I write about the gap between who we are at work and who we are when we put down the professional mask. Every week, I share one personal story from my life and a podcast conversation with someone who dared to write their own script, choosing authenticity over performance. The podcast is called Unprofessionalism. Each episode comes with a 1-page summary, in case you'd rather read than listen.
Rerouting Life's Challenges || EP 12 on The Courage to Unmask with Roi Ben-Yehuda
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Hi Reader, I was supposed to be back in Amsterdam a week ago. Our flight was cancelled due to the war; then, rerouting via the US, we were refused boarding: apparently you need a visa to transit. One of the most expensive lessons I've learned. If I had been told I could extend my time in sunny Australia by a week, I might have been happy to arrange more "last times": one more beach, more friends, more gelato. But once my trip was extended by circumstances I didn't choose, it became difficult to enjoy the extra time. Same week, completely different experience. It reminded me of the time I left a stable job at university and moved to Amsterdam to redesign my life. I was technically unemployed but I had chosen that uncertainty. The discomfort was real, but what felt more prominent was possibility. Once the pressure to find work mounted and applications went nowhere, the feeling shifted to its opposite: fear. Until I decided to go solo. Uncertain but liberating. The difference wasn't time. It was autonomy. Uncertainty and a lack of control create stress that shifts our brain into survival mode: focused on what's immediate and necessary, closed to anything related to pleasure or creativity. My situation in Australia was, in the scale of what's happening in the world right now, a luxury problem - something solvable with money. But the brain response is the same, regardless of scale. And many of us currently face more intense stressors: family or colleagues in physical danger, job insecurity, rising costs of living. These cause the same restricted brain capacity which is not helpful when we want to be at our best, creative, compassionate, and productive. Which is exactly why this week's conversation with Roi Ben-Yehuda feels so timely. Roi built his entire company around the science of courage, specifically, the courage to choose uncertainty rather than wait for it to be imposed on you. The question that still resonates: which of the stressors in our life right now are truly imposed and which are actually choices we haven't yet made? ๐ค Waiting for you on the Unprofessionalism podcast:Roi Ben-Yehuda has a formula for courage: Power x purpose, รท dragons. The dragons are everything that stops you: the doubt, the inner voice, the fear dressed up as reason. His whole work is about shrinking them. Halfway through this conversation, he turned the formula on me. Challenge accepted. I named my dragons and gave one a silly name. Some of what I said surprised us both. This is not an episode about being brave. It's about understanding why we already know what to do, and what's really standing between us and doing it. ๐ง Click here to listen to the interview๐ฅ Download my 1-page summaryโUP_012_Summary.pdfโ ๐ง The workshops work Podcast ClubThe workshops work podcast has retired and I am devoted to preventing the old episodes from gathering digital dust in the archives. The podcast Club keeps the conversations alive. You can stay updated for free monthly gatherings around a theme by joining me on Substack: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/ You'll receive one email - every 1st of the month with information about the upcoming gathering.โ Save the date for the next gathering: April 29th at 9 PM, CET. That's it from my side. I hope to see you next week! Myriam
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What does it cost to be yourself โ at work?
I write about the gap between who we are at work and who we are when we put down the professional mask. Every week, I share one personal story from my life and a podcast conversation with someone who dared to write their own script, choosing authenticity over performance. The podcast is called Unprofessionalism. Each episode comes with a 1-page summary, in case you'd rather read than listen.
Hi Reader, I spent my weekend with a group of strangers to whom I told the most personal story - one that not even my closest friends would be aware of. The shaking of my hands stopped as soon as I started. I didn't need notes because this was my story. While I am used to speaking to groups of strangers, I usually stand there with a specific role: the facilitator. This time, nobody knew about what I was doing from nine to five. All they knew about me was this one story. And wow, that felt...
Hi Reader, Last weekend, I went back to my hometown for the 25th anniversary of high school graduation. I prepared by reading old letters I found in a dusty box, handwritten by friends in 1995. I was terrified. Thrown back to an old version of myself: Puberty-me, who was definitely not too cool for school, who wanted to impress others by smoking too young and drinking too much. Nothing to be proud of, really. But when we finally met and hugged and chatted and laughed, I noticed that the...
Hi Reader, While cycling in the sun, enjoying my free Wednesday, it suddenly hit me like a sharp stone: Over the past five months Iโve been splitting my identity into tidy boxes that wouldn't overlap. Displaying old Facilitator-me on Substack, while the other part of me hatched a new narrative around Unprofessionalism. Unprofessionalism-me tries to write a book and challenges her own professionalism. And suddenly, I look at myself and think how damn professional of me! Isn't it the most...