#406 How To Unleash Your Full Potential, Cultivate Character, Build Confidence & Use Hobbies To Beat Burnout with Professor Adam Grant
Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Dr Rangan Chatterjee
4.8 • 10.9K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2023
⏱️ 116 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We live in a world that celebrates and rewards talent. Whether it’s gifted students, outstanding athletes or born musicians, we applaud those who get there effortlessly, instead of those who travel furthest to reach the same place. In doing so, my guest today believes we also overlook our own potential to do great things.
Adam Grant is an organisational psychologist, University of Pennsylvania professor, podcaster, and the bestselling author of multiple books. His latest book, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things, is a thought-provoking look at what it really takes to succeed, how to find joy in progress, and why the true measure of potential is not how high you reach, but how far you came to get there.
Adam believes that many of us rule ourselves out of learning more or trying harder because we lack self-belief and strength of character. But character, he says, is not innate – it’s a skill we can learn. If your personality is how you show up on a typical day, then character is how you show up on a hard one.
In our conversation, we discuss how every single one of us can unleash our own hidden potential. We discuss the importance of character skills such as generosity, why it’s good to be one of life’s givers, but how it can lead to burnout and threaten our potential.
We also cover perfectionism and discuss why this trait has been on the rise since the 1980s. From a fear of trying new things, to a refusal to work on your weaknesses, it’s clear that only accepting your best is a sure-fire way to limit growth.
Adam also explains why hobbies are so important for us, especially when it comes to beating burnout. We also talk about the importance of flow state and the best ways in which we can parent our children to enable them to achieve their own innate potential.
Adam’s philosophy is that confidence is a result of progress not the precursor to it. This conversation is jam packed with potential – especially if you use it as a springboard to take action.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I used to think that hard work was a virtue and I no longer believe that. I think that hard work is a means to an end and it's only virtuous if the ends are worthy. |
| 0:12.0 | Don't just define success by the goals. It's only virtuous if the ends are worthy. |
| 0:12.6 | Don't just define success by the goals you achieve. |
| 0:16.6 | Think about it in terms of whether you live your values, because if you end up hitting |
| 0:21.1 | your goal, but you don't live by your principles I don't know |
| 0:26.2 | that that's success I would actually consider that a form of failure. |
| 0:28.7 | Hey guys how you doing hope you're having many good wheat so far my name is Dr |
| 0:34.5 | wrong and chatterjee and this is my podcast feel better live more we live in a world, don't we, that seems to celebrate and reward talent. |
| 0:48.0 | Whether it's gifted students, outstanding athletes or born musicians, we applaud those who seem to get there effortlessly, instead of those |
| 0:56.8 | who travel furthest to reach the same place. |
| 1:00.3 | In doing so, my guest today believes we overlook our own potential to do great things. |
| 1:07.0 | Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist, University of Pennsylvania professor, a podcaster, and the best-selling author of multiple books |
| 1:16.8 | whose work and research is renowned and celebrated all over the world. |
| 1:22.3 | His latest book, Hidden Potential, The Science of |
| 1:25.8 | Achieving Greater Things, is a thought-provoking look at what it really takes to |
| 1:30.6 | succeed, how to find joy in progress, and why the true measure of |
| 1:35.5 | potential is not how high you reach, but how far you came to get there. |
| 1:41.2 | Adam says that many of us rule ourselves out of learning more or trying harder because we lack |
| 1:47.5 | self-belief and strength of character. But character, he says, is not innate. It's a skill we can learn. If your personality |
| 1:57.1 | is how you show up on a typical day, then Character is how you show up on a hard one. |
| 2:03.0 | In our conversation, we discuss how every single one of us can unleash our own hidden potential. |
| 2:09.0 | We talk about the importance of character skills like generosity, why it's good to be one of life |
... |
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