Good Life Project

Today's guest, Dr. Alice Wilder, is one of the creative geniuses behind some of the biggest kids' "edutainment" juggernauts in history, from Blues Clues to Speakaboos and the recent Emmy Award-winning Amazon Kids program, Tumble Leaf.

Her entire journey, though, might never have happened but for the fact that one person, in her case a teacher, noticed something special and "sparked" her curiosity and, in turn, her life.

In this week's conversation, we talk about her fantastic adventure. We discover how "being Josh" in the famed Tom Hanks movie, Big, fueled a dream that then turned into a profoundly rewarding living and life. We dive into what the word "sparking" is all about, how a single person or moment can change everything and how you can be that catalyst both for others and for yourself.

And, we talk about the power of curiosity, of reconnecting with your inner kid, a willingness to try and fail and just move on. We explore the joy and illumination that comes along with learning from and working with kids and the absolute egoless honesty they bring with them.

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Have you ever found yourself saying, "if only I had more [insert missing ingredient], I'd be able to succeed on a totally different level?"

Yeah, me too. Thing is, with very rare exception, that's never true. Taking your game, your craft, your career, your creative or innovative juices, your art and outcomes to the next level is often not about more, but about less.

Less money, less ability, less resources, less freedom, less of everything. When you are constrained, it forces you to operate on a whole different level. And, that's often where the real magic happens.

That phenomena, why we're wired that way, and a fun bit of research is what this week's GLP Riff is all about.

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By the time people living with autism hit their mid-20s, they often "age out" of all the services and support available to them. Many, in fact, 80-90% end up unemployed, often for life according to this week's guest, Tom D'Eri.

Tom wasn't about to let that happen to his little brother, Andrew, who'd been diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Obsessed with entrepreneurship as a kid, and following in his dad's footsteps, Tom and his dad decided to create an entrepreneurial venture designed to both employ and provide community for those living with autism. They also wanted to show the local community and corporations that people living with autism can be wonderful contributors to a workforce.

The perfect vehicle, amazingly enough, was a car wash that came to be called Rising Tide Car Wash. What happened with that business, it's astonishing success, how it changed not only his brother, but also the lives of so many others, including him and his family, that's the conversation in this week's episode of Good Life Project.

Along the way, we also talk about Tom's dramatic change at age 11 from an overweight, non-athletic kid to the captain of nearly every major team and what triggered to metamorphosis. And we explore how autism affected the entire family, including Tom's dad's decision to stay true to his entrepreneurial calling, even in the face of six-figure therapy and medical bills.

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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 you give me some help?”

We feel great for a moment. And, then those we ask for help do exactly what we wanted. But then, something we never expect happens. They abandon us. Worse, they get angry at us. And, we’re left even more alone and in need than before.

What we don’t realize is, they’re not the problem. We are.

They didn’t choose to abandon us, we forced them to.

We made it impossible for them to help. We asked for guidance, then refused to receive it. And, we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

How and why this happens, and what to do about it, is the focus of today’s GLP Riff.

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

We're all guilty of it...

It's something we all do. For some, it's not a big deal, intruding on rare occasion. For others, though, it literally controls your life. It fills each day with what feels like an impenetrable level of suffering and it's often accompanied by a stifling level of hoarding, both emotional and physical. Especially when the that hoarding of things and states helps to delude you into desperately yearned for feelings of certainty and security.

What is it?

Grasping.

We hold mercilessly onto certain pain, rather than release into uncertain possibility.

Thing is, we don't often realize the suffering is coming from our own refusal to let go of our death grip on the very thing or relationship or experience that is causing unease until we've been metaphorically and, sometimes, physically hammered into letting go.

How this unfolds, why we do this and what to do about it is the focus of today's GLP Riff. And, along the way, you just might learn a thing or two about...waterskiing (you'll have to listen to find out what that's all about).

So, I'll leave you with a question...

What are you holding onto now that's smothering you under the weight of your own unrelenting grip?

Now, go listen now. And if you know anyone this might help, please feel free to share it around.

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From the time he was a kid, Sean McCabe was obsessed, strike that, possessed, with letters.

The shape. The form. The curves and nuances. Not just the fonts you see on computers, but the ones drawn painstakingly by hand, what's come to be known as hand-lettering, consumed him.

A few years back, Sean began posting his work online. Nothing happened for the better part of two years. Then, lighting began to strike. In part, riding along with and, in part, helping to fuel a massive resurgence in both the practice and demand for hand-lettering, Sean's posting began to catch fire.

People wanted to not only buy his work and hire him, though, they also relentlessly asked "how" he did what he did. Both as an artist, and as a professional who'd built a career hand-lettering.

That demand kicked off a journey Sean never saw coming. One that's now led him into what he terms the next "season" of his life, moving away from the practice of hand-lettering and into his role as a leader and teacher in the business-side of art. He's built a tremendous educational resource with his Learn Lettering course, a broadcast-quality podcast and video series with a global audience and an emerging career as a keynote speaker. And, there's lots more in the works.

In this week's episode, we dive into the exact steps along his journey. We explore how he developed his skills as a hand-letterer, then shifted his focus to cultivate the same depth of expertise in business and media. Sean is incredibly transparent and generous and he also shares a mountain of strategies for building not just a business, but a life. In fact, this conversation was recorded during one of his "7-week sabbaticals," a one-week window that he takes work-free every seven weeks. We talk about how that began and, also, how sacred and important it has become.

Oh, and P.S. - An all-new Learn Lettering 2.0 classes will launch on July 27th, 2015. I was a student of the first one and I was blown away by both the depth of the content and the production values.

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How often have you put off doing something uncomfortable and told yourself the timing's just not right?

The timing will be better when, if, then, because, after.

So you wait. And you wait. And you wait.

Did you do what you said you were going to when you got more money, more time, more resources, more stability? More often than not, you probably didn't.

Sometimes, bad timing is a legitimate issue. But, equally if not far more often, it's not. Instead, it's an excuse for avoiding the uncertainty of doing something new. It's not based on sound analysis and intelligent exploration, but rather fear and avoidance. Driven largely by the desire to not have to wade from a place of certainty back into the uncertain abyss, even when that place of unknowing is the gateway to stunning possibility.

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

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Monte Carlo. It was the match of a lifetime.

If chess phenom, Susan Polgar won, which she was favored to do, she'd clear a million dollars in prize money and doors to untold new opportunities would swing open.

She won the first two games in a best of eight match, But then, in a wild battle, her opponent fought back. Eight games in, the match was tied. She won the first tie-breaker. Her opponent won the second. Then, in a bizarre twist of politics and fate, a third tie-breaker was disallowed. Her fate, it was determined, would lie in the flip of a coin.

One million dollars and every dream door opening, years of practice and hours of fierce competition, now surrendered to luck. What happened on that fateful day, who won and who lost is just one of the many stories we explore in this powerful conversation with Hungarian-born chess Grandmaster, teacher and philanthropist, Susan Polgar.

We dive into what it was like growing up in Communist Hungary in the 70s, how chess transformed her life, gave her opportunities to travel the world and also dropped her into the middle of political and cultural battles. We talk about how she defied the odds and made history in a still male-dominated sport.

We explore how, at 12 years old she captured her first World Chess Championship, became the top-rated female chess player in the world then, at 21, soared to the top in the face of sexism, discrimination, and disbelief and captured the coveted title of Grandmaster.

We talk about what can chess teach us about life, business, education and what led to her recent collaboration on a book about the intersection between investment and chess, Rich As A King: How the Wisdom of Chess Can Make You a Grandmaster of Investing.

And, we dive into her role as the Director of SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) at Webster University outside of St. Louis, MO which has been ranked #1 in Division I College Chess since its inception in August 2012.

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What if there was a single trait that was a virtual unlock key for an extraordinary life?

Ok, maybe there's not a single magic trait, but there is something I've observed that seems to be omnipresent in the lives of those who live great lives.

It doesn't matter whether, they're movers, shakers, artists, makers, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, caretakers or anyone else. This one trait seems to be some kind of good life ignition switch.

What is it? Curiosity.

Turns out...

Curiosity is a key driver of a life well-lived. (tweet this)

And that brings up a question...

Is curiosity a childlike state of wonder you are born with or can you develop the trait of curiosity by following a set of practices?

The answer may surprise you. We dive into this question and come up with some eye-opening and actionable answers in this week's GLP Riff.

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