Aaron McHugh
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Work-Life Balance is a Myth

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I used to strive for balance

Now I believe it’s a myth. No matter how hard I tried, I was never able to achieve that perfect moment of Zen and harmony between all areas of my life.

Instead of bringing me joy, I felt defeated – more stressed, more burdened, and more defeated. In a radical move, brought on by intense life events, I decided to stop. I’d had enough of depleting myself trying to achieve an impossible standard.

Something remarkable happened next. Once I stopped trying to achieve perfect work-life balance, I discovered a third-way rhythm and integration, “a repeated pattern of movement” where work, life, play, relationships, rest, finances, friendships, and adventure could co-exist within my experience of each day.

This utterly transformed my life. Instead of endlessly striving for something that was unachievable, I began to experience my life as a complete whole where every valuable aspect was connected and worked together. I began to discover the Divine’s presence and meaning in places I had never noticed before.

From the outside, my life looks pretty much the same. I still work a full-time corporate career. I’m still married to the same woman. I still live in the same neighborhood. The only difference is me.

I’m no longer fragmented. I’m whole and integrated.

Now, I invite you to experience the same.

Do your best work
Live the life you want to live
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Book

Fire your Boss

Fire Your Boss is the disruptive alternative blueprint for charting a new life-giving career path that gives you control, allowing you to set your own rules for your work life. Discover how to plot a new course of career freedom and independence, empowerment, and self-reliance. Find your smile again, rekindle your mojo, recapture the art of your work, and start enjoying your work every single day.

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Podcast

Work Life Play

In my podcast Work Life Play, I interview good humans, entrepreneurs, artists, heretics, authors, liberators, adventurers, and innovators, who achieve inspiring results despite setbacks and prove that we can live, lead and succeed as wholehearted people. These interviews will illuminate the micro-adjustments you can make in your approach, your mindsets, your beliefs and habits to do work you love, live the life you want to live and play a lot more. Keep going. 

Featured Episodes

Doing the creative best with your own life

Friends, I’ve been thinking about the words of Saint Paul. He wrote this simple couple sentences that I’ve been meditating on for the last year and revisiting. He writes, “Make […]

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Higher Power Nudges with Holden McHugh #198

Wise. Gracious, and he’s teaching me a lot about the power of building an everyday muscle. He talks about how he makes decisions waiting for nudges from “Higher Power” and his brave beginnings of sobriety.

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Developing an everyday muscle

Today I’ve been thinking about developing an everyday muscle. I’ve been 600 days and counting now in this life experiment. So it feels like it’s time to share it with […]

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The Path to Restoring the Heart of a Man with Author Morgan Snyder #183

Morgan Snyder is more than my guest today. Our sixteen-year friendship is an anchor I repeatedly tether myself to for hope, truth, and joy. Our transformative reciprocity began when we […]

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Why We Need a Whole Heart| My talk from my book release #177

Usually, I wouldn’t write an introduction to a podcast episode that I am the “guest” or the speaker. But hey, this is the best talk I’ve ever given at my […]

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When You Deny You’re Burning Out with Jen Fisher #169

Our world is fast-paced, being everything to everyone at all times (except to ourselves), and the demands of our modern world aren’t sustainable if we don’t learn to listen to […]

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Latest Episodes
Blog

Field Reports

Navigating is easier with a guide and a map. In my blog, Field Reports, I share my experiences and thoughts on living and leading with a whole heart, and creating a life where work, life, play, relationships, rest, finances, friendships, and adventure co-exist within each day.

Featured Posts

The Master in the Art of Living

My friend Sam has this quote from James Michener in his Hawaiian home on the hillside above Waimea. His playful life disrupted mine more than a decade ago. I didn’t […]

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Trip Report: Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic

“Alaska’s Ultimate Wilderness,” The Brooks Range-North America’s Northernmost mountain range is home to The Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. In early June of 2021, our adventure trio Chris, […]

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Explorers Manifesto

Thirteen of us just completed our maiden Explorers journey. Our bakers dozen, explored the frontier edges of big questions through a combination of Zoom virtual sessions and an in-person adventure […]

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Trip Report: Adventure Awaits Colorado’s Winter Backcountry Huts & Yurts

We weren’t sure if the wood burning stovetop would be too hot to serve as a griddle for our pancakes. Alex improvised by adding a stick of butter to the […]

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Pierce the veneer of outside things

“We had pierced the veneer of outside things… We had reached the naked soul of men.” — Ernest Shackleton, South The veneer of outside things exists in polished half-truths. “I’m great. […]

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Be Who You Are And…

I came across this quote in my friend Katie Arnold’s book, Running Home. I’ve known, heard and even claimed that I’m comfortable in my own skin. I like being me. […]

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Workshops

Reboot Live

Reboot is a revolutionary, experiential, and brilliantly crafted workshop to help you rediscover what’s most important to you and stop what’s not working. We’ll dig deep together to help you get unstuck, throw off limiting beliefs, and help you architect a sustainable life you want to live.

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Speaking

Energizing Keynotes for Embracing Life

Bring inspiration and energy to your event with Aaron’s signature keynotes, Rebooting Your Life and Acting Like a Pro 8 Minutes At a Time. Aaron will teach your audience how to architect their work and life for sustainable joy and to embrace the adventure of living their real lives.

Invite Aaron to Speak

Aaron McHugh was an outstanding keynote at USA Cycling’s Coaching Summit. In the coaching world it is imperative to be and act like a pro. Aaron’s anecdotal stories and life experiences were easy for coaches to understand and apply to their world. Aaron knows what it means to go PRO.

Kevin Dessart, Former Director Coaching Education and Athlete Development, USA Cycling

Navigate a life worth living

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