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The Discomfort Practice

The Discomfort Practice explores the value of discomfort in shaping who we are, how we are in the world and how it can be a catalyst for positive social evolution.

Betsy speaks to leaders, activists, athletes, creatives and others who, like her, are ‘professional discomforters’ about comfort zones, having a conscious ‘discomfort practice,’ and the superpowers that lie on the other side of stepping into the unknown. Come get uncomfortable with Betsy...

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  2. Episode #92: Margaret Heffernan On Willful Blindness

Episode #92: Margaret Heffernan On Willful Blindness

Apr 9, 2023

In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with entrepreneur, author and someone I’m rather a big fan of, Margaret Heffernan. We chat about Margaret’s sixth book Uncharted, which lays out an inspiring picture of what can lie on the other side of uncertainty - which is a discomfort we as humans naturally avoid. We also dive into her own practice of surrendering to experiencing discomfort, by which she has not only learned new things, but grown as a person.

Margaret's TED talks have been seen by over 15 million people. You read that right! 15 million people. She's also written six books (so far). Her third book Wilful Blindness is one that I picked up last year and found more incredibly relevant now, during a pandemic, than ever - even though it was published in 2014. It was a finalist for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Best book award and the Financial Times named it as one of its “Best business books of the decade”.

Margaret has done a lot of things and done them all well. She worked in BBC Radio for five years where she wrote, directed, produced and commissioned dozens of documentaries and dramas. But just to add to her cool points, she then also produced music videos with Virgin Records. She was once described by the Financial Times as the most formidable lobbying organization in England, which is high praise indeed. She bought and sold leading Internet businesses as a chief executive and was named one of the Internet's top 100 by Silicon Alley reporter in 1999. She's won many, many awards. 

Margaret really is a leading thinker and her now-or-never attitude is so inspiring, so tune in and enjoy!

Key Points Discussed:

  • Taking the experience from discomfort to euphoria: being encouraged by her father as a teenager to ask for forgiveness rather than permission (6:00)

  • That experience has helped support her in her speaking engagements now: she speaks freely. Saying what others are thinking, but are too afraid to say (8:00) 

  • How writing a BBC play, opened up Margaret to looking at where abusive attitudes to nature come from (16:18)

  • How important it is to do something, however small. Margaret became part of her local Parish Council and hosted events to help people reduce their energy consumption, carbon footprint and enhance biodiversity (23:38) 

  • How positivity is contagious: you can be the catalyst for change (26:30)

  • Surrendering to the practice of experiencing discomfort in many different parts of her life, has helped Margaret not only learn new things, but grow as a person in so many different ways (33:02)  

  • How ethical decisions being made by economists are a disaster waiting to happen (42:58)

  • How reframing the way you view uncertainty in your mind, can actually open you up to new exciting possibilities (49:54)

  • How the early death of Margaret’s first husband when she was 30 gave her a really visceral experience that it’s always now or never time. That is how she lives her life (56:46)

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