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Rise Above Chaos

Rise Above Chaos

Di: Erick Rheam
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Learn how busy and overwhelmed professionals can rediscover their passion, so they can redefine their purpose, and gain the courage to do something about it. We will discuss how to cut through the whirlwinds of life to rise above the chaos and discover a path to significance and ultimately peace.2023 Economia Successo personale Sviluppo personale
Episodi
  • The Power of Awareness

    The Power of Awareness
    Oct 6 2026
    Show Notes: erickrheam.com/111 "You can't intentionally change what you haven't first learned to notice." Episode Summary How often do we move through life on cruise control—getting things done, meeting obligations, solving problems, and moving from one responsibility to the next—without stopping to ask why we're doing what we're doing? In this episode, Erick explores the power of awareness and why becoming more conscious of what's happening within us and around us is essential to making better decisions and living more intentionally. Awareness does not necessarily require us to immediately fix something. It begins with simply noticing. When we notice our habits, reactions, environment, and the perspectives of others, we create space between what happens to us and how we choose to respond. What Is Awareness? Awareness is the ability to consciously notice and understand what is happening within you and around you. It means slowing down long enough to ask: What am I doing—and why am I doing it?What am I feeling or reacting to?What's happening around me that I may be missing?What are other people experiencing?Is the direction I'm traveling still where I want to go? Awareness comes before intentionality. Before we can change a habit, repair a relationship, change direction, manage an emotion, or make a better decision, we first have to recognize what's happening. Three Ways to Increase Your Awareness 1. Read More Reading gets us outside of our own heads and exposes us to perspectives shaped by experiences different from our own. You don't have to agree with everything you read to learn from it. Sometimes the greatest growth comes from encountering an idea that challenges how you currently see the world. Key idea: Reading expands your world without requiring you to leave the room. 2. Listen More Listening isn't limited to hearing the person speaking directly to you. Awareness means learning to read your environment. What's being said? What's not being said? What's the mood in the room? Who's engaged? Who has withdrawn? What seems to be frustrating or energizing people? The more aware you become of these signals, the better equipped you are to understand the situation before deciding how to respond. Key idea: Great leaders don't just know what to say—they know how to read the room. 3. Ask Better Questions We often form conclusions about people before understanding what's really happening. Instead of immediately judging someone's behavior, create space for curiosity: Help me understand what you're seeing.What am I missing?What's most important to you here?Tell me more. Good questions communicate: I'm willing to learn before I decide. Awareness Creates Choice Without awareness, we tend to react: something happens, and we react. Awareness interrupts that pattern: something happens → we notice → understand → consider → choose. That space between what happens and how we respond may only last a few seconds, but those seconds can change a conversation, a relationship, a decision—and ultimately the direction of our lives. This Week's Challenge Practice three simple habits: Read something that exposes you to a different perspective.Listen intentionally to what's happening around you rather than always preparing what you're going to say next.Ask one more question before forming your conclusion. Read more. Listen more. Ask better questions. Memorable Quotes "You can't intentionally change what you haven't first learned to notice." "Awareness comes before intentionality." "Awareness creates space between observation and judgment." "I'm willing to learn before I decide." "Awareness creates choice." Final Thought When we're unaware, it's easy to allow life to happen to us. We fall into routines, react to circumstances, do what's necessary, and operate on cruise control. Awareness interrupts that pattern. It gives us permission to look around, look inward, and ask: What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Is this still where I want to go? Sometimes the first step toward rising above the chaos is simply becoming aware of it. Resources Mentioned Subscribe to the podcastRise Above Chaos bookWork with ErickConnect with Erick: erickrheam.comGet the Rise Above Chaos Planner Action Step Become more aware in one area of your life
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    24 min
  • What Do You Really Want? with Will Steel

    What Do You Really Want? with Will Steel
    Sep 22 2026
    Show Notes: erickrheam.com/110 Episode Summary What happens when the life you are living looks successful on paper but no longer feels like your own? In this episode, Erick sits down with former Royal Air Force pilot, leadership coach, and author Will Steel to explore authentic leadership, genuine listening, and the courage to ask a deceptively difficult question: What do you really want? Will shares how trying to fit the mold nearly ended his RAF officer career, why being himself ultimately earned him a leadership trophy, and why he later walked away from 12 years of flying to start again at the bottom. Their conversation challenges listeners to notice where fear, other people's expectations, and routine may be keeping them stuck—and to intentionally choose what comes next. Key Takeaways Listening is more than staying quiet. If you are internally judging, rehearsing your response, or deciding whether you agree, you may be hearing words without being fully present.Authenticity requires letting go of the person you think others expect you to be and showing up as yourself.When you feel stuck, start with the question: "What do I really want?" Not knowing the answer is not failure—it is the beginning of the work.One of the biggest barriers to change is not what other people actually think, but what you imagine they will think.It is not too late to change direction. Will left a successful flying career and started over because he wanted work that made him feel challenged, useful, and alive.Your "why" cannot become wallpaper. You have to keep choosing what you are doing and reconnecting with why it matters. From Invisible to the Leadership Trophy During officer training at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, Will followed advice to keep his head down, stay out of trouble, and simply get through the course. After 16 weeks, his flight commander told him he was essentially invisible and could not be recommended for graduation. Faced with repeating the course or leaving, Will decided his strategy of trying to be what he thought others expected had failed. He returned determined to be himself and let the chips fall where they would. Eighteen weeks later, he graduated with the leadership trophy. The experience became a lasting lesson: authentic presence is more powerful than performing someone else's version of leadership. Three Questions to Ask Yourself 1. Am I actually listening? Notice when your attention leaves the person in front of you and moves into your own internal commentary. A practical reset is to acknowledge that you missed what was said, ask the person to repeat it, and return your attention to them. 2. What do I really want? Will recommends sitting with this question rather than forcing a quick answer. Journal about it. Pay attention to what lights you up. Strip away the obvious or socially acceptable answers and look for the work, relationships, and experiences that create a genuine sense of aliveness. 3. What am I afraid of? Once you know what you want, examine what is stopping you. Often the obstacle is fear of judgment, failure, loss of status, or uncertainty. Will's challenge is to recognize how much of that fear may be based on what you imagine other people will think. For the Mid-Career Professional Who Feels Stuck Erick describes a familiar place for many professionals: not unhappy enough to leave, but not happy enough to stay. You have built a career, responsibilities, a mortgage, perhaps a pension and children in college—and changing direction feels risky. Will's advice is not to impulsively quit. Do the inner work first. Revisit what drew you to your work in the first place, identify what you genuinely want now, and determine whether you need a new career—or simply a renewed connection to the one you already have. Memorable Quotes "What do you really want?""Stop trying to be what you think other people think you should be. Be you.""It's not what they think. It's what you are thinking they would think.""You've got to keep choosing what it is you're doing and being connected to why you do this." About Will Steel Will Steel is a former RAF pilot turned transformational leadership coach, author, and host of the Free To Lead podcast, known for helping founders, CEOs, and senior leaders lead clearly under pressure. A graduate of RAF College Cranwell and recipient of the Leadership Trophy, Will spent a decade flying before transitioning into leadership development. He later spent more than 21 years as a senior leader within one of the world's most influential personal-development organisations, delivering programmes to over 90,000 people across 26 countries. Today, he works globally across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, exposing the hidden patterns that quietly sabotage performance, decision-making, and relationships. Will is recognised for his direct, grounded approach that helps leaders lead with clarity, integrity, and authenticity—without losing themselves in...
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    43 min
  • How to Heal from Burnout with Keith Cole

    How to Heal from Burnout with Keith Cole
    Sep 8 2026
    Show Notes: erickrheam.com/109 Episode Summary Burnout rarely arrives all at once. For Keith Cole, it accumulated through grief, combat, responsibility, suppressed trauma, long workdays, and the belief that strength meant pushing through without asking for help. In this episode, Erick talks with Keith - a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, former CPA, and author of Burnout: God's Recovery Plan - about what happens when endurance becomes exhaustion and why simply managing stress is not the same as healing. Keith shares the losses and experiences that shaped his life, including the death of his father while he was in high school, being wounded three times in Vietnam, serving families of fallen Marines, losing his mother, and becoming guardian to his younger siblings at age 23. Years later, while running a successful CPA practice, the pressure finally reached a breaking point. That moment became the beginning of a faith-centered recovery journey built around honesty, structure, rest, and the willingness to receive help. Key Takeaways Burnout can build quietly over years of responsibility, unresolved grief, stress, and relentless self-reliance.Strength can help you survive difficult seasons, but strength alone does not necessarily heal what caused the pain.Managing stress can provide temporary relief; healing requires addressing what is underneath the stress.High achievers often avoid asking for help because vulnerability can feel like weakness - but seeking help is not failure.Faith, intentional priorities, regular rest, exercise, gratitude, and reflection can create a healthier daily rhythm.One of the first steps out of burnout is simply telling someone you trust what you are going through. Keith's Journey: When Strength Stops Working Loss and rebellion: Keith expected to enter ministry, but the death of his father at age 52 changed his direction. Angry with God, he moved away from the church and enlisted in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam era. Combat and accumulated trauma: Serving as an M60 machine gunner, Keith was wounded three times. After returning stateside, he served on Instructor-Inspector duty, where part of his responsibility included notifying next of kin and supporting honor details for fallen Marines - work he describes as, in many ways, harder than combat. Responsibility without recovery: While still serving, Keith lost his mother and received an early discharge to become legal guardian to his 15- and 13-year-old siblings. He later worked through college, became a CPA, built his own practice, and continued carrying stress without talking about it or seeking support. The breaking point: Late one night in his office, Keith reached for a bottle of scotch and realized it was no longer giving him relief. He cried out to God, spent time in prayer, and began confronting what years of pushing through had cost him. Writing as a path toward healing: Because writing directly about his own experiences was painful, Keith created a fictional Marine named Kevin Casey and told his story through that character. The process helped him see that the same lessons might also help others facing burnout and stress, whether they had served in combat or not. Managing Stress vs. Healing Managing StressHealingKeith compares managing stress to sweeping the front porch every day: it may look better for a while, but the source of the mess has not changed.Healing means becoming honest about the root causes, allowing faith and trusted people into the process, and building a healthier structure for how you live and work. The PRAISER Recovery Rhythm Keith describes a faith-centered daily rhythm he uses to prevent overload and stay grounded. In the conversation, he walks through the following elements of PRAISER: P - Prayer - Talk with God throughout the day and seek guidance rather than carrying everything alone. R - Reading Scripture - Use Scripture as a source of direction, perspective, and truth. A - Affirmations - Reinforce the direction and beliefs that support the life you are trying to build. I - Inscribing - Write in a gratitude journal and put important thoughts on paper. S - Seeing - Use visualization to keep meaningful goals and desired outcomes in view. E - Exercise - Make physical movement part of the recovery process; Keith and his wife consistently train together. R - Rest - Protect periods of true rest - even short, quiet 15-minute blocks during the day with no phone, television, or task list. Keith also emphasizes planning his daily actions through prayer and limiting the number of priorities he carries into a day, rather than trying to accomplish everything at once. Memorable Quotes "The strength worked until it didn't." "There's no shame in talking about it." "There's no shame in getting somebody's assistance." "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 Action Steps Name what you are carrying. Write down the responsibilities, stressors...
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    56 min
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