Ep. 27: Finding Your Power of Choice: Eric Nehrlich’s Journey from Desperation to Inspiration
You're not stuck. You have a choice. You can do something different. It doesn't have to be this way.
— Eric Nehrlich
Are you one of those people who has a hard time saying, “No,” especially at work? Do you find yourself saying, “I can do that,” or “I should do that,” even when you don’t want to do that?
When we spend decades trying to prove our worth through our careers and how productive we are, we develop those habits of saying “yes” to things we don’t want to do, long hours that impact our health, and projects that don’t give us meaning or purpose.
What if you learned to say “yes” to something else, so that you could say “no” to what doesn’t give your life meaning and purpose?
This week’s guest, Eric Nehrlich, learned the hard way that he needed to learn to say “yes” to what gave him purpose, so that he could say “no” to what doesn’t.
This conversation is an epic journey through:
[10:09] The Impact of Childhood on Adult Life
[17:02] Breaking the Cycle of Generational Trauma
[21:12] Finding Your Superpower
[27:59] The Cost of Productivity: Anxiety and Burnout
[54:58] Recognizing Workaholism
[01:05:35] Lessons from Being Fired
[01:29:34] The Executive Mindset Shift
[01:50:57] Empowering Choices and Autonomy
Eric is an executive coach who helps leaders have more impact by drawing on his 25 years of experience in the tech industry. He loves to identify and challenge mindsets and habits that hold people back from their next level of leadership. Before becoming a coach, Eric spent ten years as an engineer and product manager across several startups before joining Google, eventually leading business strategy andoperations for the Google Search Ads team for six years as Chief of Staff. He published his first book in 2023, You Have A Choice: Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Impact, which he wrote to share the principles and mindsets that have helped him and his clients with a wider audience.
You can grab a free chapter and sneak peek into Eric’s book here.
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📖 RESOURCES
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lakhey
How We Change (and Ten Reasons We Don’t) by Dr. Ross Ellenhorn
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