Good Life Project

"The creative act is surrendering to not knowing." There's this scene I have etched in my mind. This week's guest, Cynthia Morris  is dancing around a fire in Costa Rica, giggling mercilessly, utterly at home in her playfulness as another friend plays guitar and belts out 80s hits. In that moment, she's the person I wish I could let go enough to be on my best days. Yet, for Cynthia, it's...

After years of paying to wear your favorite shoes, you're getting paid to be seen in them. After years of speaking for free and paying to travel, you're now getting paid to speak. After years of buying your favorite meals, jewels and gear, you're getting paid to eat, wear and use them. After years of writing for free, you're getting paid to contribute. How did this happen? How do you go from&...

Imagine this...A financial genius spends his life developing a complex financial model with the intention of telling you what stocks to buy and sell, and when, in order to make the most money and minimize risk. You'd expect that model to out-perform a single rule that says something like "just split your money evenly between 20 stocks." Except, according to today's guest, Simple Rules co-author, D...

When you watch kids create something, it's like watching an artist who is given complete permission to explore, experiment, and express. There's no sense of censorship or fear of judgment...at least not until we're a bit older. Working with your hands just plain does something to you. It drops you into a place of pure creativity and consciousness. You become the process, you get lost in it. A...

In February 2006, Sir Ken Robinson stepped onto the TED stage and delivered a scathing indictment of the modern educational system, entitled " How Schools Kill Creativity." That talk exploded into the public's consciousness and has since become the most watched TED Talk in history, with more than 32 million views and more than 250 million people estimated to have seen it. While it may not have sta...

How much of your life are you living in your head? If you're like most people, an awful lot. It's great to have a rich inner life, but when that noggin-talk stops you from engaging with the world around you, it's time to stand up and say, "I've got a problem!" This week's 6-minute Good Life Riff is a wake-up call. I'm known among my friends as a straight-shooter. In part, because I've seen fa...

"One of the biggest struggles we deal with as parents is making decisions for our children that feel safe for US." I have been interested in getting to know today's guest for months, ever since I interviewed her husband Rich Roll for Good Life Project a couple of years ago. If you haven't watched that interview, I definitely recommend it for an amazing story of transformation and re-birth. The con...

"Will you step into purpose and connection and expression, or leave them for dead?" There's nothing quite like getting up on stage in front of a crowd to share something creative you made. It's terrifying for most (if not all) of us. But sometimes we feel compelled to do it because we know that facing THAT fear will open the door to purpose and potential. On today's GLP Riff episode, I share the s...

"Creativity [happens] not necessarily because we have no limits, but because we have found ways to solve problems within limits." Growing up in China, Jia Jiang dreamed of coming to the United States to make his mark as an entrepreneur. But his first attempt found him living with criminals in small-town Louisiana as an exchange student. Jia didn't give up, though. He found a new family who ca...

So many people head into the world of entrepreneurship with high hopes, only to end up miserable and running back to a J.O.B. We call this "entrepreneurial failure to thrive." It doesn't have to be that way. We had great feedback on our first short and sweet Good Life Riff, so we're teeing up a new 7-minute piece about a huge miss in the world of startups and entrepreneurship One that leads to mis...

"Rather than making perfection the goal, make improvement the goal." If your work environment and culture empty you out, it will make it near impossible to live a good life. Along the way, it'll make the business you're working for grind to a halt. And, if you happen to own that business, then you end up in a personal and professional world of hurt. So, what makes for a great work culture and...

This episode is a Good Life Project "Riff." What's that? A short, punchy riff on one particular topic that matters to a life well lived. Generally no more than 5 to 10 minutes. As always, these won't replace our weekly in-depth conversations, but if you like them, we may produce more and add them in as supplements to the weekly conversations. So let us know if you want more over on Facebook or Twi...

"Nothing about them without them." Sometimes you hear stories about the horrors of what people go through in other parts of the world and it just seems hopeless. Who are you to help change traditions and practices that have existed for centuries? And why would people listen to you as an outsider? These questions and challenges have not deterred today's guest from making an incredibly important imp...

"Your activity needs to flow from your identity." It seems that A LOT of people struggle with the question, "What should I do with my life?" So I was really interested to have a conversation with today's guest, Jeff Goins , because that very question is at the heart of his new book,  The Art of Work . Interestingly, he ended up re-writing entire book after realizing he had sanitized his...

Over the next few months, we'll be testing a few different show and segment ideas. Not to replace our current weekly in-depth interviews, but to potentially add to them. Yes, you heard right. There just might be more GLP to engage with on a regular basis, real soon. And, today's our first experiment, with a new show format we're calling 9Things™ . What is it? A three-person roundtable, where each...

Everything you've been told about building and breaking habits may well be wrong. Or, at the very least, missing a critical middle step. In this week's episode, we bust myths and share how to do it right (hint, there are 4 different approaches and if you choose wrong, you will fail). Creating good habits is one of the master keys for living a good life. But, it's hard. Really hard. And, it tu...

As busy, productive humans living in the 21st century, one of our most common responses to the question "How are you?" is "Fine. Busy." Especially if you're a New Yorker. And it's true. We are. But have you stopped to think about what you fill your time with that makes it slip through your fingers so quickly? Today's guest, journalist and author,  Laura Vanderkam , analyzed peoples' time...

"Someone who is stressed out needs mental health as much as someone who has bipolar disorder." There are few subjects as delicate as mental disorders and the best way to treat them. I'm guessing most of us tend to avoid the topic in general, we're pretty ignorant about what is involved. Until it affects us or someone we're close to it. That's why I was so interested in learning from today's guest....

2015 Immersion Final Call – Only a handful of spots left! Join Jonathan, a team of gifted mentors and an intimate group of conscious co-conspirators for a once-a-year, 7-month accelerated personal and entrepreneurial growth experience beginning March 1st! Last call to apply (if the application is down, that means all spots are now filled) +++ “Maybe we’ve got it the […]The post Location Independen...

Do you remember being a kid and loving to draw? But at some point early on you learned that your art wasn't good enough? So you stopped. What if you had learned a different story? That your art WAS good, that your ideas WERE valid, that your perspective WAS valued? Today's guest is a master of cultivating and allowing for creativity in the art world. Children's animated films to be exact. Ed Catmu...

Have you ever made a deal with God? I’m guessing that’s a yes. It’s pretty common to get to a place in your life where you want to something so much that you’re willing to give up anything in exchange for it. But what happens in this scenario typically? In the words of today’s guest, “Essentially […]The post Romance Novels, Sultry Voices, Pacts with God and the Good Life appeared first on Good Lif...

"PTSD is less of a brain event than an existential event." We've all heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but we may not realize that we probably all know someone who suffers from it. While it is typically associated with war and soldiers coming home after combat, trauma is a big part of civilian life. Today's guest has a fascinating perspective on this as he served for four years on active Ma...

"People who are not listened to need those who are listened to to fight like hell for them." How many times have you heard an inspiring story of incredible service and heart and then thought, "How does that even get started?" Probably a lot. Because the truth is, most of us would love to create an impactful, service-oriented mission in our lives, but we're overwhelmed with the sheer logistics...

Chris Kresser is a leading voice in functional and integrative medicine and a New York Times bestselling author of The Paleo Cure . He maintains a wildly popular, research-driven website and a clinical practice in Berkeley, CA that has been largely closed to new clients for the last 3 years, because he just can't handle the demand. He's also a bit of a raging introvert, a total science nerd, resea...

It's sooo wonderful to be back from our holiday season hiatus! And, do I have a powerhouse conversation to share with you today... By the time she got out of high-school, Terri Cole described her liver as being "pickled" by mass amounts of black-out inducing alcohol. But it would be a few more years until a brief conversation at an AA meeting would send her reeling, and become the catalyst for her...