Good Life Project || Inspiration | Motivation | Happiness | Meaning | Success

Growing up outside Newark, NJ, the daughter of a first-generation mom from the Dominican Republic and a dad who grew up going back and forth between Harlem and the Deep South, Judge Victoria Pratt (https://judgevictoriapratt.com/) found herself in the role of translator, advocate and champion at a very young age. That deep desire to serve at the sweet-spot between justice and humanity never left her.Rising up through government and educational institutions, she eventually became a judge, but not your ordinary judge. For her, it was all about serving the broader humanity and needs of both those who appeared in her courtroom, as well as those who were affected in the community. Judge Pratt gained acclaim as a champion for criminal justice reform in her Newark courtroom, worked with jurisdictions across the US, and as far as Dubai, Ukraine, Mexico and England. Her TED Talk, How Judges Can Show Respect, went viral.Now a leading voice in criminal justice reform through her consulting firm Pratt 

Scott Barry Kaufman (http://scottbarrykaufman.com/) has a Ph.D. from Yale, and an M. Phil from Cambridge and now teaches at Barnard. Not bad for a kid who was labeled as lesser-than, put into special-education and told he didn't have the intelligence to achieve anything significant.It took a single moment in 9th-grade, where a teacher took note of his innate curiosity and abilities and prompted him to reclaim control over his education and life, for everything to change.Now an acclaimed psychologist, researcher and professor, Scott embraces a humanistic, integrative approach that takes into account a wide range of human variation– from learning disabilities to intellectual and creative giftedness to introversion to narcissism to twice exceptionality– to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and meaningful life.Scott writes the weekly Beautiful Minds column for Scientific American, hosts The Psychology Podcast (https://scottbarrykaufman.com/podcast/), and his books (https://scottbarrykaufman.com

Aleksandra Scepanovic was born into a nation soon to be at war.Growing up in then Yugoslavia, she found herself entering adulthood in the middle of the Bosnian war. While she lived in the relative safety of Belgrade (at least in the early part of the war), she left to head into the heat of the war-zone, on a quest to discover not just the highly-filtered stories being reported by a state-controlled media, but the truth on-the-ground.Scepanovic joined local media efforts, became a reporter, then editor and analyst, where she spent years documenting and sharing what happened as her country divided itself, became decimated from violence, leaving so many lives destroyed and entire areas riddled with broken “Swiss cheese-like” buildings. The experience left her not only longing for truth, justice and peace, but also with a belief in architecture as a symbol of perseverance and the human need to rebuild and move on.Aleksandra eventually made her way to New York, where she discovered a love of design and pursued a d

At 38, Suzy Batiz (https://suzybatiz.com/) was depressed and struggling through her second bankruptcy. A handful of years later, she'd built a $400-million company around bathroom odor, with zero-debt.But, the journey was anything but traditional. Standing in the eye of the storm, Suzy experienced what she calls "the surprising luxury of losing everything." She'd lived through poverty, sexual and domestic abuse, depression, multiple bankruptcies and a suicide attempt. Seeking deeper answers, she decided to try something completely different. She turned to a therapeutic ceremony with plant-based medicine, Ayahuasca in particular, as a path to processing and letting go of her past and awakening her sense of possibility and freedom.While not fun, in fact, she describes the early ceremonies as largely horrific, Suzy began to experience shifts, lightness and freedom she'd been seeking for years. Along the way, a deceptively-simple idea for a new venture dropped. Surprisingly, it was about blending her lo

What if there was a pill that would give you instant access to your greatest potential every time you needed it most?What if that pill was free, had zero side-effects and worked in nearly every domain of life. Especially the ones where so many struggle, from public-speaking and socializing to high-stakes decision-making, sports and nearly any other endeavor where being at your best mattered? And, what if you had an endless supply in your pocket, 24-7, for the rest of your life?According to this week's guest, founder and elite-performance advisor, Todd Herman, there is. But, it's not a pill. It's something you do, a peak performance power-tool he's taught his clients for decades, from Olympic and pro athletes to CEOs, founders and performers. It's what he calls the "Alter Ego Effect," and it's all about tapping the power of secret-identifies, creating and stepping into them to change not only the way your brains works, but also the way your body performs in an instant.Todd shares the entire Alter Ego methodolo

At 18 years old, Maggie Doyne, decided to take a gap year that turned into her life’s work.Traveling to India and then Nepal, she felt called to make a difference in Nepali children’s lives. So, she took her life’s savings, then $5,000, moved to Nepal, bought property there and co-founded the BlinkNow foundation (https://blinknow.org/pages/our-history) along with a Nepali friend, Top Bahadur Malla. Their vision, to provide kids with a safe home, medical care, an education and love, so they will grow up to be adults with a social conscience and the skills to continue the mission of ending the cycles of poverty and violence in the world.Working hand-in-hand with Top, and a team that is 90% Nepali, they built a children’s home, where Maggie and a team of caregivers, cooks, “aunties and uncles” take care of their family of more than 50 kids. They then built a school, staffed by an all-Nepali faculty that serves more than 350 kids, along with a health clinic and women’s center for the Kopila Valley area in Nepal.

Garrard Conley is the author of the New York Times Best Selling memoir Boy Erased (https://amzn.to/2CioQ7k), now also a major motion picture (http://www.focusfeatures.com/boy-erased).Growing up in a small town, immersed in a faith-based community, Conley survived conversion therapy before becoming a writer, activist and speaker (http://garrardconley.com/). He lectures at schools and venues across the country on radical compassion, writing through trauma, and growing up gay in the complicated South. He works with other activists to help end conversion therapy in the United States and abroad. He is also a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Ukraine as an ESL instructor and HIV/AIDS educator.Conley's writing can be found in The New York Times, TIME, VICE, CNN, BuzzFeed, Them, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Huffington Post, among other places, and he is currently at work on a novel about queer 18th century lives.In today's conversation, we explore

Samin Nosrat is writer, teacher, and chef (http://ciaosamin.com/).Her New York Times bestselling book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (https://amzn.to/2BsSc2x), received the James Beard award for Best General Cookbook and was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Samin's recent Netflix series of the same name (https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/) is a stunning exploration of food, culture, travel and life.Called “the next Julia Child” by NPR’s All Things Considered, Samin has been cooking professionally since 2000, when she first stumbled into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant. An EAT columnist for The New York Times Magazine, Samin lives, cooks, reads, and gardens in Berkeley, California.In today's conversation, we explore her journey, growing up the child of first-generation immigrant parents in southern California and feeling like the outsider. We dive into her lifelong love of writing and books, her experience with anxiety and depression and work to be present and

Success is not just about knowing what to do. It's about doing it.Information, plans and goals will not get you where you want to go. Nor will willpower. Success is about something bigger.To succeed at anything worth doing, you must make key shifts in your environment, mindset and community that "turn on" the actions needed for game-changing results.I call this "Success Scaffolding." It applies to everything, from weight loss to business, and relationships to careers.In today's episode, instead of our traditional guest conversation, I'm sharing and in-depth walk-through of my "8P Success Scaffolding™" framework.Every element, every step, nothing held back. Why? Because it is that time of year when millions commit to big, new, deeply-meaningful goals, only to walk away or fail by the time we hit February. Not because we don't want it badly enough. Not because we're not smart enough. But, because we do not have our Success Scaffolding in place.This is my New Year's offering. I shared it for the first time in 20

Tim Ferris has been on a mission (http://tim.blog/podcast/) to deconstruct excellence his entire adult life. It began with his own relentless experimentation and documentation, which yielded #1 New York Times bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef.In more recent years, this yearning has led him to sit down with hundreds of elite-performers and share the conversations on his award-winning podcast (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?mt=2). Tim and I recorded a Good Life Project conversation back in 2016 which you can listen to here (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/tim-ferriss/).Today, we go in a very different direction. After the loss a number of close friends and mentors and passing the 40-year mark, Tim found himself in a contemplative and emotional space. In this week's conversation, we drop into the deep end of the pool quickly. When we sat down, he'd recently returned from an intensive 10-day silent meditation retreat.

In November 2009, Bronnie Ware (http://bronnieware.com/) published a short essay entitled Regrets of the Dying (http://bronnieware.com/regrets-of-the-dying/) It revealed the top 5 regrets people had shared with her in the final days of their lives, when she worked in palliative care.That short essay went massively viral, leading to an international bestselling book, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying (https://goo.gl/eWJr2t) along with a frenzy of attention, travel and the start of a new career as a writer.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 Ware these questions and more when she

On the surface, Casey Gerald (http://www.caseygerald.com/), was living the dream.Growing up in Oak Cliff, Texas, he broke from the binds of an addicted, imprisoned dad and mentally-ill mom to become a star athlete, scholar, then a student at Yale, where he majored in political science and played varsity football.Heading next to Harvard Business School, while pursuing his MBA, he co-founded a foundation, MBAs Across America, that landed him on MSNBC, at TED and SXSW, on the cover of Fast Company, and in The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Guardian, among others.But, when you scratch the surface, things weren't as they seemed. As he shared in this week's conversation, everyone wants to make you into a nugget, a simplified soundbite. Gerald was anything but. Struggling with everything from his sexuality and faith, to his fierce desire to carve his own unique path, to live his own life, Casey, decided to walk away from it all, begin to write, and follow a path of self-discovery and revelation. His journe

Ever wonder if it’s possible to build a flourishing career and global brand, without going to college?Growing up in San Diego and Tampa, Rebecca Minkoff (http://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/) learned at a young age, if she wanted something, she’d have to work for it, or make it herself. That work ethic led her to begin making her own clothes in her early teens, then designing and creating costumes for theater in high-school.Desperate to leave Tampa behind as soon as she could, but not feeling college, she headed to New York at 18 years old and began to work in the world of fashion and design, learning everything from design to all aspects of business. She began making her own designs and, working tirelessly, created a single t-shirt that would seed the launch of a business that would grow to produce an iconic line of handbags, apparel, accessories, footwear, jewelry and build a global brand.And, more recently, she’s headed into entirely new territory with the launch of her own podcast, Superwomen (https://www.rebec

Mark Nepo (http://marknepo.com/) has been immersed in a path of spiritual inquiry for more than forty years. He is the author of twenty books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening and his newest book, More Together Than Alone (https://amzn.to/2AFBGgm).His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2014, Mark traveled the country with Oprah Winfrey on her sold-out The Life You Want Tour and has appeared several times on her Super Soul Sunday program.In this conversation we catch up with Mark (he's been a guest twice before) and dive into his decades-long inquiry around how we are wired to live in community, what happens when the bonds that connect us fail and how to rediscover community at a time when we seem more divided than ever.Want more of Mark Nepo? You can listen here to our 2015 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/mark-nepo/) and our 2016 conversation (https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/mark-nepo-2/).---------Have you disc

Jennifer Marshall's (https://www.jennifermarshall.me/) life was going exactly as planned. Then, she turned 26 and everything changed.Marshall found herself unable to control her thoughts, spinning and struggling with reality. She was hospitalized and sent home to take some time and get some sleep. But, it would take yet a second hospitalization shortly after to reveal the fact that this was not about being overtired. It was about mental illness and how it would redefine Marshall's world in a profound way, from that moment forward.She was soon after diagnosed with bipolar. It was a lot for her and her family to take in, but instead of burying the conversation, she embraced it and even began to share her experiences publicly, first anonymously, then under her own name at Jennifermarshall.me (http://jennifermarshall.me/), and then widely on the front page of The Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, national TV and from the TEDx stage.Realizing the power of sharing her story, she co-founded and is now&

Seth Godin is the author of 18 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He’s also the founder of the altMBA and The Marketing Seminar, online workshops that have transformed the work of thousands of people.He writes about (https://www.sethgodin.com/) the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You might be familiar with his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip and Purple Cow. His latest book is This Is Marketing (https://amzn.to/2JzNkMD).In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth has founded several companies, including Yoyodyne and Squidoo. His blog is one of the most popular in the world and in 2018, he was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame.Beyond all of this, Seth is just a straight up good human with wise things to share about everything from education, work, meaning and craft to chocolate, creativity, curiosity and so much more. In this wide-ranging conv

Farnoosh Torabi (http://www.farnoosh.tv/) has been fascinated by how people relate to money, including herself, for as long as she can remember.Her first book, You’re So Money, was a nationally acclaimed tell-all for people searching for financial independence. That led to regular appearances on the Today Show and Good Morning America, writing for magazines like Glamour, Marie Claire and O Magazine, features on the reality series Bank of Mom and Dad, TLC’s REAL SIMPLE. REAL LIFE and a personal finance series, Financially Fit on Yahoo! Torabi’s award-winning podcast, So Money, (https://goo.gl/dbj3hQ) made its debut in January 2015. Along the way, she got married, became a mom and also found herself the primary breadwinner in her family. That made her curious about what happens when women in relationships earn more than men. This question became not only a very personal one, as it affected her relationship with her husband and friends, but it also became the focus of her last book, When She Makes More (htt

How does a kid obsessed with making it in music end up becoming an internationally renowned, best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and...and yes, musician? That's what we explore in today's wide-ranging conversation with Mitch Albom (https://www.mitchalbom.com/).Albom is the author of numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers. Tuesdays with Morrie, which spent four straight years atop the New York Times list, is now the bestselling memoir of all time. Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day and Have a Little Faith have been made into award-winning television movies. His books have collectively sold nearly 40-million copies worldwide. Albom's latest book is The Next Person You Meet in Heaven (https://amzn.to/2po61tC).  Along the way, Mitch has followed his curiosity into journalism, sports-radio broadcasting, and continues to perform as a member of a band with a crew of other well-known authors. He founded nine cha

Question for you...“How do you figure out what kind of work will fill you with a sense of purpose and meaning, let you fully express yourself, your gifts, passions and skills, and drop you into that transcendent state of flow where you just know, deep down, you’re doing the work you were put on the planet to do?”Here’s what I’ve come to believe…We’re all born with a certain “imprint” for work that makes us come alive. Work that lets us wake up in the morning and know, deep down, we’re doing what we’re here to do. Work that sets us ablaze with purpose and, fully-expressed in a healthy way, becomes a mainline to meaning, a pathway to that transcendent state of flow, and a gateway to connection and joy. Put another way, work that “sparks” us.You may find thousands of satisfying outward expressions of this deeper imprint. I believe this is much of what people talk about when they use the word passion, and why any one person can have many equally satisfying outlets for this deeper driver.But, much to my amazement,

Rebel hospitality entrepreneur (http://www.chipconley.com/) and New York Times bestselling author, Chip Conley, founded and grew Joie de Vivre into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America.Twenty-four years in, he sold the company, leaving him to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, and the wisdom he'd accumulated. He was approached by the founders of Airbnb to help transform the company into the world’s leading hospitality brand as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy and now Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership.Along the way, he's immersed himself in global festival culture, launched the Modern Elder Academy (https://chipconley.com/modern-elder-academy) and written five books, including his new book, WISDOM@WORK: The Making of a Modern Elder (https://chipconley.com/wisdom-at-work). In today's conversation, we dive deep into this journey.------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FR