Loading summary
Advertiser/Announcer
This podcast is brought to you by Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. With the Wise account, you can send, spend and receive in over 40 currencies with no markups and no hidden fees. Whether you're sending pounds across the pond, spending rials in Rio, or getting paid in dollars for your side gig, you'll get the mid market exchange rate on every transaction. Plus most transfers arrive in less than 20 seconds. Join 15 million customers internationally. Be smart, get wise. Download the Wyze app today or visit wise.com Ts and Cs apply.
Anne Morris
Are you really buying a car online.
Frances Fry
On Autotrader right now?
Anne Morris
Really? I can get super specific with dealer listings and see cars based on my budget.
Frances Fry
You can really have it delivered or pick it up. I think kid is walking up the slide.
Anne Morris
Really?
Frances Fry
Autotrader, buy your car online?
Anne Morris
Really? You are listening to Fixable, a podcast from ted. I'm your host, Anne Morris. I'm a company builder, leadership coach, and.
Frances Fry
I'm your co host, Frances Fry. I'm a Harvard Business School professor and I'm Anne's wife.
Anne Morris
And we are beyond thrilled to be back with you, our listeners, our fixers, with a whole new season of Fixable. We will reliably be in your feeds every week. Now, this season we're experimenting with new formats, new topics, new smart guests, all to help you solve problems and get better at this work thing.
Frances Fry
And we're going to be honoring your need for variety, I believe.
Anne Morris
Yes, my wife likes to lock things down, but we're going to shake things up this season. Starting today, we're introducing a new segment we're calling Toolkit. Since we started the show, you've asked us again and again for very practical tools and frameworks. And today we're going to deliver.
Frances Fry
Which tool are we putting in the toolkit.
Anne Morris
That is the right. That is the right question, Frances. Today, our goal is to get better at goal setting. It's January. We're all making plans and resolutions for the year ahead. So this felt like the right place to start. We're going to discuss a very specific approach to goal setting that's causing a lot of buzz right now called the Harada Method. Ambition is one of the themes we're going to explore this season. So it also felt right to start the year talking about how to turn our hopes and dreams into reality.
Frances Fry
Oh, I love this. And we're going to use Shohei Ohtani, who many believe is the greatest baseball player of all time. And we're going to use him as an illustrative example of how to do goal setting.
Anne Morris
Harada's been around for decades, but Ohtani put the spotlight back on it again. People have discovered that he used it as part of his astonishing rise and impact in baseball. We're gonna talk about how it works and how we've applied it to our own lives.
Frances Fry
Let's go.
Anne Morris
Let's do it. All right, Francis, so I wanna start by giving the backstory on this method a little bit, if you'll indulge me. The Harada method was developed by Takashi Harada, who was a middle school teacher and coach in Japan. A few decades ago. Is when he was really doing this work. He wanted a very practical way to help his students take responsibility for their own growth and development.
Frances Fry
Love it.
Anne Morris
Yeah, we have like talked around this, around it a little bit our whole careers and it was so cool to learn about this. So it's a very structured method that helps people identify a ambitious, meaningful, long term goal. Break it down into concrete habits and daily actions and then reflect and self correct as you go. At the heart of the method is this tool and artifact that we're going to talk people through that's been called a goal achievement chart. And it's a whole bunch of boxes that kind of bring this approach to life. I just want to give a few more bits of context here to give people a reason to keep listening. It started as this middle school coaching and teaching tool, but it has since been used in companies all over the world for employee learning and development. Serious athletes all over the world have used it to manage their own performance improvement. And individuals all over the world are using it for their personal goals, which is what we're going to take for a test drive today. Despite all of these different contexts and use cases, the heart of the method has stayed consistent. And there are a couple principles. Self reliance over external motivation, process over quick results and daily practice over raw inherent talent. Which is a story that is more provocative because we really have to take responsibility for our own development. If you're not born with it, it means you gotta work for it. So that's the context.
Frances Fry
Love it.
Anne Morris
But I wanna do a shout out to a guy named Norman Bodek. So I love this guy. He was a very colorful American writer and management thinker who was a very blunt critic of western management practices at the end of the 20th century. Our pattern of bringing a very top down command and control philosophy to building and running American companies. His point was that it was incredibly disempowering and that you Were only getting a fraction of the potential and talent of the human beings inside the system. And there were in other parts of the world, in particular Japan, there were all of these exciting experiments and alternative models that were working. So he brought a bunch of those practices to the West. And then Harada was one of the things that he really was evangelical about.
Frances Fry
That has you written all over it that we're only utilizing a fraction of our capacity. And let's go and look elsewhere and learn as much as we can from that.
Anne Morris
A hundred percent. It's really fun to go back and learn from this guy. All right, so, Francis, I want to invite you to walk our listeners through this method, kind of step by step.
Frances Fry
Sure. It begins with, what do you want to be best in the world at? Before listening to you say that, I was like, what's the thing you would gnaw off a limb to be great at? That's the way that I have thought of it.
Anne Morris
I think both are good hooks here.
Frances Fry
So whichever one is more captivating to our listeners. So you begin with that, and that's a multi year thing. That's gonna take a while. And then you ask yourself, what are the set of things that if I became really good at this year, I would move the needle on the gnaw off the limb metric. And so the way to think about it is what's the one thing? And then what are the set of things? What is the one thing? Multi year and what are the set of things? If I made progress at the end of the year on this set of things, I would have made meaningful progress. That's where it begins.
Anne Morris
Got it. All right. So I think of the one thing, and then I think of all the things that will help me move the needle on the thing.
Frances Fry
Yeah. Now, because whoever came up with this or translated it has a really tidy mind, they wanted that to fit into a graphic. So the one thing is the center square.
Anne Morris
All right. So if we're building this out for ourselves, so in the center of a piece of paper, I would put a square and name the goal. Yes.
Frances Fry
And then if you put a much larger square around that and broke it all up into equal size squares, you will find that there are eight squares surrounding the one square. And so, not surprisingly, what are the eight things that if I did this year, I would make meaningful practice on the one thing.
Anne Morris
So we have the ambitious goal, and then the eight pillars that are gonna get me to that goal. If I nail those.
Frances Fry
Yes.
Anne Morris
The visual you're walking me through is the goal. In the middle and then these eight boxes around it.
Frances Fry
Then the last step is we're gonna create an even larger square. And that's going to take each one of those eight annual things and have it be its own center square surrounded by eight daily things. And this is where the real genius is. And so if you then organize those around, you will end up with a very large nine by nine square.
Anne Morris
Amazing. So give us the example so we can start to bring this to life. Talk to us about Shohei's grid.
Frances Fry
Yeah. And this surfaced late in 2025, and it really captivated the world because it's in his penmanship from ninth grade and ninth grade. Ninth grade, wow. So he used it in ninth grade, and it's an inspiration to so many of us. His number one goal. So the thing in the middle, the gnaw off the limb goal, was that he wanted to be drafted number one in their equivalent of the professional draft. That happens at the end of high school. So multi year, it's a distance away. And he then indicated the eight annual things that if I got better at these eight, I would have a chance of achieving my multi year. And I think this is what started to captivate people. Part of it is ordinary. So he was a pitcher at the time. He has since become a pitcher and a hitter, but he was concentrating on pitching. So four of the eight boxes for him, Four of the eight annual boxes are dedicated to pitching.
Anne Morris
And what are those boxes?
Frances Fry
Control, sharpness, speed, and breaking balls, which is just trickery. Because a real key to pitching is when the ball is coming right down the center of the plate. You want to tempt the batter to swing and have it dart away at the last minute. So the breaking balls, that's curveball, fork ball, and things like that.
Anne Morris
Got it. So half of them are quite specific to his goal as a baseball player.
Frances Fry
As a baseball player. Half of them are. And then the other half. One of them is physical conditioning, which isn't a surprise. It's in support of that. The other is mental strength, which baseball is watched by a lot of people. And it's very competitive. You're the pitcher, you're going to get a lot of attention. So not a surprise there. But it's the last two that have captured the imagination of the world. One of them is karma, and the other is character. And these are glorious.
Anne Morris
All right, so let's just. Let's do one of the two, whichever you like more. And talk about the eight squares around the box. Yeah.
Frances Fry
So the daily ones that you would do from there. It's karma for me. It's so easy. So he begins karma with greetings. Note to self to take care of greetings. He then goes to care for equipment which positive thinking. Pick up trash, be a person. People root for clean room. Respect towards umpires. Read books.
Anne Morris
It's so good.
Frances Fry
It's so good. It's so good. And what's amazing to me and to, I think everyone who has watched it is when you see Shohei Ohtani. I've never met him, but he's a worldwide sensation. So you get a lot of data online. Every one of these is believable.
Anne Morris
Yeah.
Frances Fry
Like he has more respect towards umpires than anyone. Not only currently in the game. In the history of the game, it's been an antagonistic relationship for most. He greets the umpire at every plate appearance. He shows deep respect to the opponents. You can feel these things. He's very good at greetings. You can believe he cares for the equipment. Now. I don't know if he cleans his room, but I believe he does.
Anne Morris
I'm not a huge baseball fan. And then I've seen one video where he gets hit by a pitch and he stops a brawl and he goes over to the other team's dugout and talks to the other team, which has. And it's a. That's pretty extraordinary baseball behavior from my understanding.
Frances Fry
And I remember the. When you showed me that clip, I remember the announcer saying, folks, we have never seen this before.
Anne Morris
Yeah. First of all, to your point about date, like, I love that these outer boxes, the boxes supporting each pillar, are things totally within his control. Like, I know the idea of karma is that there's this cause and effect that we can't totally observe. So we're gonna go on faith a little bit here. But like, wow, show respect to umpires. Read book the one as I'm looking at. And for people listening, this is very easy to find on the Internet. Just do a search on Harada Ohtani. You'll find this artifact and we'll put it somewhere in the show notes. But the be someone people want to support is I also find super provocative, you know, because we don't think of that as within our control. And the suggestion that it is is super powerful.
Frances Fry
When I was young, I wanted to be someone who was right. And I somehow sometimes ended up the person that people rooted against because I was a little annoying in my rightness.
Anne Morris
Yeah.
Frances Fry
And so he became world class. And he is someone who everyone. It doesn't matter who your favorite team is. You also root for Shohei?
Anne Morris
Yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay, so anything. So for people who want to go do this at home, any other guidance aside, go find Shohei's as an inspiration and any other guidance you can give us on just practically how to do this exercise.
Frances Fry
So I would say that a sparse matrix is totally fine, so it can be daunting. I have the one multi year and then the eight annual. And then for each of the eight annual, eight daily. That's like a whole bunch. And so what I would say 64.
Anne Morris
Boxes is a big number.
Frances Fry
That's a very big number. So start sparse. If you have the multi year, be kind to yourself. I don't care how many annual you have. And then for each one of the annual, I don't care how many daily you have, do it organically first, don't force it. And then whatever you've done as it starts to not tell the full story you want to tell, add for need, don't add out of compliance. But if you end up with a sparse matrix, no problem.
Anne Morris
Yeah, and I love the guidance that I've seen too, that this is a very iterative process. So do v1 go out in the world and take it for a test drive. We're going to talk in a minute about how you and I have used this, but come back, do it again. Change the boxes, change the goal in the middle, change the pillar. It is meant to be this living, breathing tool.
Frances Fry
Write it in pencil in the beginning because you're gonna wanna edit the language. So I love your idea of do it lightly and iteratively until it stabilizes and then you might wanna get the laminator out.
Anne Morris
I love it. I love it. Okay, so any other thoughts on the to do before we move on to how you and I have used it?
Frances Fry
In my experience of teaching this, when people see or get to hear about an additional example in addition to the world's greatest baseball player, it makes it more accessible. So I'm hoping by you and I mortals discussing it, it makes it more accessible to everyone else.
Anne Morris
Yes. And there is something super provocative about a 9th grade kid sitting there and deciding he wants to be the best in the world at baseball. And in our lifetime, seeing that happen and seeing this artifact as part of his story and just in the sense of what, like with a little bit of intention, what could the rest of us. What could the rest of us achieve?
Frances Fry
Yes, I think that's exactly right.
Anne Morris
Which is super fun. And I will say you're running this super fun forum called office hours that we will tell our listeners about in the future. But you talked people through this method and the number of emails you have received since you walked people through this with the subject line Harada works is amazing to me.
Frances Fry
It's amazing. And these are from all ages, all geographies, all industries. It's really quite a cross section. So I have a lot of confidence that this is also going to work for our listeners. In a world where January is supposed.
Advertiser/Announcer
To be boring, one staple of the.
Anne Morris
Holidays refuses to end the great deals at Verizon.
Advertiser/Announcer
The joy just keeps on coming. Right now you can save on four new phones and four lines. Critics agree it's the deal that keeps on giving. Come into Verizon and save on four new phones and four lines on unlimited.
Anne Morris
Welcome additional terms applied seeverizon.com for details.
Advertiser/Announcer
When everything is moving all at once, your workforce, your tech stack, your business, you don't need more tools. You need one solution. That's why Paylocity built a single platform to connect HR finance and IT with AI driven insights and automated workflows that simplify the complex and power what's next. Because when everything comes together in one place, growth comes easy experience. One place for all your HCM needs. Start now at paylocity.com 1 this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match Limited by state law not available in all states.
Anne Morris
Okay, Francis, so let's talk about how you and I have used this. I will add a little context around us. We don't have a lot of rituals as a couple, but a beloved ritual that we do have is on New Year's Day we come together and share our individual hopes and dreams with each other and we kind of pray that they line up with the other ones and we discuss any of the differences. We've done that maybe for the last ten years or so.
Frances Fry
Yeah, yeah, easy.
Anne Morris
And this year, for the first time, we decided to bring this Harada structure into the exercise. So we each went away and came up with our grids. We came together and the way that we did this is we walked each other through the center goal and the eight pillars and then we went back and forth on the activities that would support each of the pillars. It probably took us maybe two hours. It was a real conversation.
Frances Fry
Yeah. Let me add A little bit of texture on top of your texture. We are wildly competitive. So we are.
Anne Morris
I hide it a little bit because you are so savagely competitive that I just get to defer to you. But I'm like, quiet Midwestern competitive, which.
Frances Fry
Means just as competitive as I am. But you don't want it. And so going through this annual ritual, we bring it because we don't want to be outdone by the other person. And so that also came here. We talked through it, and when I started hearing how good yours were, I started editing mine. Right there.
Anne Morris
I know. That is my experience of this exercise. Every year is in real time. Kind of like with our vows.
Frances Fry
Oh, that's.
Anne Morris
We wrote our own vows. I will never be forgiven, ever. Because I took longer. I don't.
Frances Fry
Hold on, hold on.
Anne Morris
I forget what I've been accused of here.
Frances Fry
No, hold on.
Anne Morris
It's a little fuzzy.
Frances Fry
Morning of our wedding, Anne Morris goes out in the city and comes back with a brand new gorgeous notebook and a brand new.
Anne Morris
That's obviously how you start every project.
Frances Fry
And a brand new pen, like, just ready to go. And she comes and says to me, I think we should write our own vows. We're at a hotel. I have the little pen from the hotel, which only occasionally has ink, and the little paper that's on the side that has the glue on the back of it. She's like, I think we should share our own vows. Let's each go into our respective places and do it. My head popped off.
Anne Morris
Yes.
Frances Fry
So, no. It will be hard to be forgiven for that, because it is. It was. I just. I couldn't believe it. Now I delivered. Because you like a little pressure.
Anne Morris
You let go. Performance anxiety goes a long way.
Frances Fry
This was a lot of performance anxiety. Yeah.
Anne Morris
Let me say in front of our listeners, I am sorry for that moment.
Frances Fry
Are you?
Anne Morris
Let me try it again. Let me try it again with a straight face. Honey, I am so sorry I created those conditions that made it so difficult for you to deliver on a spectacular set of vows. This is the context.
Frances Fry
Right?
Anne Morris
I have never been fully forgiven for setting Frances up for wild success at our wedding, but here we are. And so we play this out every year on January 1st. Okay. So, Francis, I think it might be helpful for us to talk about the center goals for each of us and the eight pillars, and then we can talk about a couple of the supporting boxes.
Frances Fry
Yeah.
Anne Morris
It's interesting to us. We'll find out if it's. We'll find out interesting to our listeners.
Frances Fry
Click, click, click.
Anne Morris
Yeah. Okay. Will you start?
Frances Fry
Yeah. So my center box is a. It's really like my mantra. So it's not as clear as I want to be number one in the draft, but it's. I want to add a zero on every important thing I do. So this is my add a zero season of my life.
Anne Morris
And give us a little texture on what that means and what the metaphor of zero is for you. I know, I get it. This is actually now the working title for our book, but it's this idea of exponential impact rather than kind of incremental impact, essentially.
Frances Fry
Yeah. With greater ambition, we make greater progress. And that's a little misleading to people because people are like, oh, make sure it's stretch and within reach. No, have great ambition. And this is what we do when we work with clients and they. And we're like, you know, here's the magic dust question. If everything works out, what will success look like? And they dutifully tell us. And then we suggest, and what if we added a zero? But that's where it comes from in terms of what our practice is. It is now my personal mantra. And so that's where it is. Got it.
Advertiser/Announcer
New products to launch, new people to.
Anne Morris
Develop, new goals to crush. Workday Go is designed for small and mid sized businesses. By bringing HR and finance together on one AI platform, you'll have everything you.
Advertiser/Announcer
Need to think big, go big and grow big.
Anne Morris
And activation is fast.
Advertiser/Announcer
It takes just 30 to 60 business days to get you up and running. Simplify your SMB on an AI platform, you'll never outgrow. Workday Go. This podcast is brought to you by Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. With the Wise account, you can send, spend and receive in over 40 currencies with no markups and no hidden fees. Whether you're sending pounds across the pond, spending rials in Rio, or getting paid in dollars for your side gig, you'll get the mid market exchange rate on every transaction. Plus most transfers arrive in less than 20 seconds. Join 15 million customers internationally. Be smart, Get Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com Ts and Cs apply. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching your insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to See if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
Anne Morris
So what are the eight pillars drivers? Things that are going to help you add a zero in 2026?
Frances Fry
Well, I like to pattern match. So I took Shohei and he had four for pitching. So I have my four equivalent. They're not pitching, but they're the aspects of my life. So it's our book, as you said. It's this podcast, my Office Hours live that we will talk about and hbs. So those are my four pitching. There's my four equivalent. I also took from Shohei because I loved it. Karma and body. And I would perhaps make the argument that everyone should have body and karma because our bodies are necessary to achieve anything and karma is just so darn good. And then the other two for me, I mean he was a ninth grader, I'm a grown ass woman.
Anne Morris
Just technical term.
Frances Fry
So family and clients and you and I have relationships. We work with very few clients at a time and they are in many ways our extended family for it. So those are the other two.
Anne Morris
How about you? So let me ask you one question, then I'll do my eight, but as you went through this, I'm gonna indulge myself with too. What did you learn?
Frances Fry
Oh yeah.
Anne Morris
What was your reaction to the process and then how has it been going since?
Frances Fry
It's been remarkable. First of all because it helped me get organized. So I had free floating ambition, but without structure it would like morph and go in and without having the right phrases for it. So it actually now settles me down because I know which are the four things that I wanna work on and which are the four things I wanna make progress. It's helped to ch ambition. And you can imagine the fire hose that when you channel it, it goes further. That's been my experience with all of these and getting the granular understanding of them. Like we'll get to the daily thing. It has changed my daily habits, but not in ways that have required any willpower. That's the like beautiful aspect of it.
Anne Morris
I love it. Okay, so for me, my goal in the center and this was evolving for me for this whole exercise I was really trying to find language that was meaningful to me, that had an emotional resonance when I read it. But the center goal that I landed on was catalytic impact. What the idea means to me is this idea where the impact I have on the other people accelerates their growth, development, progress, hopes, dreams. I think fundamentally that is what lights me up in the world. If I can have that kind of impact on other people. It was a little sheepish because it felt like a lady goal. It's like, oh, focus on other people's success. But that is what I jump out of bed and want to do.
Frances Fry
It's the greatest goal in the world.
Anne Morris
So part of this exercise too was just for me was about owning it. Owning what I want in the world, being unapologetic about it, and then the discipline of like, all right, big girl, if that's what you want to be best in the world at, what is it going to take? So the eight for me also felt a little bit like a mix of kind of technical and mindset. But it was visibility. You know, my own visibility, our own visibility, Creativity, capital. There's about strategic use of time, resources, finances to get the return that I want. Performance. And by that I mean literal on the stage performance.
Frances Fry
Yeah.
Anne Morris
One of the great joys in my life for whatever reason right now, is speaking to groups and trying to have an impact on the humans in the room within the limits of a 45 minute keynote or you have an hour and a half to do this work. Can you reach into their souls and change their experience of reality in this very short amount of time? Thinking through what would it mean to be world class at that point? I like spirit more than karma. Family, mindset, body. So those were my eight.
Frances Fry
I love it. I love it.
Anne Morris
So here's my thought on how to deal with the outer boxes without dragging our listeners.
Frances Fry
Oh yeah, no, we can't do that.
Anne Morris
Through all of them. I'm curious about the boxes on my grid that you reacted to and I will tell you about the boxes on your grid that I reacted to. And why don't I start? Yes. Kind of like our vlogmas question on me. This is a little premeditated for me. Okay, so the box I had the strongest reaction to for you was Karma. The karma boxes I loved you had be someone people want to support, which you have spoken to in this conversation. But the idea that within our control and a mindset, I just, I found that super cool and have never heard of that from you. Be curious, not judgmental. And we've talked about the research on the show that you gotta pick one. The human brain can't do both at the same time. And I know you come from a long line.
Frances Fry
Long line. A long line of judgers, judgy judge, judgers, judgment first.
Anne Morris
And so the intentionality around that.
Frances Fry
Yeah, I was groomed to judge. And so it really is intentional to be Curious for me.
Anne Morris
And then the other one under karma that I loved was empty the dishwasher.
Frances Fry
This is important.
Anne Morris
So tell me about empty the dishwasher.
Frances Fry
So I think when I was moved by Shohei's, he talked about the umpires as the. And show respect to umpires. And I was like, all right, so maybe there can be, like, karma doesn't have to just be in general. It can be targeted. And the empty the dishwasher for me is one of the daily, several times a day expressions of love that I can show you. And I watch you walk by dirty dishes or walk by a full dishwasher, and you might not even know it, but you recoil a little bit. You don't like it, and you don't want to participate in it. And there are so few ways where I can brighten your day so reliably. I mean, I could get you flowers, but you're gonna get bored. Like, every single time I put the dishes away, I empty the dishwasher. I fill the dishwasher every single time, it reliably sparks joy for you. So it's the thing. And I encourage people to think, what's your version of empty the dishwasher? Or what's your version of show respect to umpires? What's the granular thing that will make an outsized difference on someone you love?
Anne Morris
This one is so fun for me because I didn't realize that this would have the emotional impact it does on me in feeling connected to you, not alone in this household management thing and weirdly, radically seen, because, I mean, why even bother having a conversation about the dishwasher? But it is this task that I dread. You observed the dread. You solved it for me. And there was never a moment where it was like, hey, honey, you know what would really make a difference?
Frances Fry
No, no, no, don't do that.
Anne Morris
It's such a small task, and if I could just get some help or, you know, like, I didn't. It didn't require me having to be that human, which I also. I don't like that version of me, and I don't like that version of me in the unit of us. And in the few weeks since we've done this, this made a big difference in my life and in our relationship.
Frances Fry
It sparked joy for both of us. That is the amazing thing of the ones that you do and the ones I have noticed a difference in. And so I'm curious to learn is. Bodi, you have taken a hard double click on Bodi. Will you talk through that?
Anne Morris
Yeah. Part of it came from this book we're writing. The book is about ambition, and we are looking at the patterns among leaders, and Shohei is going to make it into the book. Who've really had outsized impact in their world. One of the patterns that really stood out, and we're going to explore this season, is that exponential impact often coincides with a profound change in their relationship with their own bodies. You know, we have this idea around ambition that it kind of starts in the mind and then the body, you know, plays this subject to the constraints of the body, you know, plays this, like, you know, execution role. So I really have been sitting with, well, what would it look like to be much stronger, much more flexible, to have much more stamina? And how would it then affect every other box on this list? Because the case can be made that there is this really direct link. So, you know, what that looks like on a daily basis is all the obvious things that you kind of think about. I can't bring myself to be. I'm strength training three times a week.
Frances Fry
Here's what I'll tell you. You are doing it in a way that goes beyond willpower, and that's why it's intriguing to me. You're doing it in a way as if you believe it. It's sort of like, we believe we have to eat, and we eat. You believe. I can tell you believe it, because even in inconvenient times, you're rolling out that yoga mat. I'm looking at you like, seriously.
Anne Morris
Yeah.
Frances Fry
Like there is. And you might not do the number of different things in a given day, but you'd never have a day where you're not doing things. And that's actually quite a bit different than it has been in the past. So I find with all of these things, what it gets us to do is commit to it and really have a mindset about it. And once you believe it, the behaviors always almost take care of themselves. And that's what I'm observing with you and your approach to your body.
Anne Morris
Yeah, I. Weirdly, I think about it less.
Frances Fry
It. That's. That's what it appears you're doing more.
Anne Morris
My conviction is higher. So there's no longer like, oh, should I or shouldn't I? Because I'm very aware of its connection to creativity, performance, you know, spirit, my relationship with my family. Like the other things on this list, there is a very physical foundation to reaching excellence in all of these other categories. I would say it's the starting point. All right, friends, so we gotta wrap this up.
Frances Fry
Okay.
Anne Morris
I will say to our listeners that the way we're gonna use this going forward because a big part of the method is this iterative piece and is we're gonna check in at the beginning of every month on how it's going for ourselves and each other and we're going to really lean into the kind of, the kind of fun accountability partnership here and forcing us to continue to evolve the tool and make sure that it's useful to us and working for us.
Frances Fry
And what I would say is generalizable is I did my thinking on my own and then when I discussed mine with you, I made changes. And then when I heard you discuss yours, I made changes. And so a person who is as curious about yours as you are and you're as curious about theirs as they are, I think it's just great to have someone who you can you do it with initially and then someone that you check in with on a regular basis. You know, we were thinking it's what, about a quarter? We don't take a quarter to do anything, so we can't go longer than a month. So that's our commitment. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Your participation helps us make great episodes like this one. So please keep reaching out. If you want to figure out any questions about your workplace problem, send us a message, email, call text fixableed.com or 234- FIXABLE. That's 234-349-2253.
Anne Morris
Fixable is brought to you by the TED Audio Collective and Pushkin Industries. It's hosted by me, Anne Morris and me, Frances Frey. This episode was produced by Rahima Nasser from Pushkin Industries. Our team includes Constanza Gallardo, Banban Chang, Daniela Baloriso and Roxanne Hylash.
Frances Fry
And our show was mixed by Louis at Storyo Yard. In a world where January is supposed.
Advertiser/Announcer
To be boring, one staple of the.
Anne Morris
Holidays refuses to end the great deals.
Advertiser/Announcer
At Verizon, the joy just keeps on coming. Right now you can save on four new phones and four lines. Critics agree it's the deal that keeps on giving. Come into Verizon and save on four new phones and four lines on unlimited.
Anne Morris
Welcome additional terms. Apply seeverizon.com for details.
Advertiser/Announcer
New products to launch, new people to.
Anne Morris
Develop new goals to crush. Workday Go is designed for small and mid sized businesses. By bringing HR and finance together on one AI platform, you'll have everything you.
Advertiser/Announcer
Need to think big, go big and grow big.
Anne Morris
And activation is fast. It takes just 30 to 60 business.
Advertiser/Announcer
Days to get you up and running.
Anne Morris
Simplify your SMB on an AI platform you'll never outgrow.
Advertiser/Announcer
Workday. Go.
Anne Morris
Hey, it's Olivia from Ollie. I gotta tell you, I saw when you asked AI about probiotics. No judgment, but I think Olli can help. Probiotics are the good bacteria that support your digestive and immune system. Just two gummies a day to bring balance to your gut. So save the AI for drafting that reply to your ex. That's gonna take guts. Go to o l l y.com to learn more. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Advertiser/Announcer
Ollie. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
Hosts: Anne Morris & Frances Frei
Date: January 26, 2026
This episode launches Fixable's new “Toolkit” series, delivering practical frameworks to help listeners improve their workplace (and personal) effectiveness. The inaugural topic is goal-setting, focusing on the Harada Method—a structured approach designed to turn ambitions into actionable, daily behaviors. The hosts use MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani as an inspiring example and share how they’ve personally implemented the method.
[02:54 – 05:08]
Quote:
"Self reliance over external motivation, process over quick results, and daily practice over raw inherent talent." — Anne Morris (04:46)
[06:21 – 09:10]
Quote:
"It begins with, what do you want to be best in the world at? ...what's the thing you would gnaw off a limb to be great at?" — Frances Frei (06:34)
[09:10 – 12:55]
Quote:
"It's karma for me, it's so easy... He begins karma with greetings... care for equipment... positive thinking... pick up trash... be a person people root for... clean room... respect towards umpires... read books." — Frances Frei (11:29)
Quote:
"Not only currently in the game—in the history of the game, it's been an antagonistic relationship for most. He greets the umpire at every plate appearance. He shows deep respect to the opponents. You can feel these things." — Frances Frei (12:29)
[14:55 – 16:53]
Quote:
"If you end up with a sparse matrix, no problem... it is meant to be this living, breathing tool." — Anne Morris (15:43)
[19:30 – 38:55]
Memorable Moment:
"I hide it a little bit because you are so savagely competitive that I just get to defer to you. But I'm like, quiet Midwestern competitive..." — Anne Morris (20:43)
Quote:
"With greater ambition, we make greater progress... If everything works out, what will success look like? And then we suggest, and what if we added a zero?" — Frances Frei (24:29)
Quote:
"If that's what you want to be best in the world at, what is it going to take?" — Anne Morris (30:12)
[31:42 – 37:54]
Quote:
"It's the thing. And I encourage people to think, what's your version of empty the dishwasher? Or what's your version of show respect to umpires? What's the granular thing that will make an outsized difference on someone you love?" — Frances Frei (34:20)
Quote:
"My conviction is higher. So there's no longer like, oh, should I or shouldn't I? Because I'm very aware of its connection to creativity, performance, spirit, my relationship with my family... there is a very physical foundation to reaching excellence in all of these other categories." — Anne Morris (37:59)
[38:27 – 39:54]
Quote:
"A person who is as curious about yours as you are and you're as curious about theirs as they are, I think it's just great to have someone who you can do it with initially and then someone that you check in with on a regular basis." — Frances Frei (38:55)
This episode offers a hands-on, motivational look at how to transform lofty ambitions into daily commitments, using a world-class athlete as inspiration and real-life application from two of today’s top leadership coaches.