Jonathan Fields On Finding Meaningful Work

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 13.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2021

⏱️ 127 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What am I here to do? What should I do with my life? What is my purpose? Today’s guest has devoted his life to helping people answer these important questions. Meet Jonathan Fields. Author of many a bestselling book, including How to Live a Good Life, Uncertainty, and Career Renegade, he’s the man behind the wonderful Good Life Project podcast and community, a sought after public speaker, father, and a dear friend and personal mentor of mine. He’s been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, FastCompany, Inc., Entrepreneur, Forbes, and USA Today, just to name a few. Making his third appearance on the show, today Jonathan joins me in the studio to share his unique core belief and perspective, which is that everyone has an innate imprint for a certain type of work—work that makes you come alive. After many years of deep thought and research, he’s divined an evidence-based method for helping others discover meaningful careers, which is explored more deeply in his fascinating new book Sparked. This exchange is essentially an excavation of the self. We grapple with big life questions, break down the components of meaningful work, and what it takes to not just find, but create a fulfilling career. We also dive deep into Sparktypes, which is essentially the social psychology version of Human Design or the Enneagram. After surveying over 500,000 people and accruing 2.5 million data points, Jonathan has created a system to help you better understand your needs when it comes to finding purpose in your professional life. You can take the free quiz at sparketype.com. I love Jonathan’s focus on process over results. His emphasis on the journey over the destination. His deep understanding that authenticity is everything. My hope is that our conversation guides you towards work that suits you, fits your unique blueprint, motivates you, excites you, and fills you with purpose. Work that sparks you, and ultimately sets you on a trajectory to a life marked with more meaning, flow, and joy. To read more click here. You can also watch listen to our exchange on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I adore this beautiful man for reasons you will soon discover. Enjoy! Peace + Plants, Rich

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a certain line of thought that says the ultimate aspiration is to be happy.
0:04.9	So we should aspire to just live a happy life.
0:07.2	And if you ask the average parent what do you want for your kid, they're going to say
0:09.6	like, oh, that's be happy.
0:11.4	The reality is if you know that, A, it's not a persistent state.
0:15.9	It's a moment that we pass through.
0:17.6	You're like here and there, which is awesome.
0:19.5	But to expect to live there, to dwell in that state is setting yourself up for a futility
0:25.4	and failure.
0:26.7	And for many a sense of shame because you haven't lived up to the expectation that you've
0:30.8	been told is possible.
0:32.5	It's not.
0:33.8	You know, there's research that actually shows the direct pursuit of happiness leaves you
0:37.4	less happy.
0:38.8	You do other things that are meaningful, that are relational and aside benefit, it will
0:45.2	increase our late-to-net happiness.
0:47.1	I think that's what it comes down to.
0:49.7	Like, how do we know ourselves better and make better decisions so we can take better
0:54.7	actions?
0:55.7	So we can figure out pieces of that puzzle.
0:58.1	Everything gets a lot easier and better.
1:00.1	To me, happiness is the snapshot, meaning is the movie.
	...

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