TKC 730 Chris Bailey's New Book About Intentions

·52 min·5 clips

Host Leonard Edgerly and author Chris Bailey start their conversation with a shared minute of intentional silence.

The conversation begins quietly. Before the interview really gets going, Leonard Edgerly and Chris Bailey sit in a minute of silence together, almost like clearing the table before the meal. That pause gives the episode its mood. Bailey's new book, Intentional, treats finishing as a choice that works better when intentions stay close to values. Leonard does not hurry him. He asks for one small experiment listeners can try, and Bailey points to twelve values. The list turns practical fast. Self-direction, stimulation, pleasure, and benevolence are not tidy labels here. They are things people can notice in their bodies. A value might turn someone off, spark interest, or make them feel pulled toward it. Bailey treats that reaction as information. The episode is wary of pure productivity talk. Achievement has its appeal, especially when numbers make it easy to measure, but Bailey keeps circling back to usefulness and helping people. Benevolence carries more weight in this conversation. If the work is genuinely useful, he says, sales may follow without taking over the whole point. Leonard listens for the personal part. Near the end, he says the book has made him more flexible about his own intentions. That flexibility comes with a small warning. Intentions can stiffen into predictions, and predictions can make disappointment feel baked in when life veers off course. The episode closes by linking this talk to Bailey's previous three books, past interviews, and Bailey's Time and Attention podcast with Arden Nordstrom.

As heard by us

A quiet, reflective conversation about values, ambition, and intentions that can change with life.

Intentionality opens quietly on The Kindle Chronicles, as the host and Chris Bailey begin with a minute of silence before turning to Intentional, How to Finish What You Start. That pause gives the conversation its shape.

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Why you'd press play

You can begin with a shared minute of quiet, then ask which values actually move your intentions.

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