Beyond the basement

If you’re anything like me, pleasure comes later. After the work is done. Once everything’s sorted. When you’ve been productive, useful or good enough to deserve it.In this episode, I explore this complicated relationship with pleasure - and the rather perfectionist habit of turning even fun, play and enjoyment into another project to understand, optimise and get right.What happens if we stopped needing everything we do to be useful? If we could climb, dance, eat, walk, listen or play without having to improve ourselves, or master a skill in the process?Along the way, I explore solo, one-to-one and group pleasure; the qualities of serenity, brilliance and aliveness; and a tiny question that’s been helping me find more enjoyment in ordinary life:What would make this 1% more enjoyable?An invitation to take yourself - and perhaps life itself - a little less seriously. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com

What happens when life starts to feel like it’s happening to you- and no amount of effort seems to change anything?In this episode, I explore the slippery, surprisingly seductive experience of victimhood: the collapse, helplessness and quiet belief that nothing will ever go your way. How to spot it and its impact.I also look at how it can show up in perfectionism, relationships and work; why trapped anger often becomes resentment and bitterness; and how the cycle between relentless pushing and exhausted collapse keeps us stuck.This isn’t about blaming or shaming ourselves for feeling powerless. Victimhood is a deeply human place to visit - especially when life genuinely overwhelms us. I just wonder if the path through this is to not build a permanent home there.We’ll explore what helps us move towards self-authority, agency and hope, while still accepting that not everything is ours to control or fix. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com

What if success isn’t about money, status or finally getting everything right? What if it’s something you can experience today?In this episode, I explore a very different definition of success one rooted in self-trust, self-leadership and staying true to yourself. We look at why so many of us abandon ourselves in pursuit of approval, how perfectionism keeps moving the finish line, and what it means to reclaim the throne of your own life.If you’ve ever felt like success is always somewhere in the future, this conversation is an invitation to discover the quieter, more grounded success that’s already available, here and now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com

Come explore what can happen after we make a vulnerable move - tell the truth, share something we’ve created, perform, speak-up, or allow ourselves to be properly seen. Sometimes the brave part isn’t the moment itself. It’s what comes afterwards, when the inner critic rushes in to tell us it wasn’t good enough.In this episode, I share the internal mechanics of what happens when I felt vulnerable, imperfect and merely “good enough.”Almost immediately, the inner critic arrived with its familiar charge sheet: what was wrong, what I had missed, and how I needed to improve. Beneath that criticism was a much younger, more playful and sensitive part of me that simply felt exposed and told-off.Instead of pushing harder or spiralling into shame, I tried a new move: grounding, compassion, perspective and grace. I reminded myself that I had done something new and difficult - and that one good-enough attempt was enough for the day.This is a reflection on perfectionism, visibility, reparenting, creative courage and the surprising freedom that can appear when we stop treating every imperfect attempt as evidence that something is wrong with us. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com

In this episode, I explore our relationship with uncertainty, not knowing, and what it really means to move through life like a grown-up when, underneath it all, we’re all still making it up as we go along.Starting with an important life lesson about bullsh*t, I reflect on the strange truth that confidence often isn’t about having the answers - it’s about how we carry ourselves while we look for them. I connect this to improvisation, embodied self-trust, and the difference between panicked overthinking and grounded forward movement.This is an episode about dignity, humility, confidence, and the practice of taking one step at a time - even when you have no idea where it’s all leading. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chriskenworthy.substack.com