Good Life Project

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....

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 "d...

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...

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, w...

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...

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 atta...

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 e...

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 an...

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 g...

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 a...

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, alon...

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 t...

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...

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....

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 19...

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...

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 themse...

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 ab...

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 th...

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 abo...

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, struggli...

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...

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 innovat...

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 aroun...

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...