
This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #355 “Greg McKeown — How to Master Essentialism” and episode #536 “Diana Chapman — How to Get Unstuck, Do “The Work,” Take Radical Responsibility, and Reduce Drama in Your Life.”
Please enjoy!
Bios of guests may be found at tim.blog/combo.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements; Wealthfront high-yield savings account; and Helix Sleep premium mattresses.
Transcript of the full Greg McKeown episode | Transcript of the full Diana Chapman episode | Transcripts of all episodes
This episode is brought to you by Momentous high-quality creatine! I’ve long benefitted from creatine for athletic and gym performance, and now I’m increasing my daily intake to enjoy the cognitive benefits as well. A pilot study in Alzheimer’s patients demonstrated that supplementing can increase brain creatine levels in just 8 weeks, improving measures of memory, reasoning, and attention. And a double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that creatine can restore aspects of memory and attention within hours in adults who are sleep deprived. I use Momentous Creatine made with Creapure®, which is sourced from Germany and has the strictest lab standards to ensure it’s at least 99.9% pure. And try Momentous’s Creatine Chews—clean chewable tablets with 1 gram of Creapure® creatine per chew—and their whey protein isolate and magnesium threonate, all of which meet their same, exacting standards. Check out Momentous for yourself and get 35% off your first subscription order with code TIM at LiveMomentous.com/Tim.
This episode is brought to you by Helix Sleep! Helix was selected as the best overall mattress of 2025 by Forbes and Wired magazines and best in category by Good Housekeeping, GQ, and many others. With Helix, there’s a specific mattress to meet each and every body’s unique comfort needs. Just take their quiz—only two minutes to complete—that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you. They have a 10-year warranty, and you get to try it out for a hundred nights, risk-free. They’ll even pick it up from you if you don’t love it. And now, Helix is offering 20% off all mattress orders at HelixSleep.com/Tim.
This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront is a financial services platform that offers services to help you save and invest your money. Right now, you can earn a 3.25% base APY—that’s the Annual Percentage Yield—with the Wealthfront Cash Account from its network of program banks. That’s nearly eight times more interest than an average savings account at a bank, according to FDIC.gov as of 12/15/2025 (Wealthfront’s 3.25% APY vs. 0.40% average savings rate). Right now, for a limited time, Wealthfront is offering new clients an additional 0.65% boost over the base rate for three months, meaning you can get 3.90% APY, limited to $150,000 in deposits. Terms & Conditions apply. Visit Wealthfront.com/Tim to get started.
The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The 3.25% Base APY on cash deposits is as of December 19, 2025, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If you are eligible for the overall boosted rate of 3.9% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the three-month promotional period. Tim Ferriss, who is not a client, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage LLC for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of Wealthfront Brokerage LLC. This ad may not reflect the experience of other Cash Account clients, and similar outcomes are not guaranteed. See full disclosures here.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SHOW NOTES
- [05:26] Notes about this supercombo format.
- [06:28] Enter Greg McKeown.
- [06:49] What is non-essential?
- [07:46] Overcoming the planning fallacy.
- [13:30] The problem with taking ownership of someone else’s problems.
- [15:44] How to avoid committing to the unsustainable.
- [21:26] Three rules.
- [25:28] The personal quarterly offsite.
- [33:05] Enter Diana Chapman.
- [33:22] A transformative gift.
- [36:56] The Drama Triangle.
- [43:36] The whole-body yes (or no) and how it can serve us.
- [46:06] Diana guides an experience to help pay better attention to our whole-body yes (or no).
- [54:36] Observations made during the exercise and how Diana recommends using this inventory.
- [1:01:39] Fostering playfulness for those who mute their desire to celebrate.
- [1:08:28] Diana’s “black belt in practicing candor.”
- [1:09:37] Diana’s thoughts on loving pressure and how to bring it into a relationship.
- [1:13:24] Applying loving pressure to people you don’t know well.
- [1:15:08] Diana’s guidance on introspection leading to perspective shifts; using Byron Katie’s “turnarounds.”
- [1:17:48] Diana guides me through a turnaround.
- [1:23:58] A turnaround’s purpose is to identify and embrace alternatives, not invalidate the inspected belief.
- [1:29:06] The importance of introducing the somatic into the process; suggestions for difficulty with this step.
- [1:31:47] The role of the witness in this process.
- [1:33:54] Walking the line.
- [1:35:40] Welcoming the opportunity to learn from the experience, even if it’s not preferred.
- [1:37:35] Alternative tools for dysregulation in the moment.
- [1:39:31] Risks Diana and her husband Matt took to keep their relationship vital; who initiated the first difficult conversation.
- [1:45:11] How Diana figured out who she needed to be during this time.
- [1:47:11] Navigating decision points together as a couple.
- [1:49:42] Examples of commitments from The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership.
- [1:53:22] The Mind Jogger app and how Diana uses it with the commitments.
- [1:55:55] Assessing self-awareness in hiring interviews applied to non-job situations.
- [1:57:53] Books most gifted.
- [1:59:35] Parting thoughts.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
Connect with Greg McKeown:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown | Amazon
- Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown | Amazon
- The Greg McKeown Podcast
- Finding the One Decision That Removes 100 Decisions (or, Why I’m Reading No New Books in 2020) | Tim Ferriss
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
- The Planning Fallacy Can Derail a Project’s Best Intentions | The Washington Post
- Why You Start Things You’ll Never Finish | The New York Times
- Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend | Amazon
- The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker | Amazon
- Quarterly Personal Offsite Meetings | Dennis Kennedy
Connect with Diana Chapman and the Conscious Leadership Group:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
- The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp | Amazon
- Q&A with Diana Chapman on Conscious Leadership | Criteo
- Hendricks Institute
- Karpman Drama Triangle | Wikipedia
- Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon
- Jim Dethmer — How to Shift from Victim Consciousness, Reduce Drama, Practice Candor, Be Fully Alive, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #434
- Mind Those Q’s | Think Shift
- Whole Body Yes | The Conscious Leadership Group
- Miracle (2004) | Prime Video
- The Work of Byron Katie
- Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide | Tim Ferriss
- Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month | Tim Ferriss
- Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione | Amazon
- Mind Jogger for iOS | LeStro’s Apps
- How to Assess Self-Awareness in a Hiring Interview | Conscious Leadership Group Blog
- The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks | Amazon
- Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-Commitment by Gay Hendricks and Kathlyn Hendricks | Amazon
- The Genius Zone: The Breakthrough Process to End Negative Thinking and Live in True Creativity by Gay Hendricks | Amazon




Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That's how we're gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you're rude, we'll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Great Its much helpfull
Both of these podcasts were super helpful and applicable when they first came out and have implemented some concepts from Greg’s rules for preventing overcommitting ever since hearing this episode back when it came out. From this second listen, I want to implement the quarterly offsite for life planning.
From Diana’s episode, on this second listen I am struck by her permission to interpret an absence of a somatic no as a yes. I completely missed that the first time around, and have been frustrated that I don’t feel a somatic yes or no for many of the un-extreme things that come up.
Happy Memorial Day!
Since listening to this episode when it originally aired, I’ve put some of the ideas from Greg’s guidelines for avoiding overcommitting into practice. Both of these podcasts were incredibly beneficial and applicable when they first came out.