Good Life Project - How to Live a Good Life [BONUS EPISODE]

Episode Date: October 18, 2016

What if today was the day that changed everything? What if you didn’t have to wait to step into your good life and, instead, you could just start living it? This moment. This day. What if a good life was a simple, daily practice, not some faraway place that someday, off in the distance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, it's Jonathan, and I'm coming to you with a special episode of Good Life Project. We normally don't offer episodes on a Tuesday. Usually we're on a pretty solid Monday and Thursday schedule, but this is not just any Tuesday. In fact, as I sit here and record this, it's the Monday night before the publication of my next book, How to Live a Good Life. When you're hearing this, it will be the actual publication date. And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, you know, I want to create something special. I want to create an episode that was meaningful in some way to you to add to the mix. And what would that be about?

And I've actually just finished recording a series of mindfulness practices that are part of the resource center for the book. So I'm in a bit of a chill place as well. And it was a really good thing because as often happens when you're leading up to some really big launch, things start to ramp up and the stress starts to ramp up. And this was sort of like the universe saying to me, hey, you need to set aside an hour of your day and just go sit in a quiet room and focus on mindfulness. So that really ties into what this whole book is about. It ties into what I'm trying to do in the world and what I really hope happens with the message and the explorations in this book.

There's something that's been going on in the world over the last few years that's upsetting. And it's taking the form of people living increasingly mindless lives. People rising up and building lives of intense pace, but pace without a purpose. And busyness without a cause. And I've talked about this, and I write about it in the book. And I'm actually not anti-busyness, believe it or not. I'm anti-busyness for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way. In fact, if you filled your day from the time you opened your eyes until the time you went to bed with nourishing movement, deep relationships, meaningful work, space that was actually planned into your day, and you were busy with that,

that is a pretty stunning life. What I'm really talking about here is the divide between being autopilot, mindless, and reactive, and being intentional, awake, and alive. And that's where I see this big problem happening in life right now. And I shared this in the manifesto that I released last week. But this book is sort of like the action steps. This is where I take you and say, okay, step one is a wake up call. Step one is a wake-up call. Step one is saying, you know what? It's not okay to actually walk through my days, my weeks, my months, my years, my life, defining myself in response to what others want from me or in response to the taunts of technology that don't mean a lot to me. That's not okay.

That's not a life well lived. That's a life barely lived. So what do you do about that though? Well, in the Unbusy Manifesto, I offered a big idea and that was really cultivate awareness, intention, and then start to work on a model of behavior that fills you up rather than empties you out. One that allows you to be intentional rather than reactive and mindless. One that lets you come from a place of love and compassion and service. That lets you move into life lit up, sparked. Feel like that gap between the potential, that thing that's out there, that capacity and capability

that you know deep down you have, but you can't figure out how to access, that somehow you find a way to strip away all that keeps you from being that person, from living in that way, from being fully expressed and utterly lit up. That's the state. That's the state. That's the state. That's where we want to go in life. That's the aspiration. This book isn't a book that I wrote because I wanted to write a book.

It's not a book that I wrote because I wanted to create something to read. It's a book that I wrote because I wanted to give you something to do to bridge the gap between reactive, autopilot, and mindless, to lit up, intentional, and aware, to standing in the world and doing the work you're here to do with the people you cannot get enough of and feeling a surge of vitality fuel every step along the way. Is it a big goal? Yeah, it's a really big goal. Will it take work? Yeah, it's going to take work. That's not the question. The question is, will it be worth it?

And that's why I wrote How to Live a Good Life. It's more of an operating manual than just an interesting read. It's something to do and to live. So as it hits the street today, as this book publishes, you've heard me talk about it for a few weeks now. This is the moment. And there's something else going on as I launch this book, and you've probably heard me talk about it for a few weeks now. This is the moment. And there's something else going on as I launch this book. And you've probably heard me tease this as well. Whenever I create something, one of my favorite things to do is actually harness the power of a launch to do

something bigger than just the launch, to somehow bring people together, to create a community and a sense of belonging and a mission that is bigger than just a book. So what I did was actually I partnered with the One Tree Planted Foundation and we're planting trees for every book that's pre-ordered. We're planting trees. My goal is to plant 10,000 trees, a 10,000 tree good life forest. Can we do that? Honestly, I have no idea. You're listening to this on the 18th of October and the end of this day is the end of that period.

Last I checked, we were pretty close to around 6,000 books, which is amazing. And I'm so grateful and blessed that so many of you have stepped up and said, not only do I want to buy this book because I need this in my life, but I want to be a part of something bigger, something bigger than just me. I want to do good and I want to do well simultaneously. And I want to do it with other people who believe the same thing and see the world the way that I do it. And this is the opportunity to do that, to invest in something that will make a difference in your own life and to join with thousands of others to make a real difference. So I'm asking you today, will you join with me to make this happen?

Will you rise up and not only do something to help you, but to be a part of something bigger and help the planet. Because if you will, I would be astonishingly grateful. It would mean the world to me. Today is the day. And if not today, then when? For more information on how to make this happen, go to goodlifeproject.com slash book, or the book is also available on booksellers pretty much everywhere. And you can come back to that page, goodlifeproject.com slash book, to let us know that you've actually ordered your book and will count it towards the Good Life Forest. You can also just check the show notes, and the link will be there for you as well. Huge, huge, huge gratitude. This has been an incredible, incredible adventure. The only thing that's even cooler than that is that in my mind, with you, with us together, this story is just

starting to be written. The story of your life is now starting to be written in the way you want it to be written, not alone, but with whoever you want to bring along. It's time to create that story. It's time to tell it the way we all want it told. Thank you so much as always. It's been my pleasure having you in our listening community for however long. Maybe it's your first time. Maybe you've been with us for years. It's amazing. It's a gift to me and to our whole family here. We appreciate you. I appreciate you. And I look forward to speaking again soon. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.