Good Life Project

Most people look at meditation as a practice. Something you do daily, most often seated on a cushion.

New York Times bestselling author of eight books, and Shambhala Buddhist meditation teacher, Susan Piver, has a different take.

What if it's not just a practice, she offers, but a path? A way of life. An approach to seeing and being in the world that plants the seeds of awareness, compassion and life in a more awakened and joyful state.

She's written about this in her wonderful new book, Start Here Now. 

I had a chance to sit down with Susan and record a conversation live from the stage of Camp GLP in August, before a room of 350 people. The energy was electric.

We talked about Susan's serendipity-driven journey through the hip-hop side of the music industry, her constantly yearning for answers to the big questions and her discovery of Buddhism, decision to eventually take her vows and what that even means.

We also explore what Buddhism is and isn't and why so many people seem to be "Buddha-curious" these days. We talk about what it means to be brave, along with the potential upside and downside of belief. Then, we dive into meditation as both a daily practice and a path, do a bit of "white light" myth-busting and explore how this practice tends to work its magic over time.

And, just for fun, you'll also discover how Susan watched the entire movie, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, in the middle of a 30-day meditation silent retreat...entirely in her head!

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is our second experiment, with a new show format, we're calling 9Things™. What is it? A three-person roundtable, where each person shows up with three topics to jam on. And, the thing is, nobody knows what the other person's topics will be until they hit the conversation.

My guests for today's episode of the 9Things format are two good friends, Gabra Zackman and Dan Lerner.

Covered in this episode:

• Hashtags: funny new weird thing or business tool?
• Hamilton on Broadway: the birth of creative genius
• Innate Goodness: are we wired to be helpful?
• Yazidi Women and the brutality of ISIS
• Foodie Culture: more than what's on the plate
• Bizarre Bat Discovered: fascinating that we can still discover new species
• Four Year Long Collaborative Online Story: oops...I didn't mean to end it that way
• Garbage: how can one person collect so much?
• Workplace Culture: people are the new green
• From Lawyer to Children's Entertainer: helping others pursue their interests

It's fast-paced, fun, utterly unscripted and at times a bit raw, but always good-natured and very real. Enjoy!

Check out our offerings & partners: 

• My New Book Sparked
• My New Podcast SPARKED
• Visit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.

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What if you spent more time making?

We tend to spend our work lives dancing between two modes: maker mode and manager mode.

The idea first came to me through a friend, Brad Feld. Maker mode is where we are immersed in the process of creation, innovation, problem-solving, artistry. It's a powerfully generative state that often creates the giant leaps forward, the big ideas and awakenings that propel us.

Manager mode is all the administrative, process-driven stuff you need to do to breathe life into the genius that emerges from maker mode. It's a necessary adjunct and, for some, it's also the place where they become most alive and aligned.

Problem is, they often have trouble happening at the same time. One pulls you almost violently from the other and you end ping-ponging between the two and never really make much progress on each.

What if you took a different approach? What if you created designated, longer-term windows for each. Then took it even farther and, when in maker mode, focused only on the 2% of making that yielded the most stunning outcomes?

That's what we're talking about in today's short and sweet GLP Riff.

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Dale Partridge was riding high, or so it seemed.

A serial entrepreneur and founder of the cause-driven venture, Sevenly, the media loved him and thrust him into the spotlight. Sevenly venture was not only making money, it had also raised more than $4 million for hundreds of causes and more than a million people.

From the outside looking in, everything was fantastic. But, inside, he was dying. Living a life at a pace that was destroying him, pulling him away from his family, ruining his health and making him question everything.

Eventually, he hit the wall. And he decided to make some major shifts. Stepping away from the company he started, he picked up his family and moved to Bend, Oregon, a small town 3 hours from Portland to start the painstaking process of rebuilding his life, his health and his living. Reconnecting with the people and things that mattered, starting with his family.

His recent book, People Over Profit, shares this story, taking you inside the lifestyle implosion that led to a good life evolution.

I had a chance to sit down with Dale in his recording studio in Bend this summer to talk about everything from entrepreneurship to family, design and community, why people share things ("people don't share ugly!"), why being different matters and even the potential impact city-living has on life.

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What if you didn't have to change?

What if everything you wanted, everything you needed, everything you aspired to become, you already had and were.

What if living a good life was more about liberating and revealing than changing and becoming?

The words transformation and evolution have become buzz-words across the landscape of personal development.

The implication is that you, on the deepest level, are not who you need to be. That you need to become or step into something different and better before you can live your best life.

But, what if that was a lie?

What if deep down, you already were your best self and the work was really just about revealing it, removing the illusion, then living it?

That's what today's short and sweet Good Life Project Riff is all about.

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When people talk about Seth Godin, they often attach a variety of labels.

Entrepreneur, marketer, mega-bestselling author, acclaimed speaker, trusted-advisor, provocateur, raconteur extraordinaire and ruckus-maker.

He is all those.

But, when I think of Seth, the first word that comes to me is generous. Seth is a stunningly insightful thinker and doer. But beyond that, he is kind, compassionate and fiercely curious. And, I'm fortunate to also call him a friend.

So, when I had a chance to sit down with Seth to record a conversation about everything from his love of books and technology, creativity and making, fear and experimentation and what it really means to live a good life, it was one of those conversations I didn't want to end.

We first aired this conversation as a GLP TV episode. I'm so excited to share this "Best Of" episode with you now as a podcast.

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What if entrepreneurship wasn't just about what you create, but who you become along the way?

Most people look at entrepreneurship as a quest, a desire to create something from nothing. The goal, to get to a substantial, viable, impact and revenue generating place as fast as humanly possible.

Problem is, with rare exception, the path to success in the world of entrepreneurial dream manifestation just doesn't work that way.

On a daily basis, the life of the entrepreneur ranges from intentional meandering, testing and "pivoting" to violent, non-stop jags, head-spinning problem-solving and night-sweats. And that's when things are going well!

If your goal is simply to get swiftly to the end-state, you are going to suffer more than needed. You are also going to miss a huge opportunity for grace and growth. And you will likely ignore many critical signposts and possibilities that would've made the experience profoundly different in a way that's better. For you and for what you're trying to create.

What if you approached entrepreneurship not as a mad-dash, but a daily practice?

How might that change both the way you experience it and your likelihood of success? That's what I'm talking about in today's Good Life Project Riff.

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The average person spends an almost obscene amount of time working tirelessly to avoid failure. We're terrified that we'll put everything we have into an endeavor, only to come up short.

Failure, we're told, is something to be avoided at all costs. In some parts of life and professional cultures, it's not only frowned upon, it is fiercely punished.

So, every day, a little bit at a time, we confine ourselves into a supposedly safer and safer, smaller and smaller box with the hope of avoiding failure. We stop taking risks, go only for the most certain options and, in doing so, we destroy any semblance of life, freedom, discovery and possibility in our lives.

It's bad enough when we make these choices for ourselves. But, what happens when we impose our failure-adverse lens on our kids, students or anyone others who might look to us to figure out how to live in the world?

We end up not only teaching them to avoid failure, we also erect cages around them. Ostensibly to "protect them from both others and themselves." Sometimes, and on some levels, that may be necessary.

But, increasingly, it may do as much if not more harm than good. Because it protects them from outcomes we assume have a high-probability of happening, yet, in truth, have little or no place in reality. And even when they do happen, failure often sets the mandatory elements in motion for growth. When we kill any possibility for failure, we also kill any possibility of confidence, discovery, self-reliance and growth, all critical underpinnings of a life well-lived.

Today's guest, Jessica Lahey, knows this cycle well. As a teacher, education advocate and writer, she's been on nearly every side of this dynamic and seen the toll it takes. In January 2013, she wrote a provocative article on the topic that nearly melted the internet. She's now expanded upon her wisdom in her tremendous new book, The Gift of Failure, How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed.

Join us, and if you're inclined, share this eye-opening and deeply-informative conversation.

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We see it around us every day. And, yes, we've been that person.

The one who wants something so badly we'll take it any way we can get it. Including hoping the person or organization we're up against, our competition has a really bad day.

But, is that really winning? Is that what it's all about? No matter the "objective score," will it make us feel the way we want to feel?

Or, will it lead to a paper win, but a hollow heart?

Beating someone else's bad day isn't the same as stepping into your best.

What if you could go about it differently? What if you could reframe winning on both a deeper and larger scale?

What if you could not only win, but change the zero-sum structure of most games in a way that elevated not only you, but the human condition.

That's what this week's GLP Riff is all about.

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