Nora McInerny has become a reluctant expert in difficult conversations by bringing empathy and wit to difficult subjects. She is host of the American Public Media podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking and founder of the on-line support group the Hot Young Widows Club. I recently spoke with her about her new memoir No Happy Endings where she describes her exploration of the reality of being changed by loss without being completely defined by it.
Within the span of a few months, Nora lost her husband to brain cancer, miscarried her second child, and saw the passing of her father. Not long after those tragic events, she found love again in Matthew, her new husband. Through it all, she describes the awkwardness of being a widow, the difficulties of becoming a single mom, and the guilt of finding love again.
With great humor and sensitivity, Nora reminds us that there will be no happy endings in life, but there will be new beginnings.
Welcome to Life in HD – the podcast that puts a spotlight on how we live our lives. [LANGUAGE ADVISORY]
You and I
both know how difficult personal change can be.
We are creatures of habit and we operate in comfort zones where sticking
to habits, whether good or bad, bring us the comfort of familiarity. But what if what’s comfortable for you makes
you not a likeable person? Brings out
traits that you don’t like in yourself?
What do you do then? You know the
kind of person that you want to be…you can see yourself in your mind’s eye…but
how do you get there?
I talked with man who, faced with that very scenario, decided to go through a personal transformation and he shares his journey with us on this episode.
John Kim, known as The Angry Therapist, was forced to face his shortcomings as a man and a human being. After a heart-wrenching divorce, he turned to blogging as a way to explore how to become a better person. He shares his journey and his discoveries in a new book titled “I Used to be a Miserable Fuck: An Every Man’s Guide to a Meaningful Life” He describes, that after some deep soul searching, that he was indeed a miserable man. He considers his journey as something of a rebirth.
In a sense,
John Kim is redefining what it means to be a man. In his work, he finds that there are many
fatherless young men out there without proper role models to emulate or provide
a moral compass.
In “I Used to be a Miserable Fuck”, The Angry therapist draws on his own personal experiences as a therapist and a man to help readers, men and women, start some important internal dialogue and think about who you are…and who you want to be. He says it requires work: reflection, pain, courage, and perhaps a rebirth. And he offers this book as a guide.
There are a number of do’s and don’ts in this book that will challenge you to examine yourself and your definitions of manhood. Like “Do live a through me life”, and “Don’t pee in the shower”.
You can get a copy of his book from any retail bookstore. For more information on the book and John Kim, visit his website theangrytherapist.com. The music in this episode is Pumpkin Spice by Audiobinger under creative commons attribution license. I Hope you will find his episode and discussion to be of some help on your journey to self-discovery and self-improvement. Please push play on the player and enjoy the conversation.
