An Angry Therapist's Guide to a Meaningful Life

October 17, 2019 by Paul Smith comments (0)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast (parenting-with-a-story-podcast-series): Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

My guest this week is John Kim. He’s a licensed marriage and family therapist and one of the the pioneers of the online life coaching movement.

Interestingly, he calls himself the “Angry Therapist.” It’s essentially an admission that, while he was a licensed therapist and life coach, he was no better off than the people he was helping — and admission that probably made him a more empathetic therapist.

More to the point of our conversation, John is the author of a new book called, I USED TO BE A MISERABLE F*CK: An Everyman’s Guide to a Meaningful Life which we dug right into.

John lays out 66 Dos and Don’ts in the book, some of which are listed below. The ones in bold we actually had time to talk about, and you can see exactly where in the conversation those came up.

John was a lot of fun to talk to. So, please click play above and give enjoy the dialogue. But, be warned, I will fully pronounce the title of his book several times. 🙂

John’s 66 Do’s and Don’t include:

Do be vulnerable
Don’t be a douche, don’t be a bully, and don’t whine
Don’t choose passion over purpose (6:00)
Do participate in self-care
Don’t get trapped in your bubble, don’t stay in your comfort zone, and don’t take yourself too seriously
Do go on man dates, and also do some things on your own
Do admit when you were wrong or when you don’t know the answer to something.
Don’t pee in the shower (10:22)
Don’t stop courting your partner
Do create your own definition of success instead following the definitions of others.
Do separate who you are from what you do
Do make your bed
Don’t be afraid to fail
Do try to understand before being understood (11:55)