The Rational Basis® of Happiness Podcast

The conversation explores the challenges of career dissatisfaction and the process of making career changes. Speaker 1 shares a personal experience of feeling overwhelmed in a boring job and seeks advice from Jean Maroney, an expert in tackling hard thinking problems. Maroney suggests using paper to write down overwhelming thoughts and narrow down options, addressing issues like blankness, overload, vagueness, and floundering. She emphasizes the importance of concretizing options and getting specific about potential career paths. Maroney recommends starting with easier questions and delimiting focus to make decisions more manageable. She provides her website for further information.

Action Items
[ ] Identify the specific problems or options you are considering when facing a difficult decision.

[ ] Write down the different possibilities on paper to help manage the feeling of being overwhelmed.

[ ] Delimit the options by getting more specific about each one, rather than keeping them vague.

[ ] Contact Jean Maroney through her website at www.jeanmaroney.com for more information on her courses on tackling hard thinking.

Outline
Jean Maroney's Background and Introduction
Speaker 1 introduces Jean Maroney, highlighting her educational background and experience in psychology, philosophy, and engineering.

Jean Maroney is described as specializing in tackling hard thinking problems.

Speaker 1 asks Jean to share her insights on dealing with difficult problems in life.

Jean Maroney thanks Alan and prepares to discuss the topic.

Challenges of a Boring Job
Speaker 1 shares a personal experience of being in a boring job at Unity University.

The job was initially fascinating but became monotonous over time.

Speaker 1 felt overwhelmed by the idea of leaving a stable job with benefits.

Jean Maroney identifies this as a classic hard thinking problem and suggests diagnosing the issue.

Diagnosing the Problem: Blankness and Overload
Jean Maroney explains that the problem of feeling overwhelmed (overload) and having no ideas (blankness) are common thinking issues.

Speaker 1 agrees, stating that the idea of changing jobs seemed too overwhelming.

Jean Maroney suggests switching to paper to write down the overwhelming thoughts.

Writing down thoughts helps quiet the mind and make the problem more manageable.

Addressing Overload with Paper
Jean Maroney advises writing down the overwhelming thoughts on paper to reduce overload.

Speaker 1 tries this method, listing potential career paths like psychology, going back to school, becoming a doctor, or starting a family.

Jean Maroney explains that writing down specific options helps narrow down the possibilities.

The act of writing down options helps the mind focus and make decisions more easily.

Getting Specific: Vagueness and Delimiting Options
Jean Maroney discusses the issue of vagueness when dealing with ideas.

She suggests getting more specific about potential career paths.

Speaker 1 lists various options within the psychology field, such as research, teaching, and industrial-organizational psychology.

Jean Maroney points out that getting specific helps in making informed decisions.

Concretizing Options and Making Decisions
Jean Maroney explains that concretizing options often reveals clearer decision-making paths.

Speaker 1 acknowledges that writing down specific options helped clarify her thoughts.

Jean Maroney emphasizes the importance of turning to paper to address various thinking problems.

The conversation highlights the benefits of writing down thoughts to manage overload, blankness, and vagueness.

Contact Information and Final Thoughts
Speaker 1 asks Jean Maroney how people can contact her for her course on tackling hard thinking.

Jean Maroney provides her website: www.jeanmaroney.com.

Speaker 1 thanks Jean for joining the show and praises her course.

The episode concludes with a brief mention of another book related to romance.