Good Life Project - When Ethos Meets Ability, Magic Ensues.

Episode Date: September 15, 2016

When you’re looking to build something real, something that matters, from a family or community, to a business or any other mission-driven endeavor, skills matter. So do people. Thing is, there’s also something bigger that’s important. It’s about the sweet spot between cultivating a powerful, well-defined and articulated ethos or culture, then matching that ethos […]The post When Ethos Meets Ability, Magic Ensues. appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, it's Jonathan. Now, you may have noticed that we actually don't really do much advertising or sponsorship, at least for the time being on the show. And you may be wondering, how are these guys producing at this level and haven't been for years without doing that? And it's by doing other things that help us actually fund these conversations, this podcast. One of those things is I also happen to be an author. And I've got a new book out now called How to Live a Good Life. So full stories, surprising science and practical wisdom. I've been working on it for years now. And I'm so excited to be able to distill so much of the wisdom that's come from this project into a simple, beautiful guided book. And I would so appreciate your help in helping to share the word. If you

feel interested in pre-ordering a copy, you can go and do that right now. If you want to learn more about it and even download the first chapter, you can go and read it for absolutely nothing right now. You don't even need to enter an email address. And we have really cool ambassador program you may want to learn about. It's a great way to be able to take a look at a book that I think will really make a difference in your life, I really hope, and also show your support for the work that we're doing here at Good Life Project. You can learn more now at goodlifeproject.com slash book, or just go ahead and click the link in the show notes now. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is a Good Life Project riff.

As I sit here and record this, not too far away from coming out of our annual Camp GLP experience, it's Camp Good Life Project. It is this astonishing gathering of humanity from literally around the world. We all convene. We kind of swarm and take over this kids' sleepaway camp. The better part of four days, actually about 90 minutes outside of New York. Every year we do it. And we ask ourselves, how can we, how can we make this as incredible as it was last year? And the answer of course is always, we can't, but we need to make it different and beautiful in another way. And we asked that same

thing and it happened again this year. You know, we had people get on planes, trains, automobiles from literally around the world, the farthest points on the planet, to come and hang out with us. That's a big responsibility that we want to make sure that we really deliver. And what we've learned over the years, though, is that we create the invitation, we create the container, we create the sort of like the overall ethos of generosity and kindness and growth and love and compassion. But then the experience itself, it's really about who shows up. It's about building the framework and the foundation for a sense of elevation and belonging. And then having people raise their hand and say, that resonates profoundly with me enough so that I'm willing to travel to come and be with people who believe the same thing,

and then kind of step back and let it happen. So that's a huge part of it. And another part of it of creating something that actually is fairly complex is we literally have, you know, like, close to 400 people living and breathing and playing and learning together and living communally for this entire experience. So it's different from your average event in that it's not just people go to sessions during the day and then kind of split up and do whatever they want. We're together 24-7. And that completely changes the dynamic and also what needs to happen behind the scenes to make it work beautifully. And a huge part of that is sort of like the smaller family that we put together. And having the right people, having people that are beautifully aligned

from a philosophy and an ethos standpoint. But also there's another thing that I've learned, and we kind of zoom the lens out a little bit here, which is that because when we're all trying to do things in the world, whether it's building a family or friends or a community or a company, we've all heard, you know, like you've got to have the right people on the bus, meaning and that's sort of a phrase that's passed around in the business world. But what it means fundamentally is you need the right people in this thing to help make it hum. People who buy in completely to what you're doing,

people who don't just give it lip service, but live and breathe and embody the ideals that you in this thing to help make it hum. People who buy in completely to what you're doing. People who don't just give it lip service, but live and breathe and embody the ideals that you embrace. So that when they turn around, they go out and they represent you. And they do it not from a place of, this is the mission I've been charged to bring out, but they do it from a place of, this is fundamentally who I am, what I believe in, how I see the world. So this, quote, job is simply an opportunity for me to go out and bring the entirety of who I am utterly to other people. And in some way be in service of other people. And to also kind of be like a living, breathing example of complete and utter alignment with a sense of community. And it's this really, really powerful thing when that happens.

So it's about when you're looking to grow something, one of the most important things you can do is find people who don't just have skills, but find people where their hearts, their souls, their minds are completely and utterly aligned with the most essential parts of what you're trying to create. The philosophy, the idea, the mission, the ethos, the values, the beliefs, and then create opportunities, create positions where they can step into it and add to that

fully leveraging their strengths and gifts in a way which makes them feel not just aligned and lit up from an ethos standpoint, but also fully tapped from a this is what I have to bring to the world standpoint. And when you do that, when you find those people who are deeply aligned and then create opportunities for them to then leverage everything, all of their tools that light them up. So you have ethos plus capability, and then you create an opportunity for both of those things to be profoundly tapped. And then you build an experience around that. Astonishing things happen. So think about that. As you think about who you want to surround yourself with, as you think about the people that you want to bring

into your orbit as friends, as colleagues, as employees, as collaborators and co-creators and co-conspirators, think about really those two levels. On the level of ethos, are they profoundly aligned? And have you created a specific opportunity for each person to fully tap their capabilities and strengths and gifts and feel like they're utilizing them as much as humanly possible? When you do that, the overlap creates absolute magic. Something to think about as we explore creating awesomeness in the world and bringing together a team, a family, a community in support of what you're doing in a way that allows both what you're creating to flourish and allows each person in that community to feel amazing along the way. Hope that's useful to you. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.