The Inner Game of Change

E100 - The Pause

• Ali Juma • Season 10 • Episode 100

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Today is a little different.

To mark Episode one hundred, I decided not to bring in a guest. Instead, I wanted to pause and reflect on the ninety nine conversations that shaped The Inner Game of Change.

This episode is a quiet look back at how the podcast began during COVID, how the name was inspired by Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game work, and why Dr Michael Canic’s first yes helped set the tone for everything that followed.

Across these episodes, a few ideas kept showing up.

I also talk about what happens when we stay in change long enough for it to work on us, why elite athletes taught me as much about consistency as any leadership book, and how this podcast has become a place for curiosity rather than certainty.

No expectations. No hype. Just a reflection.
If one person learns one useful thing, it is a win.
If one person manages change a little better, it is a win.

Thank you to the guests who generously offered their time, and to the listeners across more than one hundred countries. I am deeply grateful.

More conversations, more experiments, and more learning will continue in the new year through The Inner Game of Change and through the Inner Game of Change Institute.

For now… a pause.

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Ali Juma
@The Inner Game of Change podcast

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SPEAKER_00:

Today feels a bit different. This is episode 100 and instead of bringing in a guest I wanted to pause for a moment and look back at the ninety-nine conversations that brought us together. No interview today, just you and me for a short reflection. Before I go any further, there's something I should share because people do ask me this from time to time. Where did the name the Inner Game of Change come from? It came from Tim Galloway. Tim's inner game books had a quiet but lasting influence on me. What stayed with me was his simple but powerful idea that performance is rarely blocked by lack of skill. It is blocked by what is happening inside us, the noise, the doubt, the self-judgment, the stories we tell ourselves. When I started thinking seriously about change, I realized something similar was happening. Most change does not fail because people are incapable. It struggles because the inner game is ignored. Fear, identity, confidence, trust, attention. This is where change is either enabled or quietly resisted. So the name felt right, the inner game of change. And I will say this out loud, partly to put it into the world. I really hope one day I get to invite Tim Galloway on this podcast. That would feel like closing a meaningful loop. Now back to the beginning. This whole thing started during COVID 19. That period was strange for all of us. The world felt noisy and quiet at the same time, distracted, uncertain. And somewhere in the middle of that I found myself thinking, if life is slowing down, maybe I can use this time to learn. The idea of a podcast did not arrive loudly. It came quietly, almost like a whisper. No strategy session, no brand plan, just a question that would not leave me alone. What if I learned out loud? What if I had real conversations about change? Of course the doubts showed up straight away. Who am I to start a podcast? Will anyone listen? What will I talk about? But the idea stayed. So I did something very practical and very me. I bought two bowls of wine, closed the door over Australia Day a long weekend in 2021, watched how to videos on YouTube until things started to make a little bit of sense. I ordered a microphone and a small recording console, not because I knew what I was doing, but because the experiment had already started. Looking back now, that weekend says everything about this podcast. Start small, learn enough, begin before you feel ready. See what happens. As I look back now, the strongest feeling I have is gratitude. Ninety-nine episodes mean ninety-nine hours of someone's life, not mine, theirs. And time is the one thing we never get back. You can earn money again, you can rebuild confidence, you can recover momentum. But once time is given, it is gone forever. Every guest offered me an hour of their life with no promise of return. They brought honesty, experience, vulnerability and curiosity. That generosity still humbles me. I cannot name all ninety nine people here, we would be here all day. But if you were a guest, please hear this clearly. You mattered. Your thinking mattered. Your time mattered. I hope I honored it. Every journey has a first yes. For me, that yes came from Dr. Michael Cannock in Canada. He had no reason to trust me, no reason to say yes, but he did. And this part still makes me smile. At the time, his book Ruthless Consistency had just come out, and looking back, that title feels like a quiet message for me. Keep showing up, stay steady, do the work where no one is watching. That first conversation set the tone for everything that followed. As the down lows started climbing, I began seeing where people were listening from. Over 100 countries. That genuinely surprised me. I always knew change mattered, but I didn't fully realize how many people were interested in the human side of change, the inexperience, the uncertainty, the emotional work. And to honor that generosity, many episodes were recorded early in the morning or late at night, different time zones, different lives. If someone was willing to give me time, the least I could do was meet them halfway. Across ninety nine conversations a few themes kept returning Fear and Courage Not loud courage, quiet courage, the courage to say I do not know, the courage to try. Identity Change as a story about who we are becoming, not just what we are doing. Trust and safety. Without safety nothing moves. And learning. Change belongs to people who keep learning, not those who rush to certainty. There's something else I notice by staying in this space for a while. Something changes when people stay in the change long enough. At the beginning people want answers and quick wins. That is human. But when people stay with a change, something quite happens. They soften, they listen differently, they stop performing certainty and start developing judgment. Confidence shifts. It becomes less about having the right answer and more about knowing how to respond. Many of my guests were not just navigating change, they had been changed by staying with it long enough. That to me is real transformation. The idea also shows up for me through elite athletes. The best athletes do not chase intensity every day. They respect repetition, recovery, and patience. They understand that transformation is not visible day to day. It happens quietly. In ordinary sessions in early mornings in moment no one sees. They trust the process, and that maps beautifully to change. The people who grow the most are not the ones chasing drama or speed. They are the ones who stay with the work long enough to let it shape them. As I listened back across conversations, certain ideas kept surfacing. The map is not the territory. Plans are not lived experience. The messy middle, that uncomfortable space where the old way no longer works and the new way is not yet clear. Second order thinking, not just what happens next but what happens after that. And another thinker who has influenced me is Nasim Talab. Talab reminds us that the world is far less predictable than we like to believe. The people who do well and change are not the best forecasters. They are the best experimenters. They try small things, they pay attention, they are just. Survive first, improve second. Stories matter too. Tony Morrison once said that narrative shapes how we see ourselves. I saw that again and again. Stories moved people more than arguments ever could. And there's a metaphor I keep returning to, the lighthouse. Not telling people where to go, but helping them orient themselves and uncertainty. Over time the podcast evolved naturally. Some conversations focused on the inner game, others explored the outer game of change, systems, structures, technology, reality. Along the way new formats emerged. The Mental Models series, the Change Question series, and more recently experiments where artificial intelligence reflects alongside me, not as authority, but as a thinking partner. So thank you, ChatGPT. Change is evolving and the way we talk about it should evolve too. This part is personal. It would be very easy to outsource the editing and publishing. But I genuinely enjoy the thinking, the listening and the doing. The publishing process gives me another chance to hear the conversation again and reflect. And I do not do any of this expecting awards or recognition. If one person learns one useful thing, that is a win. If one person manages a change a little better, that is a win. If one person feels less alone, that is a win. That is enough for me. If you know someone who is thinking would add value, I would love to hear from you. And if you are quietly working through change yourself, I would love to hear from you too. There's more coming next year. More conversations, more guests from around the world, more experiments, and video reflections through the Inner Game of Change Institute. As I land episode 100, what I feel most is excitement. So my message to you at the end of 2025 look after your time, stay curious, be kind to yourself as you navigate change. Thank you for walking with me through the first ninety-nine episodes. I look forward to what we discover together next. I am Ali Jimma and this is the Inner Game of Change podcast.

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Ali Juma

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