Good Life Project - The Making of a Book: How to Live a Good Life

Episode Date: September 8, 2016

You may have heard, I have a new book coming out. It’s called How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science and Practical Wisdom. You can download the first chapter free here. What you have not yet heard, though, is the odyssey that unfolded behind the scenes. The twists and turns and struggles and […]The post The Making of a Book: How to Live a Good Life appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, it's Jonathan with A Good Life Project Riff. Today's riff is going to be a little bit different, actually. I want to take you behind the scenes with something I've been working on for a number of years now, and that is a book. I've been secretly writing, okay, maybe not so secretly writing a book. I keep sort of dropping hints left and right. And for any of you out there who are authors or aspiring authors, it is quite a hero's journey to write a book. It's different than writing blog posts or essays or articles and profoundly different than interviewing people for a podcast or anything else to sit down and actually go from a blank document to 60 something thousand words and then

turn it into a book. It takes something completely different. Sometimes you look at it and you're kind of like, wow, this is completely irrational and unjustifiable. But then once you get into it, and hopefully you get to a point where you stand back and you're like, you know what, this matters, and this is my words on the page. It kind of makes it all worthwhile. So this book has been quite the odyssey. It's actually not the book that I sold to my publisher. I sold them one book and did a

bunch of research and realized that that book would have been interesting, but not satisfying because the research was all over the place. And then I said, you know, there's a different book that's been in my mind for a while now. And I think I'd really like to write this book. And they were totally all over it, which I was really happy about. And that book is the book which has now become How to Live a Good Life, Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom. What I wanted to do when I wrote this book was really distill to make some things simple. And I wanted to create something that drew from my 50 years on the planet, running a lot of experiments with my own life, building a family, building

relationships, building businesses, moving through a lot of great triumphs, and probably exponentially more failures and misses and, and take all of that and integrate it with these really incredible in-depth conversations that I've been having at Good Life Project with people who I call embodied teachers, meaning, as I'm sure, you know, if you're a longtime listener, you know, are people who don't just talk about these things. They don't just write about them. They're actually, they embody them. They live, there's something about the way that they're living on the planet that evidences something really beautiful, something alive, something super engaged and lifted in their lives. And I want to sit down with them and learn from them and learn with them and have these conversations. And that's really what the

project has been about. And over the years, having spoken with everyone from, you know, the head of global Buddhist lineage, Shambhala Buddhism, Sakyal Mipham Rinpoche, to people like Elizabeth Gilbert and Brene Brown and Sir Ken Robinson, certain patterns have started to emerge. Certain common themes have started to emerge. what the major things are, what all the little things that really don't make a whole lot of difference are in living a good life, and what the major, major things are. And this all distilled into a super simple model. I actually call it the good life buckets. And you may have heard me talk about them a little bit. And that model I began to test in our programs and courses and trainings.

And what I found was that people hear it once, remember it for life, and then it becomes a tool, a really simple tool to make the jump from knowing something interesting to doing something interesting. Because one of the other things that I've learned about the difference between people who just kind of skip by living in that gray zone of mediocrity and people who actually embrace and live truly good lives, is that it's actually not so much about what you know. It's about what you do. We all know a lot of what we need to know to live really good lives. We don't take action on it. And part of the reason is because so many of the ideas are distilled in ways, well, they're really fascinating to dive into, but they're actually not delivered in a way which is simple enough where they're actionable, where you can wake up every day and say, this is going to guide my behavior. I know what to do this morning and this afternoon and this evening.

I know the simple actions that I need to add into my day and remove that will make a really big difference in the way that I experience my health and the way I contribute to the world and my relationships and just life in general. So what I've tried to do in this book is really distill all these things into a guide where the ideas are super simple. And it's a book that you not only read, it's a book that you do. It's a book where it's actually divided into some great knowledge, and then 30 days of really beautiful, simple things to do. And you can literally cherry pick among the chapters in the book. You actually don't even have to read it end to end.

And for each one of these days, you'll find kind of a pretty yummy or interesting or engaging story, a bit of science for that rational part of your brain to really kind of hang pretty yummy or interesting or engaging story, a bit of science for that rational part of your brain to really kind of hang its hat on, say, okay, I understand why this actually is legitimate. And a simple action, a simple challenge for you to do on that day that won't take a lot of time, but will really move the needle in the way that you experience life, especially if you build it into a practice and you make this something bigger than just a moment in time, but you actually keep doing a little bit and a little bit and a little bit every day.

So my greatest hope is actually not that just you pick up the book and that you read it, but that you actually do the book and maybe even do it with friends because one of the things that I found too is that we are far more likely, we're weird beasts,

right? We're far more likely to do something if we're doing it with a few people than if we're doing it alone. There's really fascinating research around that. Actually, it's some of the research that I share in the book. So this is actually a funny backstory here too. This is the first book that I've written, which makes me nervous in a way that the first two books before this didn't make me nervous. And the reason is because this book is 100% about human potential. The first two books, I kind of hung my hat on business, entrepreneurship, career, as that was what the focus was really about. What I've learned over the years is that I am fascinated in those areas. But what I'm really fascinated about is how career, how the way

you contribute to the world, how entrepreneurship actually shapes the person who's in the middle of it. What I'm fascinated by is how there are these stunning canvases and gauntlets for the development of the human being in the middle of that experience. And what I really realized over the last few years through so many of these amazing conversations in the project is that my real deeper fascination is really just in human potential. And my deeper mission is to incite, to inspire possibility. And that's really what a lot of the work that we do here is all about. And that is what I hope this book will do for you, to inspire possibility and then to take you by the hand and to give you things to actually do that will then turn into practices that will profoundly change the way that you

experience your life from that moment forward. So that book is actually available. It's been quite a labor of love. I actually wrote the entire book, turned it into my publisher, and they came back to me and said, you know what, this actually isn't it. Which an author, by the way, never wants to hear. But I kind of knew they were right at the time. So we had a conversation and we talked and we agreed. We said, okay, this is the new direction for it. So I went back and I spent months and months and months and I rewrote an entire new second manuscript. And I handed it to them, and I'm waiting, and days pass by, and then weeks pass by. And I'm like, huh, this is probably not a good sign here. And they came back to me and they said, you know what? This still isn't it, and we actually

don't really know what to tell you anymore. And if you think the first, this isn't it, is something an author doesn't like to hear. That is something that really floored me. And I wasn't sure how to respond to it. I wasn't sure, is this just not the type of thing I should be writing about? Do I walk away? Do I go back to writing business-oriented books and kind of not stand fully in who I am? What I realized is actually that this was something that I had to write. This was the thing that I couldn't not write at that moment in time. And what they were telling me, and they were right in the end, was that I needed to learn how to write a different kind of book. And I wasn't sure how to write that book. So actually, I hit pause and I said, listen, let me go deeper and try and understand what this book is, what

the bigger approach to this book needs to be. And I went out and I actually read a whole bunch of books. And so I could understand sort of like the genre of human potential in a way that I can understand how to do this and write it in a way that would really land, that would make a difference, that would be super easy and yummy and digestible and actionable, and at the same time, real and science-based and validated. So I came back to them because I said, you know, I think I understand this now. And I rewrote the table of contents and I gave it to my editor and I was like, is this it? Like if I wrote this book, would that be it? And they're like, yes, that's it. And I said, that's awesome. But honestly, I don't know if

I can write that book and feel okay about what I'm writing. And because it's such a different book than I had ever written. So I said, let me do this. Let me actually write the first four chapters or so and see how I feel about it. So they're like, all right, that's cool. So I went and I pulled back and I spent a little bit of time and I wrote those chapters. And what I realized was that it was actually a book that I felt great about writing. It was so much more digestible and actionable than anything I had ever written before. And it was flowing from me with so much more ease and grace than what I had written before. And it was kind of a sign to me. So I went back to them and

I showed them those four chapters. I was kind of waiting. I was like, oh, please, I hope this is what they like, because I feel like this is really good. And I waited. And it didn't take long this time. And they're like, boom, this is it. This is the book. Write it. And we were on the same page.

And from that point, I just hit the ground running. And it tumbled out of me with incredible speed. And I turned it in. And then so this is literally the third complete manuscript that I had rewritten. And I'm waiting, a couple of days pass and then a couple of weeks pass. And finally I get word back and they're like, this is it, it's phenomenal. This is the book that we knew you had in you

and thank you so much for staying with us to get to this point. It was a really interesting lesson for me too because I've gone deep into the creative process and research around it and written about creativity and innovation. And one of the things that I actually learned in that is there tend to be three stages of extraordinary creativity and innovation. And the first one is kind of like the surface level solutions and ideas. And those we just kind of throw out. We're like, yeah, these are really good. We're jamming on them, brainstorming. And if we let them sit for a little bit, we realize, no, that's really not it.

That's all sort of the obvious level stuff. And then if we're committed to this, we go deeper and we go back in. We're like, okay, what are the next level ideas? We're working really hard and we're trying to come up with new stuff and we're really trying to put a whole bunch of new things out there into the world. And it's a lot harder. But eventually we come up with a whole new set of ideas and stories. And we put that out there and we start to, and then we let it sit again.

And then what inevitably happens is we come back and we say, well, these are decent. They're certainly way better than all the obvious surface stuff that tends to be out there already. But if our mission is to go a level deeper, to really bring something extraordinary to the world, that's probably still not it. And in fact, that's what was happening with me, right? That first manuscript kind of meant that it was the way I'd always done things. It was my safe zone. And it wasn't it. And then my editor, my editors at the time, actually, we had a team, were smart enough and truthful enough to know that there was something more in me.

And they said, you know, they challenged me to go deeper. And that pushed me to then create the entire second phase, right, the second manuscript. And then they were bold enough and truthful enough, and they have enough integrity to know that there was something bigger, something deeper that I was thankful that they saw in me when I didn't even see it in myself. And they said, this is still not it. And they pushed me into that third phase of creativity and innovation where you wipe the slate clean and it becomes brutally hard to try and find out, okay, what's the new map? What are the guiding principles? What is the ethos that will now take me into this third layer, this third phase

of ideation and problem solving that will completely trump what's come before? And that's where I was forced to go. And the amazing thing is that to get there was brutally hard. And to figure out the rules that would guide this third phase for me took more work than I'd ever really done before. Because writing always came relatively easy for me, and this was tough. But once I got there, once I understood what needed to happen, the floodgates actually started to open. And it was still really hard, but there was a sense of ease that came with it. And there was a sense of note. There was this deeper sense of knowing.

And I don't know if you've ever felt this when you're working on trying to launch a creative project or just build a life or deepen relationships or create a business where there's a sense of inner knowing when you've worked so hard. You know, there's a sense of just, yeah, this is actually it. This is it. And a switch flipped at that moment. And I was off to the races. And what came out of it, I'm so proud of. And I hope it makes a real difference for you. I hope it really moves the needle. And also, I wanted to share that backstory with you, because so many of us are moving through life, and we feel like there's something out there.

There's a sense of potential that we just, we never quite push through to that third phase where the real juice, the deepest part of ourselves, the truest expression of potential, we get to step into. And it's really hard getting there. And so many of us bail on it before we actually get there. And no matter how many books you've written, no matter how many relationships you've had, no matter how much you've lived life, there are still these challenges that arise. And they're not easy. And they're not easy for me. And I want to also share with you that this was a deep challenge for me too. That was somewhat brutal at numerous points along the journey. I'm right in there with you. But there, if you keep deepening into the work, amazing things are possible. And I'm so proud of what my team and I have been able to create with this.

And almost to celebrate bringing this to the world, then the question became for me, okay, so we've got something I'm super proud of. How can I share this with you in a way that is equally different, is equally cool, that celebrates not just the book, but celebrates you and gives you something amazing and lets me actually play with you for a little bit longer than just hanging out and reading a book and also makes a bigger difference, not just in our lives, but in the greater world around us. And so we've created a pre-order initiative. And it's so important, actually, for me, for an author, to be able to show that the book actually is generating real interest and making a difference through what we call pre-orders, meaning people who are willing to raise their hand and say, yeah, I would love to check out the book. I'll pre-order it. And on the date that it's available for publication,

which for my book is October 18th, but you can actually pre-order it right now. I can't wait to dive into this. And that actually, when you do that, there's an interesting thing that happens. It actually shows the book industry insiders, the publishers and the book buyers at the big retailers and stuff like that, that this is legit, it's real, and they start to get behind it. And when that happens, there's a level of momentum kind of hit a tipping point that allows the book to move out into the world with so much more power and momentum. And that's why authors and publishers try and really inspire people in our communities to get behind and

pre-order the book. And I wanted to do that, but also make it super appealing for you by creating some amazing bundles. So part of what we're doing is just giving away some awesome things and the opportunity to spend more time and train with me when you pre-order. But we also want to do something super tangible for you and let you participate in a really, a much bigger initiative that will make a difference in the world and in the planet. So on the you side, depending on sort of the level of bundle, you can become and designing and illustrating this beautiful companion journal. It's literally, I think it's about 230 something pages. It's illustrated, it's two color, it's really stunning. So the book itself, How to Live a Good Life, is this really powerful launch piece. It shares the fundamental ideas and then takes you by the hand and walks you through 30 really powerful days that takes you from being static to being in motion to starting to build this thing. And then this

companion journal is a beautiful thing to then take you and build those first 30 days into a powerful daily practice that changes you for life and keeps you taking action for life. And the only way to actually get that right now is we're actually bundling it and giving it to you when you pre-order. So that's one of the things that we did along with it. But we also want to do something bigger. And two things became really apparent to me. So one is that while a lot of people buy ebooks these days, a lot of people still buy traditional books. I happen to love traditional books. And books take paper to make, and paper comes from trees. So I thought, wouldn't it be cool for us to actually create a campaign that planted trees in exchange for when people commit to and pre-order books?

And so I did a little bit of research, and I found a foundation that we could partner with that actually then also partners with the Forestry Service. And plants trees in a really conscious, deliberate, and thoughtful way. And we've partnered with them to literally plant a tree for every book that's pre-ordered before October 18th. And we're on a bit of a mission to plant a 10,000 tree good life forest. But there's something else going on here. You know, I wanted to tie the book with both replacing trees and replacing green spaces. The other thing, by the way, is that according to at least the research that I've done online, every tree actually would generate enough paper for about 60 books. So not only are we sort of

tree neutral, but we're actually massively tree positive. Like we're actually planting, you know, close to 60 times more trees than are used in the book process. If this researcher is right, which I'm going to deepen into that actually, but there's something else which is going on here, which is that I don't know about you, but for me, nature is this astonishing reset. And when I go into the woods or when I go to the water, when I'm in nature, it changes me. It brings me back to source. It makes me calm. And in fact, I got really fascinated by that phenomenon and wondered whether it was just me. So I did a whole bunch of research in it. And that actually turned into an entire chapter in the book on this thing called forest bathing.

And I was doing this and really going deeper into it so I could understand how does being in nature, how does being surrounded by trees affect people? How does it make a difference in our lives? And it turns out there's fascinating science that shows that it makes a huge difference in our mindset, in our mood, but also in our physiology, in our health. Literally things like if you walk in the woods, if you walk out in nature, it makes a really big difference. But even things as simple as having a plant inside a room or being be to, again, not just plant trees because books end up using trees, but also because green spaces and nature are something that I focus on in this book as these incredible sources of renewal and rejuvenation and elevation in life. So it ties in on so many different levels.

So part of what we're doing with that pre-order campaign is you get these amazing things and at the same time, you help us plant trees. So we do good for us. We get amazing benefit from the book. You get all these extra super cool goodies and at the same time, you get to join together and make a difference in the planet, in the world. And we've got one super high level of pre-order thing too.

We've actually created a Good Life Ambassador program. So if you want to join in and actually come behind the scenes with a team of Good Life Ambassadors and we're all going to play together and work together to get the word out and do some really fun, cool stuff together and there's some super cool extra experiences

that'll be involved in there too. I absolutely invite you to check it out. So I want to thank you so much for being a part of our Good Life Project community, for being a listener. I hope the work that we've been doing in the world has really made a difference to you. I hope these conversations, the episodes with people over the years that I've devoted myself to partly as learning from body teachers, and partly because I just love being able to share these conversations with you. I hope it's really made a difference for you. And if you feel like you'd like to learn more,

if you feel compelled, inspired to help me bring this book and this project to the world and make a difference by helping us plant trees as well, I would so appreciate that help. You can learn a lot more at goodlifeproject.com book. And by the way, also, you can download the entire first chapter and read it completely for free. You don't need to enter an email address. There won't be any sort of big massive thing after that. You can just literally, if you go to goodlifeproject.com book, you'll see right there on the page that you can just click a button and

instantly the PDF of the first chapter will be on your computer or device and you can read it right then and there without any email needed. And if it calls to you, join in and share it and share in this journey. So thank you so much. It's always fun to be able to share the behind the scenes with you, share what I've been working on in my journey. And I'm just so excited to be able to share this new adventure, this new book with you, How to Live a Good Life, Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom. I will see you hopefully over at goodlifeproject.com slash book and in the next edition of our Good Life Project podcast. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.