteries of our life are useful raw materials. It reminds me of the periodic table of elements that represent the building blocks of all life. When combining multiple elements, they take on new properties and create new matter. I think our life is like this. We never fully understand which experiences and which occurrences of our life will eventually be drawn upon to make something important. I believe they are all raw materials for our present and future. They are individually useful no matter how small or difficult or forgotten. They make us who we are. Embrace the mystery of the raw materials of your life. Here's a little shout out to Joel Spicola, my partner in entrepreneurial dreaming back in 2000. We dreamed up Cubicleplanet.com, "Uniting cubicle-dwelers across the planet". I included our Cubicleplanet radio commercial that we cut as part of our business plan that we Fed

write yourself a better story If you could reimagine your life again...what story would your write? Maybe you feel stuck in a life rut or simply feel you aren't living the life you were made for. It's easy to find yourself down a path you didn't want or you're eager to do something new. People like us want to live a meaningful life full of intimacy, connection, joy, creativity, beauty and adventure. We rebooted our life, sold everything and started our life (and marriage) again. We will help you explore what a well-lived life means to you and how rebooting your life can radically improve the story you're living. Also, just because Leith and I are co-hosting doesn't make this a marriage conference. It's open to anyone and everyone, regardless of where you're at in life and your relationships. GRAB YOUR SPOT TODAY May 5-6th, 2017 COLORADO SPRINGS, CO Unplug Your Life For some mysterious reason, everything works better when you unplug it. Our lives, our careers, our relationships and our health can become more f

This episode is from 11,000 feet on New York Mountain outside of Eagle Colorado in a backcountry Yurt during a recent ski hut trip I went on with 7 guys. I recorded a few of our conversations that ended up being about a couple of movies like La La Land, Simon Birch and the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. We talked about the lessons those movies have taught us about our own life.

Here's the download on Allan Branch. He's a serial entrepreneur, rebuilding a 30' sailboat, homeschooling his kids, growing and selling a SaaS company, traveling with his kids for 12 weeks a year paid for by the business but still feeling like a crappy Dad most of the time. Check out our live event on May 5th & 6th Rebooting Your Life. You deserve a fresh start. www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot  

This Adventure log is from a recent trip I took with my brother to the Baja California in Mexico. I've dreamed about sea kayaking this area for over a decade. I fired up my microphone throughout the trip while adventure was actually happening. Some of the audio quality is great as I forgot my windscreen for my microphone. I hope you can listen past the blowing wind or mic bumps. Consider it a real-life rough cut authentically inviting you into the adventure with us. Here is the Sea Kayaking Baja guide service Paddling South. I'd highly recommend joining them for an adventure.

Andy Molinsky, PH.D is an expert on behavior in the business world. I interviewed him about his new book, REACH: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence. Andy Molinsky is a Professor at Brandeis University’s International Business School. Andy helps people develop the insights and courage necessary to act outside their personal and cultural comfort zones when doing important, but challenging, tasks in work and life. Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start. May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO full signup event details here https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/  

In the intro of this episode, I play a Haka I recorded last summer at my nephew's World Series Baseball game. The young men who put on this Haka chant was from the New Zealand baseball team. If you're familiar with Rugby then you've likely heard this before. The All Blacks Rugby team puts on a great show of this warrior dance at the beginning of every match. The translation of the Haka is "I might die! I might die! I might live! I might live!" I fired up my microphone at 9,000 feet after a cold wintery night sleeping in the car. As I brewed some coffee for my French Press, I offer some thoughts on the options we're faced with as we consider living fully in the life we have. Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start. May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO full signup event details here https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

Big changes in life are often times made by subtle shifts in our approach. I learned this lesson on making a 2 degree shift from Onsite Workshops. I think it's a lot like using a compass and adjusting your compass to point to True North, instead of Magnetic North (declination). I used to believe that I had to make huge changes to my Work, Life, Relationships and Play. Instead, I discovered that small subtle 2 degree shifts everyday, in every decision, in every conversation help me plot a new trajectory for my life. Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start. May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO full signup event details here https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

Alastair Humphreys in his book MicroAdventures: Local Discoveries For Great Escapes says, "Adventure is a state of mind, a spirit of trying something new and leaving your comfort zone. It's about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness and curiosity". I think that invitation is a perfect frame for this idea. Wherever you live, mystery, possibility and adventure await you...if you choose to go looking for it. My wife and I first tried on this idea of living like tourists in our town by taking a Staycation. We booked a hotel three miles from our home, reserved a couple of massages at our athletic club, sat in the hot tub, ordered a few beverages, went to a movie and dinner and were home by lunch the next day to relieve the babysitter. It was simple. It didn't take a lot of money. It did not require a lot of time and planning. It was incredibly restful and encouraging. It unlocked this idea for us and I hope you will try it on for yourself. In your town there are (within a one to two hour car/train ride)... Museu

In this episode I outline the lessons I've learned in budgeting my emotional energy investments and expenditures. You can read the full post on the topic here. I experienced a burn out in 2015. I was emotionally and physically depleted. In my struggle to articulate what I was experiencing and how I got there, I began imagining my emotional energy using this idea of emotional calories. I started connecting my emotional energy with my physical energy, food nutrient intake, caloric requirements and energy management. Rebooting Your Life-Everyone deserves a fresh start. May 5th & 6th Colorado Springs, CO full signup event details here https://www.aaronmchugh.com/reboot/

We did the deal in a McDonald’s parking lot half a mile from the Portland airport after a 20-minute test drive and a rusty glove inspection. It took $6,700, four plane tickets and six months of looking for her. The Joy Bus was ours. The story began when my daughter Averi blurted out this dreamy statement, “When I graduate from high school, Maya and I are going to buy a VW Bus, road-trip to California and surf for the summer.” After more banter about this idea, we began to think, Why not? Averi is our youngest of three children. With Averi’s older brother, I would have likely offered a litany of logical facts as to how improbable dreams of surfing the Cali coast would be for two 18-year-olds. The truth is, I wasn’t always willing to embrace the wonder of big, audacious dreams. Nor was I fanning the flame of our children’s dreams to muse about what lies beyond tomorrow. After 20 years of practice, trials and mistakes, I am becoming a much better father. Averi and I started riffing on the idea of finding a Bus a

I'm learning that there are very few people on the planet that I'd rely upon, trust, believe in, implicitly know I'm safe with and covered by to rob a bank with. But there are a few. In business and in life, I find it's super helpful to identify who you'd rob a bank with. Meaning, who would you bet on to come through no matter what happened.

I recorded this episode while on an adventure run in LA. I was exploring and found a really cool trail that winded to the top of a city park with this perfect pond and view of the city. Running helps me maintain my curiosity and the spirit of adventure. Every time I travel, I bring my running shoes along. I have this belief that there will be something cool wherever I go. And low and behold, I find some amazing trails, runs, byways, parks, rivers, streams, and epic scenery.  I offer you this story as a muse on finding what you're searching for. I believe that you will find whatever it is you are searching for if you believe its out there. When you start with a belief "I bet this might be cool....." you will see what it is your heart believes. 

Chris Lieto is a top ranked World Class Triathlete, 3 time Ironman Champion, Husband, Father @BasePerformance and doing @MoreThanSport. Big Island of Hawaii

The Story of Shackleton Sir Ernest Shackleton is a legend as an Antarctic Explorer. However his fame did not come from accomplishing his goal of reaching the south pole. Instead on his third trip to the Antarctic, his ship The Endurance became frozen in the pack ice, 100 miles from land. He and his 27 men proceeded to spend nearly two years in a desperate plight for survival. Shackleton was credited with being the bold leader that made the hope of survival and rescue possible. In the end all 27 men survived. “That was all of tangible things; but in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had ‘suffered, starved, and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole.’ We had seen God in his splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of men.” — Ernest Shackleton, South

Salit’s core idea is that all humans have an innate ability to perform, pretend, and improvise. It’s what helps us develop as children and continue developing as adults. You may not have been on a stage since you played a tree in third grade, but the reality is that you’re performing all the time. Performance Breakthrough shows how you can use ideas and techniques from theater and improvisation, along with the new science of performative psychology, to enhance your performance at work and “become who you are not yet.”

Be the hero. Own it all. All the ingredients are raw materials that are useful in our stories. All of it. Be gracious and kind to yourself. Love the people you are with. Be curious. Go searching for life. Keep going, Aaron

Thank you friends for being on this adventure with me of 100 episodes of Work Life Play. At the end of this episode, I have a special closing from my friend Jack O'Neill from Jackopierce. My wife and I spent the weekend with them in NYC as part of attending a Seth Godin conference. Our new friends Ryan and Heidi Miller joined us to make six. Check out their work: Ryan's work 08Left Custom art for Travelers and Lovers of Aviation.  Heidi's custom card company Mango Ink Jack's music with Jackopierce

Andrew Reiner is a writer and educator in Baltimore, MD. He is working on a book about masculinity and, right now, a chapter on boys/men and crying. He read a blog by my friend Sam Jolman, How to Cry Like a Man, while researching this topic and he read a comment I made on how I did not cry between the ages of 12-21.  This episode is about becoming wholehearted and emotionally fit as men. "Embracing the full spectrum of our life".