What is a Good Life? #10 (Podcast)
Seize the Day with Baiba Rubesa
On the tenth episode of the “What is a Good Life?” podcast, I am joined by Baiba Rubesa.
Baiba is a business executive across several industries, from natural resources, banking, automotive, telecoms, and most recently transport / railways – in which she served as the Chairperson & CEO at RB Rail.
In this episode, Baiba takes us through her fascinating journey from her youth in Canada and Germany, born to Latvian parents with a dream of supporting her homeland, to ultimately being part of a shaping a post revolutionary society in Latvia later in life. From being the only woman on many boards to focussing on women’s economic empowerment (currently Co-founder at Novatore), while sharing her thoughts on the Golden Rule, seizing the day, intuition, pivoting, and focussing on one’s strengths.
I wanted to interview Baiba as I believe she lives a truly unique life, and one I learned a lot from listening to her reflect on – as I am sure you will too.
The weekly clip from the podcast (2 mins), my weekly reflection (2 mins), the full podcast (60 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
In the later part of this interview, Baiba mentions the importance of living from a position of strength, focussing on what she does well (“to thine own self be true”), and finds the younger generations' apparent need for constant self-improvement a little baffling.
Whether it's through exposure to spiritual communities or groups who are constantly seeking self-improvement, in some cases I see an unhealthy dose of perfectionism creep in, that ends up making our endeavours to develop a constant toil and seeps the enjoyment out of our lives.
In a spiritual capacity it can be consistently holding up a comparison of one’s behaviour against a state of enlightenment, in a self-development sense it can be a constant focus on eradicating our weaknesses, and in both cases I don’t believe it brings us into a more loving or accepting relationship with ourselves. We are becoming our own micro-managers, consistently looking at the one thing we didn’t do today, as opposed to appreciating the nine things we did do.
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a considerable improvement in my relationship with myself by paying attention and seeing more clearly who I am, accepting and embracing what I do very well, but equally accepting what can frustrate me about myself as well. It has allowed me to build a far more loving relationship with who I am right now, not in X years time when I no longer do Y.
A focus on self-development can be an admirable thing, and there may even be aspects of ourselves that really need to change, if they are maladaptive or incongruent with the life that we know we want to live. However, I see the focus of self-improvement going way beyond exploring what is maladaptive, or that hurts us, to eliminating everything that we perceive as a shortcoming of ours, as if we are a computer to be programmed.
If this is our focus, it’s not hard to see how some of us can inadvertently experience a deteriorating sense of worth, ease, or self-acceptance while we are pursuing a “better” version of ourselves.
3. Full Episode - Seize the Day with Baiba Rubesa - What is a Good Life? Ep. #10
Click here for Apple and Google.
4. This week’s Questions
In the interview Baiba mentions contacting an old friend, is there someone in your past that you’d love to get in touch with? If not today, when?
Is there a mission in life outside of yourself that you’ve always wanted to contribute to? What initial step could you take towards it this week?
About Me
I am a Coach based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I left behind a 15-year career in Capital Markets after I became extremely curious around what life, myself, and existence are all about.
I create corporate programs for companies to foster greater psychological safety, trust and purpose (click here for reference). While I also work with high-performing, individual clients who have hit their material goals and are trying to understand what comes after performance.
If you would like to work with me, or you simply want to get in touch, here’s my email and LinkedIn.