Habit Changes for a Successful Life – Kristen Rainey | MHFi 019

Doug and Carl interview Kristen Rainey. Kristen is an amazing human who graduated from Princeton, taught in Indonesia, hiked the Appalachian Trail, worked at Google, and so much more. In this episode, Kristen discusses: Spending a week cut off from technology in Katmai National Park Grizzly bears! Holding individual stocks Moving to Bozeman Montana Implementing effective behavioral change while working at Google and beyond Intermittent fasting Enhancing your life through travel Happiness → Check for Northstar Sleep School spots in Sept 2021. Meet Kristen Rainey  We’d have to write a novel to even scratch the surface of Kristen Rainey’s life. She is accomplished, well-read, well-studied, well-traveled, and so much more. She attended Princeton University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in art and archeology, and later Cornell, where she obtained an MBA in Management, and finally Tufts University, where she studied International Business and the Global Food Sector. She has held a high-powered corporate position at Google in the food sector, where she put her skills to work helping Google employees make smarter food choices, among many other responsibilities. On top of all that, she’s an entrepreneur. She’s started her own business related to food sustainability and is currently the founder and CEO of Northstar Sleep School, which helps people live better and healthier lives by improving the qualify of their sleep. She hosts the podcast Northstar Unplugged, and blogs about all things sleep-related, as well. Impressed yet? We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface! Kristen is also quite the world-traveler, and has lived in more than a dozen places, including Indonesia, Paris, Milan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Morocco, Santa Fe, New York, Lake Tahoe, Bozeman, Portland, White Salmon, and Mexico. She speaks multiple languages and is also an avid skate skier, paddle-boarder, hiker, and swimmer, to name just a few of her athletic pursuits. And did we mention that she’s thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail? No big deal. Just an epic backpacking trip of roughly 2,200 continuous miles. If there’s something Kristen hasn’t done or can’t do, we’ve yet to discover it. Our Discussion with Kristen Having someone with this many interests, passions, and accomplishments on the show is a challenge because there are so many things to cover in so little time! But here are a few topics we managed to squeeze in. Kristen’s Recent Backpacking Trip in Alaska and the Power of Unplugging  We began by discussing her recent 8-day backpacking trip in Alaska. (Be sure to check out the grizzly bear cam of the bears in Brooks Falls, where Kristen went.) Kristen told us about the awesome experience of seeing 47 grizzly bears (47!) chowing down on salmon. We also explored the power of unplugging completely for 8 days straight and discussed generally the importance of unplugging regularly, even when you’re not out in the wilderness. Financial Independence,  Stock Picking (gasp!), and AirBnB Hosting  We then moved on to financial independence and Kristen’s choice to be (mostly) a stock picker rather than an index-fund disciple. She told us about how she has tried to balance accomplishment with happiness in her life. As you can tell from her resumé, she has erred on the side of accomplishm...