Today we welcome Dan Lerner to the podcast. As an in-demand speaker, author, strengths-based performance coach and instructor of one of the most popular undergraduate courses at New York University, Dan’s expertise in positive psychology helps people lead thriving, successful lives. He works with students, artists, athletes and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives around the world. Whether it is speaking, coaching, teaching or writing, Dan injects intellect with motivation, science with compassion and makes change both exciting and fun.
In this episode, Dan and I talked about several topics that were of mutual interest. As positive psychologists, we both have a deep interest and appreciation for human potential and how we can cultivate it through education. We also discussed the important components for long lasting friendship, and how to find a healthy community in this day and age of echo chambers. We hope you enjoy the conversation about personality, leadership, self-help, and mental health as much as we did.
Website: daniellerner.com
Twitter: @DanLernerTweets
Topics
- Dan’s assertiveness and enthusiasm
- Cultivating unique human potential
- Redefining intelligence
- Helping people thrive
- Are students today more fragile?
- The need for empathetic leadership
- The secret to long-lasting friendship
- How to find your community
- The problem with the self-help industry
- Real change is hard
LOL, nothing untoward people 🙂
“Even though it always holds true, people prove unable to understand the Logos, not even after they’ve been told about it.”
“Failure to comprehend it is the root of all evil.” (Heraclitus, 450 BC)
“In it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light in the darkness shined; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:4-5)
“For the time being I gave up writing. There is already too much truth in the world – an overproduction which apparently cannot be consumed!” (Otto Rank)
“Unfortunately, no one can be _told_ what the Matrix is. You can only see it for yourself.” (Morpheus, The Matrix)
Most people never learn how to do that, to “see” the truth. Effectively, that leaves them with what amounts to severe learning disability. Addressing that disability is what, I think, the self-actualization is about.
Unfortunately, we don’t do it, the addressing thing, consciously and systematically. We’re supposed to teach it to children in schools, intentionally and systematically, but we don’t. Instead, few of us would stumble upon it by sheer luck — we would figure out how tap into huge potential the everybody possess. But most are not so lucky. And it’s not untoward anyone, it’s no one’s fault. But I think there’s a better way.