The OptimalWork Podcast

#288: In this capstone episode, Sharif and Kevin explore a powerful question: Do you have to fix yourself before you can serve others? As they unpack the virtue of justice, Kevin challenges the common belief that relief from anxiety, depression, or anger must come first. Instead, he argues that vitality begins when attention shifts outward—toward real duties, real people, and real bonds. But they don’t stop there. Drawing from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Kevin makes a bold claim: friendship goes beyond justice. While justice orients us toward the good of others, it’s genuine friendship—shared meaning, shared effort, shared attention—that becomes an inexhaustible source of enthusiasm in work and life. From teachers losing early excitement to professionals searching for lasting motivation, Sharif and Kevin show why projects and pleasures eventually fade—while bonds with people never do.

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#287: Why do we sometimes feel like we're at war with ourselves? In this episode, Sharif and Dr. Kevin Majeres dive into a therapy approach called Internal Family Systems (IFS), exploring how our mind has various parts — protectors and exiles — which are sometimes in conflict. Approaching these parts with curiosity and compassion paves the way to resilience and growth. IFS offers valuable tools for everyday life and self-therapy. This discussion is geared toward empowering you to apply these learnings to your own internal challenges, fostering a path to flourishing.

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#286: In this episode, Sharif and Kevin continue their deep dive into the dynamics of vitality by tackling the most overlooked of the cardinal virtues: justice. Building on their framework linking anxiety, depression, and addiction to different “engines” of human behavior, Kevin explains why justice doesn’t merely fix one problem but reorders the entire system. Through vivid metaphors and clinical insight, they explore why true healing can’t happen in isolation, how serving something greater than oneself restores balance, and why modern ideas of self-care often reinforce the very valleys they aim to escape. The conversation reframes mental health around bonds, responsibility, and the powerful role of giving one’s best to others.

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#285: In this episode, Sharif and Kevin map the ancient framework of the cardinal virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance—onto the modern “three engines” model of meaning, effort, and attention. Kevin argues that love sits at the core of both emotion and virtue, and shows how different “dark valleys” (anxiety, depression, addiction) have corresponding saddle points where a person can open to reality or close against it. The conversation turns practical as they translate each virtue into a simple question you can ask in the heat of the moment—especially when uncertainty, exhaustion, or craving tries to hijack your next move.

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#284: Sharif and Dr. Majeres return to unpack one of the most practical ideas in OptimalWork: valleys, vitality, and the “saddle points” where change actually happens. Kevin explains how anxiety, depression, and addiction are shaped by love misdirected toward relief, and why the moments in between—waking up, starting work, finishing a task—are where everything tilts. They explore how love functions as a kind of gravity, how predicted pain gets people trapped in their heads, and why opening willingly to discomfort for the sake of real bonds is the only path back to vitality. The conversation blends neuroscience, philosophy, and daily work habits into a framework that helps people recognize temptation not as failure, but as a moment of choice.

Find more at https://OptimalWork.com