BEST OF: Why Ambition Isn’t Always A Good Thing

I Don’t Want A Job With Amie McNee

You are not here to accept the terms and conditions of this world. That sentence is on the first page of Amie McNee's manifesto, I Don't Want a Job. And if something in you just exhaled, this episode is for you. Amie is an author, creativity coach and former serial job-quitter who went viral in 2023 for finally saying out loud the thing that so many people have been swallowing for decades. That not wanting to spend your one wild, tiny, miraculous life doing work that empties you out is not laziness. It is not ingratitude. It might actually be the sanest response to an insane system. In this episode, Lucy and Amie go everywhere. Why we internalize the system's rules until they feel like our own thoughts. Why creativity is not a nice-have but a portal to knowing who you actually are. What AI is about to expose about the relationship between work, identity and human meaning. And why following a flicker of curiosity in a world that wants you to stay on the path is, in Amie's words, an act of revolution. This is the most fired up, soul-enlivening conversation this podcast has had. Find out more at www.lucymaeve.com [http://www.lucymaeve.com]. → Come say hi on Instagram: @lucy__maeve [https://www.instagram.com/lucy__maeve] https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/ [https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/] @inspiredtowrite [https://www.instagram.com/inspiredtowrite/?hl=en] https://amiemcnee.substack.com/ [https://amiemcnee.substack.com/]

How To Ask For What You Need (And Get It)

You have probably said it, or thought it. They just aren't meeting my needs. And then come to some version of a conclusion about what that means. That they don't care. That you're incompatible. That you will never get what you need from anyone. In this episode, Lucy unpacks something that has nothing to do with whether your needs are valid, because they are, and everything to do with how often we deliver them. You will find out the difference between being personally empowered and being relationally empowered, and why knowing you deserve to be heard is not the same as actually being heard. You will hear a story from a conference room that explains, almost perfectly, why so many requests land badly even when nothing is wrong with the request itself. And you will leave with one small, almost embarrassingly simple shift that changes whether what you say lands as a demand or a request, and dramatically changes your odds of actually getting what you are asking for. This one is short, but it might save more than one relationship in your life, romantic or otherwise. Find out more at www.lucymaeve.com [http://www.lucymaeve.com]. → Come say hi on Instagram: @lucy__maeve [https://www.instagram.com/lucy__maeve] https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/ [https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/]

She Nearly Broke Up With Him, Now They Are Getting Married

A woman almost left a relationship a year and a half ago because it felt too intense, too hard, too uncomfortable to be right. She is getting married this year. In this episode, Lucy unpicks one of the most damaging myths we carry about love. The idea that if someone is right for you, it will feel easy. You will find out why discomfort in a healthy relationship is not a signal to leave, and why almost everyone has been taught the opposite. You will understand the real difference between intuition and an old fear wearing intuition's clothes, and why the most intense reactions in your relationship are often coming from somewhere much older than the person standing in front of you. You will hear why two healthy people coming together will always bring up unprocessed stuff, by design, and why running from one relationship to avoid that discomfort just guarantees you will meet the exact same pattern somewhere else, wearing a different face. This episode could save a relationship that does not actually need saving, just understanding. Find out more at www.lucymaeve.com [http://www.lucymaeve.com]. → Come say hi on Instagram: @lucy__maeve [https://www.instagram.com/lucy__maeve] https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/ [https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/]

The Real Reason Behind Infidelity, And Why High Performance Has A Lot To Answer For

You have the impressive job, you check off your workouts, you can name your attachment style and still you find yourself on a Sunday evening with absolutely no idea who you are when the title comes off. In this episode, Lucy talks to psychotherapist Tracey Kiernan, a former corporate lawyer who left law after years of high-functioning anxiety, about what is actually happening underneath the performance of having it together. You will understand the difference between genuine nervous system regulation and what Tracey calls performative wellness, the sound baths and bootcamps we collect like checkboxes without ever turning inward. You will hear what your window of tolerance actually is, why avoiding discomfort costs you far more than feeling it ever would, and why so many high achievers are quietly grey and uninspired by their own lives without realising why. The second half of this conversation goes somewhere most podcasts will not. An honest, non-judgmental look at why people cheat, what infidelity actually reveals about a relationship, and why both partners usually have something to take responsibility for, even the one who was betrayed. Find out more at www.lucymaeve.com [http://www.lucymaeve.com]. → Come say hi on Instagram: @lucy__maeve [https://www.instagram.com/lucy__maeve] https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/ [https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/] https://www.traceythetherapist.com/ [https://www.traceythetherapist.com/] https://www.instagram.com/traceythetherapist [https://www.instagram.com/traceythetherapist?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr]

Why High Performance is A Con

You have tried the holidays. The nice restaurant. The new bag. The weekend away. And somehow the low-level meh, the disconnection, the loneliness in the middle of a full life, is still there. In this episode, Lucy comes back from the retreat with something she cannot stop thinking about. The gap. The gap between the character you built to survive the world and the actual version of you underneath it. The one that never really gets any airtime. You will understand why so many intimate relationships feel lonely even when they look loving from the outside. Why burnout happens to people who seem to have everything together. Why you feel lost making decisions from a life that is technically yours but does not quite feel like it. And what it actually looked like, in real time, over five nights, to watch women put down the performance and let the true version of themselves back into the room. This episode is one of the most important Lucy has recorded. It is also one of the most direct. Find out more at www.lucymaeve.com [http://www.lucymaeve.com]. → Come say hi on Instagram: @lucy__maeve [https://www.instagram.com/lucy__maeve] https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/ [https://lucymaeve133.lpages.co/sevendaysbacktoyou/]