When You Don't Know What You Actually Want: How To Say No, When To Say Yes, and The One Question That Cuts Through It | Yara Shahidi

Hey, gang. Welcome to the 10% Happier podcast. I'm your host, Dan Harris. Today, we're doing something unusual and special. We've got a guest whose name is Yara Shahidi. She's known for her roles in such sitcoms as Blackish and Grownish. What makes this unusual and special, however, is that this conversation with Yara is not actually from this podcast, meaning I did not conduct the interview, but it's from another podcast that I recommend you check out called How to be a Better Human, which is hosted by Chris Duffy. It is not your average self improvement podcast. It's very similar to this one, in fact, in which they try to infuse more practicality into your journey of becoming a better version of yourself. In this episode, we're about to play you. You will hear a conversation between the aforementioned Chris Duffy and Yara Shahidi about what Yara learned from having a very early career start. But there's a lot more, whether it's her view of optimism as a daily practice rather than a personality trait, her year of no that helped her curate a hard yes list, or her intention to pursue being bad at things on purpose. She provides practical tips for how to find more purpose in your life. Enjoy this episode. If you like what you hear, share it with a friend, and you can find How to Be a Better Human wherever you get your podcasts. This is How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. This month on our podcast, we are reexamining our relationship to work. We started with psychologist Guy Winch's new book, Mind Over Grind, and we talked about how to prevent burnout and make space for life outside of your job. And then we had financial journalist, Matt Levine, explain the economy and money stuff to us. But this week, we are tackling to me the biggest question around work, which is what do you want to do? Figuring out what you want to do is in many ways figuring out who you want to be. What do you want to contribute to the world? What do you want to learn? Who do you want to be surrounded by? What do you believe in? I am quite frankly overwhelmed just saying those questions out loud. I'm not even trying to answer them. But today's guest, Yara Shahidi, is remarkably clear eyed about tackling life's biggest questions head on. You might know Yara from her award winning work on the TV shows Blackish and Grownish, but she's also a producer, the host of The Optimist Project podcast, and a Harvard graduate. In other words, Yara has succeeded at the very highest levels across a variety of fields. While I'm getting winded just thinking about my future, Yara is sprinting across the finish line and then circling back to design an entirely new race course. But Yara has incredibly practical, inspiring advice for everyone, even me. So today, …