What's Your Sparketype with Jonathan Fields

Today, I am interviewing my friend, Jonathan Fields. Jonathan has been an incredible source of inspiration and support over the years along with his wife Stephanie. I'm really excited to be sharing his latest book with you "Sparked". We're talking about the journey of how that book came together, what he has learned about himself through the assessment, and also what I've learned as a sage/maker with an anti-spark type of nurture. So you have to dig into the conversation and hear about what we both learned about ourselves and how it can make us better leaders, better team members, better partners. I am just loving this conversation and I hope you do too.    Jonathan shares his insights:   Yeah you know, so there are a couple of seeds along the way, and I've been thinking about this a lot like when did this because the book is based on an entire body of work, which is really asking the question - 'How do I find and do work that is deeply meaningful to me that fills me with purpose that gives me access to flow that lets me feel fully expressed?' And, I've been obsessed with that question for pretty much my entire adult life. But when I was tracking it back, I think I really the really early seeds of this particular question we're probably planted for me around 911 now you know until very recently, I was a lifelong New Yorker. Was there in the city during 911; knew somebody who went to work and didn't come home that day who was very successful it didn't change anything. And you know, of course, thousands of people didn't come home that day and being in the city, you know sort of witnessing what happened all around me. And I, the day before and you know, this story I had actually signed a six-year lease for a Florida building to open what I hoped would become one of the premier yoga centers in New York City and I woke up the next day to 911 so I had a lot of questions spinning my head one was you know - 'Who did I know you know who wasn't with us anymore and the other big question was 'Am I really gone to say yes to launching a business?' into what was then just a sea of profound suffering and uncertainty, just dramatic uncertainty. And there are a lot of interesting parallels to the last couple of years in odd ways. And through, really thinking about what happened to the people that I knew that didn't come home that day and the decisions, I wanted to make I really decided that it was important for me to say yes to doing something that I knew would fill me up and also potentially really be of service to a broader community.   We only have one pass-through like and we have no promises made to us and you know, to the extent that we have control over the way that we get to spend our days.    I wanted to figure out like how do I make decisions, what do I say yes and no to that will make me feel most alive, that would be most meaningful in like my time that I have here. And that seed is just kind of brewed and showing up in a lot of different ways that literally fueled allowed at the yoga that I taught for seven years. It then feels the launch of businesses and books and brands and Good Life project, which is actually celebrating its 10th year anniversary this year which kind of blows me away. Was you know definitely an outgrowth of that too and it's really been in the last five years or so that I've started to devote a lot more energy to the narrower question of identifying work that fills us up that you know, makes us come alive and can I figure out how to build tools that would really help people in that quest because there's a lot of great work out there, but there were specific questions that it wasn't seeing answered. And I want to go deep into those questions so it's been kind of an evolutionary process with a couple of particular moments that have dotted it along the way, that really sort of you know, like shifted my course a little bit.   That we didn't know and we had language to explain so much of why certain things came more easily to me and why certain things were really hard to me and it created both like a deeper conversation and connection and also in certain circumstances forgiveness. And so it's really been interesting to see how the body of work has sparked conversations that have nothing to do with the world of work. But really are just about like between people and how they show up in the world and helping people understand each other. And then, work together more effectively, even if it has nothing to do with their jobs if it's just the way that you run your household the way that you parent, the way that you like show the volunteering around the neighborhood it's just it's really interesting to see you know you create something that in your head has one purpose and one intention and then you let it go to into the world, and you really have no at that point it's like people will start to tap it to do all sorts of different things, and so it's been amazing to hear all the different ways that people are sure like applying the broader body of work, like the book itself sure, but also just the body of work in the tools.   Jonathan Fields—the Good Life Guy—delivers insights that spark purpose, possibility, and potential.   On a decades-long quest to discover what makes people come fully alive, Jonathan is an award-winning author, Webby-nominated producer, business innovator, and host of one of the world’s top podcasts, Good Life Project. The Wall Street Journal named Good Life Project one of the top self-development podcasts, and Apple featured it on-stage during its legendary annual product event. Jonathan is featured widely in the media, including The New York Times, FastCompany, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, CNN, The Guardian, O Magazine, SELF, Allure, Outside, Elle, Vogue, Fitness, and thousands of other outlets.   In addition to writing award-winning and bestselling books like SPARKED: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes Us Come Alive, How to Live a Good Life, and Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel For Brilliance, Jonathan has founded several companies with a focus on maximizing human potential. The most recent is Spark Endeavors, where he is the chief architect and driving force behind the world’s first purpose, engagement, and flow archetypes–the Sparketypes®. This powerful tool has been tapped by over 600,000 individuals and organizations, generating more than 30-million data points and a rapidly growing body of stories, use-cases, applications, and insight-based solutions to help transform how we work, lead and live.   On the live or virtual stage, Jonathan captivates with eye-opening ideas, stories, and science. He draws not just from his own experience, but also the wisdom of the many global visionaries he’s interviewed, along with insights from the vast data-set generated by the Sparketype Assessment. It all adds up to a rare ability to take audiences on a joyful journey of discovery. Jonathan’s unique insights and solutions inspire people to put what they learn into action.   Learn more about Jonathan:   Website/Book links:  https://www.jonathanfields.com https://www.jonathanfields.com/books/