Speaking & Interviews
I’m Chad Herst, a coach and the author of The Performance Trap: The Ache No Success Will Ever Fix. I talk about what happens when achievement becomes a way to earn your worth, and what it is like to begin relating to that pressure differently.
For a podcast or event invitation, tell me a little about your show, audience, and what you would like to explore.
This two-minute excerpt is from an interview on the Keen on Yoga Podcast with Adam Keen. The conversation turns to enoughness. Hear the full Keen on Yoga interview.
Adam Keen: Do you feel like you’ve come to some kind of peace with things and a sense of adequacy, a sense of enoughness? Or are you still working on that?
Chad Herst: Yeah, I think I’m going to be working on that my whole life. But here’s the thing is, I think the distinction is, you and I were told this line, we were fed this line, do your practice and all is coming. That there was somehow going to come a day when you were going to get to this end zone. And that, as far as I’m concerned, is a complete fallacy. There is not that day when all comes.
But that’s not to say that in this time of continuous practice, not just on the mat, but in life, that there’s this growing awareness of the patterns themselves. It’s like, it’s not that the pain itself is gone. It’s that now I have a relationship to the pain. It’s now I have a relationship to my insecurity. It’s not that it’s not there.
It was like, honestly, coming into this conversation, I was actually feeling really anxious. And I still feel anxious, but I’m in relationship to the anxiety that’s here. I’m not overriding the anxiety. I feel something in my chest, in my belly. And it’s like a little bit of a fluttery feeling. And yet, I’m not trying to override it. I can feel that as part of the conversation.
So much of what I have spent my life trying to do is to stop this once and for all, to stop feeling this once and for all. And I recognize I can’t stop it. It doesn’t need to be stopped. It needs to be related to.
These are areas we could explore together. They are starting points, and I would want to hear what matters to your audience.
For people who achieve a great deal and still feel that they have to prove themselves.
For conversations about people-pleasing, self-abandonment, boundaries, and difficult relationships.
For audiences interested in meditation, yoga, therapy, or self-improvement who recognize the pressure to get those practices right.
Chad Herst founded Herst Wellness in 2006 and has centered his work on coaching since 2008. His work draws on more than thirty years in embodied practices and healing arts, including yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Performance Trap brings his personal story together with the ways he has worked with clients.
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Book details and purchase formats
Chad Herst is a San Francisco coach and the author of The Performance Trap: The Ache No Success Will Ever Fix. His work explores what happens when achievement and approval become measures of personal worth.
Chad Herst founded Herst Wellness in 2006 and has centered his work on coaching since 2008. His background includes yoga, massage, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. In The Performance Trap: The Ache No Success Will Ever Fix, he writes about the pressure to prove his worth, the cost it carried in his own life, and the practices he uses to work with that pattern. He works in San Francisco.
Tell me about your podcast or event. An invitation can start with an idea that is still taking shape.
You can also email Chad about an invitation.
