ALL Alchemy For Life Podcast episodes (2016-present)

Here is the complete catalog of Alchemy for Life™ podcast episodes all in one place—organized by year.  The last three years also include an excerpt for each episode.  Previous years do not so that the page length is managable here.  Click the title of the episode to go to that episode’s page.  Note that each episode has it’s own page, an article that goes along with it, a web player so you can listen right in this browser, and can also be listed to via iTunes, TuneIn, Spotify, Google Play and anywhere you listen to podcasts—including your personal devices and home smart devices just by saying “Alexa/Google/Siri play Alchemy for life podcast.”  

2024

  • If you don’t see the system…
    “I see systems” This is something I have said for a very long time. Once I learned that this was one of my core directives it all made sense. But what does that mean, and how can that help you? Let’s talk about the systems in your life. If you don’t see the system you could be ...
  • ADHD, Perception and Overwhelming Data – It’s Not Your Brain
    😎 NOTE: The members of the AFL Patreon Community heard this episode last week. They get them a week early. You can too. Join it for free! What is ADHD actually? The term ADHD gets thrown around a lot. People use it for everything to describe an actual condition in which someone cannot concentrate, ...
  • It’s Time for Something Different
    It’s time. After all these episodes, books, coaching, and articles, it’s time to approach this differently and give us a better way to connect with each other. We both deserve it.
  • Guaranteed Great Day if You do This…
    I guarantee you will have a great day if you do this. And you might get a huge laugh out of it as well. Believe it or not this episode touches on and doubt, more experimental, psychology, and the holy Grail of positivity bias. All because your friend wants you to help him move a ...
  • Engagement Fiction for Your Type A Brain
    A New Genre You are now part of the birth of a new genre—engagement fiction. I know it’s new because I just made it up. If you’re a type a personality*, then you probably enjoy your brain being fully engaged for your work. But when it comes time for play, you may not really be feeding your ...
  • Selfishness demystified
    You’re probably selfish for a good reason. If not, your definition of selfishness is what’s stopping you from taking care of yourself properly. This is not about self-care and self-love. It’s about something entirely different.
  • Too much power to something via label
    You might be giving too much power to something in your life, just because you gave it a LABEL. See labels for more on labels in: If you use them you’ll get smarter (or dumber)
  • How Much Real Estate do You Own…in the 4th Dimension?
    How much real estate do you own? A fascinating way to look at one of The Big Three….
  • Three Phrases to Improve the Quality of Your Life
    We all have phrases we can readily repeat. Some of us have important phrases that have made an impact on us.
  • Stood up – Switching Gears and the Element No One Talks About.
    Have you ever been stood up? The origin of the term has many folksy definitions. I encourage you to look it up as many are sort of saucy, But we recognize this meaning someone did not show up as planned for a meeting, and usually includes them not reaching out or responding to ...
  • Meat Puppets handing you mailing list data
    The right and the wrong way to approach a networking event Most of my episodes are about experimental psychology, how to deal with and manage time, energy and resources, or a unique concept I’d like you to consider. Sometimes the episode is a purely business-related show. This is one of them. The excruciatingly hilariously wrong way ...
  • If I were you…
    Advice Who doesn’t like giving advice? Who doesn’t like receiving it? Wait, put your hands down, that was rhetorical. In all seriousness sometimes we need to ask for advice (we can’t all be in a bubble) and we are lucky that someone values our wisdom enough to ask us for our advice. I certainly ...
  • Conf Calls, Promises and Who is Actually Talking
    The olden days of voice only In the olden days when people wanted to collaborate they would jump on a conference call vs. jumping on a video call. It was extremely common to have a number of calls during any given week, and the larger the business the more conference calls there were. How many is ...
  • The Challenge of Perspective
    Sometimes you get the chance to see something from two perspectives. Sometimes both perspectives come from the same person. Sometimes that person is you.
  • Protecting Your Energy
    If someone gives you a certain amount of time to do a thing, the first thing your brain does is assess the amount of energy it takes to do that. And that’s how you assess if you have been given enough time.
  • Feeling Safe & Relaxed – Parasympathetic Nervous System
    Parasympathetic Nervous System The network of nerves that creates the system that’s known for the ‘rest and digest’ feelings is the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is what aids in digestion, slows your heart rate and give you general feelings of well being. I want that. I want a lot of that. I bet you do too. Sympathetic ...
  • Too Many Words
    Stroke support Group Recently, I sat in on a stroke support group. The group was for both the individuals who experienced strokes as well as their caretakers/family members. I had the blessing of the admin staff to do so. Was it uncomfortable? Yes did I feel out of place? Sort of. Did I learn ...
  • A Strength Stretched too far Becomes a Weakness
    Knowing your strengths Do you know your strengths some people do and some people don’t. If you do know your strengths, there is something about them. You may not realize and that’s the subject of this podcast. Stretching too far Sometimes when we approach a goal or a task, we look for a way to do it that ...
  • Live Your Life Iteratively
    What is an iteration? An iteration is an updated version of something built upon its previous version. But, and iteration can also be another separate version. Examples of iterations When someone bakes a cake, they can create a cake that has chocolate filling, vanilla frosting, and multicolor sprinkles on the outside. They can assess that cake and ...
  • Type A Retirement – the frightening truth
    Type A Personalities The phrase type a refers to a pattern of behavior and personality associated with high achievement, competitiveness, and impatience. Does this sound like you? Does this sound like most C-level employees? Does this sound like most entrepreneurs and creatives? If you’re listening to this podcast you most likely are. Productivity and meaning You probably ...
  • Why white space is vital to communication
    White Space The first known use of ‘White Space’ was back in 1946, and it means the area of a page without writing or pictures. It’s the part between the words, the part that allows us to pause and consider. it allows us to compartmentalize one set of thoughts from another. Social Media and the ...
  • Mentor, teacher, instructor… but is it ‘coach?’
    Coach So what is a coach? And what is a life coach? “Life Coach” never really generated positive professional images in my mind, even though I’m considered to be one. It appeared out of nowhere and came with baggage. At least to me. But now it seems that everyone is a coach, and each one has a ...
  • Taking responsibility for the good in your life.
    Three words There are a number of words that can cause an emotional reaction. I won’t use the word ‘trigger’ because that’s overused. We’re not going to go over all of those words, but we’re going to do three of them: fault, responsibility, and ownership—and we’re going to explore the positives of those words. ...
  • Find your core directives and something amazing happens
    Passion Everyone talks about passion. For a long time, you were told to follow your passion. I talked about passion in Job, Career or Calling a few years ago. Obviously passions are good as they give us that energy we need, but there are a lot of things we are not told about ...
  • Bias, internal, external & my eye-opening talk with Google Gemini
    Google Gemini Gemini is Google’s version of ChatGPT. It’s a large language model (LLM) that thinks and responds naturally. You can have conversations, ask for advice, ask it to play a part, and even ask it to generate images. That’s where my journey began. I asked it to generate a few images. This led to ...
  • UPS – My secret for avoiding depression, being more productive
    Down days It’s normal for people to have down days, to have times in which they become less than motivated. it’s also normal to find yourself without purpose here and there. Sure, you have a purpose—you have good old Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to keep you going. Are ya hungry? In pain? ...
280 podcast episodes so far with 195,462 words total for all articles.

2023

  • BEFORE you make resolutions listen to this
    Did I catch you in time? Every year I tell you not to make resolutions—not because I don’t want you to set goals, but because resolutions (at least the style of setting goals) traditionally have a fantastic failure rate. So, before you make them (or if you’ve made them, before you try to execute them) listen to ...
  • AI, Language Models and puppies
    AI & ChatGPT* A language model uses a special kind of learning to conduct a ‘probability distribution’ over words used to predict the most likely next word in a sentence based on the previous entry. Language models learn from text and can be used for producing original responses (both short and very long), predicting the next ...
  • Japanese principles – helping you to fall in love with your job
    There are a lot of lists out there for how to obtain happiness, productivity, etc. As you know Alchemy for Life™ is exactly about that too. So, I’d like to not only share some of these principals, but tell you about my real world experience with them as well as what you will ...
  • There’s no wrong way…
    “There’s no wrong way to do it…” Have you ever been given that advice? Did it make sense to you? Did it set you at ease? No, me neither. Let me tell you why that is the worst advice you can give someone who is trying to improve their craft, and ...
  • The importance of a catalog
    Do you have a catalog? if you call yourself a creative, then it is important to catalog your work. In that, I mean to take a step back and see the various foundations you’ve built. It’s a good idea anyway to take a step back, as many creators have to ask Does This Suck? ...
  • Attitude is everything (when consuming media)
    Attitude is everything That’s one of those phrases we have heard to death and to the point that it’s lost any real meaning, hasn’t it? If you’re like me you might even cringe at it and just wave it off as mind-over-matter kind of nonsense—even if it has made a difference in your life. ...
  • Triangulating Limiting Beliefs
    Triangulation Triangulation is the process by which you use more than one location to find the location of something. I point gets distance, two points gets position on the ground, three points gets altitude. That’s exactly how GPS works—the more satellites the better the accuracy. Imagine Limiting Belief You hear this all the time in the motivational ...
  • Thermostats, teaching and experience
    Start with awareness As with every episode we start with an awareness. In this case it’s an awareness of the fact that we are always gathering knowledge. Thermostats My thermostat tells me the humidity if I walk over to it, but even though I can ask and manipulate the temperature, I can’t ask about the humidity. ...
  • A single breeze…
    Great storms announce themselves with a single breeze, and a single random spark can ignite the fires of rebellion.  Bishop of Aquila – Ladyhawke (1985) A great quote from one of my all-time favorite movies. You may even say it was an influence on The Sword and the Sunflower. But that statement really makes you think about ...
  • Overcommunicating
    Retooling It’s been a bit because I’ve been busy exploring different media avenues. In addition to the podcast I’ve been exploring video shorts for Youtube, and small digestible video bites for Instagram and Facebook. So, welcome back! And check them out on my Facebook as well as my Instagram. Being succinct, overcommunicating Something a ...
  • Become ceremonious
    What is ceremony? If you look it up you’ll be told it is a “ritual observance or procedure.” Most cases refer to weddings, and that’s good because that’s the example I used in the podcast. Why do I want more in my life? You want more if you’re trying to make a habit stick, or something is ...
  • Who do you think you’re talking to?
    A reminder on the voices We use three voices to communicate with ourselves AND others. Even if you get that you may not realize that not only can someone’s second voice be speaking to you, but you might be using your second voice to speak to them. Confused? Here’s a reminder for those who haven’t read Three Voices. Your Third Voice – Your speaking voice, the ...
  • Self Love and Self Care – Revisited
    Most people think of self care and self love as the same thing. It’s all about you, being nice to you, doing nice things for you. Right? And it has a bit of stigma attached to it to easily make the average person (especially males) feel, well, just selfish about the whole ...
  • The holy grail of positivity-bias
    The mind’s ability to recall negative experiences is so easy, and the opposite is a struggle, why?
  • I saw two voices talking!
    Three Voices If you’ve read Three Voices then you know we all have three voices that we all use to communicate with ourselves and others. As a refresher and for those who have not read the book, our first voice is our speaking voice, our second is also regarded as our “inner monolog” or “the voices ...
  • Do you struggle too?
    What’s wrong with me? / Intro to this thing My unspoken perception (my first voice*) is as follows.  I am not saying this is correct, and in most of this it certainly is not, but here it is.   There’s this thing.  People who have overcome this have always struck me as… more adult than me.  They seem ...

2022

  • 2022 – you’re not alone
    You’re not alone. Here are do’s and don’ts for success in 2022. This bullet list and these resources will help you. 2022 and success – do’s and don’ts Don’t make resolutions. Make a goal with a system behind it. Become aware, then act on this awareness (that’s the whole premise of the podcast ...
  • Castillo Movement
    Robbin Castillo Robbin is a personal trainer, teacher and coach. He provides Ascension coaching, Holistic personal training and masterclasses. I normally do not feature coaches on my interviews (I tend to get a lot of requests for appearances on my podcast by coaches) but I approached Robbin because of what I saw on Instagram. ...
  • Oh just be your Best Self™
    The solution to all of your problems, past, present and future is to simply be Your Best Self. There. Done. There’s no podcast. It’s that easy. Reality and the thing you have to do first Oh, you’re still here? What’s that in your hands there… a chair? Put that down. Ok, no ...
  • Stop Demonizing Comfort Zones
    The comfort zone If you hire a coach, have a review or consider accomplishing a new goal invariably the comfort zone is going to come up. And the first thing that will be discussed is you leaving the comfort zone. It will be discussed as if it is a bad thing, even though it’s ...
  • Potential
    It’s such an innocuous word, isn’t it? Potential. It doesn’t sound like much when I say it by itself like that. But it’s the doorway to good and bad; to epic success or catastrophic failure. Let’s talk about what it means, what it does, and how it gives us a clue as ...
  • I assume
    Assume Assume: To suppose without information. Is this what you’re doing? is this what you have done every time you suppose without information? Or is this one of those words of power that we take for granted (no pun intended there). Label The word assume can be applied as a label to behavior. What ...
  • Seek First to Understand
    Mantras We all know what a mantra is—it’s that thing you repeat over and over again; it’s that guiding principle you have; it is those words you live by. Well I have one of those too. For me it’s “Seek First to Understand” and I don’t know if i live by those words or ...
  • The King of Birds
    Hakan Berg is known as The King of Birds. He was a finalist on Britain’s Got Talent, and fooled half of Penn and Teller on Fool us. Hakan and I had a surprisingly philosophical discussion about laughter, trust, vulnerability, magic and being in the present. We made a discovery together about ...
  • Fate or Destiny?
    Fate & Destiny Fate and Destiny mostly mean the same, don’t they? They’re sort of interchangeable—except for one thing: one makes you feel bad and the other makes you feel good. Free will It’ an age-old discussion, this talk of whether we have free will or not. What do you believe? ...
  • Holistic creativity is a given, but…
    Holistic To have a holistic approach is to consider all aspects of the whole. There’s nothing ooga booga or froo froo about that, and if you know me and this podcast you know we don’t talk about things that aren’t tangible. Being holistic is tangible. It just means that if there is ...
  • How do you have time for this…?
    How do you have time for this? Have you heard this phrase? You typically hear this about a large project or something that is apparently time consuming. But that’s misleading. They are using the wrong word Life is made of three things™ – Time, Energy and Resources. The big secret is that mostly it’s not just ...
  • Real Life Motivation
    Motivation. People talk about motivation so much it’s annoying. Coaches and speakers talk about it all. the. time. You don’t need another source do you? But here’s a different take… Two parts to motivation The actual hype that gives you energy. This is stuff like music that makes you excited to do the ...
  • Free group coaching opportunity
    Special Announcement This is a special announcement about free coaching that is being offered to two groups. The Alchemy for Life™ podcast subscribers group is one of the groups, which is why you’re seeing this. Congrats. Here is the scoop You’re probably just like me. You just want to know what this is ...
  • Speed of Your Reality
    What’s the speed of your reality? That’s a trick question, and it sounds a little ooga-booga doesn’t it. It is, and it’s not. A watched pot never boils You’ve heard both a watched “pot never boils” and “time flies when you’re having fun,” right? Though the former is not true, both are rooted in reality… ...
  • Shelf Life
    What are your offers? Let’s talk about your offers. By offers I don’t just mean your business offerings, I literally mean things you have offered to others—whether it’s helping someone to move if they need it in the future, lending your truck, working with someone, forming a partnership, offering to mentor, etc. Integrity and Time, Energy ...
  • Liminal Spaces
    Liminal spaces A liminal space is the between space (usually in the physical world). It doesn’t ‘feel right.’ It’s a threshold between two states. The transitory nature usually causes you to feel a little creeped out. Ever done a house tour in which a lot of the personal belongings have been ...
  • Think outside the…group
    Think outside the box (group) We all know that thinking outside of the box has its benefits. Usually this thinking happens with someone who has a different perspective than others. And that, ironically, is what this podcast is about. Groups are great, until they’re not We all are part of one or more groups, whether it ...
  • The 4 Hour Day
    How long is your day? Ingrained in the society I live in is the eight hour work day. However, to get ahead, to be salaried, to be a manager, a mover and shaker or someone who is launching businesses or being an entrepreneur it’s expected that you work 10, 12, 16 or more hours. Is this ...
  • Hijacked by Ambition
    Ambition It’s a good thing, right? Have you ever done something, shown something or demonstrated something and had someone say “Well, that’s ambitious?” Has a tiny bit of something negative behind that, doesn’t it? Have you ever started a project only to decide (consciously or unconsciously) to make it much more elaborate, involved, expensive, thorough ...
  • If you use them you’ll get smarter (or dumber)
    Labels We all use labels because that’s the base of all languages – complex concepts, descriptions, procedures all contained in a smaller form. Imagine if you had to describe a house every time you wanted to talk about houses. Exhausting. And you’d get dumber. So we create labels for things. But as we ...
  • New book: Three Voices
    Three Voices Did you know you have three voices? Do you know that one can always be used to override another? Do you know that one of the voices is also a sounding board that can not only help you (preparing for a speech, reviewing a discussion), but also can torment you if overused (that fight ...
  • Thoughts vs. Reality – not what you think
    Here’s something you don’t hear – thoughts do not equal reality. In an odd way this is a discussion (of the reverse kind) of mindfulness. Fight of flight Our fight or flight mechanism was designed and evolved to deal with something happening right now. It was designed to deal with reality. If you’re having anxiety about ...
  • What are you measuring?
    Progress If you’re not measuring progress, how do you know how well you are doing in the pursuit of a goal? Don’t you have milestones and stuff like that? The Alchemy for Life system has a huge amount of tracking, and milestones, and even an icon for setbacks, so why am I even asking ...
  • Zooming Out – but what does that mean?
    The 30,000 foot view You’ve heard of that phrase—taking the 30,000 foot view, right? But what exactly does that mean? Does it mean to take a step back? Does it mean 30,000 steps back? Considering the big picture? How long do you do this? Do you then zoom back in ...
  • Taking a step back
    A simple answer for a complex issue… doesn’t work Did you ever have an issue with someone and tell a friend about it? They usually say “Oh well I would just say this.” You roll your eyes , take a deep breath, and attempt to explain that this is pretty complicated, and that ...
  • The tension of disagreement
    Tension We’ve talked about tension before. We’ve talked about tension vs. something being at rest and what that means for us. But now I want to talk about the tension of disagreement. Everything’s going to be OK Everything is going to be OK. Does that relieve you? It might, especially if it ...
  • Did you stop measuring?
    Measuring We recently talked about measuring, and now we’re talking about NOT doing it. Programs running We have many programs running. We are always tasting, listening, looking, sampling… and measuring. Did you stop measuring? “Hi, I’m Mr. Scale! I’m going to disappoint you every day.” 👀 It’s pretty easy to stop measuring when it comes to that ...
  • Time, Energy and Resources – widgets vs. service!
    Shorting yourself on time-based skills You’ve heard this before right? That as you get better and better at something, you can do it more efficiently. So your skill is just as good as your competitor but you do it faster. great! Except that you charge hourly. So now they are getting ...
  • 2022: Most Helpful Episodes!
    Review of our most helpful episodes. From Interviews to a unique take on word meanings, to turning negatives to positives (and maybe vice versa) you don’t want to miss this. The Complete AFL Episode Guide: A Catalog of All Our Episodes Welcome to The Complete Alchemy for Life™ Episode Guide, where I give you a ...

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2016

Did you find an episode particularly useful?  If so let me know.  Better yet, let everyone else know too…  Don’t forget that Alchemy for Life™ episodes with Mark Bradford are also available on iTunes, Spotify and anywhere you consume podcasts.  Subscribe and you wont miss them!