Good Life Project

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The Gift of Failure: Jessica Lahey Aug 11, 2015

Show notes

The average person spends an almost obscene amount of time working tirelessly to avoid failure. We're terrified that we'll put everything we have into an endeavor, only to come up short.

Failure, we're told, is something to be avoided at all costs. In some parts of life and professional cultures, it's not only frowned upon, it is fiercely punished.

So, every day, a little bit at a time, we confine ourselves into a supposedly safer and safer, smaller and smaller box with the hope of avoiding failure. We stop taking risks, go only for the most certain options and, in doing so, we destroy any semblance of life, freedom, discovery and possibility in our lives.

It's bad enough when we make these choices for ourselves. But, what happens when we impose our failure-adverse lens on our kids, students or anyone others who might look to us to figure out how to live in the world?

We end up not only teaching them to avoid failure, we also erect cages around them. Ostensibly to "protect them from both others and themselves." Sometimes, and on some levels, that may be necessary.

But, increasingly, it may do as much if not more harm than good. Because it protects them from outcomes we assume have a high-probability of happening, yet, in truth, have little or no place in reality. And even when they do happen, failure often sets the mandatory elements in motion for growth. When we kill any possibility for failure, we also kill any possibility of confidence, discovery, self-reliance and growth, all critical underpinnings of a life well-lived.

Today's guest, Jessica Lahey, knows this cycle well. As a teacher, education advocate and writer, she's been on nearly every side of this dynamic and seen the toll it takes. In January 2013, she wrote a provocative article on the topic that nearly melted the internet. She's now expanded upon her wisdom in her tremendous new book, The Gift of Failure, How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed.

Join us, and if you're inclined, share this eye-opening and deeply-informative conversation.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hoping Others Fail Is Not a Strategy Aug 06, 2015

Show notes

We see it around us every day. And, yes, we've been that person.

The one who wants something so badly we'll take it any way we can get it. Including hoping the person or organization we're up against, our competition has a really bad day.

But, is that really winning? Is that what it's all about? No matter the "objective score," will it make us feelthe way we want to feel?

Or, will it lead to a paper win, but a hollow heart?

Beating someone else's bad day isn't the same as stepping into your best.

What if you could go about it differently? What if you could reframe winning on both a deeper and larger scale?

What if you could not only win, but change the zero-sum structure of most games in a way that elevated not only you, but the human condition.

That's what this week's GLP Riff is all about.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She Saw Her Dream Job in a Movie, Then Made It Her Reality Aug 04, 2015

Show notes

Today's guest, Dr. Alice Wilder, is one of the creative geniuses behind some of the biggest kids' "edutainment" juggernauts in history, from Blues Clues to Speakaboos and the recent Emmy Award-winning Amazon Kids program, Tumble Leaf.

Her entire journey, though, might never have happened but for the fact that one person, in her case a teacher, noticed something special and "sparked" her curiosity and, in turn, her life.

In this week's conversation, we talk about her fantastic adventure. We discover how "being Josh" in the famed Tom Hanks movie, Big, fueled a dream that then turned into a profoundly rewarding living and life. We dive into what the word "sparking" is all about, how a single person or moment can change everything and how you can be that catalyst both for others and for yourself.

And, we talk about the power of curiosity, of reconnecting with your inner kid, a willingness to try and fail and just move on. We explore the joy and illumination that comes along with learning from and working with kids and the absolute egoless honesty they bring with them.

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How Constraints Fuel Creativity: When Less Is More Jul 30, 2015

Show notes

Have you ever found yourself saying, "if only I had more [insert missing ingredient], I'd be able to succeed on a totally different level?"

Yeah, me too. Thing is, with very rare exception, that's never true. Taking your game, your craft, your career, your creative or innovative juices, your art and outcomes to the next level is often not about more, but about less.

Less money, less ability, less resources, less freedom, less of everything. When you are constrained, it forces you to operate on a whole different level. And, that's often where the real magic happens.

That phenomena, why we're wired that way, and a fun bit of research is what this week's GLP Riff is all about.

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Entrepreneurship and Autism: How One Family Is Breaking the Mold Jul 28, 2015

Show notes

By the time people living with autism hit their mid-20s, they often "age out" of all the services and support available to them. Many, in fact, 80-90% end up unemployed, often for life according to this week's guest, Tom D'Eri.

Tom wasn't about to let that happen to his little brother, Andrew, who'd been diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Obsessed with entrepreneurship as a kid, and following in his dad's footsteps, Tom and his dad decided to create an entrepreneurial venture designed to both employ and provide community for those living with autism. They also wanted to show the local community and corporations that people living with autism can be wonderful contributors to a workforce.

The perfect vehicle, amazingly enough, was a car wash that came to be called Rising Tide Car Wash. What happened with that business, it's astonishing success, how it changed not only his brother, but also the lives of so many others, including him and his family, that's the conversation in this week's episode of Good Life Project.

Along the way, we also talk about Tom's dramatic change at age 11 from an overweight, non-athletic kid to the captain of nearly every major team and what triggered to metamorphosis. And we explore how autism affected the entire family, including Tom's dad's decision to stay true to his entrepreneurial calling, even in the face of six-figure therapy and medical bills.

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Naked and Silent: Asking Is Not Receiving Jul 23, 2015

Show notes

There’s this odd thing that happens the moment after we ask for help.

While we’re asking, we stand in a place of surrender. We hit a point, often deeply uncomfortable, where we’re riddled with uncertainty and we step into a place of vulnerability and say, “please, I don’t know where to go from here. Can you give me some help?”

We feel great for a moment. And, then those we ask for help do exactly what we wanted. But then, something we never expect happens. They abandon us. Worse, they get angry at us. And, we’re left even more alone and in need than before.

What we don’t realize is, they’re not the problem. We are.

They didn’t chooseto abandon us, we forced them to.

We made it impossible for them to help. We asked for guidance, then refused to receive it. And, we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

How and why this happens, and what to do about it, is the focus of today’s GLP Riff.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Undeterred: From Devastating Diagnosis To Radiant Life Jul 21, 2015

Show notes

What if you knew why you were here from the time you were six years old? Cara E. Yar Khan is a what I’d call a “purpose outlier.” Most people never discover a driving purpose in their lives, or even a collection of fierce interests. If they do, it most often happens later in life […]The post Undeterred: From Devastating Diagnosis To Radiant Life appeared first on Good LifeProject.

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Stop Grasping: What Might Happen If You Just Let Go? Jul 16, 2015

Show notes

We're all guilty of it...

It's something we all do. For some, it's not a big deal, intruding on rare occasion. For others, though, it literally controls your life. It fills each day with what feels like an impenetrable level of suffering and it's often accompanied by a stifling level of hoarding, both emotional and physical. Especially when the that hoarding of things and states helps to delude you into desperately yearned for feelings of certainty and security.

What is it?

Grasping.

We hold mercilessly onto certain pain, rather than release into uncertain possibility.

Thing is, we don't often realize the suffering is coming from our own refusal to let go of our death grip on the very thing or relationship or experience that is causing unease until we've been metaphorically and, sometimes, physically hammered into letting go.

How this unfolds, why we do this and what to do about it is the focus of today's GLP Riff. And, along the way, you just might learn a thing or two about...waterskiing (you'll have to listen to find out what that's all about).

So, I'll leave you with a question...

What are you holding onto now that's smothering you under the weight of your own unrelenting grip?

Now, go listen now. And if you know anyone this might help, please feel free to share it around.

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Sean McCabe: Hand-letterer Turned Business Visionary Jul 14, 2015

Show notes

From the time he was a kid, Sean McCabe was obsessed, strike that, possessed, with letters.

The shape. The form. The curves and nuances. Not just the fonts you see on computers, but the ones drawn painstakingly by hand, what's come to be known as hand-lettering, consumed him.

A few years back, Sean began posting his work online. Nothing happened for the better part of two years. Then, lighting began to strike. In part, riding along with and, in part, helping to fuel a massive resurgence in both the practice and demand for hand-lettering, Sean's posting began to catch fire.

People wanted to not only buy his work and hire him, though, they also relentlessly asked "how" he did what he did. Both as an artist, and as a professional who'd built a career hand-lettering.

That demand kicked off a journey Sean never saw coming. One that's now led him into what he terms the next "season" of his life, moving away from the practice of hand-lettering and into his role as a leader and teacher in the business-side of art. He's built a tremendous educational resource with his Learn Lettering course, a broadcast-quality podcast and video series with a global audience and an emerging career as a keynote speaker. And, there's lots more in the works.

In this week's episode, we dive into the exact steps along his journey. We explore how he developed his skills as a hand-letterer, then shifted his focus to cultivate the same depth of expertise in business and media. Sean is incredibly transparent and generous and he also shares a mountain of strategies for building not just a business, but a life. In fact, this conversation was recorded during one of his "7-week sabbaticals," a one-week window that he takes work-free every seven weeks. We talk about how that began and, also, how sacred and important it has become.

Oh, and P.S. - An all-new Learn Lettering 2.0 classes will launch on July 27th, 2015. I was a student of the first one and I was blown away by both the depth of the content and the production values.

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Life-sucking Lie #3: The Timing’s Not Right Jul 09, 2015

Show notes

How often have you put off doing something uncomfortable and told yourself the timing's just not right?

The timing will be better when, if, then, because, after.

So you wait. And you wait. And you wait.

Did you do what you said you were going to when you got more money, more time, more resources, more stability? More often than not, you probably didn't.

Sometimes, bad timing is a legitimate issue. But, equally if not far more often, it's not. Instead, it's an excuse for avoiding the uncertainty of doing something new. It's not based on sound analysis and intelligent exploration, but rather fear and avoidance. Driven largely by the desire to not have to wade from a place of certainty back into the uncertain abyss, even when that place of unknowing is the gateway to stunning possibility.

That's what today's Good Life Project Riff is all about.

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