On Purpose with Jay Shetty
3 Ways to Recharge Your Battery & 3 Daily Practices to Reduce Stress by 100% with the CEO of Calm @davidko
Fri, 13 Dec 2024
How do you unwind after a long day? What’s your favorite way to relax quickly? Today, Jay sits down with David Ko, the CEO of Calm and author of the groundbreaking book Recharge. Together, they unravel the complexities of stress, mental health, and how to create a fulfilling life in today’s fast-paced world. David shares his personal journey, from navigating childhood stress to becoming a leader who champions mental wellness. He introduces the “battery analogy,” a simple yet profound way to gauge our mental and emotional energy levels. Drawing from his book, David explains how understanding and managing our “battery” can transform our approach to stress, productivity, and personal growth. Jay and David discuss the power of presence, the necessity of balance, and how redefining stress—from harmful to helpful—can lead to resilience and growth. Their conversation dives deep into actionable strategies, such as creating rituals to recharge, fostering vulnerability at work, and redefining leadership to prioritize mental health. In this interview, you'll learn: How to Recognize When You Need to Recharge How to Foster Vulnerability in Leadership How to Balance Good Stress and Bad Stress How to Build a Culture of Gratitude in the Workplace How to Take Breaks for Better Productivity How to Identify and Remove Stress-Inducing Triggers Recharge your mind, body, and spirit—not just to keep going, but to thrive with purpose and joy. Prioritize yourself, because when you’re recharged, you’re unstoppable. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 02:10 What’s Something You’re not Calm About? 03:31 How's Your Battery? 05:42 The Four Battery Zones 10:59 The Importance of Recharging 14:24 Vulnerability in Leadership 18:37 Good Stress vs Bad Stress 25:25 Mental Health in the Workplace 28:56 Listen and Become More Purposeful 28:57 How to Take Care of Your Team 30:44 Supporting Employees’ Mental Health 38:10 Tools for Managing Burnout 44:19 How Do You Deal with Stress? 52:02 Put Your Focus on Healthy Stress 53:27 Daily Practices for Recharging 01:01:42 What is a Quality Decision? 01:07:08 David on Final Five 01:14:90 Is Your Battery Full? Episode Resources: David Ko | Instagram David Ko | LinkedIn Calm | Website Calm | Instagram Calm | Facebook Calm | X See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the battery analogy and how does it relate to mental health?
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61% of people feel expected to just get over stress. Yeah.
It's like just power through the moment. CEO of Calm. Author of Recharge. David Code. Good stress could lead to resilience. You're never really going to have a stress-free work environment. Not everything has to be 24-7, 365, because at some point you've caused a lot of bad stress.
That's a real kind of indicator for you to say, I need to really kind of take a hard stop and figure out how I recharge.
the number one health and wellness podcast. Jay Shetty.
Jay Shetty. The one, the only, Jay Shetty.
Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one place you come to become happier, healthier, and more healed. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Today, I'm so excited because I talked to a really good friend, someone that I respect so highly and admire so deeply, and I've had the fortune of knowing for the last couple of years. I'm talking about David Koh.
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Chapter 2: Why is vulnerability important in leadership?
Right away.
Yeah, right away. And I've been fortunate enough to have you interview me so many times. So I'm glad I get to repay the favor this time around. And I wanted to ask you just to get our blood boiling, just to start with some fun. I wanted to ask you, David, what's something that you're not calm about?
I think there's a lot of things that I'm not calm about throughout my day. I will tell you right now, I am in the throes of my oldest daughter applying to colleges. Even though I try to appear very calm in front of her and cool and collective, you know? And you don't want to be like a helicopter type of parent. There are times where I'm just like...
you know i want to get in there and say something but i realize almost like the best thing for her is for her to go through it and i have to kind of take a back seat and so it's it's kind of going from where you take the wheel to like you're in the passenger seat and then you're in the back seat kind of peering every once in a while but i can't help myself from like i don't know when she first learned to drive by like saying oh i'm i'm stepping on the brake here and there right but uh
Chapter 3: What is the difference between good stress and bad stress?
That's one thing right now that is probably a little stressful.
Yeah, no, I can imagine. I read a study that said we process around 72 gigabytes of information per day, which the research likened to reading Tolkien's The Hobbit. Yeah. Every single day, that's nearly 96,000 words. Right, right. And you think about that and you go, no wonder we're overwhelmed. No wonder we're burnt out. No wonder we're stressed.
And you have this really brilliant analogy comparing the brain and our mind to a battery. That's right. Walk us through this because I really like this in your book, Recharge, the way you break it down and explain it.
You know, the recharge came from a good friend of mine. And we were talking about mental health and I just asked her, I said, you know, how's it going with your kids? And she goes, you know, I was talking to my kids and I just said, how's your battery? And I was like, wait, what? And she goes, well, I said, how's your battery? I said, why?
And she said, well, if I ask them how they're doing, I get the plain fine. And because they're kids, they're just like, I'm fine. But if I ask them like, how's your battery? They're like, well, it's at like 50%. Or so you may need a snack because they're little. Or it's at 75%. She's like, oh, you're okay. Or sometimes they're at 25% and they just need something to decompress.
While we were talking about it, a light bulb just went out. And that light bulb that went on was about like, she took something that at times can be charged, and she took something and really simplified in a way that I think we would all understand, regardless of age. And I asked her, I was like, can I run with that? And she was like, yeah, sure, whatever, right?
And we still laugh about it, Brenda and I, because she's like, wow, you actually took it. And I was like, yeah, I used it as a theme. I talk about it. I go to clients. I'll go out. And it just kind of resonates with people because it's simple. And it doesn't kind of draw out any emotions. It just says like, hey, how's your battery? How are you feeling?
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Chapter 4: How can we create a culture of gratitude in the workplace?
And I think that sometimes that gets lost because we try to make it bigger sometimes than it is. And it's really nice when you can kind of just simplify it and just ask, yeah, how's your battery? How are you doing? I love the question, how's your battery, even more than...
how you're doing, like you said, because I think sometimes we, I think you also mentioned that we can scale everything up to a 10.
That's right.
So everything can feel like it's a 10, it's the worst, or everything can feel like, oh, it's just plain old fine. That's right. And then you don't have much to play with. Whereas when you get a number, walk us through the different breakdowns as you do in the book. Yeah. Because I think when you look at zero to a hundred and
we're very good at feeling zero and maybe a hundred right like if it's your kid's wedding chances are you'll be at a hundred if it's like your kid's birthday like you're at a hundred like there's these joyful blissful moments in life that people experience and we go yeah that was a hundred moment and then we all know what a zero moment feels like you lost a loved one who sadly passed away you you
You lost your job. There's these very zero moments. Walk us through how you break down the zero to 100.
Yeah, and I try to do it really simply. I have found, and I'll talk about my own kids at times, when I ask them that question, how their battery is, I notice that they check, like most people, they check their phones quite often. And at some point it just becomes like a reflex and they don't even know they're checking it.
But when they do look at it and the power's down or it goes yellow or it goes red, they get a little panicked. Like, oh my God, I got to charge it. Imagine my surprise when we're in like airports and they're like going out to people, can I use a little of your charge, right? I think we've all been there where we don't have a charger and you're like, I need something. Can somebody help me out?
Most times people are really kind and they'll just, you know, kind of help you, especially if you're a kid. I thought about then putting it into zones and I put it into four zones. And I just said, you know, if you're at 75 to 100, you're probably fine. And meaning that, you know, you're in a zone where you're just moving along.
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Chapter 5: What daily practices can help reduce stress?
And I've had at times where family members have come to me and said, hey, I'm out of five. And we start to break it down. And I said, let me put it in another way for you. Think about your phone. And we do checks on our phone. And there's things on your phone that drain your battery more than other applications.
And they're like, yeah, it's like when you go and Apple shows you what's draining or taking up all your memory. And what happens when you start to delete some of those things? Or what happens when you start to recognize what's causing it? They're like, oh, my battery is much more efficient. And I'm like, yeah. So what's causing that in your personal life right now?
And we try to create analogies of different things. And so it doesn't become a space where all we're doing is talking about all the negativity. We're trying to draw parallels to different things in everyday life. And so that it doesn't become such a charged conversation. And that's kind of the recharge concept as well, where we're like, let's talk about your mental health.
Because sometimes some people don't want to talk about their mental health. But when we bring up the battery conversation or how to recharge, it's just a different framing. And again, this is something I think you just do brilliantly to bring everyone in. And I try to do the same thing there as well.
Yeah, I was going to ask you that actually, because I've always felt that with you. You've always been present with different touch points, whether we're at dinners, events, even when we've traveled and seen each other when we're in New York for a dinner for time earlier this year. you're always present too. And I wonder, how do you do that as a busy CEO?
Because I think you're so right that when we ask the question, how are you doing? we are subconsciously hoping someone just says, I'm good. We almost ask the question and expect the response even before we have a response. You're so right. Like that really resonated with me. And the truth is sometimes life is fast for most of us, right? Our schedules are back to back to back.
We are running from dropping your kid to school, running to work, picking up the laundry, doing the laundry, whatever, right? There's so much going on. How do you actually create space for these conversations?
And that's part of being a lot more present and intentional. As leaders, and I'd be curious now for you as CEO as well, we're expected to have all the answers. We're expected to make many different types of decisions. We're expected to play roles in HR, but also company strategy. And when you take a step back, you can't make every decision. And then there's always things that are the unexpected.
Take your car analogy. So when you had your car and you were at 30%, you were probably with someone, but in the back of your mind, you're going, how am I going to get home? Where am I going to charge? And you could do this probably better than most, but you still want to be present for that individual that you're with or your friends that you're with in those conversations.
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