What is a Good Life? #25
Mountains & Valleys with Jamie Crawford
On the 25th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am joined by Jamie Crawford, a former CEO and leader of multiple media brands in Ireland who was diagnosed with MS at 32. After his wife, Georgie, was diagnosed with breast cancer, together they created The Good Glow, a wellness company with a hugely popular podcast and number one best selling book, Glow, to inspire people to live fulfilled and healthier lives.
In this episode, Jamie takes us through discovering he had MS and what he felt contributed to this diagnosis. He also shares the series of adversities he faced in only a few years after the MS diagnosis, losing his father to cancer and his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer several months after giving birth.
We explore our sometimes unhealthy capacity to compartmentalise our struggles and how it generally exacerbates our problems. While Jaime shares how he is grateful for his experiences and what they have taught him in terms of resilience, the changes he has made to his life, and for ultimately becoming more aware of what matters most to him in life - moments & time with his family and helping others.
Whether you are presently struggling with something in your life, facing adversity, or are finding it difficult to share your problems with others, this episode will provide you with plenty of inspiration, encouragement, and new perspectives, while providing numerous reminders of what truly matters in life. Jamie’s story is a great example of the obstacle becoming the way.
The weekly clip from the podcast (3 mins), my weekly reflection (3 mins), the full podcast (55 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
💡 Work with me 💡
After interviewing 150+ people around the question of, “what is a good life?”, I’ve created the following offerings based on this research:
1-on-1 coaching programs for working professionals to find their own answer to this question.
Corporate workshops to bring greater connection, collaboration, and trust, to high-performing teams
Internal company podcasts for leaders of fast-growing scale-ups to help build trust, retention, and culture.
For a free 30-minute consultation for any of the above, here’s my email and LinkedIn.
2. My weekly reflection
One of the big lessons Jamie reflected on in this interview is how we are often hesitant to open up about our difficulties or struggles with others. He’s now realised that whenever he has shared something that was troubling him with others, it was received in the very opposite way he was worried about.
Up until I first saw a psychologist in my early thirties, I didn't feel comfortable admitting vulnerability, insecurity, fear, or difficulties I was experiencing. What is obviously clear to me now is that this only exacerbated my problems. Despite thinking I had dealt with my troubles by ignoring them, they would appear in different areas of my life, and I had never really escaped their influence.
The ridiculous part of it all was when I started to share more openly about my experiences, the response I got was always one of respect, admiration, and support - which ironically I was depriving myself of. While it also encouraged other people in my circles to share what was burdening them.
The sharing of my inner world with others was also paramount to me becoming more comfortable with myself. Seeing how other people reacted to the non-curated version of myself, flaws and all, made it easier to accept myself before I learned how to deepen my relationship with myself.
Seeing how people respond to whatever I've shared of my inner world reinforces two really helpful insights. Firstly, people are inherently kind when you share your human side. It's extremely relatable and deepens the relationship.
Secondly, whatever you share with people, they have their own dramas playing out and their own concerns. We are not the central characters in their stories, so in general we need not be as concerned as we often are about what other people think of us. Which is very liberating for just getting on with living our own lives.
3. Full Episode - Mountains & Valleys with Jamie Crawford - What is a Good Life? Ep. #25
Click here for Apple and Google.
4. This week’s Questions
Can you recall many experiences in your life that significantly tested you at the time but you are now grateful for?
Is there anything you are keeping to yourself that would lessen your load if you were to share it with someone else?
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 answering some of the bigger questions in life. I started this project in 2021, for which I’ve now interviewed over 150 people, to provide people with the space to reflect on their own lives and to create content that would spark people’s own inquiry into this question. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience, beyond the facades we typically project.
If you would like to work with me, or you simply want to get in touch, here’s my email and LinkedIn.