You have two years left to live. What would you do?

That's a real question Angela Trimbur had to answer. In 2018, a breast cancer diagnosis forced her to get honest with herself. If Angela had only 2 years to live, what kind of life did she truly wish to live? Angela chose to start over. She sold everything she owned, left her acting career behind, and moved to New York to become a dance teacher. Angela's irreverent teaching style and unique approach to dance won her accolades, and she now teaches sold out classes where people use dance to find themselves.

In this conversation, Angela explains why cancer actually helped her become a better version of herself. She shares how her disease enabled her to adopt a 2-years outlook on life, and why living as if our time is limited is always good practice, even when nothing appears to be wrong.

This…is A Bit of Optimism.

For more on Angela and her work, check out:

Angela Trimbur Dance

When morale problems affect a team, some leaders choose to make a big, rousing speech. But quite often, it’s the quiet leader who leads with empathy that sees a better emotional solution.

Gordon Schmidt is a retired Navy SEAL with enough combat experience to understand that empathy is an operational advantage, not a weakness. After 20 years of military service, he started his second act as a high school rowing coach. According to Gordo, be it coaching rowers or leading soldiers, the emotional lessons he’s learned about leadership apply just the same.

In this conversation, Gordo shares with me how to move on into a new chapter in life and why emotional intelligence in high-stress situations is often a leader’s only way out.

This…is A Bit of Optimism.

For more on Gordon and his work, check out:

San Diego Rowing Club

Happiness is a choice. But it’s not always an easy choice to make.

Mo Gawdat had to face an impossible choice. Before he was a bestselling author and podcast host, Mo worked a lucrative career as Chief Business Officer at Google X. He reached the heights of business influence and amassed a fortune by 29. And yet, he was miserable. It was only after the tragic death of his 21-year-old son Ali that Mo was forced to confront the truth.

Mo now dedicates his life, work, and research to figuring out how human beings can be happier, and he’s on a mission to make 1 billion people happy. He sat down with me to share what he’s learned – that happiness is both a choice and our default setting, how to trick our brains out of survival mode, and why the happiest emotions we feel are rooted in the present, not the past or future.

This…is A Bit of Optimism.

To learn more about Mo and his work, check out:mogawdat.com