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

How do you live a good life? That’s the question we’ve been asking here for nearly a decade. My guest today, Cathy Heller, has been along a similar journey, exploring the role of intentionality, purpose, and presence in a life well-lived. Raised in a household where mental illness and conflict were the norm, she took on the role of peacemaker at the age of 5, became a deep observer of human behavior, first, out of necessity, then out of curiosity, and eventually from the lens of calling. Cathy is a seeker in many ways. After studying mysticism and religion in college, followed by 3 years deepening her study of mysticism and self-actualization in Jerusalem, she headed back west, landing in LA, and looking to make her mark in the world of music. She eventually did, but in a way Cathy never saw coming. She became so successful, in fact, Cathy felt called to share what she’d learned, which launched her into the world of teaching, writing, distance learning, and launching her wildly popular Don’t Keep Your Da

You may know my guest today, Jeffrey Marsh, from their spiritual and inclusive messages that have received over 1 billion views on social media. Jeffrey is a viral TikTok and Instagram sensation, the first openly nonbinary public figure to be interviewed on national television, and the first nonbinary author to be offered a book deal with any "Big 5" publisher, at Penguin Random House. Jeffrey’s bestselling Buddhist self-esteem guide How To Be You, is an innovative, category-non-conforming work that combines memoir, workbook, and spiritual advice, inviting anyone and everyone into the conversation through a lens of kindness and inclusivity. How To Be You topped Oprah's Gratitude Meter and was named Excellent Book of the Year by TED-Ed. Jeffrey has also been a student and teacher of Zen for over twenty years, and this practice has been central to both their lens on life, and capacity to do the work they do in a grounded, deeply-present, open-heart and joyful way.You can find Jeffrey at: Website | Instagra

We tend to take on one of 3 modes as we head into the end of the year:Rush To The Finish | Goal Striving ModeCheck Out | Vacation ModeReflect, Integrate & Assess | Review & Plan ModeThat last one is my approach. I love to use these final weeks to understand what happened over the last 12 months, in all parts of life, consider what went well and why, where I stumbled and why, and how I can learn and integrate all of it into setting up the year to come to rise higher.And, I thought I’d walk you through my process - it’s a very different take based on a model I developed a number of years ago around the key elements of living a good life I call the Good Life Buckets. Super excited to share this powerful process with you in today’s episode.You can find the 1-page worksheet HERE.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll

This has been a year that has tested our boundaries on nearly every level. Work, friendship, family, community, geography, politics, religion, social issues, love, wellbeing. It’s like we’re being asked to draw lines, all day, every day. Question is, how? How do you create and uphold boundaries that are clear, healthy, and constructive, while also acknowledging the nuance, kindness, and understanding this moment demands? Well, my guest today, Nedra Glover Tawwab, can help. A licensed therapist and sought-after relationship expert, she has practiced relationship therapy for 12 years and is the founder and owner of the group therapy practice, Kaleidoscope Counseling. Every day she helps people create healthy relationships by teaching them how to implement boundaries. Her philosophy is that a lack of boundaries and assertiveness underlie most relationship issues, and her gift is helping people create healthy relationships with themselves and others. Nedra is also the author of New York Times Bestselling boo

From the age of 3, Micah Johnson knew what he wanted to be when he grew up - a professional baseball player. From that moment on, he lived baseball, and in 2012, his dreams came true when the Chicago White Sox drafted him. But, what Micah didn’t know was that his true calling in life was just getting started.Traded to the LA Dodgers a few years later, Micah, almost on a lark, discovered painting, something that had never been a part of his. And it called to him in a way he never saw coming. Now, while his full-time job was pro baseball, drawing, painting and creating art became a new, increasingly consuming passion. But, it was a single moment, when his young nephew came and asked him whether Black people could be astronauts, that changed everything. Micah painted this moving depiction of a young, confident, Black boy in an oversized astronaut helmet, ready for adventure, as a way to not just answer yes, but create a powerful visual depiction of courage and possibility. At the same time, Micah was feelin

Imagine going to college and getting a minor in ‘you!’ Well, that’s just one of the semi-wild ideas that bubbled up during my conversation with week’s guest, Mark Groves. Mark describes himself as a Human Connection Specialist on a mission to help individuals step into their most authentic, effective, loving selves by way of a little bit of tough love and no-BS relationship guidance. Immersing himself and pursuing an education in the world of psychology after his model of life and relationships feel apart, he’s become a bridge between the academic and the human, inviting people to explore the good, bad, downright ugly, and beautiful sides of connection. And, given the state of the world these days, we could all use a bit more wisdom around how we show up and relate to others. Mark shares insights, ideas, and strategies about being a better human, living a better life, and understanding how to craft relationships that are truly nourishing with a global community of over a million people on his Create the

With the rigor of a world-class researcher and the intention of someone who cares deeply about the human condition and understanding how we all got to this moment in history, Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States with specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She is also the author of the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, and co-editor of the Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. Her #1 New York Times Best Seller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited with Ibram X. Kendi, drew together an incredible collection of voices with a vision to reclaim the historical narrative. And her new book, Until I Am Free: Fannie L

We’re entering a time of year where gratitude is on our minds. And, honestly, it’s also been a year, even a season, where being thankful, noticing what’s wondrous or good, or even just not bad, well it's not always the easiest thing. And, yet, gratitude, attentiveness, and appreciation are such deeply-wired contributors to the human condition, ones that carry with them the capacity to transform nearly any experience - one of anger, one of loss, one of fear, one of anxiety, one of sadness, agitation, futility, or grief - into a moment of awakening, solace, connection and, in its highest forms, grace. There’s even powerful research on the psychological and physiological effect of gratitude and appreciation, both as a state and a willful intervention.So, we wanted to take the occasion of this week to explore a few different takes on gratitude, appreciation, and generosity-of-spirit, drawing upon conversations I’ve had over the years with famed author and social-observer extraordinaire, Anne Lamott, writer,

One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a Professor of Physics and Core Faculty Member in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She’s also one of fewer than a hundred Black American women to earn a Ph.D. from a department of physics. Born in East Los Angeles, a devout Dodgers fan, she’s a citizen of both the United States and Barbados and a descendant of Afro-Caribbean and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. Chanda decided to become a theoretical physicist at the age of 10, after an experience, which we dive into, lit a fire of curiosity and possibility. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions. A powerful voice in her field, Chanda urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is far from an equal playing field, with racism, sexism, and other dehumanizing systems playing a role not only in who participates in the field but also in the essential nature of the work and the pot

What if you could work, play, and live in a state of wonder? Even now! That’s the question I explore with today’s guest, Jeffrey Davis. A poet, writer, deep-thinker, founder and CEO of the Tracking Wonder Consultancy, Jeffrey’s got an invitation for all of us. To get off the toxic productivity treadmill, which so many have been hammered by in recent times, and reclaim a sense of possibility, meaning, and wonder. To step back into a place of curiosity and lightness. And, when Jeffrey offers that invitation, it’s not just a naive suggestion to rediscover your inner child, but rather a quest to bring wonder back into your life, based on more than 15 years of research, experimentation, and application. Along the way, Jeffrey has developed a powerful, proven, step-by-step methodology to begin bringing wonder back into your work, relationships, devotions, and life. He shares this in his gorgeous new book, Tracking Wonder, and we dive into key ideas and explorations in today’s conversation.You can find Jeffrey

If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Kamal Ravikant about reimagining life and learning to love himself.You can find Tim Ferriss at: Website | Instagram | The Tim Ferris Show podcastTim Ferriss 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, The 4-Hour Chef along with a series of other books. In more recent years, 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. In today's Best Of conversation, we cover very different ground, and get very personal. Tim actually lost a number of people in the year before we sat down in the studio, turned 40 and found himself in a deeply contemplative

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is an author, Activist, and Public Theologian, the first woman and first Black Senior Minister at Middle Collegiate Church, which is a multiracial, incredibly welcoming, and inclusive congregation in the Lower East Side of New York City, which dates to 1628. Growing up in church in the South Side of Chicago, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when she was nine incited what would become a lifelong devotion to activism and social justice. Graduating school, then spending a decade working in the corporate world, she felt called to redefine how she would step into her own exploration of faith, attending Princeton Theological Seminary, then devoting herself to urban ministry, with the intention of reimagining what faith, church, and community could be. Eventually becoming a leader in Middle Church, Rev. Lewis has been instrumental in bringing together what she calls a “multiethnic rainbow coalition of love, justice, and worship that rocks her soul,” and has remained a

Imagine going through life with the name, Andy J. Pizza. That’s what my guest today goes by, but it wasn’t his given name, but rather his claimed name. More on that when we talk. Andy was the kid who perpetually zagged when everyone else zigged. And, at a young age, he saw this same pattern in his mother, he was so much like her. Which, in part, lit him up, but also terrified him. In his mom, these same impulses were married to mental illness that led to a life of struggle. He feared that’s where he was headed, too, until a realization dropped that would not only lead him down his own path, but also empower him to embrace life differently and trust he could make it work. And, indeed, he has. Andy has built a stunning career as an illustrator, author of kid’s books, animator, and contributor to The New York Times, Apple, Nickelodeon and countless other mega-brands. Driven to share and inspire others in the creative community, he heads up the fantastic Creative Pep Talk podcast, where, by the way, I was hi

If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about how we can understand and tap our whole brains to live fuller lives.Anthony Trucks entered the foster system, along with his two siblings, when he was three years old, then spent years enduring a series of brutal experiences. Until he found a home where, after 8 years of legal battles, he became emancipated from his mom and was adopted by his then longtime foster parents. Still, a young Black man, now part of a White family who also struggled with poverty, he struggled to belong. Not so much to his family, but to the broader culture around him. He turned to football, working to rise up in the sport and, years down the road, accomplished his dream of being drafted and playing for the NFL. But, not long into his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, a career-ending injury would bring it all tumbling down, and leave him stripped not only of his career but his very identity. And, that led to deep struggle, the d

Born in Guayaquil Ecuador, Deigo Perez - who is known by the pseudonym Yung Pueblo - moved with his family to Boston, where he saw his parents work relentless hours and struggle with poverty. He turned to activism and advocacy at a young age, then attended Wesleyan where his life devolved into partying and drugs that threatened to become his way of being as he moved into adulthood. But a moment of reckoning would awaken him both to his need to refocus on mental and physical wellbeing, as well as recenter meaning in his work and life.A quest was set in motion, one that would eventually lead Diego into a 10-day vipassana meditation experience that had a profound impact and would set him on a path of self-discovery, and an ever-deepening devotion to a now years-long, 2-hour-a-day meditation practice, regular extended retreats, and the pursuit of truth and wisdom. A part of that exploration also involved writing, and what began as a tool to process his own experiences eventually became a public writing practice.

Brought up in a deeply observant Jewish Orthodox household with a reverence for her family’s history, Shelly Tygielski embraced the traditions, teachings, and practices of her faith, even spending summers in Jerusalem with family. Heading to college, then grad school, she pursued her masters in international affairs, then began building a powerhouse career in business, along with a family. But, along the way, she found herself questioning the rules and assumptions by which she lived, and the more she did, the more the walls began to come tumbling down. At 27, diagnosed with a chronic disease that left her temporarily blind, she knew a different narrative needed to be set in motion. She began to embrace her then years-long exploration of Eastern traditions and practices, growing largely out of Tibetan Buddhism, and started the process of reclaiming and reimagining her life. A process that would eventually lead her away from a 20-year career at the highest levels of business and into the world of advocacy

Surviving what he describes as a tormented childhood riddled with abuse, Alan Cumming turned to acting, before he knew it was acting, as a way to step out of the world he inhabited and into one of his own creation. One that was safe, where he made the rules. That impulse eventually led him to leave home, study drama in Glasgow, and, in his words” tumble” into a career that, from the outside-in, has appeared as an endless stream of successes. He’s performed with everyone from Jay Z to Liza Minelli; won countless theatrical awards, made back-to-back films with Stanley Kubrick and the Spice Girls; played God, the Devil, Hitler, the Pope, a teleporting superhero, Hamlet, all the parts in Macbeth, General Batista of Cuba, a goat opposite Sean Connery, and political spinmeister Eli Gold on seven seasons of The Good Wife. He’s also owned the stage and invited people to re-examine their beliefs, identity, sexuality and sense of power, propriety and openness in the role of the EmCee in Cabaret, which he took on t

Najwa Zebian is a Lebanese-Canadian activist, author, speaker, and educator who developed a passion for language at a young age, immersing herself in Arabic poetry and novels. As someone who found herself repeated displaced, leaving Lebanon for Canada when she was 16, not realizing it wasn’t just a trip, but rather a permanent change, would she’d find herself searching for a home—what Najwa describes as a place where the soul and heart feel at peace, a quest that continues into her adult life.Her passion for language, quest to understand her place in the world and compassion for those who’ve been displaced and disenfranchised led her to pursue a Ph.D. in education. But it was an experience teaching young refugees that rekindled her love of writing, after having left it behind because of an association with pain. She began to heal her sixteen-year-old self by writing to heal her students. Since self-publishing her first collection of poetry and prose in 2016, Najwa has become an inspiration to millions of peop

Adam J. Kurtz (whose artist’s identity is Adam JK, is a designer, artist, and speaker whose work is rooted in emotional honesty, humor and even a little bit of darkness, but always with the intention of connection, honoring the reality of any given moment, and being honest. He’s been making and sharing on the internet since age creating his first fan website at twelve years old, eventually went to school for graphic design and learned to express, in his words “slightly too much." Adam’s work embraces the world with a certain "backhanded optimism" and a dark sense of humor or what he describes as "positivity adjacent." And he speaks frankly about channeling human emotion into art, and generally just trying to be more okay with whatever we've got and wherever we are in life. This comes out, often, in the form of hand-lettered aphorisms and illustrations that you’ll find all over the internet and social platforms, as well as in books, merch, prints, stationary and brand-focused gifts under his ADAMJK® brand

Imagine being so drawn to a pursuit as a kid, it consumes most of your waking hours, rapidly becomes your identity, and is the thing you believe you’ll devote your life to, and then, in the blink of an eye, it’s taken away. That’s what happened to Maya Shankar, who fell in love with the violin as a small child, studied it with love and devotion, was being mentored by the legendary Itzhak Perlman, and was sure it would be her profession for life. Until, an injury took it all away in the blink of an eye. How that moment affected her, and how she’d eventually discover a new, equally fulfilling devotion years later - human behavior and cognitive science - is a big part of today’s conversation, along with a deep dive into how we change our minds.Maya is currently the Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google and is the Creator, Host, and Executive Producer of “A Slight Change of Plans”, a podcast with Pushkin Industries. Maya previously served as a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded