Good Life Project

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.

Colin Beavan burst into the public consciousness in a huge way with a documentary and international bestselling book called No Impact Man that documented his yearlong experiment to live in the middle of New York City with his family creating zero environmental impact.That experience opened his eyes to the power daily choices can have not only his own life, but the world around him. But, it also did something else. It triggered a deeper interest in exploring many of the big questions in life, the heart of which is not just how to be a good steward of the planet, but how to live a good life along the way.Consumed by the question he spent years diving into research, interviewing people and began to realize that our ability to live good lives is intimately tied to the way we relate to and serve those around us, and the planet that sustains us. It's about moving away from materialism and toward competence, and so much more. Diverging from convention, he shares much of what he's discovered in a wonderful new book, How to Be Alive.We sat down with Colin to record a deeply-personal and passionate conversation, geeking out on stories, eye-opening studies on rarely spoken about human needs and so much more, all in the name of pulling back the curtain on what really matters as we navigate our time on the planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes your creative voice clashes with others' expectations of what's always been done, and what they think you're "supposed" to do.This has happened a few times with this podcast. Ninety-nine percent to the messages and reviews we get about the guests, topics and format are overwhelmingly positive. Every once in a while, though, we get hit with a "take down" comment, a really aggressive attack on either a guest, topic or the conversational format of the show.I understand the rebuttal against certain guests and topics. Sometimes we offer provocative guests, people who've made choices others don't agree with and we talk about topics and ideas that make some people uncomfortable. I get that, not every person or idea or choice is right for everyone.But, the occasional take-down over the conversational format of the show ("I don't want to hear the host, I only care about the interviewee's point of view), I always find fascinating. Because it reflects a point of tension over a creative choice that we've made in producing our media and the evolution of the media itself.What is that decision? Choosing conversation over interview as the format when we host guests on the show. There is a subtle, yet powerful difference in these formats. Until the emergence of "new media," nearly everything that hit the air was interview-driven. This was a standard that emerged from journalism, where the focus was on "eliciting information" in an attempt to break and tell another person's story. For those long-time media consumers who are locked into a traditional, more journalistic TV and radio "interview" paradigm, our choice of a more conversational format can bump up against long-held expectations of what media "has" to be.The media game is changing, though, and the freedom of podcasting and online video has pretty much thrown traditional constraints out the window. The decision to roll with different formats—long-form vs. short-form, conversation vs. interview, broadcast production values vs. street-level production values— makes a huge difference in both how much you enjoy listening and we enjoying creating. New media creators are constantly pushing the envelope with formats and, at the same time, inviting longtime media consumers to let down the shield and become open to the possibility of everything from three-minute videos to three-hour conversations. Jerry Seinfeld's fantastic, conversation-driven, 15-20 minute "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" episodes are a wonderful example of breaking nearly every rule, and making a lot of people happy.For Good Life Project, we've chosen conversation over interview. It was a very intentional choice. In today's Good Life Project Riff, we share the deeper drivers behind that creative choice, exploring the idea of "product-maker fit" and why you might want to apply the same logic in your creative endeavors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sekou Andrews defies every preconceived notion you might have in your head about the voice and role of poetry in business, society and life.In his words, when he "tells people that, before creating a new inspirational speaker category, he was a successful 'full-time poet,' you would think that he had said 'full-time mermaid,' or 'freelance unicorn' based on the reactions he gets."A former elementary school teacher turned musician, national poetry slam champion, Sekou discovered the power of delivering larger ideas, stories, missions and even strategies to audiences not by traditional keynote or slides or visuals, but by meticulously crafted spoken word performances.He calls this "Poetic Voice" and Sekou has now presented to everyone from the world's largest organizations to Barack Obama, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, and Coretta Scott King and family and so many others.In today's episode, we explore Sekou's remarkable journey, his exploration of acting, music, teaching and poetry, how he unbridled words from beat to make the leap from musician to poet and how he literally created an entirely new speaking category and is now turning around and teaching others how to discover their own Poetic Voices. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever done something because you thought it would look good on your resume? Studied at a particular school or with a particular person?What if, instead of trying to pile on credentials from esteemed people and institutions in the name of building a resume, you based your choices on what would let you increase your capabilities, your ability to make a difference, with the greatest speed and depth?Sure, sometimes you can do both, but often times, we get lost in the quest to amass qualifications and forget the end game is not to have a "seemingly" glossy resume, but to cultivate the ability to leave others changed. To make a dent in the universe.That's what we're talking about in today's GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Janice Kaplan is filled with gratitude. But, it wasn't always that way.Her career in the media has taken her from the TV sportscasting desk to producing dozens of shows, writing more than a dozen books and eventually serving as editor-in-chief of Parade Magazine, which at its height, boasted a circulation of about 30 million readers.Her life was good, still is. But, she noticed that, as good as it was, there was always this feeling of yearning, of it not being enough.Then, a few years back, a research project she'd been working on that focused on gratitude triggered her to reexamine her life and explore nearly every facet of her existence anew.This launched a yearlong exploration of gratitude, with a series of experiments that revealed how profound an impact simple shifts and daily practices could have on her life. Unfolding in "seasons," Janice examines both the growing wellspring of research, as well as the direct effect of so many "gratitude interventions" we've heard about over the years in her book, The Gratitude Diaries.In today's conversation, we dive into Janice's extraordinary career in media, her creative through-lines and fascination with human behavior and why we do what we do, and her values around family, women's voices, relationships, life and the life-changing impact of her year of gratitude. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's been a lot of pushback lately against the idea of mastery, choosing one thing and putting everything you've got into it.Mastery, it seems, has become almost a dirty word. Why choose just one or two things to master, when your interests span four or five or 10 or 20? Why not just do them all? Isn't that a legitimate way to both feel good and contribute to the world? Isn't being a jack of all trades, master of none the type of person who is most in demand these days anyway?For some, maybe. But, for many others, not so much. I wonder...Is the pervasive refusal to say no to many thing and strive for mastery in one more about fabulosity or FOMO?That's what we're talking about on today's GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's that old line. When you're thinking about opening a restaurant, the three most important things are location, location and location.Edward Barnett agrees, but the way he chose the location for his first restaurant in what is now becoming a chain goes against nearly every bit of conventional wisdom and advice.Edward was on a mission. Not just to do well, but to do good. So, along with his partner, Karim Webb, he opened their first Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in one of the toughest neighborhoods in L.A., Crenshaw, a place where violence, crime and lack of opportunity was a way of life.They wanted to offer a dining experience that wasn't available in Crenshaw. But, they also wanted to create a place of opportunity, jobs and community. A place where kids and adults alike could get off the streets, learn a trade and build a career. A place not just to work, but where they knew someone cared about them.Where everyone cautioned them and said they'd fail, they've succeeded. It's still hard at times, but it's worth the effort. They've created a place where people not only come to eat, but come to gather. And for those who work there, they've also created a path to possibility and hope.In this week's episode, I sit down with Edward to explore both his life and the lessons he's learned, along with what it's been like trying to build a sustainable business and an engine of impact in a place that's known so little of both. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We spend so much time trying to "acquire" people and things.In business, we talk about "acquiring a customer," like they're a commodity we're buying at the corner store and we even associate a price with each new person.In our personal lives, we often do the same, thinking about the effort it takes to find and start a relationship with a new friend, lover or partner, yet it feels wrong to call that friend or lover or partner an "acquisition," so we come up with gentler words to remind ourselves no human actually gets to acquire or possess another human.We use that word, acquisition, by the way, because it deludes us into believing "once we've got it, it's ours for life." Hahaha! So, silly!We all know, that's not even close to reality. We don't own anyone. Not for life, not for a year, a month, an hour or a moment. We are gifted with their presence, their investment of love and energy and time and more. And that gift is something that must be nurtured, grown, tended over time or else it goes away, and so do they.We have an opportunity to continue to invest in not only the process of discovery, but the continuing process of deepening and delight. Delight, in fact, is where the greatest magic happens and it's all too often completely ignored once you're past the courting stages.What if, instead of focusing maniacally on finding and starting relationships, then letting them coast into oblivion, we spent equal if not more energy on delighting those we bring into our orbit once they're here.That's what we're talking about on this week's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born and raised in a family of Irish surfers, and named after a surf break, Easkey Britton is a renowned Irish pro surfer, five-time National Surfing Champion and one of the top female big-wave surfers in the world. She's also an explorer, artist and scientist with a Ph.D. in Environment and Society.On any given day, she may be traveling the world, getting towed into waves 10 times bigger than her, screaming down the face of walls of water that move like a steamroller, doing everything in her power to dance with the wave, rather than be crushed by it. Or, she may be researching the environment or bringing people to disparate parts of the world to come together and create social change around surfing.I had a chance to sit down with Easkey and learn about her lifelong love of the ocean and relationship with water. We explored surfing not just as a feat or an activity, but a metaphor for life and growth. We also talked about how she is using surfing as a form of social impact, empowerment and cultural education, co-founding the Waves of Freedom Foundation and filming a documentary about her trip to bring together women from local communities around surfing in one of the poorest, most remote and dangerous regions of Iran. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wonder how to know when it’s time to hold, fold or change? At some point, we all end up walking into the fire. We feel the fierce heat of intense pressure, anxiety, uncertainty, challenge and frustration. Often, it’s self-generated, sparked by a project, company, quest or venture we’ve launched ourselves into. It’s not fun. But, […]The post When to Hold, Fold or Change. Walking Into the Fire. appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Nepo is a renowned poet, philosopher, author, master storyteller and spiritual teacher.He has appeared numerous times on Oprah, his Book of Awakening was a #1 New York Times bestseller and his newest book, Inside the Miracle, explores how we can move through suffering with grace and resilience.As Mark shares in this wide-ranging conversation, his darkest moment came in 1987, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, which then led him into three years of treatment that eventually brought him back to health, but also pulled him through a brutal, yet awakening experience in its own right.Somehow, out of that moment, he was able to reconnect with a deeper sense of spirit and emerge not just in a different place, but a changed man.We explore all of this, as well as his lens on God, spirituality, truth, expression, relationships and so much more. And, at the end, as a special offering, he reads two beautiful poems to close the conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are wired to run from the unknown, to flee anything that leaves us in that raw, exposed place of uncertainty.When our ideas take us to this place, we feel it and many of us shut down. It stops our true genius from emerging and turning into breakthrough discoveries, products, experiences, brands, businesses and art.But there's another phenomenon that is even more alarming. And it happens when you take this idea and soul-crushing dynamic into larger organizations. Bosses, it turns out, have a hard time acknowledging other peoples' amazing, innovative ideas, too. The reason why and the implications are a bit scary, according to a recent study.If you keep offering great ideas to supervisors and getting knocked down, or if you're a boss who keeps asking for ideas and feeling like nobody's offering up good ones, you need to listen to this week's episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In November 2009, Bronnie Ware published a short essay entitled, Regrets of the Dying.It was a reflection on the years she worked in palliative care, taking care of people in the final days of their lives.She had noticed that the same basic set of profound regrets kept coming up, over and over again, as those in her charge would lie waiting for the end, often sharing the deepest parts of themselves.That short essay exploded online. It was shared, reprinted and read millions of times, leading to an international bestselling book, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying, along with a frenzy of attention, travel and the start of a new career as a writer.Those regrets have since been discussed and deconstructed many times. They are important reminders of what truly matters in life.But, what about Bronnie?Who was this Australian artist turned banker turned palliative care-worker? What led her to do such soulful work, in a field so many others could never imagine embracing? What were the deeper drivers, hidden passions, big dreams and, also, profound and dark struggles? What happened to her after the global phenomenon took hold, shaking her existence in a powerful way, both for the better and for the worse? And, what is she up to now?I asked Bronnie these questions and more when she came to the Good Life Project studios in NYC during a monthlong trip from Australia. The conversation got very real and deeply truthful. She was incredibly generous with both her inner thoughts and beautiful lens on life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know the old question, "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, did it make a sound?"What if we asked a similar question about pain, suffering, anxiety or any other "experience or emotion" that exists only in the space between our ears?What if many of the things we experienced throughout the day, whether good or bad, were less about what was happening to us, and more about where we focused our minds "while" it was happening to us?What if our reality was not just about circumstance or "thoughts," as is popular to offer in the world of personal development ("with our thoughts, we make our world")?What if reality was really about attention?In today's short and sweet GLP Riff, I make this very concrete, applying the idea to one of the most common pains out there, headaches. We talk about how shifting attention can profoundly change the way you experience pain, and potentially even eliminate it for a window of time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lodro Rinzler is that increasingly rare Westerner who didn't find Buddhism through a later-in-life quest for answers, he was brought up in the tradition of Shambhala Buddhism and has lived its teachings since he was a child, at one point even exploring the monastic path.That said, he's very much "of this world," deeply connected to the realities, demands, challenges and joys of life in a world that seems to be moving faster and faster and placing less and less emphasis on relationships, compassion and the deepest parts of love.His desire to share his lens on Buddhist wisdom applied to modern life led Lodro to eventually take his seat as a teacher, penning a number of wonderful books, the latest, How to Love Yourself (and Sometimes Other People): Spiritual Advice for Modern Relationships.He's also a co-founder of a very cool new center for meditation in New York City called MNDFL.In today's conversation, we explore Lodro's remarkable personal journey and what it was like being the Buddhist on the block as a kid.We also dive into some of the major ideas, practices and teachings from Buddhism, like meditation (what it is and isn't), Karma (how to really think about it), compassion and love, and discuss a bit of mythology and misunderstanding around each. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's more important for people to know, your face or your work?This question came up at a recent dinner with a few author/founder types.We were talking, in particular, about whether you should have your picture on the cover of your book, or something else.But, the conversation is really about something much bigger.It's about how you want to bring yourself and your work to the world.It's about how you want to become known and what you want to become known for.One of the big awakenings for me has been that, whether you lead with your image or your "personal brand" or not, if the quality of work you're creating is remarkable, people will want to know more about the person behind the work.That's what we're talking about on today's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jadah Sellner and Jen Hansard are the founders of Simple Green Smoothies, a quest-driven company that has grown into a massive global community in an astonishingly short amount of time.They're also the co-authors the new book Simple Green Smoothies: 100+ Tasty Recipes to Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Feel Great in Your Body.Just a few years ago, though, they were two young moms, struggling mightily to get by, on every level.Money was tight, they both "had" to work to help support their families. Jadah was acting in educational plays for schools and Jen was doing design work. But it just wasn't enough.Neither found any sense of deeper purpose or sustainable income in what they were doing, so they began to hatch a plan to work together to create a community for moms.They spent every extra minute trying to build an education website and community, but it just wasn't working. At the same time, Jadah was trying to figure out how to reclaim her health, but as a young mom, she wanted something fast and easy to start. So, she began making one simple green smoothie a day.That one act changed her health and her life, fueling the loss of more than 25 pounds and giving her tons of energy. And, it became the trigger for a much bigger change. Wanting to share this simple solution with other moms, Jen and Jadah created an instagram account, named it Simple Green Smoothies, and began to create smoothie recipes and share them. The account exploded. People loved their images, detailed recipes and generosity. As I write this, 382,000 people follow the account.Over the next few years, Jen and Jadah parlayed that one instagram account into a massively popular Simple Green Smoothies website, a global community that has now seen hundreds of thousands of people go through their 30-day challenge and now a new book.They've also built a powerhouse business fueled by health and love and become successful enough to become the main financial supporters of their families. Most important, they love working together, they love what they do and they have a fierce commitment to building their company and community from a place of love.We dive into their inspiring journey together in today's episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're featuring a very special GLP Guest Riff with Lewis Howes.Lewis is the founder of the School of Greatness podcast and author of the new book, The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy,At various stages in his life, Lewis has been an All-American, collegiate and pro athlete, an entrepreneur focusing on business development training, a salsa dancer, a professional speaker, spokesperson, investor, podcast producer and now author.With each new endeavor, he rises quickly to the top, even after being knocked to the ground more than a few times. Lewis wasn't just an athlete, he was one of the best in the country. He wasn't just an entrepreneur, he was the best in his category. When he set his sights on podcasting, same thing, he shot to the top.What's fueled that ability to consistently attain greatness? In no small part, it's his obsession with learning and skill acquisition.Always be learning!That's what Lewis is talking about in today's special GLP Guest Riff. It's short and sweet, as all GLP Riffs are, and it's a great reminder of the power of perpetual learning and skill development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Kelley is a partner at renowned design and innovation consultancy IDEO.He's also a best-selling author, along with his brother, IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley, of a fantastic book called Creative Confidence. Beyond that, he is an Executive Fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and the University of Tokyo. As a leading voice on innovation, Tom travels the world, speaking on how to tap the creative potential of individuals and organizations and create a culture of innovation.During his time at IDEO, he's helped the company grow from 15 designers to more than 600 innovators, working on projects that often make a global impact and lead to wide-scale paradigm-shifts. Even as an avowed entrepreneur, when I think about whether I could work with a larger company again, IDEO pretty much tops the list of dream places. Actually, it IS the list.In today's conversation, we take a step back in time. Tom shares how the freedom to play and experiment he had as a kid led to the way he views the world now. We talk about creativity and innovation, especially design thinking, applying the process of design to business and innovation. He and his brother, David, are often credited with helping to define and bring this methodology to the world.We explore the power of story, both in creativity and communications. We also talk about creative culture, what's necessary for it to flourish and we dive into the cancer diagnosis that led him to collaborate with David to write a fantastic book together and how that changed them both.If you are looking to bring more creativity and innovation into what you're doing, this is a don't miss an episode with a leading voice in the field. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We do the weirdest things to make people think we're worthy of their attention, or money.No matter what you do or where you come from, there's this little voice in most of us that just wants to be wanted. We want people to think we're worthy, we've got something really good to offer.For many of us, part of that equation is that we want others to see us as smart. If you're building a career around being what my friend calls a smarticle particle, it's pretty important. That's cool. But, here's where things often go off the rails. And, trust me, I'm speaking from experience.Not infrequently, that urge to be seen as smart enough, coupled with a wee bit of imposter syndrome (seriously, does anyone not have at least a touch of it?), leads us to want to say things in a way that make us sound smarter.Where a $1 word or phrase would do, we use (and often make up) a $10 word or phrase. Because, hey, preternatural sounds smarter than weird. Proprietary Multisensory Phased Metaphor Story-Architecture Persuasion Framework (PMPMSAPF) sounds better than "tell stories that make people buy." And exponential growth-hacking sounds fancier than "grow faster with less effort." That last one, by the way, I've found myself using recently. Ugh!Here's the deal...Using jargon—large or sometimes even made up terms of art that don't easily describe what we're talking about on the surface—don't make us sound smart, they make us sound arrogant and inaccessible. They don't draw people in and engender trust and rapport, they push people away.And they create an understanding gap. People don't learn anything, but they nod their heads because they don't want to admit they've got no idea what you're talking about. Then, instead of asking what you mean, they just walk away, still dumbfounded. Everyone loses.That's what I'm talking about on today's GLP Riff, along with what to do about it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wonder what your mobile device is really doing to your relationships, your happiness...your life?Today's guest, famed MIT Professor, bestselling author and researcher on how technology affects the human condition, Sherry Turkle, has been studying questions like this for decades.In her new book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, she looks at what phones and the technology that rides inside them are doing not just for us, but to us.What she reveals is beyond scary.Put your cell phone on the table when you're with someone else, she offers, you've just destroyed the possibility of deep conversation. Without even realizing it, everything gets superficial. You don't go deeper, because you want to be able to scratch the near-addictive phone-checking itch. And that's okay when the convo is light, but not when it gets real.We also talk about how apps and texting are destroying empathy and solitude and making it harder and harder to actually know ourselves and develop real relationships. We explore the "I share, therefore I am" ethos and how technology is profoundly altering the dating scene. We talk about what computers and mobile devices do to classrooms and learning, seeing how some professors who at first welcomed them are now banning them and why. Turkle offers:"Technology doesn't just change what we do, it changes who we are."We need to understand how, then leverage it to work with, rather than against us.In the end, Sherry isn't anti-technology, she'll tell you. She's pro-conversation.This conversation led me to immediately change how I use my cell phone and think about the model I'm creating for my daughter. It was also a reminder of why I record these conversations, with rare exception, in-person, rather than remotely. Because it changes the conversation and the depth of the relationship. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We love to judge. To gossip. To belittle.Not everyone, and not all the time, but enough for these feelings to fuel multi-billion dollar industries.Even if we never say it out loud, we derive a certain pleasure from others' misfortune. There's even a name for the phenomenon—Schadenfreude.We do it partly, because our brains are wired for comparison and social currency. And in part, because we're trained societally to determine our own value relative to others.Pile on the anonymity of the screen or the page and we've become a culture that not only judges, but determines the entire worth of a human, all too often, by their worst moment.We see it in the news cycle, in politics and Hollywood. But, we also see it in our towns, the local club, our own families and supposed friends.What if the value of your entire existence was judged by the meanest thing you've said or thought, or the biggest mistake you've made? What would that look like? How might it make you feel?What if, instead of reveling in the belittling of another human based on a moment, we looked through the lens of empathy and compassion? How might that change things?That's what we're talking about on today's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At first glance, you might think Amy Stewart had an obsession with gardens and bugs. She's written a series of bestselling books on the topic and had her garden of poison plants hailed as one of the 18 strangest gardens in the world by Popular Mechanics.Underneath that, though, lies a far deeper devotion, one that's fueled her since she was a kid. Amy Stewart is possessed by the craft of writing and storytelling. It's not so much gardens or bugs, it's the stories of people that arise out of those places and creatures that fascinate her. And the opportunity to tell them in her wonderful voice.After tremendous success as a nonfiction writer, Amy decided to do something most people in the industry view as a huge risk. Having built a large audience around her nonfiction creations, she stumbled upon a bigger story that had to be told. One of three beautifully colorful sisters who decided to take the law into their own hands, leading to an outcome nobody saw coming.But the story was old, the research was incomplete. There were gaps even living relatives couldn't fill. So she as forced to fill them in with her own imagination and write the story as historical fiction. When that book, Girl Waits With Gun, came out, Amy was faced with the usual anxious waiting every author faces. Would people like it? Had she done the story right?Heaped on top of those emotional questions were whether the families of these real-characters would feel she'd done right by them. And, whether her long-won nonfiction readers would follow her down the fiction path.We talk about all these questions, plus an exploration of the craft of writing and storytelling in this week's conversation. We talk about the writing life, and her time growing up in Texas. We also talk about indie bookstores, what it's like to own one (she does) and how that universe is changing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if one of the biggest pieces of "success advice" was wrong?There's a particular strategy that's become hot in the world of success and personal development. It's been hailed as the secret to accelerated results and success on a level and at a pace, that'd be near impossible without it.It's called "modeling." On the most basic level, the advice is to find someone who has done what you want to do, deconstruct everything they've done to get where they are, then do those same things yourself.Problem is, that can be pretty dangerous advice. It can and often does lead not to success, not to a good life, but to a whole lot of angst, anxiety and failure.Why that happens and what to do about is what we're talking about on today's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So often, the way the world perceives us conflicts with the what we "think" we're saying and the way we want to be seen and heard.Truth is, so much of what we communicate all day long has nothing to do with the words that come out of our mouths.In fact, often the things we do, the way we move, the things we telegraph contradict the words we offer, leaving people with a sense of cognitive dissonance.Todd Henry is a master of cultivating the "voice beyond your spoken voice" or what he'd call your "authentic voice."A former touring musician and now a bestselling author and international speaker on creativity, intentional living and presence, he's spent years on everything from country music stages to stadiums, learning how to create magic night after night. What he'd eventually come to realize was, it wasn't the music that pulled him from ahead, it was the opportunity to teach, to see lightbulbs go on, to create magic and leave people changed.To do this on the level that made a real impact, though, he'd first need to cultivate his authentic voice and presence on a whole different level. Todd writes about this in his latest book, Louder Than Words.In this week's wide-ranging conversation, we explore the lessons he learned from the music industry, from playing one night before 50,000 people, then the next at a bowling alley and even the occasional small joint where his band played behind chicken wire to keep them safe.We also talk about why he walked away from that life, how he embraced a new season and chose to contribute in a way that was better aligned with the future he sought to build. We explore what fame is really about, responsibility and freedom. We dive into the invitation to be original and what stops so many from cultivating their true voices, from no longer being "cover bands." And so much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've been to the movies or watched cartoons, you've seen the word "Avatar" before. But, when we talk about building a career or company, it has a very special meaning.Your avatar is the person you're looking to help. The one you want and need to serve and elevate. It's your potential customer, client, diner, patient, participant, camper or student.If you want to build a successful career, experience or venture, you need to get to know your avatar on the most intimate level.You need to know her name, where she lives, her age, fears, desires, hopes, struggles, and influences. You need to understand a day in her life, then a week, a month, a year and a decade. You have to understand the conversations going on in her head, the language she used to talk to herself and the pictures she paints with her mind.It's hard work to get this detailed, but it's also make or break. It lets you serve, solve and build on a different level.But, here's the thing. The two reasons most commonly offered to "know your avatar"—to solve her problem better and to communicate with her more effectively—they matter, BUT they're not actually the most important reason to do this work.There's something bigger, more important. Something nobody talks about. Ignoring this reason is a huge miss.And that's what we're talking about in this week's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thing most people fear more than spiders and death is the very thing this week's guest, Michael Port, loves with every fiber of his being.What am I talking about?Public speaking.Port began his career as an actor, featured often on screens of all sizes, before jumping into the fitness world and then creating the Book Yourself Solid business development juggernaut and a string of bestselling books.He built an empire and, along the way, became a master not just of the screen, but of the speaking stage. There, he found his true home and built an astonishing career as an international speaker.With the launch of a provocative new book, Steal the Show and a new speaker training venture, he's on a mission to transform the world's #1 fear into an experience of awe, joy and impact.We go deep into the "real" backstory and his deeper "why" in this week's conversation. We talk about the tension between "performing" and being "authentic," and whether the two can really coexist. We talk about what trips us up when we think about taking stages of all sizes, from the dinner table (should that even be a stage or is that too sacred) to the boardroom, theaters and stadiums.We also get into why he believes nearly everyone should script and memorize their talks, even if you believe yourself to be a "natural" speaker, and why it's not memorization that kills a great talk, but rather preparation.We bust a lot of myths about the difference between persuasion, manipulation and whether either is good, bad or maybe even...massively desirable. And, we talk about what any and all of this has to do with building good relationships and living a good life.We also get personal and explore why, after so much success, Michael decided to shift gears in a major way, where he's headed with his life and how his lens on living a good life has changed since I last sat down with him.If you've been "public speaking curious," but you've struggled with fear or anxiety around it, this is a don't miss an episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pam Slim is one of those people.You know, the ones who see the best in everyone. In everything. In every seeming barrier, she sees the lesson. The good. The opportunity to learn. To grow. To create. To collaborate.The one whose lens I aspire to embrace, but still find myself failing more often succeeding (someday, lol).She's also just an amazing human, dear friend and award-winning author who is in the midst of very cool 21-city Indispensable Community Tour.And, it just happened that one of the stops on that tour was NYC a/k/a my little town. So before she swept out to the next city, I asked her to jump in and share a special GLP "Guest" Riff about the power of community, especially as it relates to makers and entrepreneurs.In her short and sweet Guest Riff, she asks a big question:What if we thought more about serving a community as a community?Now, of course, the realist in me always kicks in when I hear things like that. Sounds good in theory, I snicker, but can it really happen in the real world?According to Pam, yes. Sure, we still all need to build our own things. We still need to put food on the table, honor our paths and build what we're here to build. But in the end, she argues, all ships rise when we start thinking about community not just as a target market, but as a collective solution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Gilbert exploded into the public's consciousness in 2006 with the release of her mega-bestselling memoir, Eat Pray Love.Since then, she's published a series of books, given a TED talk on creative genius that's been viewed more than 10 million times, become a leading voice on the pursuit of a creative, connected and vital life.Liz's latest book, Big Magic, takes you deeper into what it means to live a creative life, offering a wonderful blend of wisdom, unabashed magical thinking, amazing stories and a whole lot of unexpected myth-busting and contrarian insights.I had a chance to sit down with Liz and, as often happens with these Good Life conversations, we ended up going all sorts of places I'd never planned. We touched on the power of curiosity and the fallacy of passion, where creativity comes from, what stops us from doing the thing we're here to do, the importance of caring for your vessel, what happens when you think you've reached the end of your capacity and her powerful lens on what it means to life a good life.This is deeply moving, revealing, insightful and sometimes pretty funny conversation. In fact, we begin with a hard-hitting reveal of a relationship that Liz had kept secret for more than four decades. And, along the way, this beautiful thought came tumbling forth:"When you come to the end of yourself is where all the interesting stuff starts." Tweet this.If you've ever wondered how to step into a creative life, how to get that thing in your head and heart out into the world, this is an absolute "do not miss" conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first episode I've ever wished I didn't have a reason to air...On Sunday, a good friend of mine, an amazing man, husband, brother and son, founder of Live Your Legend and beloved member of the Good Life Project family, Scott Dinsmore, lost his life.Hiking Kilimanjaro with another amazing soul, his wife Chelsea, Scott was killed in a rockfall.He was only 33.I've shared more thoughts in writing here.For now, I wanted to do something to keep Scott's beautiful energy and words alive. So, I'm airing a conversation Scott and I filmed a few years back as an audio podcast in tribute to him.My heart is heavy, and my love and wishes for healing go out to Chelsea, to her and Scott's families and to all who've been touched by Scott's message, his presence and what he's created and now left behind.With love & gratitude,Jonathan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of a lifetime only comes around once...Dale Russakoff spent more than three decades as a top news journalist, reporting for The Washington Post for more than 28 years.When Facebook co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a $100 million grant, teaming with then rock-start mayor, Cory Booker, to revolutionize the Newark schools and create a model for national education reform, she'd found a story worthy of her full attention and her first-ever book.Leaving her job, she spent four and a half years embedded in the lives, conversations and inner-most workings of what seemed, at first, to be positioned as a stunning transformational endeavor. What unfolded on the ground, though, was a profoundly different story. One that seemed straight out of a Shakespearian drama with a complex cast of players, each driven by their own personal and social agendas.At play wasn't just the lives of tens of thousands of kids, many living in desperate poverty and violence, but also a $1 billion budget and thousands of jobs.Russakoff tells this story in her riveting new book, The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?  In this week's conversation, we dive into this tense and complex drama, played out on both the highest levels of government and business and the most basic level of human interaction, one teacher, one kid, one life at a time.We also explore how growing up in the deep south, the child of an "outlier" family who never bought into segregation, cultivated Russakoff's lens on people and equality. We dive into her career as a journalist and how that world is changing and being largely dismantled. We talk about the good and the bad and explore how the new golden age of podcasting just might end up saving the field.Even if you have zero interest in education, you will love this conversation. Because it's about a breathtaking human drama. It's about power and corruption. It's about the desire to do the right thing and how that gets almost perversely "bent" to the will of too many interests along the way.It's about the need for access to truth, to stories not only well-told but also vigorously researched and validated. It's about one woman's quest to shine the light, even when those who've given her the batteries for her flashlight end up unhappy with what that light ends up illuminating. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You want to be known as someone who changes the game.Someone who brings amazing ideas, solutions, insights and potential to everything you do. You want to make real things happen. Things that matter.So you plug in. You mainline digital information, entertainment, pretty much any and all forms of data. You squeeze every possible moment out of the time you have, consuming, creating, connecting, rinsing and repeating. Occasionally, you breathe, but only if forced.Partly because it gives you more to think about, talk about and integrate and create. But, also, because it's just become your default. Space terrifies you. And maybe, just maybe, you're even driven by a little bit of FOMO.Thing is...It doesn't matter how productive you or how busy you are if the ideas you're building on don't represent the best you have to offer.And your best ideas rarely, if ever, come when you're filling every millisecond of your life with something to do.Genius comes when you disconnect from tasks and reconnect to space.To plug into your best self, you've first got to unplug. To create the space for brilliance to emerge.That's what we're talking about in today's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people look at meditation as a practice. Something you do daily, most often seated on a cushion.New York Times bestselling author of eight books, and Shambhala Buddhist meditation teacher, Susan Piver, has a different take.What if it's not just a practice, she offers, but a path? A way of life. An approach to seeing and being in the world that plants the seeds of awareness, compassion and life in a more awakened and joyful state.She's written about this in her wonderful new book, Start Here Now. I had a chance to sit down with Susan and record a conversation live from the stage of Camp GLP in August, before a room of 350 people. The energy was electric.We talked about Susan's serendipity-driven journey through the hip-hop side of the music industry, her constantly yearning for answers to the big questions and her discovery of Buddhism, decision to eventually take her vows and what that even means.We also explore what Buddhism is and isn't and why so many people seem to be "Buddha-curious" these days. We talk about what it means to be brave, along with the potential upside and downside of belief. Then, we dive into meditation as both a daily practice and a path, do a bit of "white light" myth-busting and explore how this practice tends to work its magic over time.And, just for fun, you'll also discover how Susan watched the entire movie, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, in the middle of a 30-day meditation silent retreat...entirely in her head! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is creativity tied to your biological clock? A 2010 Global Chief Executive Officer study by IBM revealed the most sought after trait in emerging leaders. It’s not work-ethic or efficiency. It’s not motivation or productivity. Creativity is the trait most desired by those in charge. Understandably so. Because the ability to come up with new ideas, […]The post Unlock Creativity: Time of Day Matters appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.