How to Do Nothing: Our Toxic Relationship with Work and What to Do About It, with Celeste Headlee

08/14/24 • 32 min

The Breakout – Unleashing Personal Growth

“People who overwork - more than 55 hours a week - which is most Americans, will die younger. Not that it's correlated with early death. It causes it. This is serious”.

Celeste Headlee wants to start a revolution.

In her new book Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving, she’s asking out loud the question we’ve likely all been wondering: Why are we so obsessed with productivity and efficiency? Even when it's making us miserable?

Celeste is an award-winning author and broadcast journalist with NPR and PBS. She’s also a professional public speaker; her Ted Talk is one of the top ten most viewed talks with an impressive 30+ million views. In this episode, she analyzes our toxic relationships with work and what we can do about it. Celeste doesn’t mince words. With powerful research, and a tough love approach, this conversation is one of our favorites, and we’re confident it will be one of yours too.

About Celeste Headlee
Celeste Headlee is an internationally recognized journalist and radio host, professional speaker and author of bestselling book We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving, Speaking of Race: Why Everyone Needs to Talk About Racism and How to Do It, and You’re Cute When You’re Mad: Simple Steps for Confronting Sexism. Her TEDx Talk, 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation, has been viewed over 34 million times. Close to 50,000 talks have been given at 10,000 events since the TED program launched in 2009, and Celeste’s talk is one of the 10 most-watched talks posted on TED’s homepage. Celeste is a regular guest host on NPR and American Public Media, serves as an advisory board member for ProCon.org and The Listen First Project, and received the 2019 Media Changemaker Award.

Website: https://celesteheadlee.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celesteheadlee/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=celeste+headlee
About The Breakout
The Breakout is the hit podcast hosted by human resources and change experts Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther. The founders of Abbracci Group, a results-driven coaching, HR Management and consulting firm, Keri and Kelly are laser-focused on getting the best out of people. They launched The Breakout in early 2023 to find the best stories and advice on busting boundaries and making change, and since then the show has charted #1 in self-improvement, #1 in education, and #7 in all podcasts.

Join Keri and Kelly on The Breakout as they get advice and insights from change experts, and learn from people who have really done it how you can move your life into bold new territory. Each episode comes with lessons on living courageously, with topics on self-help, leadership, personal development, building success, setting personal boundaries, growing your confidence, overcoming self doubt, and knowing your self worth. From huge transformations to quiet shifts, The Breakout highlights why every change matters. Keri and Kelly offer a four-step coaching process to help you increase your self-awareness, break out of expectations, and live life on your terms. Learn more at abbraccigroup.com.

Keri and Kelly’s new book Whatever the Hell You Want – An Escape Plan to Break Out of Life’s Little Boxes and Live Free From Expectations, will be out in October 8 2024 and is available for pre-order now! Dr. Keri Ohlrich’s book The Way of the HR Warrior is available now.
Connect with Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther
Instagram: @thebreakoutpod
Podcast page
The Breakout on Facebook
LinkedIN
The Breakout on YouTube

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“People who overwork - more than 55 hours a week - which is most Americans, will die younger. Not that it's correlated with early death. It causes it. This is serious”.

Celeste Headlee wants to start a revolution.

Take a minute to fill out our listener survey and help us make The Breakout Podcast even better. Your feedback means the world to us! 💬

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

How to Be Shameless: Squashing Your Inner Critic, with Maggie Langrick

“It was easy for me to say to people ‘your stories are valuable’ but when I would turn that lens on myself, I was tongue-tied and embarrassed.” As the founder of Wonderwell Press, a non-fiction publishing company, Maggie Langrick has been a champion of writers for years; in fact she was a huge influence in the development of Keri and Kelly’s upcoming book, Whatever the Hell You Want (coming in October!).

But while Maggie was helping everyone else find their voice, she was actively repressing her own, because, as she tells us, she felt like it was “weird...in the wrong way”. So when a cancer diagnosis derailed her ambitious business plans, Maggie was forced to finally slow down. And that’s when she realized that she actually had a lot to say, if she would only stop discarding her ideas before she’d even explored them.

Today, Maggie is a writer, a podcast host, and a writing coach who helps people dig into their own creativity and discover the incredible power of losing the shame and telling their own stories. In this episode Maggie tells how she confronted her self-judgement and learned to listen to her own voice. She also shares what a “full-body ick” is really telling you.

About Maggie Langrick
Maggie Langrick is a writer, public speaker, media entrepreneur, and host of The Selfish Gift podcast. She is publisher at Wonderwell Press, which she founded in 2013. A hybrid publishing company, Wonderwell Press publishes nonfiction books that help, heal and inspire, in categories ranging from psychology and health, personal development, spirituality and motivational memoirs. She is a former member of the Board of Directors at IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association. Maggie is also the creator of The Underwire, a weekly newsletter publication on Substack.

In her teens and early twenties, Maggie was an award-winning film and television actress, starring in films such as My American Cousin and Harry and the Hendersons. She still can’t resist playing the room for laughs whenever she gets the chance. Maggie lives in Los Angeles.

Connect with Maggie

Website: https://maggielangrick.com/

Podcast: The Selfish Gift

LinkedIn: Maggie Langrick

Instagram: @maggielangrick

About The Breakout
The Breakout is the hit podcast hosted by human resources and change experts Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther. The founders of Abbracci Group, a results-driven coaching, HR Management and consulting firm, Keri and Kelly are laser-focused on getting the best out of people. They launched The Breakout in early 2023 to find the best stories and advice on busting boundaries and making change, and since then the show has charted #1 in self-improvement, #1 in education, and #7 in all podcasts.

Keri and Kelly’s new book Whatever the Hell You Want – An Escape Plan to Break Out of Life’s Little Boxes and Live Free From Expectations, is inspired by the show, and will be out in October 8 2024. It's available for pre-order now! Dr. Keri Ohlrich’s book The Way of the HR Warrior is available now.

Join Keri and Kelly on The Breakout as they get advice and insights from change experts, and learn from people who have really done it how you can dive into personal growth, increase self confidence, and move your life into bold new territory.

Each episode comes with lessons on living courageously, with topics on self-help, leadership, personal development, bu...

Next Episode

How to Stop a Bully: Breaking the Silence with Women’s Rights Lawyer, Alreen Haeggquist

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!
Keri and Kelly’s new book, Whatever the Hell you Want: An Escape Plan to Break Out of Life’s Little Boxes and Live Free from Expectations is coming out October 8th, but you can pre-order it NOW! And there are bonuses for you if you do! Our fabulous podcast listeners can win the deluxe new AirPods Max headphones.

Here's how to enter:
1 Pre-order the book on Amazon at this link between August 14th and October 8.
2 Post a podcast review on your favorite listening app
3 Post your book receipt on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtags #WhateverTheHellYouWant and #VoicesforChildren and you will be entered into the drawing!

Done! The deadline for entries is midnight Pacific Time on October 8th. The winner will be announced in our October 16th episode.

Episode Summary:
“When you are a bully, when you're, when you're rich or powerful or influenced and you think you can get away with it, that's really when I come alive”.

Alreen Haeggquist has done something incredible with something incredibly awful. As a child, she endured years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father. When she finally got out, Alreen harnessed her anger, put herself through law school, and now advocates for women being harassed or abused in the workplace at her women's rights firm, Haeggquist and Eck.

In this episode, Alreen takes us through her breakout from victim to influential advocate. She tells us about the powerful book she wrote about her journey, and how confronting her father made it easy to take on one of today's biggest bullies, Donald Trump.

About Alreen Haeggquist
Alreen Haeggquist is a lawyer, survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and fierce advocate for those brave enough to stand up to their abusers in court. Over the last two decades, Alreen has fought for victims of abuse, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and fraud in high-profile lawsuits. Her law firm, Haeggquist & Eck, has recovered millions of dollars for its clients-and plays a critical role in allowing victims to reclaim their narratives. Determined to break the cycle of abuse, Alreen shares her story of how she uses her trauma to help others get out of the darkness and reclaim their light.

Connect with Alreen
Website: https://www.alreen.com/
Book: Fired Up: Fueling Triumph from Trauma
Haeggquist & Eck: https://haelaw.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alreen-haeggquist/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alreen/

About The Breakout
The Breakout is the hit podcast hosted by human resources and change experts Dr. Keri Ohlrich and Kelly Guenther. The founders of Abbracci Group, a results-driven coaching, HR Management and consulting firm, Keri and Kelly are laser-focused on getting the best out of people. They launched The Breakout in early 2023 to find the best stories and advice on busting boundaries and making change, and since then the show has charted #1 in self-improvement, #1 in education, and #7 in all podcasts.

Join Keri and Kelly on The Breakout as they get advice and insights from change experts, and learn from people who have really done it how you can dive into personal growth, increase self confidence, and move your life into bold new territory.

Each episode comes with lessons on living courageously, with topics on self-help, leadership, personal development, building success, setting personal boundaries, growing your confidence, overcoming self doubt, and knowing your self worth. From huge transformations to quiet shifts, The Breakout highlights why every change matters.

At Abbracci Group, Keri and Kelly offer a four-step coaching process to help you increase your self-awareness, break out of expectations, and live life on your terms. Learn more at abbraccigroup.com.

Keri and Kelly’s new book Whatever the Hell You Want – An Escape Plan to Break Out of Life’s Little Boxes and Live Free From Expectations, will be out in October 8 2024 and is