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

As we move into these final weeks of August, we'll be airing two extraordinary "Best Of" episodes, featuring powerful conversations from the last year.First up, Elizabeth Gilbert. 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.GIlbert'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 doi

*** Camp GLP Final Call: Come join us next week! *** Why do we hammer ourselves with life-stifling, defeatist absolutes attached to negative expectations all the time? I always get rejected… I always get knocked down… I always lose… I always… I call this the “tyranny of always,” and it is a form of false self-talk that is immensely destructive, […]The post The Tyranny of Always appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Facing a tough period in his life, this week's guest, Ruben Chavez, turned to books to both reconnect with curiosity and rekindle the spark of possibility. As he read, he began to take voracious notes, and write down quotes he connected with. Around the same time, he discovered Instagram. So, he began sharing bite-sized wisdom distilled from his favorite books on his ThinkGrowProsper Instagram account.People took notice and a community began to form. That community has now grown to more than two million people around the world, and allowed Ruben to build a business and his career around his passion for learning and sharing wisdom, and work with everyone from authors to large brands along the way.We cover a lot of ground in this conversation as Ruben shares his backstory, his deeper motivation for growth, the steps leading to the popularity of his account, and the opportunities and lessons that came with it. We discuss the reluctance many of us feel when sharing our imperfect

What does it ACTUALLY take to be great? Over the last decades, we’ve learned that practice, alone, isn’t enough. You need to make your practice “deliberate,” with a fierce focus on assessing and improving. In this sense, becoming mesmerizingly good might have more to do with being purposeful than obsessed. Thing is, this type of […]The post Why the Best of the Best Always Have Teachers appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When you think of masculine and feminine, do you naturally think "man" and "woman" respectively?Our guest today believes everyone can harness both masculine and feminine energy to achieve greater success in business and, ultimately, life.In this episode, Jess Lively unpacks how masculine and feminine, intuition and ego play together effectively. She explains why Oprah is the quintessential example of a woman who's exploited both the masculine and feminine energy and how we can replicate that approach.Jess now helps people live from values-based intentions through LifeWithIntentionOnline.com and The Lively Show podcast. She began her entrepreneurial journey making jewelry at the side of the pool at the age of 15. Jess JC was born and cemented the notion that a business at its core is a process of creating something from nothing and finding customers who will buy it.After completing her MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 2007, Jess grew her accessory bus

Srinivas Rao was following the typical life path for an American kid. Raised in a family steeped in high-expectations of professional success, he ended up pursuing an MBA at Pepperdine. He figured, when he got out, like most MBA grads, he’d be minted. Except for two things. He graduated in the worst time in the […]The post How to be unmistakable (even when you’re falling apart): Srinivas Rao appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mary Fons knew she wanted to be a writer from a young age, and was pursuing that path when a catastrophic illness nearly took her life, leading to surgery and changing her future forever.As she recovered and started to stitch her life back together, she began working with her mom, Maryann Fons, a legend in the world of quilting and author of what has become known as the "Quilter’s Bible."Simultaneously rebuilding her health while building her own name as a leading voice in the massive quilting world, she began speaking, writing books, designing textiles and producing media and appearing regularly on television with her mother. Still, she knew deep down that quilting wasn't her dream. Writing and spoken-word began to call her back to a more deeply ingrained destiny.We recorded this conversation at a major point of inflection for Mary. She was about to make a huge move, and in a way, this conversation is her announcement. As we wrap up, Mary also reads a powerful spoken word piece that landed her writing a

Have you ever thought about leaving everything behind and traveling the world? Of cashing out your savings to hit the road and create lifelong memories and new experiences?This may sound like an impossible dream to most, but our guest today did just that. Alastair Humphreys was poised to accept his dream job when he made the decision to spend the next four years of his life biking 46,000 miles around the world.Alastair lived for four years traveling on just under $10,000 without taking any other jobs or earning any other money. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? That was just the beginning of an incredible life of adventures.Alastair has become a documentary filmmaker, author, speaker, and blogger while continuing to pursue his passion for adventuring. Today, he shares why he continues to go on these adventures and what he gains from them. Alastair’s extraordinary experiences are some that I know many of you may envy and wish to emulate, and he shares the steps you can take to start your incredible journey.In Thi

Today’s guest, Chris Daze Ellis, is a born-and-bred New York artist with a fascinating origin story. Although he began his prolific painting career in the gritty New York subways of the mid-70s, Daze is one of the few artists from that initial group to have successfully transitioned from the underground to the studio, then the galleries and […]The post Chris “Daze” Ellis: From Street Artist to Museum Collections appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How did an Australian woman who wanted to be the next Olivia Newton-John become the voice of SIRI and the confident giver of directions in than 400 million GPS and smart-enabled devices?Also known as “GPS Girl,” today’s guest, Karen Jacobsen, never saw her device-enabled voice-future coming. It happened entirely under a shroud of secrecy, when Karen took a job that required spending days cloistered in a studio, reading tons of phrases, but never being told why. It wasn’t until a friend called years later and said “you’re on our GPS” that she finally learned what’d happened!Behind her golden voice, though, is a much bigger story. At heart, Karen is a songwriter and singer. Her dream was always to become the next Olivia Newton-John in the United States. To take the pop music world by storm.That dream has since led to a career not just as the voice of SIRI and GPS devices, but in music, including gigs singing the national anthem in front of massive stadiums on TV, having songs featured on hit shows, an

This week on The Good Life Project, our guest is social psychologist and professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Kurt Gray. Kurt studies mind perception and morality. In his research, Kurt is trying to answer questions about the true nature of human beings, from good and evil to why we attribute human-like qualities […]The post The Mind Club: Who Is In, Who Is Out and Why It Matters appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How do you go from studying psychology and religion to founding the world’s largest outdoor renegade craft fair, with outposts in nine cities. This week on Good Life Project, my guest is Susie Daly, the founder of Renegade Craft Fair. Susie’s journey was anything but planned. Through a series of exciting turns, she went from being a crafter herself […]The post How One Woman Built a Renegade Craft Movement. appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever wonder why the exact same touch by one person will give you the creeps, but by another will make you yearn for more?On this episode of The Good Life, I am excited to bring you David Linden, a Johns Hopkins Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind.The research that David has been conducting on the effects of touch on the human mind is a powerful reminder of the role touch plays in nearly every aspect of human development. Everything from love to intelligence, sex to attachment, orgasm or itch and beyond... basically, anything we touch or get touched by profoundly influences our personality, perception of people and the world.Whether touch is given or withheld at any age can shape the entirety of our beings. Our neurology, psychology and our ability to live functional, good lives is dependent on touch.If you have ever wondered why touch is so important to the development of infants, or why we find touch so vital to our own mental well-being,

+++Come to Camp GLP: The Ultimate blend of learning and play! +++ Today, on Good Life Project, I have two very special guests joining me. Linda and Charlie Bloom have been together for the better part of 50 years and have been working together for over 30. This husband and wife team of therapists have […]The post When Life Partners Become Business Partners: Linda & Charlie Bloom appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Imagine having just about everything you wanted – a great job, making a lot of money, being able to get as much “stuff” as you want – and then, ending up miserable. That’s the plight of today’s guests, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, also known as The Minimalists.What started as an awakening to a different way of life, built around value, rather than accumulation, has now grow into a blog with millions of readers at TheMinimalists.com, a popular Minimalism, book a top-rated podcast and now a fantastic new documentary called Minimalism.This week’s conversation goes deep into Ryan and Joshua’s journey, both personally and as friends, into the exploration of what Minimalism really is and is not and how it can change not only your life, but life as we know it.In This Episode, You'll Learn:Why minimalism is not actually about giving everything up.Ryan and Joshua’s 5th-grade “fat kid bond” that launched their 20+ year-long friendship.How Ryan came up with the "$50,000 Equation" t

This time on The Good Life Project, I am joined by Jadah Sellner and Jeffrey Davis for a roundtable style discussion of a few of the burning issues and questions that have been on our minds...and maybe yours, too. This discussion was incredibly fun and full of so much information, I couldn't wait to share it with all of you.Jadah is the cofounder of Simple Green Smoothies and JadahSellner.com. She has developed her groundbreaking life strategy, Love Over Metrics, with the help of her dream-tribe that supports her vision for the future of the world. Jadah’s passion is to help everyone to start and grow their own tribe in order to inspire action that will change the world.Jeffrey Davis is a poet, author, teacher, brand-strategist, founder of Tracking Wonder and author of Coat Thief and The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices As Muse for Authentic Writing. His work has been published in Psychology Today, The Creativity Post and many more publications around the world.We dive into

This week, our in-depth conversation features David Nihill. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, David, like so man of us, had a deep fear of public speaking. But, he found himself having to face this head on, when he reluctantly agreed to host a benefit comedy show he had suggested for a friend, Arash Bayatmakou, who had suffered a severe spinal cord injury (Comedy for a Spinal Cause). He quickly realized the best speakers were also often the funniest. Not because of the one-liners they threw into the audience, but because they knew how to tell a story in a way that made people laugh.In at attempt to learn the craft and also face his crippling fear of public speaking, he spent a year traveling the country pretending to be an accomplished comedian and talking his way onto as many comedy show stages and festivals as possible. Along the way, he not only overcame his fear of speaking, he began to deconstruct the best story-driven comedy and figured out a methodology he could not only bring to the stage himse

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had chosen another path? Would you have been more successful in your craft? A better writer, artist, musician? Would you have made a bigger impact in the world?My guest today, Jesse Browner, has by all rights been extremely successful. He has a great marriage and family, living in the middle of Manhattan. He is a successful author whose books have been published by some of the biggest houses in New York City and he has a lucrative full-time job.However, as Jesse approached his 50s, he started wondering, "What if?"Jesse spent his 20s in what was known as the heartbeat of Bohemia in New York City (if you have ever seen the movie or the musical Rent, then you know exactly the place I am describing). As he looked back at this time, he realized that although no one he knew was extremely successful or rich, they were all living and breathing their craft.From this reflection came the question, "Is there an untapped wealth of talent just buried within me?"Jes

"Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters." – Reverend angel Kyodo williams+++Today's guest on the podcast is author, maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer and founder of Center for Transformative Change, Reverend angel Kyodo williams. She has been bridging the worlds of personal transformation and justice since the publication of her critically-acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace, which was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker and “a classic” by Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. Her new book, Radical Dharma, explores racial injustice as a barrier to collective awakening.Ordained as a Zen priest, Rev. angel is a Sensei, the second black woman recognized as a teacher in her lineage. She is a social visionary that applies wisdom teachin

This week, my special guest is Karan Bajaj. Karan is a #1 bestselling Indian novelist with a full-time corporate job and a rather unique approach to life, fulfillment, and personal happiness. His novels have sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide and both are being turned into major films.One thing that really jumped out at me about Karan and got me excited about having him on the show is his ability to write captivating novels with an underlying lesson while working a full-time job AND taking an entire year off every four years.Join us on this episode to hear about Karan’s childhood, growing up in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in northern India, how his Indian upbringing and culture have influenced his decisions along the way, and the incredible story of his journey from small mountain town boy to bestselling author.In This Episode, You'll Learn:How the official divorce rate for arranged marriages is 1%, and why Karan says this can be misleading.What it’s like to be a child in India trying t