{"podcast":{"title":"Squiggly Careers","slug":"squiggly-careers-755233","podcast_index_feed_id":755233,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/APL9013254409","website_url":"http://www.amazingif.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/e52f6dce-340a-11f1-9553-87b22d7956a4/image/b446c05844a7a5d44164e3cba433ae00.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"AmazingIf","episode_count":585,"summary":"Squiggly Careers is a weekly podcast that will help you take control of your career development. Hosted by the founders of Amazing If (https://www.amazingif.com/), Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper, together they cover all things work: from how to manage stress and overcome your confidence gremlins to micro-aggressions and discovering your strengths. Each episode is full of ideas, actions, hints, and tips that you can put into practice straight away. Every so often they take a break from talking to each other to interview other people who are leading the way in making work better. Past guests include entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley, author of The Joy of Work Bruce Daisley, and neuroscience expert Amy Brann. The Squiggly Careers podcast has been recommended by Harvard Business Review, Stylist, Marie Claire and Management Today. For more ideas, tools and inspiration every week, you can also sign up to their newsletter Squiggly Careers in Action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-09T14:17:12.363141+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/squiggly-careers-755233"},"episode":{"title":"#563 Finish Line Focus: How to Build Momentum Towards Goals That Matter","slug":"563-finish-line-focus-how-to-build-momentum-towards-goals-that-matter","published_at":"2026-05-26T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/squiggly-careers-755233/563-finish-line-focus-how-to-build-momentum-towards-goals-that-matter","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/squiggly-careers-755233","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APL8330115608.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APL8330115608.mp3","summary":"Have you ever noticed how much more you get done in the week before a holiday? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the goal gradient effect; the research-backed finding that the closer we are to a finish line, the harder and faster we push, and turn it into something genuinely practical for your career. Sarah introduces Finish Line Fridays: a simple way to use the psychology of progress to build momentum towards goals that matter, one week at a time. Helen tests it live with her PhD as the goal, and together they explore whether you're more of a fresh start effect person or a finish line focus person, and why pairing the two might be useful. 🎯 What You'll Learn – What the goal gradient effect is and why it explains so much about how we work (and why rats are involved) – The difference between the fresh start effect and finish line focus (and which one you're more naturally wired for) – How to run your own Finish Line Fridays: from picking your goal to setting your first action before you've even finished the current week – Why knowing the \"when\" matters as much as the \"what\", and how to actually protect time in your diary – How shared finish lines might be even more motivating than solo ones 📚 Resources Mentioned Farnam Street, Goal Gradient Effect: https://fs.blog/goal-gradient-hypothesis/ Sketchplanations: https://sketchplanations.com/ For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com Need some more squiggly career support? 1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/ 2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/ 3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squiggl…","meta_description":"Have you ever noticed how much more you get done in the week before a holiday? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the goal gradient e…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2066,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/squiggly-careers-755233/episodes/563-finish-line-focus-how-to-build-momentum-towards-goals-that-matter/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/squiggly-careers-755233/563-finish-line-focus-how-to-build-momentum-towards-goals-that-matter.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}