How to Get Your Life Together: The 90/10 Rule

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2025

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There’s never been more information out there about psychology, self-improvement, and mental health, making it easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of what matters. In this special episode, Forrest and Dr. Rick apply the 90/10 rule to psychology and self-help: what are the small handful of things that tend to make the biggest difference for people? You’ll learn why most self-help advice should probably be ignored, how to simplify your approach to happiness and personal growth, and what actually moves the needle when it comes to feeling better, getting unstuck, and building a fulfilling life. You can watch this episode on YouTube. Rumination Course: Rick’s 5-week online course Breaking Out of Rumination starts on March 29th. Rumination is a big pain point for many people, and this course will help you learn how to break repetitive patterns of thought. Learn more at RickHanson.com/ruminating, and use coupon code BeingWell25 to receive a 25% discount. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 2:00: Putting the big rocks in first 8:40: Root factors of well-being 15:15: Satisfaction, and what helps us rest easy 26:05: Avoidance, and responding to our own objections 32:35: Finding what matters to you, spirituality, and creative expression 36:25: Small, consistent action 39:50: Relationships and the power of repair 43:00: Stress, self-regulation, and creating space around your thoughts 48:55: Identifying your broken link, and the role of integrity 53:30: Allostatic load, and acknowledging when you’ve done your best 1:00:00: Being on your own side, pursuit mindset, and benefiting others 1:03:40: Self-concept, and joining the defense 1:06:00: Bottom up regulation, and taking one thing at a time 1:10:35: Recap I am now writing on Substack, check out my work there. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Field of Greens from Brickhouse Nutrition is a superfood powder packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Use the code BEINGWELL at fieldofgreens.com for 20% off your first order. Head to acorns.com/beingwell or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Use promo code hanson at the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/hanson. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BEINGWELL at https://www.oneskin.co/ Go to ZOE.com and find out what ZOE Membership could do for you. Use code WELL10 to get 10% off membership. Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to being well. I'm Forrest Hanson. If you're needed the show,
0:11.0	thanks for joining us today. And if you've listened before, welcome back. There has never been more
0:16.2	information out there about psychology, self-improvement, and mental health. There are thousands of books
0:23.0	and podcasts and YouTube videos and expert opinions on how to be less anxious, more productive, and more fulfilled.
0:29.5	We've contributed some of those, and it's great that there's so much information out there,
0:33.8	but there are two big consequences. First, it's really easy to get overwhelmed, which
0:38.0	tends to stop us from doing much of anything. And then second, it's easy to get caught up in the
0:42.6	details and lose sight of the big picture. We're chasing the next fad, the hack, the one simple
0:47.5	trick, rather than focusing on the simple, fundamental things that tend to be responsible
0:52.1	for most of our happiness and overall well-being.
0:55.6	So that's what we're focusing on during this episode. How can we apply the 90-10 rule to
1:00.8	ourselves? What are the 10% of our efforts that tend to lead to 90% of our results? And to help us
1:07.0	figure that out, I'm joined by clinical psychologist Rick Hansen. So, Dad, how are you doing today?
1:11.4	I'm really good and deeply interested in this topic. Yeah, I am too. I've been very energized by it
1:18.7	recently, just so people know at the beginning of the episode, this is one of those things that I've
1:22.2	been thinking about a lot. So there's a chance that I'm just going to kind of go didactic here and like chatter away for a while,
1:28.2	but I'll do I'll do my best to, you know, keep it conversational and keep it interesting for people.
1:32.6	So before we get into it, I want to give you a quick reminder about Rick's five-week online
1:36.6	rumination course. It's going to start on March 29th, and it focuses on helping us learn
1:41.3	how to let go of repetitive patterns of thought. Rumination is a big pain point for a lot of people. It's a great course, and you can learn
1:48.0	more about it at rickhansen.com backslash ruminator. And if you get there and you decide that
1:53.2	you want to get it, hey, you can use coupon code being well 25 to receive a 25% discount.
	...

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