How to Live a Good Life by Jonathan Fields
I don’t remember exactly how the work of Jonathan Fields came into my life, but I remember exactly where I was when it did—It was the beginning of last fall, and I was riding my bike on the carriage roads in Acadia National Park while listening to an interview he did with Elizabeth Gilbert on The Good Life Project podcast. It was a glorious day for a bike ride, and I remember at the time thinking how impressed I was that the podcast was making it even better. At one point in the interview, I stopped my bike, dug my phone from my bag, and skipped the recording back to listen to a particularly impactful part of the conversation. Then I started from the beginning and listened to the whole thing again.
It was that good.
A few weeks later, while listening to every Good Life Project podcast I could get my hands on, I stumbled upon a book that changed a lot for me last year and continues to shift my thinking — Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive. (You may remember me writing to you about it. I went down quite the rabbit hole with some of you on our Sparketypes—a topic I’m still happy to talk about.) So naturally, as a person does when she deeply, fanatically loves a book,
I searched for other works by the same author and ran across this book published in 2016—How to Live a Good Life.
It’s organized on the premise that our life runs on the energy and fuel contained in three buckets ⤵
The Vitality bucket = health, energy, resilience, growth, outlook
The Connection bucket = friendships, relationships, community
The Contribution bucket = work, calling, vocation, investments
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And these three truths⤵
“The buckets leak.”
It takes daily work in these three areas to keep seeing life as good.
“Your emptiest bucket will drag the others down with it.”
No one area of life can be ignored for long without feeling the effects.
“The buckets never lie.”
Getting honest about what we’ve been ignoring and what might be fueling our discontent is one of the best things we can do for ourselves.
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It’s a really good book, one I’ve been using in my own personal growth and in conversations with the people I love for weeks now, flipping through its pages during my morning reading time to remind myself of the best quotes, principles, and exercises.
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Here are a few of my favorite quotes ⤵
1
“Exercise and movement.
There are perhaps no better therapies for nearly everything that ails us.
These two elixirs are powerful Vitality Bucket fillers.”
2
“We can’t make good decisions until we know what matters to us. . .
Self-knowledge isn’t about the person you wish you were or might someday become.
Nor is it about the beliefs and values you think society wants you to have.
It’s about who you are now.”
3
“Belonging is a dish best served in person.
It can and often does start through technology,
but there’s a connection that is formed when you’re face-to-face
that changes and deepens everything. . .
Nothing touches the depth of belonging that is cultivated when
hearts, souls, and bodies come together in the same space at the same time. . . “
4
“What if instead of asking what your passion or purpose is, we asked different questions?
What are you interested in?
What are you curious about?
What’s fascinating to you?
What have you read or seen or heard that you want to know more about?
What do you love to do, just because?”
5
“What if the things that need doing aren’t really the things that matter? . .
And what if the better, more enjoyable way
to get what matters done is not to speed up, but to slow down? . . .
Simple truth: fast and busy are a choice.”
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I could give you so many more, but I won’t spoil it for you.
Get your hands on a copy — you’ll be glad you did.
Unfortunately, this book is rarely available with other books by Jonathan Fields on Bookshop.org, so his website book page may be the best place to look for it, although this links to Amazon :\ So, if you’re trying to share your dollars with local bookshops and keep them out of Amazon’s pockets right now like me, you may be able to grab a copy at Thriftbooks or order it through your local bookshop or library.
I hope you love it!