What is a Good Life? #90
Exploring Your Own Truth with Seb Randle
On the 90th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Seb Randle. Seb is the founder of The Helpful Space, a space dedicated to exploring pragmatic and practical solutions that help individuals to where they want to be. His approach is grounded in warmth, kindness, genuine curiosity, and a deep understanding of what it takes to create lasting change. Seb is also Head of Allyship at Bloom North, and a people focussed consultant and coach.
In this engaging conversation, Seb shares his ongoing journey of exploring his own truth. He shares with us key moments in his own life that encompassed family counselling in his teens, coming out to his mother and family, and developing a more loving relationship with his body. Each experience in life offering him the opportunity to reveal or understand more about himself. Seb also highlights the importance of how he shows up for others, the exploration of who we are at our core, the value of releasing self-judgement, living life with intention, and exploring our blind spots.
If you are feeling unsure of who you are, seeking to connect more deeply with your truth, or feeling daunted by life’s challenges, this conversation offers plenty of thought-provoking insights. Seb’s relatable experiences and lived wisdom may offer new perspectives for whatever you’re currently navigating.
The weekly clip from the podcast (3 mins), my weekly reflection (3 mins), the full podcast (60 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night, and in between, he does what he wants to do.” – Bob Dylan
There are many metrics for success. It’s not for me to decide or care about what anyone else’s might be, but all I can say is that this quote by Bob Dylan resonates deeply with me.
I recently heard the great Irish philosopher, Roy Keane, tell his fellow football pundit, Gary Neville, something to the effect that success is having time to spend with the people you love and care about in life. He was chastising Neville for looking at his phone, checking work emails too often whenever they were together, and being too busy in general.
As I walked with my wife, baby, and dog to nowhere in particular yesterday afternoon, vaguely considering doing something for my birthday, I realised the walk itself was the thing. Flickers of these quotes and sentiments passed through my mind.
I typically take my birthday off and just do whatever I fancy on the day. It usually involves some time to myself for reading or writing, time in a café, a workout, a walk with my dog, a meal together at some point, and a film to round it off.
This year, as my baby daughter joined me for the café leg of my birthday, the barista—who knows me well—asked if I had anything special planned for the day. I wasn’t trying to downplay what I was doing, but I simply replied that nothing out of the ordinary was planned, as I tend to do what I enjoy most days.
Now, I’m not saying I’ve got it all figured out—there have been sacrifices along the way for that privilege, ones that you or others might not consider worth making. So, this isn’t a prescription for any particular way of life.
But it did make me think of Bob Dylan’s quote again.
In the context of this week’s interview and the exploration of our own truth, it made me wonder how many of us have ever really taken the time to define what success means to us personally. I mean really sat with that question, leaving it hanging in the room until our own truth about it emerged.
I don’t mean this in some half-baked notion of “following your bliss” and only doing what feels easy or comfortable. I love what I do, but it often brings me discomfort. Whether that’s interviewing people for this podcast in an unplanned, emergent way, or working with an executive team last week—holding my nerve with only planning a singular question for large sections of time and not being sure how it would pan out.
Or it might be continuously addressing tensions in the close relationships I cherish. Even when we are doing what we perceive as necessary, what we want to do, or what we think is best, it can still be difficult.
I’m also not ignoring that people have responsibilities, obligations, and pressures.
However, how closely have we examined whether what we are doing with our time is truly what we want to be doing? What are we getting in return for that time? Does the return we get truly make up for the time spent doing things we don’t want to do? Ultimately, these are questions for each individual to answer; there are no universal solutions.
I see that our culture and its myths are so pervasive that very few of us even see the option of making that decision for ourselves. The pressure, expectation, and even judgement from society can make it hard to contemplate stepping in a direction different from where the crowd is heading.
I recognise that it is a luxury to even be able to ask these questions. Yet there’s something poignant about a part of society that has the choice, but often feels like they don’t.
When I started this project, privately interviewing 100 people without a plan, idea, or promise of what would come from it, my main motivation—before it became a newsletter or podcast—was simply to encourage people to reflect on their lives.
When I asked people to reflect on moments when they felt truly fulfilled, they often recalled ordinary moments spent with people, in nature, or in moments of peace. It rarely had anything to do with the trinkets of success we’re usually chasing.
As I reflected on what this meant for myself, I realised that if I have an experience and life to observe, have somewhere to exercise, somewhere to read and write, a dog to walk, now a baby to dote on, and a number of great relationships, I don’t need much “stuff” in my life.
Not needing much opened me up to make decisions where I could deviate from the conventional path and experience less financial pressure doing so, as I no longer needed to pursue a lifestyle I realised I didn’t want. I already had enough for now.
It also made me realise that, for me, success is simply doing what I want with my time and spending it with the people I love and care about. I still have ambitions for my work—I feel like I’m honing a craft—but whatever fortune may (or may not) come from that will simply be a by-product of upholding this personal idea of success.
What comes to mind for you?
3. Full Episode - Exploring Your Own Truth with Seb Randle - What is a Good Life? #90
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4. This week’s Questions
What experiences in your life have left you with the biggest lessons or realisations?
How would you personally define success for yourself?
About Me
I am a coach, podcast host, and writer, based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I started this project in 2021, for which I’ve now interviewed over 200 people. I’m not looking to prescribe universal answers, more that the guests’ lines of inquiry, musings, experiences, and curiosities spark your own inquiry into what the question means to you. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience and more meaningful conversations.
If you would like to work with me to explore your own lines of self-inquiry, take part in my weekly free silent conversations, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your teams, or you simply want to get in touch, here’s my email and LinkedIn.
I loved Seb's honesty, and I have no doubt that the experiences he had as a younger man shaped how he listens and supports people now. Everyone should have a Vera in their life!