Life on Purpose

For Life on Purpose Episode #59, my guest is serial entrepreneur, growth strategist, and award-winning author Jonathan Fields. Jonathan joined me for a fantastic chat about his new book, How To Live a Good Life, Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom, in which he steps out from under the entrepreneurship umbrella and into the realm of the subject that truly fuels him, a broader exploration of human potential. The book is a practical and provocative modern-day manual for the pursuit of a life well lived. We also talked about human potential; the incident at age 17 that planted the seeds for his work with the Good Life Project; the art of a great interview; vulnerability; Elizabeth Gilbert's "secret"; Camp GLP; the concept of the three buckets; teaching that thing we each need to learn most; how 9-11 motivated him to live life NOW; and MUCH more! "If I'm asking people to be open to ideas, I need to model that same state myself." About: A dad, husband, serial entrepreneur, growth strategist and award-winning author, Jonathan Fields inspires possibility. He currently runs mission-driven media and education venture, Good Life Project®, where he and his team lead a global community in the quest to live more meaningful, connected and vital lives. They produce a top-rated podcast and video-series with millions of listens and views in more than 150 countries, where Jonathan regularly shares conversations with the world's leading voices, like Sir Ken Robinson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Milton Glaser, Brene Brown, Grethcen Rubin and hundreds more. Along the way, Jonathan has built a number of community-driven ventures or, as he calls them, Businesses of Belonging™, taught everything from yoga and mindfulness to entrepreneurship, branding and innovation to thousands. Along with his world-class faculty, he now offers a growing catalog of events, trainings and courses that range from mission-driven entrepreneurship to building innovative cultures and living good lives. He begins with cracking open the often long-closed window to possibility, then offers strategies and tools for action and progress. Jonathan is regularly featured in the media, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, FastCompany, Inc., Entrepreneur, USA Today, Real Simple, HOW, O Magazine, Self, Outside, Slate, Vogue, Elle, Allure, SELF, Yoga Journal, CNBC, Fox News, Today Show, PBS Nightly Business Report and thousands of other places that sound cool, but don't impress his daughter all that much. He also speaks globally for organizations and events of all sizes, from keynoting private meetings for clients like Paypal, GE, Novartis and twitter to taking the stage at mega-events like SXSW, World Domination Summit and many others. When not building ventures, writing and producing, he can be found dancing around his living room with his wife and daughter, writing in the third person and listening to "real music." #AirSupply. #KissFanClub. To learn more about Jonathan and his work, visit: http://www.jonathanfields.com/.

For Life on Purpose Episode #58, my guest is artist, executive coach, author, actor and filmmaker Aaron Anastasi. Aaron joined me for an inspirational chat about his new book, The Voice of Your Dreams, a practical guide about silencing the voices of limitation that may be impeding your progress and living a life full of greater possibility.

We also talked about his own unique life journey (surfer, singer, theological student, actor, and more!), overcoming fear, the "Rackets" that can limit us in life and how to shift those, "the Work" of Byron Katie, and MUCH more! "All fear comes from contemplating the future. Action eradicates fear, as does shifting the focus from self to the end user—those being served by you." About: Aaron Anastasi is a Southern California native who graduated with a master's degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied philosophy, psychology, and theology. He's also a serial entrepreneur with online businesses such as Superior Songwriting Method, Signing Success, and the internationally recognized, Superior Singing Method, an online singing lesson program that grosses seven-figures annually. Aaron has the #1 singing/life lesson channel on YouTube and has over 11.5 million organic views and over 130 thousand subscribers total on his three channels. Having a love for adventure, he was a pro snowboarder in Vail, Colorado, scaled Glacier Lake mountains in Bolivia, and cut pathways through the jungles of Contagem, Brazil. Along with being a Los Angeles based actor and filmmaker, Aaron is also a prominent success coach for clients in industry-leading roles, ranging from film directors to marine biologists to TEDx speakers. His new book, The Voice of Your Dreams, was released in April 2016, and reached Amazon's top 100 best sellers within the first week of release. To learn more about Aaron and his work, visit: https://thevoiceofyourdreams.com/home-a.

For Life on Purpose Episode #57, my guest is author and psychotherapist Susan Anderson, who has devoted more than 30 years of clinical experience and research to working with the victims of abandonment trauma, grief, and loss and teaches people around the world how to overcome abandonment and its aftermath of self-sabotaging patterns. Susan joined me for a powerful chat about her new book, The Abandonment Recovery Workbook: Guidance through the Five Stages of Healing from Abandonment, Heartbreak, and Loss, as well as how her own life journey paved the way for her most powerful work, and MUCH more! "Learning the steps to take after surviving a great loss is a hopeful process. You discover your ability to benefit from the experience rather than be diminished by it," says Anderson. "Many of you are going through heartbreak, getting separated or divorced, or feel isolated and alone. Many of you are grieving over someone close to you who has died. Some seek recovery from childhood wounds that impinge on the quality of your current life. But our journey will take us beyond the specifics of your loss, all the way to the underlying source of the fear and despair —abandonment — the crux of the human condition." About: Susan Anderson is a psychotherapist who has devoted over 30 years of clinical experience and research to working with the victims of abandonment trauma, grief, and loss. Author of Taming your Outer Child: Overcoming your Self Defeating Patterns; Journey from Abandonment to Healing; Black Swan: Twelve Lessons of Abandonment Recovery; and The Abandonment Recovery Workbook, she is founder of the Abandonment Recovery movement, a worldwide program of techniques and support groups that help people heal their abandonment wounds past and present, overcome their self-defeating "Outer Child" patterns, and find greater life and love. Through extensive clinical research, group work, and scientific study, she has developed a treatment protocol specific to overcoming the impact of abandonment trauma in adults and children. Her five universal stages of abandonment recovery (Shattering, Withdrawal, Internalizing, Rage, and Lifting) are based upon scientific findings related to the psychobiology of separation and attachment. Through her books and public appearances, she shares her own experiences with abandonment, grief, and recovery, speaking passionately from personal and professional experience. In addition to her national tours to promote abandonment recovery, she continues in private practice in Manhattan and Long Island. To learn more about Susan and her work, visit: http://www.abandonment.net/.

This week on Life on Purpose, we celebrate a momentous occasion: my five-year podcast anniversary — during which time I've produced 56 LoP episodes and nearly 200 hour-long conversations overall!

To help commemorate my journey, I'm joined by the man whose work and community inspired me to start my first podcast (Radio Enso) back in the summer of 2011: author and world-changer Chris Guillebeau.

Chris joined me for a wide-ranging, inspirational, and personal conversation centered around his work and philosophy ("There's more than one way to live your life."); making deliberate and intentional choices in your life; asking, "How can I use my power for good?"; the changes and challenges he's faced since our previous conversation in 2012 including the loss of his brother; the annual gathering of world-changers and "non-conformists" that he hosts each summer in Portland (WDS); his new book Born for This: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do; and MUCH more!

About: Chris Guillebeau is a New York Times bestselling author and modern-day explorer. During a lifetime of self-employment that included a four-year commitment as a volunteer executive in West Africa, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his 35th birthday. Since then he has modeled the proven definition of an entrepreneur: "Someone who will work 24 hours a day for themselves to avoid working one hour a day for someone else."

His first book, The Art of Non-Conformity, was translated into more than twenty languages. His second book, The $100 Startup, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, selling more than 300,000 copies worldwide. That was followed by The Happiness of Pursuit — published in September 2014 and also a New York Times bestseller.

And in his latest book Born for This: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do, he's created a practical guide for how to find the perfect job — whether within a traditional company or business, or by striking out on your own.

Plus every summer in Portland, Oregon, Chris hosts the World Domination Summit, a gathering of creative, remarkable people with thousands in attendance. He's also the founder of Pioneer Nation, Unconventional Guides, the Travel Hacking Cartel, and numerous other projects.

To learn more about Chris and his work, visit: http://chrisguillebeau.com/.

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For Life on Purpose Episode #55, a special "Soul Series" interview, my guest is preeminent theologian and bestselling author Matthew Fox, a popularizer of Western mysticism.

Matthew joined me for an enlightening chat about his new book A WAY TO GOD: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey, the Cosmic Christ, the divine feminine, eco-justice, and MUCH more!

"A WAY TO GOD is a powerful book about Merton's pioneering work in deep ecumenism and interfaith; about his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action; and about how the vision of thirteenth century mystic Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced both Merton and Creation Spirituality, which Fox has long espoused and written about."

"Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions." —Pope Francis

About: Matthew Fox is a preeminent scholar and popularizer of Western mysticism, who became an Episcopal priest after being expelled from the Catholic Dominican Order by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict.

He holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 60 languages.

He's devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His work is inclusive of today's science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West.

He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, and Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, The Reinvention of Work, A Spirituality Named Compassion and Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times.

In his latest book A WAY TO GOD: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey, he reimmersed himself in Merton's journals, poetry, and religious writings, finding that Merton's marriage of mysticism and prophecy, contemplation and action closely paralleled that of Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth-century mystic who inspired Fox's own Creation Spirituality.

To learn more about Matthew and his work, visit: http://www.matthewfox.org.

For Life on Purpose Episode #54, my guest is author, speaker, blogger, coach, and social entrepreneur Arvind Devalia.

Arvind joined me for a great chat about about making an impact in the world, increasing your own ripple effect, getting clarity on what your life is about, asking for help, and MUCH more!

"I am committed to opening you to the possibility of discovering your deepest purpose, living a fully expressed life filled with peace, love, well-being, courage and integrity."

About: Arvind Devalia is an author, speaker, blogger, coach, and social entrepreneur who extols the virtues of a life of contribution by making a positive and powerful impact on the world.

His Amazon best-selling book "Get the Life you Love & Live It" is the complete self help manual for your life with anecdotes and examples from his own life.

And he has been interviewed and quoted in The Mail, The Daily Express and various mainstream magazines in the UK, USA, India and other countries around the world.

To learn more about Arvind and his work, visit: http://www.arvinddevalia.com/.

For Life on Purpose Episode #53, my guest is internationally renowned teacher, speaker, and coach Zen Cryar DeBrücke.

Zen joined me for a fascinating conversation about her new book Your Inner GPS: Follow Your Internal Guidance to Optimal Health, Happiness, and Satisfaction, what that is, and how to use it.

"You were born with a factory-installed guidance system. It is like the GPS in a car. This system is called your Internal Guidance System, or IGS," writes Zen. "The guidance it gives you has many different purposes. The most important one is to get you from one end of your life to the other with as much joy, ease, and fulfillment as possible."

We began the interview with a short interactive exercise that listeners can use to better understand what we're talking about. We also discuss the concepts of opening, closing, and some simple, straightforward techniques for accessing this powerful source of inner wisdom on a daily basis.

About: Zen Cryar DeBrücke is an internationally renowned teacher, speaker, and coach whose programs have helped people all over the world transform their personal and business lives for the better.

As a Master intuitive coach and stress expert, she teaches about the physical sensations in your body that are called anxiety, worry and fear. She uncovered their relationship to one's thoughts and how to manage them for optimal health and happiness.

Zen is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council with experts such as Marianne Williamson and Jack Canfield, who said "Zen Cryar DeBrücke us a master who takes us by the hand and shows us that we all have deep wisdom within."

In her brand new book Your Inner GPS: Follow Your Internal Guidance to Optimal Health, Happiness, and Satisfaction (New World Library), she says that each of us is born with access to a powerful tool called an Internal Guidance System (IGS). Not unlike the GPS system that is built into cars, its purpose is to guide us through our lives by letting us know whether our thoughts and actions are moving us closer to, or further away from, the things we most want to create in our lives.

To learn more about Zen and her work, visit: http://zeninamoment.com/.

For Life on Purpose Episode #52, my guest is author, yoga teacher, mental strength coach, former pro-skater, and entrepreneur Cara Bradley.

Cara joined me for an inspirational conversation about her new book On the Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine and what it means to be "On the Verge": to show up in THIS exact moment and meet our potential to shine in all aspects of our lives. She empowers listeners to live from that place through practices and strategies designed to shift them out of their heads and fully into the present moment.

"When you show up in this moment — when you are 100 percent engaged right here and right now — you arrive in a space where you are fully aware," says Cara. "In this space, beyond your busy mind, you glimpse your naturally occurring state of being awake and fully alive. In this natural state your mind is clear, your body bright, and your heart open."

We also discuss the life-changing epiphany she had at her final college track race and how the question she asked then has shaped her life and work since.

About: Cara Bradley is an author, yoga teacher, mental strength coach, former pro-skater for Team Rollerblade® and entrepreneur having devoted more than three decades to movement disciplines and personal transformation. She is the founder of Verge Yoga in Philadelphia and the cofounder of a non-profit Mindfulness Through Movement, providing full year mindfulness programs to more than a dozen schools in urban Philadelphia. She is the host of a podcast series for Women for One called Real Women, Courageous Wisdom. Her upcoming book, On The Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine (New World Library) will be available in April 2016.

Cara reaches a nationwide audience through her Verge On-Demand Classes, workshops and retreats, and talks on human potential and presents at national conferences, corporations and universities.

Known as a mental strength coach to athletes, she has been training teams and elite athletes, including professional athletes, for over ten years with her unique Fierce Focus Mental Strength Training Program. Teams include Villanova Football, Lacrosse, Soccer and Basketball, Penn State Basketball, University of Pennsylvania Soccer, St. Joseph's Soccer and Field Hockey, and the USYSA Olympic Development Program.

Cara competed as a figure skater and turned professional at the age of fifteen when she began teaching. As a pro skater for Team Rollerblade, a performance group for Rollerblade Inc., she performed shows in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. She created and starred in SkateFit: The Complete In-Line Skating Workout (ABA Productions, 1994) and co-authored In-Line Skate New England: The Complete Guide to 101 Tours (Countryman Press, 2003) with Cindy Copeland Lewis and Tom Lewis.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from New York University, B.S. International Business and Economics and has started a dozen successful businesses including Blade Skatewear and Camp Rollerblade. She is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher ERYT with Yoga Alliance.

To learn more about Cara and her work, visit: http://www.carabradley.net/.

For Life on Purpose Episode #51, my guest is bestselling novelist and "striving yogi" Karan Bajaj. Born and raised in the Indian Himalayas, Karan now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Via his website and thriving online community, he shares his attempts to live a Yogic life in the heart of the material world.

Karan joined me for a great conversation about his new book The Yoga of Max's Discontent, which was published by Random House on May 3rd 2016. The book, called "The greatest adventure of our Generation" by The Daily Telegraph was inspired by his one year sabbatical traveling from Europe to India by road and learning yoga and meditation in the Himalayas.

"Growing up in the Indian Himalayas, I saw a steady stream of professionals — doctors, engineers, lawyers — leave their careers and live in ashrams and caves near my village. I never fully understood their motives. But 20 years later, I had the same strong urge to spend an extended time in silence and find a deep center of stillness within me after my mother's untimely death from cancer."

About: Karan Bajaj is a bestselling novelist and striving yogi. Born and raised in India, he has trained as a Hatha Yoga teacher in the Sivananda ashram in South India and learned meditation in the Himalayas. He is the author of the novels Johnny Gone Down and Keep off the Grass, both of which were No. 1 bestsellers in India.

His first worldwide novel, The Yoga of Max's Discontent, was published by Random House on May 3rd 2016. The book, called "The greatest adventure of our Generation" by The Daily Telegraph was inspired by his one year sabbatical traveling from Europe to India by road and learning yoga and meditation in the Himalayas.

He's has also worked in senior executive roles at companies like Procter & Gamble and the Boston Consulting Group and was named among Ad Age's "Top 40 Under 40 executives" in the US.

About The Yoga of Max's Discontent: A violent encounter on the streets of Manhattan forces Wall Street banker Maximus Pzoras to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother's death. His search for a mentor takes him to the farthest reaches of India, where he encounters a mysterious night market, almost freezes to death on a hike up the Himalayas and finally, finds himself in an ashram in a small drought stricken village in South India where strange things begin to happen to him.

But are Yogis who walk on water, do impossible poses, and live agelessly for 200 years the stuff of fiction or fact? Can a flesh and blood man ever truly achieve nirvana? Max struggles to overcome his rational skepticism and the pull of family tugging him back home. In a final bid for answers, he embarks on dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave. Will Max penetrate the truth of human suffering, or is enlightenment just a new age illusion?

To learn more about Karan and his work, visit: http://www.karanbajaj.com/.

For Life on Purpose Episode #50, my guest is psychotherapist, award-winning writer, former Buddhist monk, and teacher Donald Altman. Donald joined me for a excellent conversation about his new book Clearing Emotional Clutter: Mindfulness Practices for Letting Go of What’s Blocking Your Fulfillment and Transformation (New World Library). In the book, he offers readers easy-to-use daily practices designed to dissolve emotional clutter, whether it is old emotional wreckage from their childhood or new emotional clutter that they take on every day.“The purpose of Clearing Emotional Clutter is to help you heal and move on from pains, insults, traumas, toxic stressors, and emotional clutter from the past and the present — without blaming, shaming, or punishing yourself,” says Altman. “I like to think of it as a mindful lifestyle reboot — a way of clearing out the old, habitual methods of living and thinking that keep us stuck in emotional clutter to the point that we can’t imagine a way out.”About: Donald Altman is a prolific writer and expert on mindful eating whose career spans more than twenty-five years. He's authored several pioneering books on mindfulness, beginning with his 1998 Art of the Inner Meal. His book The Mindfulness Toolbox is the winner of two 2015 Ben Franklin National Gold Awards,

Another book, The Mindfulness Code, was named as "One of the Best Spiritual Books of 2010." He has also authored Living Kindness, Meal by Meal, The Joy Compass, and a personal guide to developing a mindfulness pratice, A Course in Mindfulness.In addition to his books, he was a staff writer for an EMMY-Award winning children's television show (The Magic Door, CBS Chicago), he won an American Medical Writer's Association Award, he co-created the first interactive comic strip on America Online, and has had articles appear in New Age Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and Independent Business Magazine, among others.Donald is also a practicing psychotherapist and former Buddhist monk who teaches in the neurobiology program at Portland State University.To learn more about Donald and his work, visit: http://www.mindfulpractices.com/.