Good Life Project || Inspiration | Motivation | Happiness | Meaning | Success

How do you know if you're addicted to your phone? Or maybe your favorite game, app, text, snapchat, Instagram, Facebook or online shopping?Is it even possible to be truly addicted to these things? You know, like on the level of drugs? Or are we all just being a bit too alarmist?Where is the line between a healthy obsession that adds to your life and an addiction to tech that can own and potentially destroy you?Today's guest, NYU professor, Adam Alter, gives us a massive reality check. He breaks down the different between passions, obsessions and straight-up addictions, splits apart chemical and behavioral addictions and shows how technology is being specifically designed to get and keep us hooked.Alter also offers some powerful tools to better understand when technology is owning us, rather than the other way around, then show how to reclaim the power in the relationship.His new book, Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, is a powerful look at how we intera

Fifty years ago, in 1967, some 100,000 hippies came together in Haight-Ashbury for the famed Summer of Love. They gathered to celebrate an ethos of love, generosity the pursuit of meaning and expanded consciousness.While psychedelics were a not infrequent part of the culture, the bigger pursuit took the form of a counterculture revolution. It was about changing the dynamics of power, expression and connection. About casting off oppressive norms and rediscovering "freedom."That same exploration, those same questions, are alive and well some 50 years later. Today's short riff is a bit of a "spoken word" piece on the idea that, when it comes to the quest for freedom, what's old is new again.+++ Today's Sponsors +++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/goodlif

The earliest signs of Terry Wahls' condition began to surface in med-school. An electric shock of unknown original seemed to randomly radiate across her face. But it would be many more years, deep into her practice as a physician, before additional symptoms would lead to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.Within three years, she found herself largely confined to a tilt-recline wheelchair and was told that her condition had progressed quickly. Function, once lost, she learned, would never come back. Being a doctor, she accepted this and began treatment, the only goal to try to slow the progression. Medication seemed to be failing her. But, in the background, she began to research related conditions and started to focus on the then maverick offshoot known as functional medicine.What happened over the next few years defied what the entire medical profession thought possible. Developing her own food-based protocol, she was able to not only stop the progression, but regain strength and func

Today, we're answering a powerful question from a listener who writes:"...how do you find a sense of place and home, when we live in an increasingly mobile world? This is a topic often discussed among people in the development community who move often. We all struggle with our sense of "home" and what that means. I also wonder if it is also a wider issue for entrepreneurs who do not need to necessarily be in "one place" to work. It has come up among your guests from time to time. I know this is of particular interest to my friends and colleagues- who all practice various forms "personal grounding" for want of a better word - whether that be meditation or other rituals."In this week's Riff, we explore a few key elements to finding and creating that sense of home, no matter where you are in the world. Hint: it's as much about people as it is about place.If you have questions you'd like answered in a future GLP Riff, be sure to let us know on facebook, instagram or twitter.+++ Today's Sponsor: Camp GLP +++Come s

Danielle LaPorte is soul-personified.I've known her for nearly a decade, and in that time, while so much has changed, one thing has remained consistent. Her fierce devotion to truth, to love, to kindness and the creation of beauty.Over that same time, she's left a trail of both massive successes and a few equally-notable misses. What I love about D is, she wouldn't have it any other way. Because it's that path, all of it, the spiritual nature of evolution and entrepreneurship, creation and destruction that's led her to this place in her life. Being deeply-present and utterly lit-up.Along the way, LaPorte has become an invited member of Oprah’s inaugural Super Soul 100, authored and produced The Fire Starters Sessions, The Desire Map, a stunning series of planner planners, a top 10 iTunes app, and an international workshop program with licensed facilitators in 15 countries and a rapidly-growing company.Her new book, White Hot Truth is now available for pre-sale and it lives up to its name. LaPorte wa

Heard any of these?You have to take care of yourself, before you can take care of others.In an emergency, put your oxygen mask on first, or else you won't be in position to help those who rely on you to be okay.The purest form of service to others is when it comes form a place of complete selflessness.Yup, we've all heard them. I'n fact, I've uttered every single one.Truth is, the distinction between self-care and other-care, indulgent and generous, selfish and selfless, well, it's not quite so clean. Nor is the motivation for the behavior associated with any. Why? Because of a little quirk of human physiology.And, that's what we're talking about in today's Good Life Project Riff.+++ Today's Sponsor: FreshBooks +++FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy cloud accounting software for freelancers who'd rather focus on doing great work than bookkeeping and billing. Get paid online, track expenses and invoice all with the click of a button (or tap of a screen). Get your 1-month free trial, with no credit card req

To be amazing at any one thing, do you have to abandon everything and everyone else along the way? Or, is there a better way?That's the question that has obsessed with week's guest, Dan Lerner, for his entire adult life.The son of world-class classical musicians and an accomplished cellist himself at an early age, he was exposed to a world of devotion and mastery. He saw people in this community who'd figured out how to build a living around what they loved, become masters of their craft and also live rich, joyous, connected and full lives outside their careers. And, he assumed that's just "the way it was."TUntil he took a job as an agent representing many of the best musicians in the world, and learned the cold, hard truth. For so many, the quest to be the best came not with fulfillment, but with abandonment of relationships, health, self-care and any semblance of humanity. He believed there had to be a different way.This led Dan on a quest away from agenting and found him studying with legendary professors

How do you continue to grow, to honor the call of your "true self," when you're far enough into life that you've got responsibilities and people looking to you for some semblance of stability? When you don't want to rock that boat?Put another way...How do you do what you love when you don't want to blow up your life?This was the question asked by one of our listening community, a married parent in his thirties who wants to align his career with his ability to evolve and do work that aligns with his true self, but not at the expense of mass disruption to his family.In today's Good Life Project, we look at a few strategies that just might help you find work lights you up through a process of self-awareness and "conflict resolution." +++THIS WEEK’S PODCAST IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY+++Camp GLP: Summer Camp for Creative Souls, Entrepreneurs & Change-Makers! Join us for 3 ½ mind-bending days that will change everything. The ultimate blend of deep-learning, epic stories, friends-for-life, juicy adventures and id

Dani Shapiro is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels and four memoirs, including her latest, Hourglass: Time, Memory, Money.A recent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday, she's taught writing at Columbia, NYU, The New School and Wesleyan University. Dani is also the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy and a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler.Her new memoir, Hourglass, is a fiercely honest meditation on Dani's nearly 20 year marriage. In today's episode, we explore what it's like to build a life, a family and a career when both parents are creative professionals. We also dive into writing about a relationships that you plan to stay in, sharing deeply intimate awakenings, stumbles, fears and experiences along the way and piecing together the puzzle of your life in words. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the last month, two annual reports have come out that offer guidance on who the happiest and healthiest countries in the world are. They rank each in order. And, the results tend to be fairly consistent year-over-year. The nordic countries generally report being the happiest. The United States is somewhere in the middle. Similar […]The post Want to Live Longer? It’s a People Thing appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today's guest, Vanessa Van Edwards , is a behavioral investigator and founder of human behavior research lab, the Science of People.She's also known as a human lie-detector, master of influence and someone who has spent her adult life decoding human interaction, influence, social and power dynamics, charisma, likability and more.As a geeky, modern-day Dale Carnegie, Vanessa Van Edwards' innovative work has been featured on NPR, Business Week and CNN. And, her book, CAPTIVATE: The Science of Succeeding with People, is a literal roadmap to decode and, to a certain extent, influence human interaction.We wanted to learn all about these things, the ideas, the ethics and application. But even more, we wanted to know what unfolded in Van Edward's life that led her to become so obsessed with the study of what makes us tick. Because, it turns out, Vanessa wasn't always the social savant in the room. In fact, in her earlier life, she pretty much ran from interaction.So, what happened? The answer, and the

Comes a time you’ve gotta get out of your head and just act. Maybe you want to change careers, start a company, learn to paint, start a relationship, write a book or mount any other potentially transformational endeavor. Think about it, ponder for a bit, suss out the basics, but then stop talking about it, […]The post Don’t Just Ship It appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Suicide or psychedelics?Those were the options this week's guest, Ayelet Waldman, found herself facing.A married mother of four and novelist living in Berkeley, Waldman struggled with bipolar, anxiety and depression her entire life. According to her, mental illness ran wide and deep in her family. Over the years, she'd found a pharmaceutical regime that made life tolerable, until peri-menopause destroyed her ability to time her medication and things spiraled rapidly out of control.Waldman found herself increasingly mired in suicidal ideation. Nothing seemed to be working any more. Then, she heard about decades old research on psychedelics and a non-trippy therapeutic approach called microdosing.Through a series of events, Ayelet found herself in possession of a vial of pure LSD and, seeing few others options, decided to try following a 30-day psychedelic microdosing protocol shared in James Fadiman's The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide.Those 30-day changed everything. Within hours, the gray numbness be

Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re living in uncertain times. And, that can have a pretty life-stifling effect on us. It can impact everything from state-of-mind to our physical health and even our creative and mental abilities. Question is, if you can’t change the immediate circumstance at work or in life, is there something […]The post Certainty Anchors: Finding Calm in a Stormy World appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michelle Gielan, national CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, is the Founder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research.She is partnered with Arianna Huffington to study how transformative stories fuel success and is an Executive Producer of “The Happiness Advantage” Special on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course.Michelle is also the best-selling author of Broadcasting Happiness.In today's episode, we dive into her journey from "coder kid" to TV anchor to positive-psychology researcher and change-maker. We explore the deeper psychology behind media, rational optimism, how the stories we hear, see and tell affect us and how we relate to each other both at work and in life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s this mythology. Go all in. Don’t dabble. Don’t play. Don’t make it a hobby, make it your “one thing.” From the very beginning. Even if you have no idea if you’ll like it, how it’ll make you feel and whether it can ever really be what you’ve told yourself and the world you’re going […]The post The Experimental Life appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Born in Ghana, West Africa,Kute Blackson was the child of a Japanese mother and a Ghanaian father who was a legendary faith leader with some 300 churches across Ghana and a massive following in the U.K.By his early teens, Kute was being groomed to rise up in his father’s church, but that would all change when Blackson rejected the path his father laid out for him and chose his own instead.Estranged from both his father and his community, and feeling called to blaze his own path, Kute headed to the United States where he’d struggle on nearly every level and finally come to a place where his true hero’s journey would begin.That process of stripping away, hitting rock-bottom and eventually mounting his own search led Kute to rediscover his path to freedom, and rebuild his life and living, becoming a respected voice in spirituality and consciousness on his own terms, in his own way. His story and philosophy are detailed in his recent book, You. Are. The. One.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy

We are taught, from a young age, to exist in the middle. Everything in moderation. Don’t be a tall poppy, nor a shrinking violet. Good enough is good enough. The middle way, middle-class, mid-tier. That’s where we want to be. Not so big that we get cut down, and not so small that we can’t […]The post The Unfortunate Middle appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You know that little button on Facebook you click to "like" something? Well, as one of the early employees at Facebook, today's guest, Leah Pearlman, came up with that idea.Actually, its original incarnation was the "awesome button," but what's more interesting is why she created it. And, what was going on in her life that led her to want it, both for herself and the millions of others flooding the platform.Turns out, Leah was leading a double life. Publicly, she was a fiercely smart, driven technologist as the hottest startup in Silicon Valley. But, privately, she battled near-debilitating perfectionism that led to a decade of bulimia. On any given day, she'd move between helping to build a revolutionary company, and purging in the women's room.Until, one day, tragic news about her father, and the way she caught herself dealing with it, led everything to fall apart. She was forced to bring her dark side into the light and find a way through. And, from that emerged something she never saw coming.Having been a

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 […]The post Naked and Silent: Asking Is Not Receiving [encore] appeared first on Good LifeProject. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.