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ContraMinds Podcast - Unlocking Personal Growth and Professional ExcellenceAuthor: Swami, ContraMinds Labs
Hosted by Sivaraman Swaminathan (Swami), this show decodes what goes on behind the minds of people who strive to achieve mastery, excellence, and success in their business or profession. It explores their life purpose, motivations and inspiration, and attempts to understand their personal growth journey. We try to understand the why behind what they do and how they are successfully accomplishing what they set out to do in their lives. You can discover the mental models of these high performers, who are career achievers and leaders in their own right and seek to learn from their practices and experiences. The conversation dives deep into their lifelong learning methods, personal development and self-improvement strategies that they work on, their workplace rituals or practices that have made them successful in their business, startup, or entrepreneurial journey.These conversations will inspire you, open your mind to new possibilities and help you reimagine your purpose, goals, and practices to become extraordinary in both your life and career. Language: en-us Genres: Business, Careers, Marketing Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Jeremy Stevenson on The 12 Levers for a Better Life (#071)
Thursday, 3 September, 2026
Let's know what you liked and learnt! What if more than a century of self-help advice could be distilled into just 12 practical approaches?In this episode of ContraMinds, Swami speaks with clinical psychologist and author Jeremy Stevenson about The 12 Levers, the evidence-based toolkit he co-authored with Dr Spencer Greenberg. After analysing more than 100 self-help books, 23 therapeutic approaches and hundreds of research papers, they discovered that the most useful techniques consistently fall within 12 broad levers.Jeremy shares his journey from international finance to clinical psychology and explains how his own struggles with approval-seeking shaped his interest in self-compassion and social anxiety.The conversation explores why values should come before goals, how to translate those values into everyday action, and why productivity is about more than time and efficiency. Jeremy also discusses the Productivity Equation, VAST goals, habits, choice points, feedback loops, and the connection between the mind and body.A practical conversation for professionals who want to work with greater clarity, make better choices and focus their effort on what genuinely matters. 5 Key Takeaways1. Define your values before setting goals. Goals shaped by other people’s expectations rarely remain motivating or fulfilling.2. Productivity is time × efficiency × importance. Working faster matters, but choosing work that genuinely matters can create the greatest improvement.3. Approval-seeking turns interaction into performance. Letting go of constant external validation allows professionals to communicate more authentically and confidently.4. Values become meaningful only through action. Goals, habits, everyday choice points and regular reviews turn guiding principles into observable behaviour.5. Treat personal development as an experiment. Understand the problem, choose an evidence-based technique, test it and adjust based on the results.About JeremyJeremy Stevenson is a clinical psychologist, researcher at Sparkwave and co-author of The 12 Levers, written with mathematician and entrepreneur Dr Spencer Greenberg. Before moving into psychology, Jeremy studied international finance. His work explores practical, evidence-based techniques for understanding behaviour, clarifying personal values, improving productivity and creating meaningful change. In The 12 Levers, he and Spencer distil insights from more than 100 self-help books, multiple therapeutic approaches and hundreds of research papers into one accessible psychological toolkit.Timestamps00:00 Cold Opening05:41 I Wanted to Help Other People Do This07:48 Self-Compassion Can Ease Social Anxiety13:56 100 Self-Help Books, Distilled Into 12 Levers17:30 Approval-Seeking Turns Connection Into Performance21:43 Productivity Means Creating More of What You Value26:31 You Cannot Always Choose What Matters29:23 Your Values Give You Direction34:08 Step Off the Treadmill and Reset41:06 Let Values Come Before Goals48:51 Every Choice Moves You Toward Your Values50:37 Review What You Can Actually Control57:03 Your Mind and Body Are Connected1:02:24 First Understand, Then Intervene#The12Levers, #JeremyStevenson, #Productivity, #Psychology, #PersonalDevelopment, #ProfessionalGrowth, #EvidenceBased, #GoalSetting, #IntrinsicValues, #ContraMindsPodcastThis episode was made possible by the great folks at https://goaffortless.ai.Effortless has been designed to be user-friendly, aiding you in your journey to streamline financial tasks. Experience the convenience of achieving e-Invoicing and E-way Bill Generation in just a couple of clicks, simplifying your business processes.🔗 Links & Resources:ContraMinds: https://www.contraminds.comSubscribe to our Newsletter: https://blog.contraminds.com🎧 Listen on Podcast Platforms:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xceASphmwAjJONTlsvo2YApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/contraminds-decoding-people-minds-strategy-and-culture/id1485202972Follow ContraMinds:Twitter: https://twitter.com/contramindsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/contraminds/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/contramindsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/contraminds
