Showing results by narrator "Jon Acuff" in All Categories

When New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff got curious about tapping into his full potential, he launched a research study with Dr. Mike Peasley. They asked more than three thousand people if they felt they were living up to their full potential. Fifty percent of people reported that 50 percent of their full potential is untapped. That means half of us are walking around with half-lives. No wonder Twitter is so grumpy.

Overthinking isn't a personality trait. It's the sneakiest form of fear. It steals time, creativity, and goals. It's the most expensive, least productive thing companies invest in without even knowing it. And it's an epidemic. When New York Times best-selling author Jon Acuff changed his life by transforming his overthinking, he wondered if other people might benefit from what he discovered. He commissioned a research study to ask 10,000 people if they struggle with overthinking too, and 99.5 percent said, "Yes!"

Acuff knows the reason why many writers' novels go unfinished - it's the same reason why gyms are filled in the first week of January and empty by the end of the month and why people stop learning a new language once they get past the easy parts. It's not just that people lose momentum or get distracted. People give up on projects when they fail to live up to their own high expectations and decide that if they can't do something perfectly, they won't do it at all. If you're going to finish, you have to kill perfectionism.

There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives listeners practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

When Jon Acuff's book Soundtracks came out, one reaction surprised him. Parents across the country all said the same thing: "Do you have a version for teenagers? If I knew how to change my mindset when I was that age, my entire life would have been different." Why did they say that? Because truth grows like compound interest. Saving money when you're young has a bigger impact than it does when you save in your 40s. A single new soundtrack—Acuff's phrase for a repetitive thought—believed when you're 14 or 18 can change your whole life in the same way.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR LIFE FIGURED OUT YET? IF NOT, CONGRATS—YOU’RE NORMAL. That said, how do you figure it out? The good news is, your life is already leaving you clues—about what matters to you, what you’re good at, what’s worth your time. When you ignore those clues, you start drifting or, worse yet, set your course for the wrong destination entirely. How Teens Win is your map to the very best treasure you’ll ever discover—yourself. Your potential. Your possibility. Your future.