Good Life Project

This week's guest: This week, our in-depth conversation features David Burkus, dad, author, speaker, researcher, and associate professor of management at Oral Roberts University.He teaches courses on organizational behavior, creativity and innovation, and strategic leadership and has made it his purpose to facilitate the transfer of good ideas. THe is the author The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies Generate Great Ideas and writes regularly for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, PsychologyToday and 99U. He's also the founder and host of Radio Free Leader, a podcast that shares insights on leadership, innovation, and strategy.His new book, Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual, draws on decades of research which has found that not only are many of our fundamental management practices wrong and misguided, but they can be downright counter-productive.In This Episode, You'll Learn:How he ended up in a university teaching position he didn't see coming.Why paying people to quit is a great use of company funds, if you value culture.What happens when companies place their employees above their customers.That the smartest corporate leaders are the ones you've never heard of.Why some companies are re-evaluating or eliminating email all together.The benefits of pushing through the uncomfortableness of pay transparency.Mentioned in This Episode:Zappos' CultureZappos' transition to "Holacracy"Slack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Funny thing about competence. With rare exception, we so often look at others and think they've got it so much more together than us.They're more skilled, smarter, more established, more connected, better able to do the thing we most want to do.Except, it's almost always a lie.We're all in that same "looking at the person ahead of us and wishing" boat. Thinking someday we'll get there. Or, maybe giving up and wondering how do we just be okay being okay.When we determine our own self-worth, happiness or sense of fulfillment in comparison to others, we always lose. Because we're comparing our insides to their outsides. And, even if we knew their insides, they're not us.So, here's the thing.This day. This moment. We ARE enough. You Are Enough.That's what this week's short and sweet GLP Riff is all about. And, it's a response to a listener email we recently received. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 2 in their three-week residency.Dan Lerner is a leading expert on elite performance, excellence and the realization of unique potential, working with musicians, athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. He's on the faculty at both New York University (where he teaches the always waitlisted “The Science of Happiness”) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with the graduate program in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently writing a book about the process and mindset that leads to healthy, uniquely individual excellence.Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract, the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'.Our three topics in this episode:The soundbite culture, how we take things as gospel, without validation.Online, how do you tell the difference between con-artists and real deals?If you knew you were soon to die, what would your legacy work be?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest, Amy Koppelman, is a three-time novelist (so far), mom and an incredibly insightful human being. Her latest novel is Hesitation Wounds.Amy's second book, I SMILE BACK, was turned into a movie starring Sarah Silverman that premiered at the 2015 Sundance, Toronto and Deauville Film Festivals.I wanted to sit down with Amy, because I was drawn in by her immediate, visceral writing voice, her willingness to explore places that might scare off many others and also because of her lens on the writing journey and on life.In this conversation, not only does Amy share a bundle of unfiltered advice on the creative writing process, she also takes us, very transparently, into her personal journey and her lifelong dance with depression, becoming a mom and wife and author and how each affected the other.Listen in for some insightful thoughts on traversing the creative writing process to write your best work.  In This Episode, You’ll Learn:Why every creative writer’s process has to be their own.Amy’s Tip: Assume that no one will read your writing. Your honesty will flow more freely to weave a more compelling story.The six-word story Hemingway wrote to win a bet.How using writing prompts can jumpstart your creative process when nothing else will.How Amy uses writing as a “toilet bowl” to therapeutically express emotions.Her method of expressing inner turmoil and using truth in her novel characters,Her view on mental health, depression, medication and therapy.Why comparing your work with that of professional artists isn’t a comparison at all and can lead to self-defeating tendencies.Amy’s take on “giving yourself permission” to do something that impacts others.Why personal suffering is NOT a core requirement for artists as many people believe.Confronting “Imposter Syndrome” when people ask “What do you do?”What it was like to be interviewed on air by the love of her life.Resources Mentioned In This Episode:Amy’s Website: AmyKoppelman.comAmy’s Books: Hesitation Wounds, I Smile Back, A Mouthful Of AirAmy’s Interview on Her Husband’s PodcastJ.D. SalingerPhilip Roth - American PastoralChris ‘Daze’ Ellis (check back as we're airing an episode with him in July 2016)Michael StewartRaymond Carver - A fantastic grammatical writerToronto Film Festival Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Buddhism as well as in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, you'll find a conversation about four virtues known as the four immeasurables.These are qualities that we might seek to both cultivate and then embody in the name of service. But, they're also known to have a profound affect on the way we experience challenge, stress, relationships, work and pretty much all of life.Wondering what they are?Loving-kindnessCompassionAppreciative JoyEquanimityThese are four virtues that I try to explore and cultivate in life. But, I was also curious, what might happen if you worked to cultivate the four immeasurables specifically in the quest to craft a meaningful business or career?Exploring this question is what today's GLP Riff is all about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alec Ross is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The New York Times bestseller The Industries of the Future.He recently served for four years as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Prior to his service in government, Alec was a social entrepreneur and served as convener from technology, media & telecommunications policy on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.Much of his interest in tapping technology and innovation to make a better world comes from his career as a sixth-grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore, during one of the most challenging times in the city's history, and also his upbringing in a small mining-turned-chemical town where opportunity was not always easily found.In his book, The Industries of the Future, he explores what he believes will be the major growth industries and also career opportunities for the next few decades, while also shining the light on some of the most fascinating innovations of our time and offers a lens into where they're headed (and why we might want to get on board).In This Episode, You'll Learn:How growing up in a coal-turned-chemical town profoundly shaped his lens of work and life.His path from inner city teacher to the founder of an NGO to the tech and media policy director for the Obama campaign to working in the State Department under Hilary Clinton.Why he fears 'the gray twilight'.How he hacked solutions to foreign policy problems.How he got abuelas in Mexico to take down cartel leadership through texting.Why his name was a banned search term in China for 2 years.Why he believes that the next trillion dollar industry will be created from genetic code and personalized medicine.Mentioned in This Episode:Theodore Roosevelt quote65 percent of today’s grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn’t been invented yet.Dr. Vogelstein considers the cancer genomeLuis Alberto Diaz, Jr, M.D. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caroline Paul is the New York Times best-selling author of four books, including her memoir about being a San Francisco firefighter, called Fighting Fire, and the illustrated Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology. In her latest book, The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure, she shares her greatest escapades—as well as those of other girls and women from throughout history. The Gutsy Girl encourages a new generation to conquer fears, face challenges and pursue the lives they want—lives of confidence, self-reliance, friendship and fun.In This Episode, You'll Learn:Her unlikely path to becoming one of the first women in the San Francisco Fire Department.How she learned that her brother was a secret animal liberation leader for 20 years.Is there such a thing a 'girl books' and 'boy books'?The writing collective that kept her sane.Why she loves flying experimental planes, but not all the fancy gadgets and gear. Mentioned in This Episode:No Boys Allowed: School visits as a woman writer by Shannon HaleWhy Do We Teach Girls That It’s Cute to Be Scared? by Caroline PaulCelia Slater's work with True North SportsWhen Breath Becomes Air by Paul KalanithiFighting Fire by Caroline Paul Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm not a big surfer, but I grew up on the water and around the water.Over the years, I've noticed a number of powerful parallels between surfing and entrepreneurship. And, sitting at the beach one day, I started to think about what surfing might teach you about launching and growing a venture.I distilled these ideas into a short essay, which I'm sharing as spoken word in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Daniel Lerner and Gabra Zackman. This is session 1 in their three-week residency.Dan Lerner is a leading expert on elite performance, excellence and the realization of unique potential, working with musicians, athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. He's on the faculty at both New York University (where he teaches the always waitlisted “The Science of Happiness”) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with the graduate program in Applied Positive Psychology. He is currently writing a book about the process and mindset that leads to healthy, uniquely individual excellence.Gabra Zackman is an actress, writer and voice over artist, frequent traveler and lover of adventure. She works regularly in theater, has a parallel and sustaining career in audiobook narration, having recorded over 300 audiobooks to date, and has had great success with her first writing contract,the humorous, romantic, spy-centered BOD SQUAD series. Her life philosophy is 'Say yes...and rock what you got'. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.Our three topics in this episode:Is there a double-standard for male Romance book models?Who are the musicians creating real social commentary today?How is technology interacting with conversation soft signals?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest, John O'Leary, has lived through worse than most can imagine.At age nine, a fire burned 100% of his body. He spent five months in the hospital, underwent dozens of surgeries, lost all of his fingers to amputation and had to relearn to walk, write, and feed himself.He endured, persevered, and survived – largely because others emerged, served and inspired. He now lives to share the life-giving lessons from his story in a new book, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life.In This episode, You’ll Learn:+How the fire that burned him affected his siblings.What it was like to date and eventually find love and marryWhy the great goal of his life for so many years was just to be ordinaryHow he was called from carpenter and roof layer, to international inspirational speaker.How a book his parents wrote to say thank you to their community altered the course of his life forever.Four questions that you can ask yourself every day that will allow you to live an awesome mindset. Resources Mentioned In This Episode:Overwhelming Odds Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Guest Riff is brought to you by Katie Dalebout.She’s the author of the book Let It Out: A Journey Through Journaling.Katie helps people develop a positive image of their bodies by embracing their creativity and personality outside of their physicality. She’s on a mission to share journaling tools that invoke deeper authenticity and self-awareness.And, today's short and sweet GLP Riff is all about, you guessed it, journaling, what it is, what it isn't, what it does for you, why you should never edit when journaling and she even offers some tips and prompts to get you started. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is the last session in their three-week residency.Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.Our three topics in this episode:Who do you idolize and why?What does the future of meditation look like?There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is Arianna Huffington, co-founder, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and author of fifteen books. In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Huffington has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, Huffington moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the debating society, the Cambridge Union. She serves on numerous boards, including The Center for Public Integrity and The Committee to Protect Journalists. A devoted mom with a deepening focus on redefining the metrics of a life well-lived beyond business, she's decided to make sleep her revolutionary cause with her latest book, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night At A Time.In This episode, You’ll Learn:What family means to Arianna and how her Greek heritage shaped her lens on relationships.How an health incident awakened her to the important of redefining success.Why she chose sleep as the subject of her attention and new book.Why sleep may well be the single biggest game-changer for your life.What Arianna's doing to make her smartphone into a dumb phone.Simple things you can start that will make the biggest difference in your sleep.How sleep affects mood, cravings and weight.Mentioned In This Episode:Overwhelming Odds#SleepRevolution College Tour Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Finish what you start.Don't be a quitter.When the going gets tough, the tough get going.It's a lesson we all learned from well-intended advice-givers somewhere along the way. It's all about character.Life's hard, things get hard, the people who survive and do great things in business and life are the ones who keep going, no matter what the road throws in our way.But, what if that was wrong?FWhat if the people who do great things are are the ones who aren't afraid to quit a parade of wrong things in the name of making the space needed to see and then do the right ones?What if finishing what you started was only half the story? The other half being the potential benefits?This is what today's GLP Guest Riff is all about, and it comes from World Domination Summit founder and New York Times bestselling author of the new book, Born For This, Chris Guillebeau.Chris delivers some straight-shooting myth-busting about "stick-to-it-iveness," or when it makes sense to keep going and when the best option, both for you and for those you eventually seek to serve, is to just walk away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is session 2 in their three-week residency.Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership.Our three topics in this episode:Is there such a thing as 'the one' in relationships and how do you know?Everyone wants to own the results, but why not the process?How to be okay when your co-workers reject you.It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's conversation features Krista Tippett, a Peabody-award-winning broadcaster, New York Times bestselling author, and National Humanities Medalist.As the creator and host of public radio’s On Being, she takes up the great questions of meaning amidst the political, economic, cultural, and technological shifts of 21st century life.In 2013, Krista took On Being and its emergent Civil Conversations Project into independent production, creating "a social enterprise with a radio show at its heart." She grew up in Oklahoma, attended Brown University, was a journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin, and holds a masters of divinity from Yale.Her books include Einstein's God, Speaking of Faith, and most recently Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.In This episode, You’ll Learn:Lessons she drew from her hellfire and brimstone Southern Baptist grandfather.Her experience being in East Germany while the wall was still up.What drew her to divinity school.Why pitching her idea for On Being was a hard sell in the early 1990's.Why it took 2 years to convince her to release the long form, unedited content of her show and why this resonates with listeners.What essential quality she thinks is a mark of wisdom.Why leaning into mystery, being fully grounded in our bodies, and returning to the beloved community are so crucial today.How joy and hope play into the attainment and expression of wisdom.Mentioned In This Episode: Rachel Naomi Remen — Listening GenerouslyRobert Cialdini - consistency principleThe research of Richard DavidsonJonathan's conversation with Liz Gilbert Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spend 3 ½ days with us at the end of August at our "summer camp for grown-ups." Drop the facade, revel in new friendships, play, create, move, relax and learn powerful strategies for work and life. Learn more now!+This week's GLP Guest Riff comes from Productive Flourishing founder and process/growth maven, Charlie Gilkey.Charlie read Jonathan's original essay, The Content Delusion, which we aired as last week's GLP Riff, and felt the need to respond. He wanted to go deeper and explore what he calls the Sustainability Thesis, while also debunking two huge myths about building a business or a career.In this provocative, philosophical and actionable riff, he dives into the idea of "scaling" your business and why, for some, that is a fantastic idea, while for others, it is a terrible one. He also explores the "dollars for hours" myth for service professionals and offers a potential defense of it as a way to build a business that is so often maligned not only in the online space, but in the community of "legitimate business" in general.It is a great compliment to last week's Content Delusion Riff and also a bit of a reset and a permission slip to elevate service over freedom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Susan Piver and Lodro Rinzler. This is session 1 in their three-week residency.Susan is a New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and founder of the international mindfulness community, The Open Heart Project. Working to create a good human world, one breath at a time.Lodro is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the author of five books on meditation, and the founder of M N D F L, a new studio making meditation accessible to all New Yorkers, and the Institute for Compassionate Leadership. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.Our three topics in this episode:When women get emotional, do you secretly think they're crazy?Do we have to love the people we hate?Fame for fame's sake, what gives?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's conversation features Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome series, three time Webby Award winner, Harvard MBA grad, former Director of Leadership Development at Walmart, and husband, father, son, and brother.He is the author of a new book, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything, which started as a letter to his unborn child on how to live a happy life, after his wife told him she was pregnant on the flight home from their honeymoon!TIn This episode, You’ll Learn:How Neil divides his time into 3 buckets for optimal happiness (and how they are different from the 3 buckets Jonathan offers).Why wanting can often lead to the exact opposite of happiness.Why he advocates for a 'home contract' as a key to happiness, in addition to a business or employment contract.How action leads to motivation, not the other way around.Why he's loving the word practice these days.Mentioned In This Episode:100 Awesome ThingsThe 3 A's of awesomeThe Institute for Global Happiness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s this unfortunate delusion that’s gaining credibility in the world of entrepreneurship and careers.The road to growth is paved with "content." Write, film, record and produce content and the world will rush to your doorstep.You don’t have to put your “self” out there anymore, just put your content out there.Problem is, it preys on a particular fear, and it’s based on a lie. At least, in part.Content, done right, can be a fantastic mechanism to build an idea into a platform, a brand, a reputation, position, entity, business or organization. But, it’s also a way to hide from the other piece of the launch and growth pie. The side of the equation that is about something else. Something that scares us. Something that, skipped, will still leave you playing a losing game. That's what today's GLP Riff is about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ is the third and final week for our current guests-in-residence Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP and and Bob Gower.Emiliya is a leading voice in the world of positive psychology and the science of flourishing, and is the founder of the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology program, which is the largest in the world. In a past life she was a party entertainer and knows pretty much every group dance ever invented.Bob is a deep systems-thinker, author of Agile Business, organizational-dynamics consultant to some of the largest companies in the world. He's also an ex-cult member, and that comes out in interesting ways in the conversation.Our three topics in this episode:What's up with the "divine feminine?"Does creative genius demand suffering?Are we trapped by our past actions and statements? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, our in-depth conversation features Cathy Burke, speaker, author, and global change maker has served as CEO of The Hunger Project Australia for nearly two decades, and has traveled extensively across the villages of Africa and South Asia in her work of ending hunger.Cathy has been profoundly changed by what she has experienced. The women and men she has met have given her the most enduring lessons in life and leadership, resilience and the power of the human will.She is the author of the book, Unlikely Leaders: Lessons in leadership from the village classroom, These stories are captivating and moving, providing a roadmap for personal and social change.In This Episode, You'll Learn:How Cathy awakened to both the truth of world hunger and her role in helping to end itWhat her first trip to Ethiopia taught her that she (and her group) never saw comingHow harnessing the power of women to lead is the ultimate catalystHow her work has forever changed herMentioned in This Episode:The Hunger Project Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are times it makes sense to throw money at a problem, and times when that's not only the worst thing you can do, it's also the least effective.When we think about performing better, whether it's at work, in sport, even relationships, we often focus first on the things that are easiest to "tweak."Without fail, those things are less about the "core of the matter" and more about 'optimizing the margins." And, if we can do it by buying our way to better, investing in higher-end gear, apparel, equipment, supplies, materials or technology, we try to replace work with money.Thing is, that's often the least effective way to get where we so desperately want to go.What if, instead of spending all of your time, work and money optimizing the margins, you focused instead on optimizing the core? Not by purchasing your way into it, but by working your way into it?That's what we're talking about in this week's Good Life Project Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP and and Bob Gower.Emiliya is a leading voice in the world of positive psychology and the science of flourishing, and is the founder of the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology program, which is the largest in the world. In a past life, she was a party entertainer and knows pretty much every group dance ever invented.Bob is a deep systems-thinker, author of Agile Business, organizational-dynamics consultant to some of the largest companies in the world. He's also an ex-cult member, and that comes out in interesting ways in the conversation. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next two weeks, so buckle up.This is week two in their residency, to be followed by their third and final week next week.Our three topics in this episode:Making time for unadulterated joy and play.Is it getting easier to fly your freak flag without being rejected?How can you hack your "best self?"It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest, Eric Zimmer, is the host of the wonderful The One You Feed podcast.Growing up in Ohio, his life took a hard turn and began to spin out of control. He eventually found himself addicted to heroin and alcohol, living in a van and struggling to make sense of the world. After years living in an ever-darkening place, though, he was able to tap into a hidden well of strength, get help, get clean and rebuild his life.But, his journey into addiction was not yet over. Believing he could go from clean and sober to casual use, he found himself spiraling back into that place of despair. But this time realized he'd have to make bigger, longer-lasting change, accept certain truths about who he was and create a way to perpetually "feed his good wolf, not his bad one."Along the way, he rebuilt his life, relationships, and career and found solace and fulfillment in, believe it or not, podcasting. He now hosts and produces the hugely popular, The One You Feed podcast, with his childhood friend, Chris Forbes.In this week's conversation, Eric is incredibly transparent and generous in sharing his journey, both the profound struggles and the great awakenings. He also shares how his quest to take back his life eventually led him to podcasting, back to music, to new relationships and a deep and abiding knowledge of the human condition. And he reveals how that, in turn, led him to develop a set of skills that enabled him to not only help himself, but help others move into better places as an advisor and coach. If you've ever struggled to find your way out of darkness, this is a don't miss conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's Good Life Project Riff is a reply to a question from one of our wonderful listeners.You've spent your whole life working at something that pays the bills, something that gives you time to be with family. Life, on the whole, is pretty good. But the thing you're doing to put food on the table and a roof over your head is emptying you out.You'd love to wake up feeling like the way you contribute to the world lights you up. But you have no idea where to start. And, you're not excited about the prospect of disrupting the rest of your life to make it happen.So, what do you do? What's your first step?I've written recently about first working to make things as good as you can get them, before blowing anything up. Whether you decide to eventually leave or even launch something on your own, the starting point is deepening your self-knowledge. Discovering who you really are and what matters. That's what this week's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff is all about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's Good Life Project Roundtable™ features guests-in-residence Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP and and Bob Gower.Emiliya is a leading voice in the world of positive psychology and the science of flourishing, and is the founder of the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology program, which is the largest in the world. In a past life she was a party entertainer and knows pretty much every group dance ever invented.Bob is a deep systems-thinker, author of Agile Business, organizational-dynamics consultant to some of the largest companies in the world. He's also an ex-cult member, and that comes out in interesting ways in the conversation. They'll be our guests-in-residence for the next three weeks, so buckle up.Our three topics in this episode:Is anger always bad or is it all about how you work with it?What's the deal with vibrations and energy, Is it real? Can we feel it? Can we harness it?Warmth and Competence, which matters more and why?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For most of us, dealing with change is tough. We're wired to avoid wading into the abyss where we don't know how things are going to end.Even tougher, though, is leading others through change. Today's guests, Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez know this. Nancy is the co-founder of her eponymous firm, Duarte, the top presentation design firm in the world. Patti is the Chief Strategy Officer, and a lifelong storyteller and communications savant.Nancy has been on the show before when we filmed a powerful conversation about her "origin story." Today's focus is on the deep collaboration Nancy and Patti have formed, leading the firm through a disruptive, yet transformational reorganization, while simultaneously co-writing a book on leading through change, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols.In today's conversation, we talk about the simultaneously visionary, yet often brutal process of creative destruction in the name of building something better and how to tell the story of what's going on in a way that lets those you're about to disrupt understand why it's necessary and share a believable path to where you're all going together.But, there's a deeper story that also unfolds. It's the story about Nancy and Patti's very personal journey, the dance between the fiercely future-focused visionary and deeply empathic and present-focused storyteller. We also dive into what it's like to write a book on change when you're simultaneously trying to take your company through its own process of transformational change.If you're leading people in any endeavor now, or hope to in the future, this is a conversation you won't want to miss! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a somewhat ironic relationship between willpower and thinking. They don't play nicely with each other.The more you tax your brain with what we'd call a "cognitive load," the more your ability to regulate your behaviors craters.So, if you're working on a complex problem under deadline or trying to innovate or create, there's a good chance that, while you're in that hyper-thinking, innovating, creating mode, you'll be more susceptible to temptation. Big time!And, interestingly, even the slightest increase in demand for thinking and working memory can shut down your willpower plant. As we'll talk about in today's GLP Riff, the difference between having to hold two or seven numbers in your memory can be the difference between making healthy choices or chowing down on cake!Most people deal with this by just trying to "be a better person" and "digging deeper" to resist the siren call of the cookie jar.But, there's another approach that is far more likely to keep you on the right track. It's about altering your environment. That's what we're talking about on today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is part 3 of our latest experiment, a new show format we're calling Good Life Project Roundtable™.What is it? A new weekly show that won't replace, but will be added to our long-form conversations and short riffs. Two "guests-in-residence" and I will be hanging out for the better part of a month, usually 3 weeks. This really lets you get to know them and benefit from their deep interests and lens on life.In each Roundtable, we'll go deep into three specific topics. And, the thing is, nobody knows what the other person's topics will be until they hit the conversation.My guests-in-residence for today's episode of Good Life Project Roundtable™ are Playing Big author, Tara Mohr and yoga-educator, Erin Moon.Our three topics in this episode:Can you find the good in everything, or are some things just bad?Money, media and bias, what's the deal (and why do you care)?Crazy cons, has it ever happened to you?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if you could take an idea and turn it into a website with more than 12 million visitors a month and a powerful global community?That's exactly what today’s guest, Jason Wachob, did. He is the founder of Mind Body Green, one the web's top wellness websites, featuring thousands of articles, a growing catalog of courses, contributors that include many of the top voices in medicine, nutrition and movement, and a huge global community.This is the second time Jason has been a guest on Good Life Project. He first appeared on the web-series in October 2013. At that point, he shared his powerful story of leaving a career in finance to reclaim his health and found his company. MindBodyGreen was just starting to break out in a big way. Since then, it has exploded.The team has grown in size, they inhabit new offices and Jason's had the chance to dive deeper into not only what it takes to build a company, but also a culture that walks its own content talk, a community around wellness and a good, vibrant life. He shares his lens on that last question in his new book WELLTH: How I Learned to Build a Life, Not a Resume.In this week's powerful conversation, we explore Jason's unique, culture-focused approach to building not just a company, but a community and a family. We dive into the dance between wanting to do big things and also wanting to be in control of your time, health, relationships and life. We explore the power of love and belief, and what its like to build a life with a partner he also works with. And we talk about his experience growing a venture that exposes him to the top thinkers and practitioners in health, nutrition and fitness and how that's informed his take on the elements of a life well-lived, especially in the context of being a creator, maker, entrepreneur and life-partner.Enjoy the conversation! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I don’t like following, never have.Other peoples' rules and procedures and constraints and processes often don't sit quite right with me.I prefer to take my own path, follow my own rules.It’s why I was the “Lemonade Stand Kid” in my neighborhood—I wanted my own money, own responsibility. It's why I've been an entrepreneur the better part of my adult life. I enjoy figuring things out on my own, then leading rather than being led by others.But what I’ve discovered as I’ve gotten older is there are very real, very important lessons to be learned from being led by others, before you step in to lead yourself.Maybe my biggest awakening to the power of following before you lead came when I was rock climbing with a few partners in Rocky Mountain National Park, and various other destinations in Colorado. As the relative newbie in our group, I spent the entire time following my guide's lead.During the entire weeklong climbing adventure, I never once led a pitch (a ropes length of the climb that was many rope's lengths high). Those days, however, taught me more about how to eventually lead than almost any other experience. And, my classroom came with a 20-mile view and life-and-death terms.That's what we're exploring in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is part 2 of our latest experiment, a new show format we're calling Good Life Project Roundtable™.What is it? A new weekly show that won't replace, but will be added to our long-form conversations and short riffs. Two "guests-in-residence" and I will be hanging out for the better part of a month, usually 3 or 4 weeks. This really lets you get to know them and benefit from their deep interests and lens on life.In each Roundtable, we'll go deep into three specific topics. And, the thing is, nobody knows what the other person's topics will be until they hit the conversation.My guests-in-residence for today's episode of Good Life Project Roundtable™ (and next week as well) are Playing Big author, Tara Mohr and yoga-educator, Erin Moon.Our three topics in this episode:The three manifestations of God.The Hero's Journey, through a feminine lens.Can video games help ease pain?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Originals are the non-conformists who drive creativity and change forward—the ones who help us progress as both independent cultures and a unified species. They're Steve Jobs' "crazy ones."Yet in spite of this, humanity has always had a fascinatingly dysfunctional relationship with originality—we simultaneously venerate and scorn it, particularly in the workplace. Originals may eventually come to be loved, but they’re almost always met with cynicism and resistance first. Because they don't fit in.It’s a fascinating duality, and it’s one of the many things we discuss with today’s guest, Adam Grant—author of two New York Times bestselling books (Originals, Give and Take), and—at 34—the youngest tenured professor in the history of the Wharton School.As Grant shares, thanks to shifts in social and cultural norms, it’s never been easier to be an original, but so many of us still resist the call. In this wide-ranging conversation, we go deep into how originals think and act.We explore how we're often the worst judges of our own good ideas and what do to about it. We debunk the myth of the need to go "all in" and share how the founders of Warby Parker, one of the most innovative companies in the world, kept their days jobs.We talk about our almost inherent willingness to underestimate ourselves and our creative capacities and what to do about it, and the importance of creating a vast volume of work in order to become an original. We dive into what happens when you try to exert power, before you have status and how that effects your ability to create change. And, so much more.Join us as we dive headlong into originality—how it works, how it’s changed the world we live in, and why more of us need to embrace it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every large scale creative endeavor, from writing a book to building a body of work, creating a collection or a company, is made up of dozens, maybe even hundreds or even thousands of smaller scale benchmarks, along with the "pushes" it takes to hit each.Every time you hit a benchmark, it feels great. You get to ease off the push and check a box that takes you one step closer to your ultimate quest.But, then, there's also a potential dark side to hitting these micro-goals. There's a break in the momentum. You have to rally yourself to start the push toward the next one fresh. To write the next chapter, start the next canvas, produce the next song, build the next piece of your entrepreneurial greatness.And, the closer you get to end of the bigger endeavor, the more the voice of internal Resistance, as Steve Pressfield described it in The War of Art, rises up and tries to derail you from your work.I've experienced this while writing books in the past. So, when I was working on my next one, I decided to try a momentum hack that I learned from none other than Ernest Hemingway.Stop when you most want to go.I share the details and the powerful results in today's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is our latest experiment, a new show format we're calling Good Life Project Roundtable™.What is it? A new weekly show that won't replace, but will be added to our long-form conversations and short riffs. Two "guests-in-residence" and I will be hanging out for the better part of a month, usually 3 or 4 weeks. This really lets you get to know them and benefit from their deep interests and lens on life.In each Roundtable, we'll go deep into three specific topics. And, the thing is, nobody knows what the other person's topics will be until they hit the conversation.My guests-in-residence for today's episode of Good Life Project Roundtable™ (and the two weeks to come) are Playing Big author, Tara Mohr and yoga-educator, Erin Moon.Our three topics in this episode:Great leaders - are they always doubting and what's the deal with self-doubt?What's the deal with westerners reaching east for their spirituality?Is mindfulness always a good thing or can it sometimes do harm as well?It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy! And let us know if you like this format, over on social media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine you're on stage, charged with holding the attention of a thousand people. Knowing that, as soon as you stop talking the free cocktails begin. Your job is to keep the audience rapt for a solid 60-minutes. It's you against the taunt of free partying.That's often the speaker's worst nightmare. But, this week's guest, Jon Acuff, loves those moments. A New York Times bestselling author of 5 books, including his latest Do Over, he relishes the challenge to win over his audience and keep them hanging on his every word.What's so interesting is that he doesn't do it by telling them he has everything figured out, then endowing them with his omniscience. He does it by sharing his own humanity, his vulnerability, his not knowing, and then tying it all together in stories that leave people crying with laughter and inspiration. And, he pretty much does the same with his books. Everything he does comes from a place of truth, humor, humility and craft.In this week's conversation, we go behind the scenes, exploring why Jon left a hugely successful corporate career to take a risk on writing and speaking. We learn how Jon's deep devotion to being honest (but not radically honest), to always working to connect with, rather than separate himself from his readers and listeners, and his devotion to craft and deep study not just of writing and speaking but also of comedy, has become the center of who he is. We explore how he dances with both the maker and the helper in him and reconciles his desire to create with his commitment to serve. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here’s a great question from one of our listeners, David: If your work is truly cutting edge, how do you effectively market if people don’t even have the distinctions yet to “get it,” and you need to get their attention AND it takes a longer conversation to really open it up? The art of conveying […]The post Conveying the Cool: How to Sell an Idea That’s Ahead of it’s Time appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine you're an actor. You work your entire life to generate a magic moment. A call, offering you the role that could open the door to your dreams. But, there is a cost.The gig will require you to cancel the trip of a lifetime with the one person in the world who leaves you breathless. And, on a deeper level, it represents a choice you've vowed not to make, picking craft over love.What would you do?That's the choice this week's guest, Erika Napoletano grappled with just days before we sat down to record this week's conversation. And, in many ways, it's a choice she and many of us have been forced to answer many times over the course of our lives.This is actually the second time Erika has been on the show. We first sat down a few years back in Boulder, Colorado, where she was deep into her writing career. Since that time, her world has changed in profound ways. Now in Chicago, with a deep focus on speaking and acting, I was curious about this evolution, so I when I heard she'd be passing through New York, I invited her to take me deeper into her transformation.And, as is her style, Erika got very real, very fast. We explore Erika’s climb from the darkest of depths of suffering and loss to rediscovery joy, returning to her long-held passion for acting, becoming an award-winning author, acclaimed speaker, TedX Editor’s Pick 2012, columnist for both American Express OPEN Forum and Entrepreneur Magazine.We also talk about what it means to live a messy, truthful life, the power of establishing sacred commitments, and why the biggest risk you’ll ever take is simply not taking one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, Jonathan shared a GLP Riff about how he prioritizes major projects.He talked about his move away from "batching" tasks and parallel creation to taking a longer view and adopting a Serial Creation approach to getting big projects done better, faster and more humanely.Apparently, that spurred a lot of conversation. And, it led to a lot of questions, one of which was...With between 3 and 10 substantial projects that are calling us at any given time, how do we choose what to work on, and in what order?That made us think. How DO we choose? Turns out, there is a bit of a step-by-step process involved. Whether it's right for you, only you'll know. But, in this week's GLP Riff, Jonathan responds to the question of one awesome listener with some specifics about how he prioritizes what to work on and when.In his answer, he also references the work of productivity savant, Charlie Gilkey, along with the 4 Tendencies developed by The Happiness Project and Better Than Before author, Gretchen Rubin. You should check them both out, tons to be learned from these wizards of optimal living. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest, Elena Brower, dedicated her life to the practice and teaching of yoga nearly 20 years ago. She rose to acclaim, becoming known first as a wonderful teacher on the New York yoga scene, and then a teacher of teachers on a larger stage.But she also had a secret. Actually, not so much a secret as an addiction. And there came a time where she felt she not only had to get sober, but also share the journey in a very public way. With her students, her community of teachers, and her son.It became one of the most empowering journeys of her life. This is just one of the many paths our conversation takes in today's episode.We explore Elena's early years, her career in textile design and what led her to leave it behind and make yoga her "thing." We talk about the path to becoming a teacher, then eventually developing an authentic voice, a treasured lens and emerging as a teacher of teachers. We explore the power of awareness and mindful attention.We also dive into what it's like to run your own studio, to travel the world, speaking and teaching. And, we talk about how becoming a mom has changed her and her world in a profound way.The emergence of digital practice and online yoga classes and education, something Elena has embraced, finds it way into the conversation as well. And we explore Elena’s latest ventures, Teach.Yoga, a global hub of content and inspiration created by yoga teachers, for yoga teachers and her beautiful self-practice guide, The Art of Attention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The process of creation breathes me. Always has, always will. I wake up every day thinking about what I am going to create, from business to art and health to relationships.The bigger challenge for me has never been about having enough ideas, it's been about process. How do I get the most important things done AND pursue my creative quests in a way that both lets me create my best work and feel good along the way?When it comes to completing these projects, I’ve long adhered to the principle of "parallel creation" and "batched" my time. I pursue anywhere from 3-10 major projects at the same time, then segment each day into distinct chunks dedicated to a specific task and projects (three hours to write, two hours to work on web development, one hour for fitness, etc.) and work away accordingly.But after years of doing it this way, I’m starting to think this might not be the best approach.A few months ago, I decided to experiment with a new strategy—serial creation.Unlike parallel creation, serial creation isn't about batching your work during a working day. It's about zooming the lens out to 3 months, looking at what needs to happen with each major project in that window, then apportioning entire days or weeks to focus on one and only one project at a time, during that season.No other projects. No distractions. No excuses.I ran my first experiment like this while finishing the manuscript for my last book. The results were incredible. And, that's what I'm talking about on today's short and sweet GLP Riff.It'll take me the better part of winter and spring to entirely transition from parallel to serial creation. But, it works so much better for me on every level, I'm committed to the goal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine a career...no…Imagine a life where you travel the world earning your living by taking jaw-dropping photos of some of the most astounding athletes, action-sports, and breathtaking backdrops the planet has to offer.Sound too good to be true?—it’s not—this is the life of award-winning photographerChase Jarvis...but it almost wasn’t, nor is it where he's resting.Chase started down the beaten path, a scholar-athlete, headed toward med-school. It wasn’t until after taking his MCAT and interviewing with several medical schools that Chase’s took an unexpected turn and walked away from it all.IMoved by the call of the camera his grandfather left him when he passed, Chase stepped out of the path he'd been expected to follow and stepped into a part of him that had laid buried. He claimed his inner-artist and storyteller, and starting shooting images of friends doing what they lit them up. And a lot of that included skateboarding and snowboarding.The result?—entirely self-taught, Chase built a life most people only dream about as one of the top action sports and travel photographers in the world, shooting campaigns for many of the biggest brands, and making films along the way.Still, he wasn't done. Over the years, an even deeper call emerged. To teach. To inspire others and to create a different legacy.So, he co-founded CreativeLIVE, which has now grown into a global online educational venture with millions of students learning both the craft and business of a wide array of creative professions.In today’s conversation, we explore how this visionary photographer, director, fine artist, and entrepreneur learned to find comfort in uncertainty and, through that comfort, defy the external pressures driving him towards a career he never wanted.We’ll discuss why we’re so often compelled to pursue validation from the world, and how that pursuit forcibly pushes us away from our natural, creative passions. And, we dive deep into creativity, mastery and so many of the stories we tell ourselves that stop us from pursuing and experiencing both. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“No.”It’s such a simple word, and yet…massively impactful.Too often we find ourselves standing toe to toe with No—challenging it as an unwarranted slight, or an underserved rejection.My question is—why?No isn’t about passing judgement, it isn’t about demeaning your worth—it’s about communicating “X” is not the best possible fit for the promised outcome of “Y”.At Good Life Project, we use applications for our events to ensure the audience consists of individuals who will get the absolute most out of what we’re doing…It’s not about denying people, it’s about ensuring we can deliver on expectations. Theirs and ours.No is not a personal attack.No is not a critique against the backdrop of your life.No isn't a slam, it's a powerful data-point. Fuel for growth.In today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff, we share a "Tale of Two No's," exploring how two different people responded to a No profoundly differently, and how each person's response likely informs both the way they move into the rest of their lives AND the way the world rises up to support or seems to war eternally against them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine yourself as a child uprooted from your home, and bouncing from nation to nation as a paperless refugee…Envision the fear of being unexpectedly foreign in lands when the customs are as alien as the language being spoken…What would you do? Would you follow your dreams and thrive, or merely play it safe and survive?These were the questions facing Maria Konnikova, an author and psychologist who landed in the suburbs of Boston by way of Moscow, Vienna, and Rome at the tender age of four.Despite not knowing a word of English upon her arrival in the United States, Maria worked furiously in pursuit of her passion—writing—eventually graduating with a bachelors from Harvard (magna cum laude, by the way) and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.Maria’s first book, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, was a New York Times bestseller, and her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, California Sunday, Pacific Standard, The New Republic, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, The Boston Globe, The Observer, Scientific American and WIRED. She also writes a regular column focusing on psychology and culture for The New Yorker.In today's conversation, we explore her powerful journey and the family dynamic that gave her the space to create a living and life she truly loves. We also discuss why committing to something you're passionate about is so important.Then, we dive into Maria’s latest book, The Confidence Game, a riveting exploration into the minds of con artists and the people who fall prey to them. You'll discover a world you've very likely fallen under the spell of, without even knowing it. You'll learn how even the smartest people get taken, and sometimes that's a great thing.You'll also see the deeper psychology of persuasion and how it unfolds in nearly every "transaction and conversation" all day long, from the coffee you buy in the morning to the things you eat, buy or try, the conversations you have in the office and outcomes you create in the world.In the end, we come to an unsettling truth. The only real difference between devastating cons, entrepreneurship, marketing and self-help is...well...you'll have to listen to find out!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you ask someone who is working on turning an idea into a business what they call themselves, a likely answer these days is "startup founder."If you'd asked that same question a generation ago, you'd have probably heard "entrepreneur" or "business person."The difference isn't just about semantics or generational change. It's about a profound shift in both the mindset of entrepreneurship, and the acknowledgement and exaltation of a very distinct "discovery" phase that exists between the idea and the viable entity called the startup.This seemingly subtle shift, which is anything but, has created a new wave of permission to take risks and innovate on a level that, not too long ago, many would have been fiercely judged for. And, along with that, it has brought a less catastrophic lens to failure and increased the willingness to put yourself on the line in the name of doing something extraordinary.It has tilled the soil of purposeful experimentation and empowered so many to take a shot at creating something from nothing who, but for the cover provided by the "startup" moniker, would've never even tried. That is a great thing, not only on an individual level, but on a societal level, because it creates possibility. It allows more ingenuity and innovation to see the light of day. In the end, we all benefit from that.This is what we're talking about in today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff.Tweetable: “We need more people trying to create genius.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nerd. Gamer. Athlete.Three words you rarely hear uttered in the same sentence, let alone to describe any one person (unless you're talking about epic movie battles).But, that "triple-threat" describes founder of the global Nerd Fitness movement and author of Level Up Your Life, Steve Kamb, perfectly.A lifelong gamer and nerd, Steve found himself exposed to the world of fitness later in life. It was like a switch turned on. His life was transformed, and he wanted to find a way to apply what he knew about game-theory and technology to fitness in a quest to help millions of people break out of the fits and starts and finally reclaim their health.So, he created his Nerd Fitness revolution, the members of which call themselves The Rebellion. It seems he struck a chord. Nerd Fitness exploded, growing rapidly into a global community with more than 250,000 members and millions of visits to their online home every month.But, that's not all, Steve also figured out how to literally turn his everyday life into a living, breathing video game he calls his Epic Quest of Awesome. One that has taken him on incredible adventures all over the world, from Croatia to Brazil and Monaco to Munich, all while spending very little money.His new book, Level Up Your Life is essentially the manifesto for the revolution.In this week's conversation, we explore Steve incredible adventure, we dive into how he stumbled upon the "unlock key" for physical transformation in the world of gaming and how he has worked to engineer Nerd Fitness to help people do what seemed impossible before. Oh, and how along the way, he's figured out how to live a deeply adventurous and meaningful life Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever try to help someone who had absolutely no interest in being helped?It's one of the most frustrating experiences we can have. Maybe it's a family member or partner. Maybe it's a close friend or colleague. Or even a customer or client.So many times, we end up banging our heads against a wall trying to motivate or force others to care, then impose a solution they never asked for, because we "determined" it was in their best interest.We do this in our personal lives and, not infrequently, in our professional lives, too. But, even if the action we're looking to compel is, in fact, in that other person's best interest, until they care as much as we do, it's game over.Today's short and sweet GLP Riff dives into this phenomenon, shares a story of how Jonathan bumped up against it while looking to build a personal training practice years ago and what he learned.In the end, there's one simple truth. You can motivate action externally for a moment or even a window in time, but the sustained action needed to create real, lasting outcomes can't come from the outside in.The will to change must come from within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Lee Dumas grew up believing he wasn't the most talented person in the room. But, he also knew the path to success in almost any endeavor was more about work than it was about innate gifts. So, pretty early on, he made a decision that he'd outwork pretty much anyone to get what he wanted.That led to a string of powerful accomplishments, from athletics to business and led him to follow in the footsteps of his dad and grandfather, serving in the military. But, when he came home, dealing with PTSD from combat, the years that followed led him to a series of false starts, from law school to real-estate, in an attempt to meet what he eventually realized were everyone's expectations and desires but his own.For the first time, there wasn't a clear path, and he fell into a depression. Until he found an unlikely spark in a place he wasn't even looking for it...podcasting.John became fascinated with the medium and set out to launch the first-ever daily business podcast, calling it Entrepreneur On Fire (now EO Fire). Everyone told him the daily format was nuts, it'd be impossible to keep up. But he was not to be dissuaded.In short order, the podcast became a phenomenon and he began to build a powerful business around it, adding on sponsorship and educational offerings. He also decided to break another rule, sharing his company's income reports with his community on a monthly basis.Over more than 1,200 interviews with entrepreneurs, Dumas also began to key in on common patterns of success in business. One of the biggest, he found, nearly every single person who achieved any level of success was fiercely focused on achieving a goal. He realized, he was, too. And he wanted to create a tool to share with others to help move them toward the achievement of a single big goal. So, he created his first physical product, calling it the Freedom Journal. He's actually launching it on Kickstarter right now.In today's conversation, we dive deep into John Lee Dumas' journey and how he's landed in a place where his focus is evolving strongly to one word, significance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the end of every year, business owners and accountants do something we might want to consider also doing in our personal lives.They "close the books."What does that mean? They look back over everything that's happened in the last 12 months, make sure it's as accurate as possible, understand what went into each debit and credit, then ask what makes sense to continue in the year to come, what makes sense to end and what makes sense to change.They look for any areas where the numbers don't seem to match up, where there's some kind of aberration or question or anomaly and try to figure out what actually happened. They reconcile the numbers and, if they can't, they place a note explaining why.Then, when they've learned what they can learn, fixed what they can fix, explained what they need to explain, they close the books. They let it all go and turn their energy to the next 12-month window, opening a new book and penning the first entry.So, here's my question...What if we did this not just in our financial lives, but in our personal lives, too?What if, at the end of every year, we created a deliberate process of:LearningReconcilingLetting go, andRefocusingHow might that allow us to step into the coming year not snuffed out and battle-scarred, but lit up and filled with possibility?That's what this week's Good Life Project Riff is all about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.