Good Life Project - Your Work Zone Matters. Chocolate and Your Brain.

Episode Date: July 20, 2017

GLP Riff: Ever wonder how your work environment affects everything from your mood to your health and even your ability to do your best work? Turns out, it can make a huge difference. And, it's one of those decisions most of us never actually make. It's time to get more intentional about the environment that best supports your ability to rock your work and life. That what today's GLP Riff is all about.Good Life Science Update: Chocolate, it's pretty much proof of the existence of God, in our humble opinion! But, turns out, some fascinating research shows that it may also play a serious role in brain function and memory. Especially as we get a bit further into life. That's what we're talking about in today's Good Life Science update.Rockstar sponsors:Get paid online, on-time with Freshbooks! Today's show is supported by FreshBooks, cloud accounting software that makes it insanely easy for freelancers and professionals to get paid online, track expenses and do more of what you love. Get your 1-month free trial, no credit card required, at FreshBooks.com/goodlife (enter The Good Life Project in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section).Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn’t depend on candidates finding you; it finds them. And right now, my listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE, That’s right. FREE! Just go to ZipRecruiter.com/good. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And welcome, welcome, welcome. It's Jonathan with this week's kind of good life smorgasbord of different topics and ideas. As you know, well, maybe you don't know if it's your first time tuning in, but on these sort of different shorter episodes, we're kind of mixing and matching and playing around and experimenting with some different formats and segments and ideas, adding to the traditional riff that we've been doing for a number of years and bringing you different stuff. Today on tap, we will be talking about the idea of your environment and how it affects you, your ability to live a good life and do great work, and chocolate and your brain. What's the real deal? That's where I'm going on this week's Good Life Project update.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch Series X is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X.

Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot? Flight risk. So can we talk?

So here's what I want to talk to you about today. It's the idea of your physical environment and how it affects us. So as I'm hanging out recording this right now, I am in our New York City recording studio. Now, the secret little truth here, and those who have actually come and recorded and taped with us know that my recording studio is actually built inside of my apartment in New York City. So we, at one point, had a completely separate space where we built out a studio and an office. And what we found was that it just kind of wasn't working. So we ended up actually taking a room and building a recording studio in my apartment. So I can literally invite people over

for a cup of coffee. We close the door, we turn on the microphones, we have fancy pants soundproofing blocking out all sorts of stuff all around, with the exception, of course, of sirens, which you guys will inevitably hear at some point because in New York City they happen often, and that is literally the one sound we cannot completely exclude. Anyway, where am I going with this? So as I sit and share this with you, I'm a day away from getting onto a plane with my wife. And we will be flying out to the west coast where we will be kind of hiding away in a tiny bungalow slash cottage about, I don't know, two blocks from the ocean from the beach. Now, here's the thing. We're going to be working. In fact, we have meetings and events and all sorts of important things set up for the whole two weeks that we'll be there. But at the same time, what we have discovered is that setting really matters, and we need to actually extract ourselves from the sort of constant din, the frenetic energy of New York City, in order to both be okay psychologically and physically, but also because it changes the way that, at least me personally, it changes the way that I process, the way that I create, the way that I think and interact with the world. And that also changes my mood. It changes my mindset. So we've been getting out more. And this is something that I've spent a bunch of time thinking about. When I think about this, it falls under the window of what I call contribution preferences. And it's sort of a whole methodology that I've been experimenting with and experimenting on various students and program participants with

for many years now. It's one of the things that I look at. Our physical environment has a profound effect on who we are and how we contribute to the world, and on two levels. One is your immediate physical environment, and two is geographically where you are in the world. So what does that actually mean when I talk about those two different things? Well, your immediate physical environment has a general rule. You know, we're talking about not just your home, but also your work environment. And let's focus for today on your work environment. Now, that may be your home.

That may be an office environment somewhere. That may be cafes. Whatever it may be, what's interesting about environment, and that is both the physical day-to-day environment in which we do our work and contribute to the world, and the geography, the place that we choose to be in the world, those are two things that affect us dramatically, yet they're also decisions that very often we make by default without really considering them. So let's start more immediately with our work environment. So many of us, especially if we work for somebody else, if we work a job,

we basically, when we're considering whether to say yes or no to that particular opportunity, we think about the people, we think about the culture, We think about the people, we think about the culture, we think about the environment, we think about the specific work that we're doing, the projects we'll be working on. Does it work for us? Does it feel good? Very rarely do we kind of sit back and examine the actual physical work environment

and ask ourselves, does this fill me up or does this empty me out? So when I think about this, you're really thinking on the quality level. What are the qualities that fill me up and empty me out when it comes to this? For me, I'll give you an example. What I know is that I tend to like environments that are very light-filled, light-washed. I don't love environments that are very light-filled, light-washed. I don't love environments that are dark. When it comes to light, I even am specific about the nature of the light. I much prefer

natural light. Sunlight is awesome. I really don't prefer blue light spectrum or fluorescent light. It really is not something that works all that well for me, doesn't make me happy. Whereas if you put me in a natural light environment, that is something where I feel good. I feel like I'm being filled and nourished by the level of light. Now, light is one of many different qualities that contribute to your actual work environment, to your day-to-day environment and your home environment for that matter? What are some other things? Level of noise or sound. Do you like to work in places where it's loud and calamitous, where there's music blaring, or do you need absolute silence or somewhere in the middle? What about expansive or confined? Some people have really strong preferences. They love to be in wide open spaces. They could like put a desk in the middle of a 10,000 square foot open working floor and be the

happiest person in the world. Other people would freak out and feel massively exposed and they would much prefer to be in a tiny space. Some people would actually prefer to be in a small, well-defined cubicle than to be in a big, vast, open space. And it's funny because we kind of make fun of the idea of being in a cubicle. For some people, it creates almost this really homey thing. That doesn't mean the sort of commercial aspect of the way that a lot of scalable cubicle systems work is going to feel really yummy to you. But the nature of confining to a smaller space can, for some people, be a lot more comfortable. It's almost the idea of infants and swaddling. And we think we outgrow that.

But the reason why you look at infants, and very often people look at them when they're swaddled, which means kind of wrapping them up in a little cocoon of a blanket where you can barely move. And adults are like, oh my God, that's massively confining. I can't stand that. How could that be okay? Most babies actually feel so much more comfortable and at ease and safer. And it's not unusual for a certain element of that to carry through to adulthood. So you will find plenty of folks who actually feel much more comfortable and are easier in an easier place to do their best work and to really focus and go to that place that they have to go when they're in a smaller, more compact, more confined environment, which is kind of funny considering the fact that so many workplaces now

are moving towards these vast open format workplaces and floor plans. And it's not great for some people. Sound, again, is something where it can really dramatically affect people. And here's an interesting thing, too, which is that the nature of the physical environment can sometimes change based on the nature of the work that you're doing. So sometimes to do hyper-creative, divergent thinking type of work, you know, you might want to be in one type of environment to do really kind of refined editing type of work and production type of work.

You might feel that you really are your best in a different environment. So the prompt is to pay attention to that and ask yourself, huh, you know, is there actually some specific quality or set of qualities in my actual physical environment where when I add them together, I feel like I'm most myself. I feel like I'm most home.

I feel like I can do my best work and be my best self. And the work that comes out of me is awesome. And I produce on a different level, on my best self. And the work that comes out of me is awesome. And I produce on a different level, on my highest level. Whereas are there other qualities of environment, a physical environment, where I feel like they just totally empty me out. I can't focus. I can't get into that place where I need to be. People make fun of that sometimes. And they say, you should be able to work anywhere, anytime. And indeed, you can cultivate a certain skill set that allows you to get a lot better at doing really good work in a wider variety of environments, suboptimal environmental conditions and qualities. You can train yourself to become better at it. But the reality is most of us don't.

Most of us don't do the work to do that. And very often we are entering a physical environment where we're entering somebody else's space where they've already set the tone of all of those qualities. So when you're making a choice about saying yes or no to a particular opportunity that will come with a particular work environment, go beyond thinking about the people, the place, the task, all this other stuff, and really actually notice what are the qualities of the physical

environment that I will be entering. Are they conducive to me feeling most like myself, being lit up, feeling full and doing my best work? Or are they more likely to empty me out and not allow me to access my fullest potential? That matters. And it's really important because we generally don't think about that. And if you are somebody where you're fortunate enough to have, or you are very intentional in that you are creating your own environment, whether you're a freelancer or an entrepreneur or founder of a company, or you just have the ability to have substantial input because of the level that you're at in an organization over your physical environment, make that same list and be very intentional about the way you craft your immediate physical surrounding because it matters and it will affect the quality of your life. It will affect the state of your mind and it will affect the level of the work that you create and your ability to fill your contribution bucket effectively.

So that's what's on my mind. There's a second part too, which is the part about your broader geographic environment and how that affects you. And I've talked about that a bit in past riffs, and it's probably come up in more of a grumbling tone. And in that where you are in the world also can have a pretty dramatic effect. And it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a town, or a particular city or a particular continent, but your geographic location, the greater geography has a really powerful effect on your physiology, your psychology, and your ability to be okay, to have an optimal affect, as positive psychologists would say it, or state of mind, mood, and to create your best work.

So think about it. I know, for example, and I've shared this a number of times with you guys, I need to be near, I love outdoor environments, and I get outside as much as I can. And I also feel most comfortable, I'm most myself. When I know that I'm somewhere near the water. I grew up near the water. And it's just kind of a part of my DNA. So zoom the lens out and think about it on that level too. That is my thought today on how our physical environments affect who we are, how we live.

And our ability to fill our contribution and vitality buckets and live our best lives. Now, I want you to stay tuned because after the break coming up, I'm going to share some pretty interesting research with you about chocolate, cocoa, and the brain. And if you know me at all, and you know how much i love chocolate this is going to be a yummy bit of science back with you shortly whether you're in your running era pilates era or yoga era dive into peloton workouts that work with you from meditating at your kids game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to

keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10.

Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. So our awesome friends at Freshworks make ridiculously easy cloud accounting software for freelancers and small business owners who know that making every single moment count

is a really important part of getting a lot of stuff done and being able to do the things that they want to do in their business. By drastically simplifying things like invoicing, tracking expenses, and getting paid online, FreshBooks has totally changed the game for now more than 10 million people. You can link your FreshBooks account to your credit card and debit card. So next time you expense the business stuff or the tank of gas or lunch, it just shows up automatically. They have notifications and awesome customer service. To claim your month-long unrestricted free trial with no credit card required, go to freshbooks.com slash goodlife and enter the Good Life Project in the How Did You Hear About Us section. And we are back with a word on chocolate.

Chocolate and your brain. So how do I even start this? Yes, I have a lifelong love affair with chocolate. And the awesome thing about that is that provided I don't massively gorge myself on the delightful and delicious bean mixed with all sorts of other stuff, it turns out that a growing body of research shows that chocolate, more specifically, the elements within chocolate, cocoflavonoids, actually have all sorts of really strong benefits for us. So a study that was recently published in Frontiers shed some really interesting light.

It turns out that one of the elements in cocoa, these things called flavonoids, have all sorts of interesting benefits in the human body. Now, they've been studied in the past and shown to improve things like cardiovascular performance and have a certain amount of neuroprotection. And what's interesting now is that there's some research that's being done on whether the cocoflavanols, the things that are in chocolate, actually affect what would be considered cognitive function, especially things like memory and attention. So studies were looking at folks who had actually been taking cocoa for anywhere from five days up to about 90 days or three months or so.

And they were looking a lot also at folks who were a bit further into life, which is really interesting, right? Because that's also when very often we start to have what some people would consider a natural decline in our ability to think, our ability to hold focus and attention, and our memory. It's kind of commonly agreed that as we age, our memory starts to falter a little bit. It doesn't come as quickly, especially short-term memory. So questions were asked and saying, well, could the cocoa flavanols actually affect that? Could they affect memory? Could they affect how quickly we think? That's known in the biz or in the research world as processing speed. Could they affect attention

and language skills? And what was really interesting is in the research, the thing that seemed to really be affected, especially as folks get older, is memory, memory and attention. So the researchers, Valentina Sochi and Michelle Ferrara from the University of, I believe it's pronounced L'Aquila in Italy, had this to say, I'm quoting, the potential of cocoflavanols to protect cognition in vulnerable populations over time by improving cognitive performance. If you look at the underlying mechanism, the cocoflavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the denate gyrus of the hippocampus. This structure is particularly

affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans. What does that translate to in human speak? It translates to the flavonols may in fact help increase blood flow to the part of the brain, which plays a really serious role in memory, in age-related memory, especially an age-related memory decline, and by doing so, improve memory and cognition. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him! We need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever.

It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required.

Charge time and actual results will vary. Which is pretty cool. Because it tells us that in addition to all sorts of other things that we can do that really affect this exercise, by the way, being one of the most powerful things that we can do, it's not something we eat, something we do, that something like chocolate has within it certain ingredients that may potentially be incredibly helpful in staying really sharp as we grow up and become adults and mature and move into the further years in our lives, which is super human and super awesome because I am 51 and I probably pretty regularly forget where I put the keys and increasingly other stuff and anything

that can help me sort of be more tuned in and focused and have stronger memory and recall and process faster is a good thing. Now, of course, we have all the regular precautions. We're talking about one particular element that is in chocolate, but that is not the only thing that is in chocolate. There are other things that are in it very often. There's some element of caffeine, another little chemical called theobromine, both of which can have somewhat iterating or stimulating effects. Theobromine and caffeine can affect people differently.

So it may be a good idea not to have these in the evening. Although each of those two different chemicals can also have really positive effects on you. And maybe we will come back and circle back and talk about those in an upcoming science update segment. And of course, zooming the lens out even further, the stuff that cocoa is very often mixed with, meaning heaps of sugar, all sorts of other mixed in fatty type of stuff, milk, cream, things like that. Those may not be sort of the best things to add in. So when I quote dose on chocolate as a general rule, I usually try and keep to the rule of more than 70% dark,

which means it's got a very high level of more of the pure cacao or cocoa and a higher level of the flavanols and fewer of those other things that go into it. I happen to be a big fan of certain 80, 85% products. Above that, what most people find, including me, is it starts to get really bitter and kind of hard to get down. Although, hey, if you dig that, that's awesome for you. So that's a wrap for this week. I hope you're enjoying these expanded editions of Good Life Project, and we will continue to explore and play with some different segments as we go. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. And as we wrap up, I want to give a final shout out to our awesome sponsors and supporters. Right now, you can post a job on ZipRecruiter for free.

That's right, for free. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash good. Today's show is sponsored by FreshBooks, which is a super cool cloud accounting software. To claim your month-long unrestricted free trial with no credit card required, go to freshbooks.com slash good life and enter the Good Life Project in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If the stories and ideas in any way moved you, I would so appreciate if you would take just a few extra seconds for two quick things. One, if it's touched you in some way, if there's some idea or moment in the story or in the conversation that you really feel like you would share with somebody else, that it would make a difference in somebody else's life. Thank you. My greatest hope with this podcast is not just to produce moments and share stories and ideas that impact one person listening, but to let it create a conversation, to let it serve as a catalyst for the elevation of all of us together collectively, because that's how we rise. When stories and ideas become conversations that lead to action, that's when real change happens. And I would love to invite you to participate

on that level. Thank you so much as always for your intention, for your attention, for your heart. And I wish you only the best. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you.

From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power.

Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch,

getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman.

I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot?

Flight Risk.