Goals

HW82: PRACTICALITY VS PASSION w/Ben Howell

Should you pursue a job you love? Or one where you make money? Ben "nice handwriting" Howell talks about the things he's passionate about, including his job, and how he makes decisions. The episode was recorded before Anthony Scaramucci got canned, so we pronounce his name in all the fun ways. Plus Valerie can't get enough of hand-pulled noodles and Reggie tries to make ramen fancy. Sponsored by Guys Who Watch You Parallel Park. 

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HW64: FORMING GOOD HABITS

Turns out Valerie's hubcap bandit from last week wasn't actually a thing. Reggie can't figure out her world since rearranging her bedroom and she may or may not have had an attempted break-in. We turn to bad habits often to help us deal with stress. Overeating, overcouching, overworking, over everything. BBQ potato chops and tears are Regina's way of coping. But we can have more fulfilling lives if we build good habits and change the bad ones. We have tips for how to make good habits stick (don't focus on changing everything in one fell swoop-you'll fail at all of them). Plus, many interruptions from Valerie's new kitten who has many names, and you can still buy Tang! Who knew? Sponsored by Lash Catastrophe, the lash lengthening serum sold on Facebook by women you went to high school with.

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CREATIVE BLOCKS & THE CREATIVE PROCESS w/DENA

Creative blocks are the worst. We talk with our pal Dena, a fiction writer, about her creative process, what a creative block looks like, and how to carve a path through it. We discuss the helpfulness of writing residencies, morning pages, writing groups, and journals. Plus some of the most fun and/or ridiculous ways to procrastinate (take the LSAT; enter Goodreads contests), and poets are weird. Dena shares a sample of her work, some of which has also appeared in online journals like JMWW, The Toast, The Butter; she is also working on a novel and is an editor of Elsewhere Lit. This episode sponsored by Zinkle Face Cream, the first face cream that zaps zits and prevents wrinkles, especially formulated for skin that's having an identity crisis. If your skin is in adolescent/adult purgatory, try Zinkle!

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COMPARING

Comparing yourself to other people has never been easier now that Becky cn post all day long about her good hair on social media. Even the healthiest people are apt to compare themselves when we're constantly viewing feeds of successes. But life's not a race or a competition or what have you. Regina has tips for avoiding comparisons and tells us all about her new phone and the Best Buy metalhead who sold it to her. Valerie shares about procrastinating and a bad psychic who farts a lot. Plus, Keanu, and a short synopsis of the movie Single White Female.

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IMPOSTER SYNDROME

A bunch of us have the feeling we're not qualified to be doing what we do. If you're a perfectionist, have a hard time asking for help, attribute your successes solely to luck, and can't take a compliment, you might suffer from imposter syndrome. Lots of people have this insecurity, including famous accomplishers Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Watson, Kate Winslet, and Cheryl Sandberg. Some causes for feeling like a fraud include feeling pressure to achieve and being a minority member of a group. Solutions include: validating yourself by making a list of your assets and accomplishments, surrounding yourself with supporters, and realizing even Emma Watson and Michelle Pfeiffer feels this way. Regina sometimes feels like listening to Metallica, and she's no longer apologizing for it. Valerie worries she should have gotten stitches when she cut herself while slicing avocados, and she really hopes she never receives one of those suction basketball hoops with the spongy nerf balls.

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INVESTMENTS, FINANCIAL PLANNING, SAVING FOR RETIREMENT w/SCOTT ADAIR

Scott Adair, a financial advisor associate, gives us the skinny on what we should all be doing to prepare for retirement. He tells us the difference between a stock and a bond and why investing in gold is probably not smart, talks about index funds, gives us strategies to get over fear of saving money and educate ourselves about investing with sites like Investopedia. He also talks about socially responsible investing (SRI, investing strategies that consider both financial return and social good (e.g., green companies, companies that pay equally). We also talk about Wall Street, Gordan Gecko, and The Wolf of Wall Street, and learn why hiding money in your mattress isn't a good a investment strategy but could be a good idea if you're mattress needs extra support.

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RESOLUTIONS

When you make New Year's resolutions? Do they stick? Or are they forgotten the second week of January? What are your resolutions this year?

Regina vows to date herself and her city in 2016; she wants to re-fall in love with both. Valerie wishes she could commit to a morning routine like seven highly effective people on five different continents in 18 different time zones. Whatever you resolve this year, Help Wanted shares some tips from Amy Morin, a woman who knows how to make a goal stick.

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