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I started my journey of blogging in 2003 — mostly to capture what I called “transitioning life’s journey”.
In 2023 I took a 3 year break from blogging, but have decided to return to it. I hope you enjoy.
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Rhett Smith Podcast 22: Facing Transitions Stage by Stage
About 15 years ago as I was reading through the Bible a specific passage jumped out at me and forever changed my life. I remember the moment 15 years ago…that’s how powerful this simple little verse was. The verse read: “From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as […]
The Launching of Thriiive Practices
This summer my family and I spent 8 days with a couple of other families in Colorado. It was an amazing time of adventure and community as we spent our days white water river rafting, ropes courses, hiking, trail running, and spending quality time with one another. But one of the things that I really […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 21: Using the Restoration Therapy Model to Transform You, Your Relationships, Churches, Organizations and Corporations
About 5 years ago I was introduced to a therapy model that changed my life. And that’s not an exaggeration. It literally changed my life, beginning with me, then my marriage, then my parenting, then my therapy work, then friendships, and eventually in the work I do with organizations, churches and corporations. I was introduced […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 20: How Running Has Transformed My Life and How It Can Transform Yours
As a kid I loved to run. Whether it was chasing or racing friends, running was something that I grew up loving to do. And I continued to run in high school, competing in the 110 meter high hurdles, 300 meter intermediate hurdles and the 4 x 400. But somewhere over the years I noticed […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 19: Q + A on “Marital Drift” That Many Couples Experience and Correcting the “Kid Centered Marriage.”
I love interviewing guests on this podcast, but summer has been a bit difficult on the podcast schedule with so many people on vacation and needing to reschedule. But I have some great guests lined up for the future and we will cover some interesting topics. So for this week I decided I wanted to […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 18: Creating a Personal Vision/Mission Statement for Yourself, Your Marriage, or Your Family
About 4-5 years ago my wife and I’s life was in a pretty hectic place. Like many of you, we were a double-income family, trying to both balance out time for our work, our family life, and our marriage. And like many of you, we sort of felt like life was just sort of happening […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 17: Exploring Women’s Health Issues, That ‘Always Tired’ Feeling, and the Importance of Sleep, Food, Exercise and Faith — with Dr. Melissa Esguerra
I enjoy interviewing all the guests on my podcast. It’s a huge privilege to be able to talk with such amazing people. And this one was really special as I got to interview one of the former students in my college ministry. Between 2001-2008 I was on staff at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 16: Tools to Help You Identify, Manage, and Reframe the Anxiety in Your Life
Anxiety is a struggle that everyone has experienced at some point in their lives. Anxiety is part of the human condition whether we like it or not. But while some people seem to experience little anxiety, others feel their life is consumed with it. I’ve shared in countless contexts how I struggled for a good […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 15: Exploring the Interplay of Depression, Hope and Trail Running — with Missions Pastor, Mental Health Advocate, and Trail Runner, Benji Zimmerman
About 5 weeks ago I was perusing through Instagram and I came across the feed of lvtrailrunner. I have been following lvtrailrunner (aka Benji Zimmerman) online for quite a while, and I have really been inspired by what he posts, especially his amazing trail running photos. But something different caught my eye this day…it was […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 14: Simplifying Life, Family Togetherness, and Creating Margin for Exploration — with Artist, Musician and Craftsman, Aubrey McGowan
I first met Aubrey McGowan approximately in the summer of 2010. And like some other stories you have previously heard on this podcast, we met at the ECHO Conference in Dallas. At that time Aubrey was leading worship (as well as doing all kinds of other things…mentoring, vision casting, etc.) at Hope Fellowship in Frisco, […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 13: Identifying Anxiety in Your Life Story and Reframing it as a Catalyst for Growth
I have struggled with anxiety most of my life. The story of anxiety in my life begins probably somewhere between 1981 and 1986. Those were the years my mother battled breast cancer, eventually dying in 1986 when I was 11 years old. As best as I can remember, the onset of anxiety for me began […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 12: How Engaging in Adventure and Play Creates Space, and Leads to Hospitality — with Pastor and Writer Dr. Drew Sams
This episode was definitely a Rhett Smith Podcast first. My brother-in-law Drew Sams and I went for a long 10 mile trail run earlier in the day, and spent our recovery time hanging outside in his backyard jacuzzi. And so we decided to just record the conversation there. So you are going to hear some […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 11: Exploring 7 Spiritual Practices for Busy People — with Pastor, Spiritual Director, and Professor, Timothy Smith
We all live in a very busy, very fast paced culture. And in our constant hurry it is often our self-care that goes by the wayside. We stop taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, often finding ourselves in a worse predicament than when we began. In this episode I really wanted to […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 10: Are You Living a Good Story? How Comfort, Anxiety and the American Dream Can Keep Us From Living a Compelling Life — with Author, Storyteller, and Communications Pastor, Scott McClellan
In the Summer of 2008 I was sitting in my inlaw’s home office working on their computer. My wife, 1 year old daughter and I had just moved from Los Angeles to Dallas to live a more compelling story, but we knew very few people except for some family we had in the DFW area. […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 9: Exploring the Way that Technology Shapes Us, Our Relationships, and Our Faith — with Author, Technologist and Theologian, John Dyer
I first met John Dyer online somewhere in the summer of 2008. I was engaged online quite a bit at the intersection of faith and technology. I am definitely not an expert in technology, but there was a period of about 4-5 years where I spent a lot of time at social media and technology […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 8: Parenting in an Online World, Creating Sacred Spaces, and Navigating Cyberbullying and Pornography Among Youth — with Youth Cartel Co-Founder, Speaker, and Technologist, Adam McLane
I first got to connect with Adam McLane when we were driving through the Dominican Republic, and across the border into Haiti. It was only about a month after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, and we were part of a youth ministry team that went down there (though as Adam points out, it was […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 7: The Journey of Forgiveness
One of the issues that almost always comes up in my work with clients is the issue of forgiveness. It is the issue that often is not addressed, but the one that is most needed. So a few months ago when a pastor friend of mine asked me to come speak at his church’s marriage […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 6: Exploring a Rhythm of Life, Creativity, and Leadership from the Quaker Tradition — with Theologian, Professor and Writer, Wess Daniels
As I say in the introduction of this podcast, Wess Daniels is one of the smartest guys that I know. I first met Wess about ten years ago or more when I was a student at Fuller Theological Seminary and pastoring at Bel Air Presbyterian Church. I started hanging out with Wess when he was […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 5: Turning Insight into Change, Striving for Balance, and Living Relationally — with Innovation 360’s Kevin Gilliland and Lauren Barnett
This was a really fun podcast episode to record. I drove down to Dallas a couple of weeks ago to spend a couple of hours with Innovation 360’s Executive Director Kevin Gilliland, and Director of Marketing Lauren Barnett. I first came across the work of Innovation 360 when I met up with Lauren and another […]
Rhett Smith Podcast 4: The Connection Between Our Fitness, Food, and Faith — with Ultra-Athlete and Food Advocate Sarah Stanley
About two years ago I came across Sarah Stanley online which led to a few email exchanges about running and health. And over the course of the last two years I have been both continually impressed and encouraged as I have watched her explore the outer limits of her abilities (physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually) […]

