We're living in a world of people who are judging parenting from the view of a partier, which makes sense when you don't have a child -- something to take responsibility for. But we have such a thing, the environment. The joy you wish you could get from exploring nature you can get from protecting it, even if that means picking up other people's garbage. I know people who used to party a lot. When they have kids they take on responsibility far greater than bringing reusable bags to the store, giving up their old fun lifestyle. I have yet to meet a parent who regretted that responsibility. We can learn from that perspective and apply it to what has effectively been a few centuries…

The challenge for habits isn't starting them. It's not stopping them. I've started many. Actually, I've probably started fewer than most. I've stopped fewer. Mistakes: focusing on starting, wondering the value of it to you, they're mostly valuable, the problem isn't that they aren't valuable, it's that they are and that there are too many, asking how to start. To start is simple. Floss your teeth. The problem is that one day you won't and if you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two, it's all over. Aristotle's quote on excellence Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.…

A Watt Steam Engine Silicon Valley, governments, and lots of people are pushing for efficiency. I do too, but only after changing systemic beliefs and goals. The greatest cause of global warming would have looked like the greenest clean energy innovation ever: the Watt steam engine. It led to our environmental problems today more than anything else. We'd be fools to think today's green clean energy will do any different. Changing beliefs and goals will create results, not ignorantly continuing the patterns that got us here, thinking we're different. Efficiency is different than reducing total waste. An LED will never compete with simply turning off the light. If you thought, but the light enables things, that belief, especially if you reflexively believe that the alternative…

In this part of the conversation, Chase and I spoke about the environment. He's very thoughtful about it, though hasn't acted on it, for reasons he eloquently explains. I take the liberty of persisting politely, so if you haven't acted or want to influence others, you'll hear a lot of resistance that many feel but rarely express. If you're interested in developing your environmental leadership skills, this episode will show you a major problem you'll face: people hearing what they want or expect to hear more than what you say.

Chase runs GirlsChase, one of the most trafficked sites for dating coaching, which recently celebrated 10 years in business. It sets itself apart from its peers, besides its longevity with basic material, not gimmicks, for men to improve their lives, still getting about 40% traffic from women. The episode is long because Chase shared in depth what I consider valuable for someone wanting to lead in the area of the environment -- an area people want to act in but most put off. He had to marshal his passion for most of those 10 years, developing community, listening, and motivating himself You'll hear the reward, in how he changes his customers' lives. First we talk about the dating education world, often misunderstood.

Focusing on nonjudgment and support has taught me a lot. People like responding to judgment. Want clicks? Put judgment in a headline. "The right way to X," "The best Y," "What's wrong with Z." Want long-term attention? Invent a word or concept that sounds objective but is subjective, sound authoritative, and throw in some judgment. Think "orthorexia nervosa." Someone made up a term to imply people focus too much on eating healthy. Some guy based on a hunch. The term sounds medical. For improving the human condition, making the term up doesn't help. It just confuses. But for generating attention, brilliant. Devoid of solid grounding, people will go back and forth forever. For example: boxers or briefs in men's underwear. There's no right or wrong,…

I've meant to write this pattern: behavior that causes the problems that the behavior is supposed to solve. Trying to strengthen an arch by supporting it from below. Arches derive their strength from the pressure its elements put on each other. Supporting its elements from below reduces the pressure between elements and weakens the arch. I think shoe makers love this effect. They sell shoes that purport to support your foot's arch, which weakens it, which leads you to seek more support, which sell more shoes. You can avoid this death spiral by strengthening your foot arch muscles instead of atrophying them. Holding teachings responsible for student results in high stakes testing. This practice comes from believing that more accountability of teachers motivates them to…

A lot of people say, "Josh, easy for you to act on the environment. You don't have kids." First, I could point to former guest Bea Johnson, who with her husband and 2 sons, produce less than a mason jar of trash per year, whom I see as role models to aspire to. I could point out former guest Jim Harshaw, who involved his four children and wife in his personal challenge. They loved the process and he used it to bring them together. Now I can point out Colonel Mark Read, whom you're about to hear talking joy, fun, bringing family together and not in small ways. Acting on their environmental values connects them across generations, which he then brings to West Point cadets.…

As a professor of leadership, host of this podcast, and constant student of acting by my environmental values, I live and work in the intersection of leadership, education, and the environment. Ken Robinson does too, but with a big difference: he's been here for decades longer, actively practicing in each. This episode approaches each of education, leadership, and the environment from several perspectives. I can't say anything better than his voice carries the wisdom and vitality of someone who has worked here for longer and with greater passion than maybe anyone I've met and I'm in this world. I'll keep this writing brief. Let's listen to Ken Robinson. One last caveat: our schedules meant recording by phone, meaning the audio quality isn't like being in…