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

Ever wonder how to kill a bad habit or start a good one? How to stop eating ice cream at 11 pm or smoking or procrastinating? How to exercise every day, without fail?Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of The Power of Habit, (https://amzn.to/3jhgYHS) Charles Duhigg, did too. But he went beyond wondering and spent a few years researching the science behind habits. What he discovered was pretty mind-blowing.Not only is there a huge amount of mythology and misinformation around these hidden routines, but the people who understand the real psychology of habit formation are using it not just to change their own behavior, but to "influence" the buying decisions of hundreds of millions of consumers. Including you.In this episode of Good Life Project, Duhigg reveals how one of the biggest retailers in the world, Target, uses habit analysis to figure out which customers are pregnant and leverages that information to cultivate new buying habits. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.He shares how

What if you could just spend all your time being creative?Making amazing things, and not worry about building your social media profiles, your relationships, platforms and all the other yadda, yadda, yadda that comes with being not just a creative person, but also an enterprise.Is that even possible any more? And, if so, what would it look like? That's what we're exploring in today's Good Life Project Riff.Good Life Science: In our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on an age-old myth, the notion that you can "feel the weather in your bones." More, specifically, does rainy weather make your joints aches or make old injuries more painful? In today's Good Life Science Update, we explore a new study that harnessed big data to arrive at a surprising answer. And, as always, for those who want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.+--------------------------+Our Podcast Partners: ShipStation: Manage and ship your orders. FREE for 30 days, plus a bonus

Courtney Carver believes simplicity is the way back to love. But, her wake-up call was a diagnosis of MS.A mom, wife, and creative pro, Courtney Carver was building a living in the advertising industry, and a beautiful family. Then, in 2006, everything changed. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Carver went on a journey to figure out how to reclaim as much of life as she could and identify what made things better or worse.Stress, she discovered, made everything worse. So, she was determined to eliminate as much stress as possible for a happier, healthier life. Along the way, she made another discovery, the common thread in every "de-stressing" change she made from diet to debt was simplicity.So, she began to simplify every aspect of her life, and the change not just emotionally, but physically was remarkable. Simplicity was literally changing her body, her symptoms, her relationships and life. She began sharing her experiments on a blog, bemorewithless.com, that eventually took off

Good Life Riff: One of the most critical keys to success, in any endeavor, is knowing what to say yes or no to.The faster you can choose, the more time you can spend actually doing the things that matter, and walking away from the things that don't. In today's GLP Riff, we share a simple question that serves as a powerful decision-making tool designed to simplify your decisions, reduce "decision fatigue" and lead you more quickly to the things that matter most.Good Life Science: In our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on mindfulness.Yes, mindfulness. We know, there's been a lotta research on this topic. But this is different. The big challenge with mindfulness, when it comes to science, is that people are lumping a bunch of different practices under the umbrella of mindfulness, then making claims about what it can do. But, a new study finally dismantled the core elements of the practice (focused awareness and open monitoring) and showed how each does somethi

Known widely as The Iceman, Wim Hof, is a Dutch-born world record holder, adventurer, daredevil and researcher.While best known for his seemingly freakish ability to withstand extreme cold, and the many world records that've come along with that, even more significant is the work he has done blending extreme cold with breathing and mindset exercises to alter physiology and short-circuit responses thought impossible to control.Through his Wim Hof Method, Wim asserts that he can “turn his own thermostat up” and consciously activate his sympathetic nervous system. What makes his work even more unusual is that he's partnered with academic researchers in a quest to scientifically validate, measure and teach his techniques.In this week's episode, we dive into the early life experiences that turned Wim on to the transformational power of extreme cold and water. We explore his obsession with existential questions and Eastern philosophy at an early age, how that led to him being viewed as a bit of an outcast and

Good Life Riff: What if you could do a single activity that had the effect of optimizing your mind and body, deepening beautiful relationships with people you can't get enough of and allowing you to do work that filled you with a sense of purpose? That'd be pretty cool, right?We call this the Good Life Bucket "Trifecta," because, in one fell swoop, you fill all three Good Life Buckets: Vitality, Connection and Contribution (for more on the buckets, just download the intro to How to Live a Good Life. It's free here).The more you can seek out or create these opportunities, the better your life becomes. In today's riff, we're sharing a great example of a Good Life Bucket Trifecta (hint: it involves a whole lotta snow) and how you might explore integrating this concept into your quest to live a good life.Good Life Science: In our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on anti-aging, mushrooms, how they affect your health, fight aging and potentially even protect again

Traci Ruble is a San Francisco based psychotherapist, clinic director and the founder of Sidewalk Talk, a community listening initiative that is exploding into a global movement.Starting out in the fast-paced San Francisco technology world, Ruble was rising up the ranks quickly, making a fantastic living and also pushing herself to a breaking point. Then, a death in her family sent Traci on a quest that led her out of tech, immersed her in travel, surfing and eventually therapy. These experiences unlocked an entirely new, deeply open and aware part of her, and also led her into therapy as a new career path.After years of education and building a flourishing practice and clinic, yet another profound moment of awakening led her to want to "take her chair out onto the street" and create a listening movement for so many people in pain who needed to be seen and heard, but didn't have the ability to be clients in a practice.What began as a makeshift band of therapists hitting the street to listen to anyone (for fre

Good Life Riff: We've all heard a lot about gratitude, how it's a powerful reset for the mind. Especially at a time of year when many of us find ourselves swept into a whirlwind of stress and social strife.So, today, we're talking about a bit of a different gratitude intervention called the "gratitude visit," which has been researched and proven of have an astonishingly powerful and lasting impact on your state of mind and wellbeing.This moving gratitude experience has the added benefit of filling both your Vitality Bucket (by enhancing your state of mind) and also your Connection Bucket (by deepening your relationship with another person).Good Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on, well, nuts and your brain. We've all heard that nuts have lots of health benefits, from disease prevention to inflammation reduction and more.But, some cool new research show that eating certain nuts actually generates different brainwaves, which raises the pos

This week, we're bringing you Tim Ferriss like you've never heard him.Ferris has been a man on a mission, driven to deconstruct mastery and excellence, then share what he's learned. 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, though, this yearning has led him to sit down with hundreds of elite-performers, from a vast array of domains, on a quest to reveal what made them them. These conversations are shared weekly on Tim's award-winning podcast, The Tim Ferris Show. We recorded a Good Life Project conversation with Tim earlier this year, which you can listen to here.In today's conversation, we go in a very different direction. Tim actually lost a number of people this year, turned 40 and found himself in a deeply contemplative and emotional space, thinking about who he is, how he wants to create the next 40 years of his life and what matters. Thi

Good Life Riff: Ahhhhh, family! With many people heading into that time of year when gathering with family becomes a "thing," we figured it was a great time to invite our old friend, everyone's cousin and New York Times bestselling author, A.J. Jacobs, to share a very special guest riff about what family really is...and isn't. He's spent the last few years deep-diving into the topic and has come up with some fascinating and fun discoveries, which he shares in his new book, It's All Relative.Good Life Science: Ever notice that the older we get, the more we tend to forget stuff? Turns out, the hippocampus - a part of our brain heavily involved in memory - starts to shrink in our middle years, taking memories with it. In our Good Life Science segment today, we're diving into some fascinating new research on how one very specific type of exercise affects can not only stop the shrinkage, but even reverse this process. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full

On one level, Mari Andrew never meant to have the life she's now living. On another, it was her destiny.Mari is a writer, illustrator and solo travel enthusiast currently living in New York. She began posting an illustration a day on Instagram in 2015 as a way to share her lens on life and connect with people. In a few short years, her following exploded to more 600,000 people.What's so fascinating is why. These daily posts aren't created by the stroke of a fine artist's brush or trained letterer's steady hand. Instead, she offers simple stick figures and line-drawings. The power in her daily dispatches lies not in the technique, but in the simplicity of expression, the emotion, the honesty and relatability her work conveys.Andrew doesn't share her "shiny, happy, made-for-social-media life," but rather invites you into her meandering and beautifully real mind, flush with everything from grief, heartbreak and career confusion to spiritual journeying, illness, love, friendship, and the pursuit of the perfe

In today's GLP Update, we're talking about a cool new bit of science about how blue light can help when you're stressed out, and we've got a fun second segment where we jam with fellow podcaster, Tsh Oxenreider of The Simple Show.Good Life Science: Ever wonder if the color of light might have an effect on you, your mood and your brain? You've may have heard the recent research about blue light and how it can disrupt melatonin and mess with your sleep. But, it turns out, new research shows that blue light may have a very particular beneficial effect, especially when you're stressed out. It can drop you into the Zen zone up to three-times faster than white light. That's what we're diving into in today's Good Life Science Update. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.Good Life Podcast Friends: Instead of our usual Good Life Riff, we've got a special jam today with our friend and fellow podcaster, Tsh Oxenreider of The Simple Show. We're actually sharin

Good Life Riff: Have you ever been "sparked" by someone? Given permission to do the thing that was in your heart, acknowledged and seen for who you are, even when it seemed everyone else was shutting you down or telling you to take a different and often "safer" option? If so, you know the power of that person who accepted and inspired you in that moment.But, what about the other side of that conversation? What's it like to be person who lights that fire, who sees, heres, feels and acknowledges someone else at a moment that sparks a profound awakening to possibility? That's what we're talking about on today's GLP Riff.Good Life Science: In our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating research on how "visualizing" exercise can potentially deliver similar gains in strength as "doing" the exercise. Hey, it's not permission to be a couch potato, but it has pretty cool implications for everything from rehab to treating muscle disorders or even helping out when you're sick or on the ro

Sheri Salata is the co-founder of STORY salata | hala, a media company producing print, television, film and the “This is Fifty with Sheri and Nancy.”Her new venture into the world of entrepreneurship is the evolution of the "staff job of all staff jobs," a 20-year career with Oprah Winfrey, where Salata became executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show, President of Harpo Studios and then joined forces with Oprah Winfrey in the heralded turn-a-round of the OWN network.In today's conversation, we explore Sheri's early career in advertising and what led her to leave it all behind to explore the entertainment world. We dive into what it was like working at the highest levels with one of the most iconic and influential women in media and business, Oprah Winfrey, and helping run a legendary media empire. We also visit what led Salata to leave it all behind in 2016, shift gears and build something entirely new with her longtime friend, Nancy Hala, on their own terms and in their own time

Good Life Riff: Ah, hindsight! As they say, it really is 20-2o. When we look back at some decisions, we think, "wow, that was such a great call, I'm pretty smart." But, then there are those other decisions. You know, the ones where a year or two down the road, you look back and think, "what is wrong with me?! That was a terrible decision. How could I not have seen this terrible outcome coming?"Then, there's THE TRUTH. We did the best we could "at the time." But, we don't see that, because of a quirky cognitive bias known as "Outcome Bias." In this third episode in our series on cognitive bias - aka - the weird things out brains subconsciously do to make us do thing that make no sense - we dive into this one particular quirk that leads up mired in self-doubt and crippled confidence.Incidentally, you can check out the two earlier episodes in the Cognitive Bias series here and here.Well, it turns out, there's funky little cognitive bias thatGood Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're div

Jedidiah Jenkins is a storyteller, adventurer and powerful advocate for intentional living.Leaving behind his training in law to tap a lifelong gift for storytelling and a deep heart of service, Jedidiah joined the team at Invisible Children. They would eventually launch the KONY 2012 campaign, producing a video that went massively viral with more than 100-million views in the first week. This both shined the light on a nation in dire need, but also brought on a fierce backlash that led to a lot of pain and self-exploration.As he neared his 30th birthday, Jedidiah started feeling called to commit to a powerful personal quest. So, he made the frightening decision to leave a job he loved to pursue an untested dream: bicycling to Patagonia and writing a book about it. From the cartels of Mexico, to the mega-churches of the US, to the Amazon in Bolivia, he has seen some crazy things.In this week's episode, we explore his epic journey, and the adventures still yet to come.Rockstar Sponsors:RXBAR Kids is

Good Life Riff: What if everything you knew to be truth and real was subject to complete manipulation?What if there was something anyone could do, in a relatively short matter of time, to lead you to first doubt your certainty and then eventually belief the complete opposite. Even if you'd been right, and there was zero proof to support what this other person was telling you?Turns out, there is something. It's a frighteningly simple cognitive bias or kink in our brain's wiring that is being used to manipulate beliefs in everything from civil discourse to advertising to politics. What it is, how it works and how to "protect" against it is what we're talking about in today's Good Life Project Riff.It's the second installment in our series on Cognitive Bias, aka, the wacky things our brains do to make us think we're rational, but lead us to delusion. And, if you're interested in the first installment in the series on the Anchoring Bias, you can find it here.Good Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science s

In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, Byron Katie woke up one morning to a state of constant joy that has never left her.She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, that suffering gave way to truth and then joy, and that this is true for every human being.Over a period of years, she distilled her simple yet powerful process of inquiry into what is now called The Work; four questions and a set of turnarounds that let you see and step into a new reality that exists beyond suffering. One that allows you to become free.Katie (as she goes by) has been bringing The Work to millions of people for more than thirty years now, publishing the bestselling Loving What Is, I Need Your Love—Is That True? and A Thousand Names for Joy,In this in-depth conversation, Byron Katie is joined by her husband, scholar and bestselling author, Stephen Mitchell, to explore her journey and also dive into their newest collaboration, a bo

In today's GLP Update, we're talking about new research on brain training. And, we're kicking off a series on "cognitive bias," a/k/a the silly ways our minds fool us into thinking we're more rational than we really are.Good Life Riff: In the first of our GLP Riffs on cognitive bias, we're exploring a quirky, hidden tendency known as "anchoring" or "focalism. What is that? It's how we subliminally anchor the value of things to a specific number, often a dollar amount. Why does this matter? Because it can lead us to believe something is worth way more or less than it really is, then pay a ton for something we end up regretting.Good Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on brain training. You've seen the apps, website and programs. Train your brain for better memory, attention, focus, problem-solving. Or, just plain stop it from shrinking as you age. Is it true? Well, a new study out of Johns Hopkins looks at two popular approaches and comes up

Dr. Tererai Trent is an internationally acclaimed voice for women’s empowerment and education.Hailed by Oprah Winfrey as her “all-time favorite guest,” Dr. Trent is an inspiring and dynamic scholar, educator, humanitarian, speaker, author, and the founder of Tererai International.Born in a small village with no electricity or running water in Zimbabwe (then, Rhodesia), she was married in her early teens as was the custom, had four children by age 18 and suffered repeated physical abuse from her husband.Still, she dreamed of a different reality, one that would break the generations-long cycle of poverty, early-marriage, illiteracy and disempowerment. Against all odds, she worked for 8 years to get her GED, and eventually earned a spot in college in the United States, taking her family with her, where some 20 years after beginning her dream of an education, she received her Ph.D..It was her secret additional dream to not only change her life, but to do something for the greater good that turned this into an eve