Midlife Reimagined: What Should I Do With My Life Now?

So, what if the most important project you ever started wasn't a a book, a company or a movement, but the complete intentional, sometimes messy redesign of your own life? What if you gave yourself a a 2-year window all focused, all in, you know, just a season of learning and doing to set the foundation for the most fulfilling two decades of your life? I first shared this adventure with you, this thing I call my 2 by 20 about a year and a half ago, I guess. And for nearly two years now, 24 months of experiments, fear confronted, incredible breakthroughs, and the occasional necessary face plant, I've been living that question. I've been asking myself, what might I learn, do, or build in these two years that would set up my next 20 to center lightness, meaning, and joy? And friends, we are here. The 2-year window is closing, and that 20-year next big season has been set in motion. The learn and do window is transitioning to build and live. And what I have learned about myself, about work, about relationships, about what it means to be alive and connected in this moment is nothing short of radical. It's shaken my foundational beliefs in the best possible way. And today, I'm pulling back the curtain on the final chapter of this intensive learning and doing phase. I'll share a bit of what's happening as I finally start facing one of my big fears and stepping into the role of artist. I'll I'll tell you about the power of running experiments the right way. Um rather than just declaring a path, the unexpected alchemy of leading a 2x20 retreat, the deep lessons I learned from the very first brave humans who became 2x20 coaching clients, and the transformation of how I think about my public writing versus long- form works like books. And I'll also share some very personal awakenings and questions and sometimes struggles that I've had as I move through this powerful 2-year window and started building into my next big 20 year season of work, love, and life. If you've been following along, if you're in those middle years of life, uh if you've felt that persistent tug of restlessness, or if you've been secretly running your own version of the 2x20, this episode is your dispatch from the front lines. It's about the messy, beautiful, necessary work of becoming who you're meant to be. So, buckle up. This is a big one and for me, a truly personal and kind of profound one. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project. So, two years ago, my 2x20 was just a personal project, a simple way to organize my midlife reflections and kind of channel that energy into intentional action. At 58, I was looking at the two years that I had before I turned 60. And I asked myself a simple question. What can I learn, do or build in the next two years that it set up the next kind of big season of work and life to feel amazing? And the core qualities that I decided I want to center in the next season were in the beginning simplicity, significance, and joy. Though, as you'll soon hear, even those have changed over the last 2 years. Or actually, it's less that they've changed. I've just gotten a lot clearer about what I really what I really meant by them. and put another way, what the feeling beneath the words were, the things that I had actual control over, no matter what life brings my way. So, I started sharing my 2x20. I started calling this project 2x20 because it was 2 years to set up the next 20. And I shared that in uh actually it was a newsletter post, a Substack post, and then a good life project episode largely on a dare. Somebody who I knew who knew I was doing this just in my own personal life said, "I really think you should share this." and kind of dared me to do it. And I did. I honestly never expected this tsunami of response. It was clear. So many of you are just right there with me navigating this beautiful, sometimes terrifying, sometimes messy question of what's next and how do I make the next chapter the most aligned and significant and joyful and meaningful one yet? We're now at the tail end of this intensive two-year learn and do cycle for me. And yes, I have run a bunch of new experiments since my last updates. Some have been glorious successes like leading the first ever uh retreat actually which felt like watching a beautiful profound idea take on physical form. Some have been necessary failures, lessons in alignment, uh, energy management, and what I need to let go of to make room for the quote right things in my next season. And a few, um, like a metal smithing class and a deeper dive into being a maker, have felt like coming home to who I've always known myself to be, albeit in new and exciting and different ways. And everyone wants to know, um, what did you learn? Did you figure it all out? Have you achieved simplicity and significance and joy yet? And short answer was not entirely because life is life. But I'm building this scaffolding to make it a lot more possible. And a lot of it is actually starting to manifest in a powerful real felt way. And most importantly, what do I want the next 20 years to actually look like now that my two years are almost up? I'm here to share all of it. uh the raw truths, the um the hard one insights and the exciting sometimes terrifying new paths that it has revealed itself. So, I want to start out by revisiting uh a few of the foundational ideas in the 2x20. Long-term listeners and viewers have um heard me talk about this before, but if you're new here, I'll give you a little bit of foundation. So, let's go back to the blueprint for a minute for those who are new or a quick refresher. The whole concept of the 2x20 is built around the guiding question. What might I learn, do, or build in the next two years that would set up my next 20 to center the three defining qualities that you want to feel moving forward? The the things you'd love to experience more of, maybe even redesign your life around. For me, it started out as simplicity, significance, and joy. So my guiding question became then, what might I learn, do, or build in the next two years that would set up my next 20 to center simplicity, significance, and joy. And your words will likely be different. But I also learned that the three words we start with can sometimes evolve or deepen over time. As we start to get more intentional and precise and and learn what we really want, sometimes a different set of three guiding feelings emerge or what happened to me actually realized there was a deeper feeling or state underneath that was the feeling that I wanted to really center. So for example, that word simplicity, it evolved into lightness for me. So I thought life is so complicated and I tend to say yes to way too many things making it worse and then the world piles on and that leads to the feeling of complexity and stress and overwhelm sometimes even burnout. So I thought, hey, if I could keep things simpler, well, that would solve the problem, right? But over time, I realized while I do have a certain say in a certain amount of complexity in my life, there's also a lot of complexity that I don't and won't have control over, or I have some control over, but not full. Some things I'll never be able to make simple enough for me to be okay. From the state of the world to the state of my body as it ages. So by choosing simplicity as one of my guiding words, I was actually choosing a feeling or state that often lies outside my control. And in truth, it wasn't the feeling I was really after. What I really wanted was the ability to know that no matter what comes my way, I can still find a place of lightness even in the swirl of complexity and a certain lack of agency over elements of both like my own existence inside elements and also elements of the outer world. The thing I'll always have control over, I realize, is my response to these things. The ability to cultivate or return to a place of lighteness. It's not about blocking out the complexity or even minimizing it, but rather acknowledging it, acting upon it, doing what I can to change it while also cultivating the skills, practices, and shifts in mind that will give me access to the feeling of lightness even in the midst of the swirl and complexity, even when things get hard. So I realized the more actionable word for me, the feeling beneath simplicity for me was actually lightness. So I've been building the muscle of equinimity in the face of complexity, which counterintuitively gives me greater access to lightness. The aim is to allow the complexity and sometimes the angst that comes along with it to let it in, to let it affect me, and when appropriate mobilize me. and also to let as much of it as I can kind of in the the the Buddhist lens of it wash over and through me rather than smother and destroy me. So I made a similar shift from that second word also significance and I slowly saw that evolve from significance to meaning as my second guiding word or feeling. And what I realized is significance for me over time began to feel just how do you describe this? A little too external. Like it was about mattering to other people as the first and most important thing. And of course in truth look I do want to matter to other people at least certain other people. But that's also a really slippery slope to validation to surrendering your own feelings of being like feeling good about yourself to other people which I don't want to be a strong force in my life. And I realized what I really wanted to center was a feeling of meaning. Like how I exist in the world even when I'm doing nothing feels like it matters not just to others but first and foremost just to me. like how I show up, what I do, even just the energy I bring to an interaction or the way I express myself or make or create feels meaningful to me. I can experience that through the simple act of creation that closes the gap between my sense of taste and expression. Even if nobody else ever sees what I create or the way what I offer lands with someone else, it's this splendid both inside and outside job. It's the feeling that there's a reason to get up in the morning to be. So meaning became my second word. And joy, well, that's still just straight up joy. So those were my three guiding words, lightness, meaning, and joy. And that brings us to uh a second big awakening in my 2x20. It couldn't just be about contribution or work because as I've come to know, everything affects everything. So it had to be about what I call the three good life buckets. This entire process is filtered through the good life buckets. So bucket number one, vitality. This is about optimizing your state of mind and body. It's sort of like a foundation there. Bucket number two is what I call the connection bucket. And this is about the depth and quality of your relationship with others, with yourself, with the world and any sense of something bigger. And the third bucket is contribution. The way you devote effort or what most people might call work. Although it may not and sometimes, oftentimes, sometimes depending who you are, is not the thing you get paid for. You can't have a truly good life if any one of those buckets are running empty. They're a living, breathing ecosystem feeding each other. And in the beginning, I thought my 2x20 would be largely about contribution, but it became clear it really does have to be about all the buckets. You've got to put all three of the buckets in play because everything affects everything. And finally, to keep from just kind of wandering aimlessly, I kept coming back to a set of core guidelines. One, the guiding question is the anchor. Filter every decision through the question of lightness, significance, and joy. Two, always be running experiments. Get out of your head. Don't just think your way to an answer. it does not work. And I'll talk a lot more about that in a bit. Feel your way and act your way there. Number three, inaction is not an option. Keep bumping up against things that will then generate data that informs what comes next. And four, and this is maybe unique to me, resist the urge to commit too early. Hold the door open. Explore. Trust the process. This was one of the hardest things for my maker scientist self who just wants to build the thing now. I'm just constantly want to go into like, okay, I'm committing. I'm doing this new thing. I'm building it. This is where I'm and it was really important to not do that. even when I was getting hits like this is definitely going to be a part of what comes next to keep holding myself open to other possibilities so that I really could let those seeds germinate in a powerful way and also create the space for even cooler more interesting things to enter the conversation and before we dive into the experiments and awakenings and kind of cool new paths that are emerging from these experiments and even starting to get built let's talk a bit more about experiments because I've lived so much of my grown-up life as a series of experiments and projects. I took it for granted that everyone just kind of already knows how to choose how to run, how to assess which experiments would make most sense for them to run in their own lives and that people actually approach life that way. It's a series of projects or experiments to figure out like which are the things that give the best information are fun and insightful and also which help you travel down or create a a path that feels like it was just meant for you. Turns out I was wrong. Apparently most people don't operate this way and this was a big awakening. So as part of my own 2x20 and I'll share a bunch more about this um shortly. I accepted five coaching clients and in October 20 retreat participants to go deeper into creating their own 2 by 20 adventures. And as part of that, I realized I needed to distill my approach to experiments into something that was clear step by step and genuinely executable by others because the more conversations I had, the more I realized this is not the way we generally go about life. So, I went to work developing u --- hat's been going on for millions of years. And I know it's a little bit heady, but also something I feel in my bones when I'm in nature. That said, I have also been dealing with some body stuff. Kind of the story of my life to be honest. Being a a competitive gymnast, mountain biker, and rock climber in earlier years have taken a bit of a toll on this here frame over the years. So, I've learned that sometimes I actually need to listen to my body and ease off a bit. Give it time to recover and heal. Go figure. and maybe explore different forms of movement so I can kind of have like this swappable basket of ways I like to move my body differently that I can I can tag in as needed when any given way just becomes challenging for me. And that way if one isn't working, it's not about just not moving anymore. It's not like, well, I guess like I'm injured or I'm feeling this. I guess I can't exercise. I can't move my body anymore. I have these alternatives already in place. It's about shifting gears to something else for a bit that will work. So, of course, that also includes things like resistance training, which has been one of my big experiments, kind of a must do, especially as you head into life's later seasons, just to stop what's known as ccopenia or muscle loss that actually starts to happen to our bodies in our late 30s. I still wouldn't call it fun, at least for me. Let's be honest, it's a commitment, not a joy ride. Again, some people may love it. I still don't haven't I haven't found that that place in myself yet, but the delayed hit avoidance is a powerful motivator. I mean, I'm thinking about my 80-year-old self and and that makes the investment worth it. The commitment is now to longevity. Um to being able to feel that lightness and joy in my physical and mental body, not just now, but hopefully for years and decades to come. to being able to do what I want to do and move how I want to move for as long as I can. It's an investment that I am happy to make. And I'm also running these fun micro experiments which I categorize as things that take minutes to hours. Things like uh Tai Chi and Chiang and bodyweight exercises and more. and super easy to do this from my own home because of the magic of things like oh YouTube where 10 billion videos will let you run all these experiments for free from your own home and I've also been exploring some nutrition experiments right so let's talk a little bit about nutrition because this is such a fraugh issue for so many of us when it comes to vitality what experiments have I run around the way I fuel my body as a part of my 2x20 well Over the last two years, there have been so many. I honestly can't count them. Um, and many before that, in part because I love doing these kind of experiments. Um, but also because look, I'm at an age where my body's needs are changing in a pretty noticeable way. And I've been trying to learn how to fuel it properly, not just for today, but for decades from now. I'm trying to optimize for now, but also for 10, 20, God willing, 30 years from now. And I've also noticed that in my 50s, being very frank here, I've added some weight to my frame. And I wasn't too happy about it. Um, it's less about how it looks and more about just how it feels and how I feel. And also concerns about the impact of long-term health because I've seen the data. I have talked to so many researchers over the years about this and the feeling was limitation and quite literally heaviness and concern um which leads to a psychological sense of heaviness which is the opposite of lightness both physically and in the way I feel about myself psychologically. So, it's not about shaming myself when I think about this, but rather just wanting to feel good and take care of myself and know I'm doing right by my future self and those who also want me in their lives for a long time. Lightness and joy, these are still the drivers even when it comes to my nutrition. And being able to do the things I love at a level that feels good to me. So, you can't even imagine the experiments that I have run on the nutrition side. fasting, intermittent fasting, fast mimicking, plant center, clean protein, gluten-free, dairy free, low carb, highfat, uh, unprocessed or unultrrocessed, tons of water, know this, lots of that, wearing at one point literally two different types of continuous glucose monitors and taking my blood glucose at the same time and ketones. Some of these experiments lasted days, some weeks to months, some have become long-term habits. Now, some made me pretty neurotic and I am generally not a neurotic person at all and I felt like it was like too much. But what I've learned is that it's really individual to your physiology, your psychology, and your lifestyle. The only way to know what works for you is to learn what you can get as much deep information and insight as you can. I've done a lot of testing, too, and it's been incredibly helpful. and then choose what makes you feel the way you want to feel and gives you the long-term outcomes you hope to experience or at least set you on a path to that. And at least for me, that also has meant backing off being a total nutrition aesthetic. So, sure, I eat in a pretty clean way now, right? lots of fruits, uh, lots of vegetables. Um, try and keep my proteins really clean and keep a good balance of macros. Generally glutenreeish dairyfreeish. There's a lot of forgiveness built into here. There tolerances that helps with the whole lightness side of things and lets me feel and do more things that bring me joy and feel like I'm actually doing right for me and for my body and for my future. But but it also means I am not militant about anything. I sometimes eat the pizza or the bagel or the rainbow cookie or the chocolate because well I mean chocolate is basically my blood type. So that's a whole different story. But but you know in moderation for me for my psychology the life I want to live for my body um those things in moderation they're not going to do much. and the experience especially in a social context consuming these things with people I love and moments and experiences that I I love dropping into that also brings me joy and it's all about finding the right balance and that's kind of the place that I have come to individualization and balance which brings me to again in my vitality bucket experiments longstanding mindset practices and here I'm I'm not actually going to say much you have heard me blather on about long-standing meditation and breathing practices and how important they've been for me for a long time. So, I actually haven't really run many new experiments there. I just keep these practices going in the background because they're so important to my ability to live the life I want to live, relate in the way they want to relate, be less reactive and more intentional and responsive, and also again experience more lightness, experience more meaning, and more joy. But one last thing on my 2 by20 experiments related to my vitality bucket that I figured I would talk about a little bit that I don't think I have talked about before cuz it's kind of private to me. Um but it's also a really common experience. Um and that is something that I'm actually I haven't started doing but I'm planning on doing as I shift into my next 20 mode. I have been exploring the relationship between physical pain and the mind, focusing on a number of different modalities, studying a lot. Um, two that have really popped up on my radar, pain reprocessing therapy and journal speak. I keep wanting to do these experiments, but I've been having trouble fitting them in and honestly wondering why. So, I am someone who lives with varying levels of chronic pain. I rarely ever talk about it, but it's a part of my life and a part of my story. And I'm also fascinated by how the brain or the mind plays into this or potentially even generates pain and in turn differently harnessed or trained can potentially be the source of alleviation or relief. There is increasing research and evidence on this and more and more modalities that explored. It used to be like you know like oh your pain is just psychossematic. That was a dig. People felt shame. people felt sense of blame. What we now know is that so many things can happen in our brains that can lead to the experience of somatic physical felt pain that is actually being generated by our brain. Our brain is always a part of pain. Um but even if it starts from injury or illness and that is fully resolved, our brain can keep pain going or it can be related to things like past trauma. It can be related to keeping secrets. There's fascinating research on all of this. So, I'm going to be doing a bit of a medium duration experiment for um probably about 30 days or so or probably a series of different ones. I think the first one will be using Nicole Saxs journal speak as a way to see if I can tap the power of writing as a way to change my experience of pain through reprocessing it in my brain. I've had the gift of interviewing Nicole and also a number of others. Um, another recent conversation that comes to mind around this was one with Professor uh, James Pennaker on this topic and the research is truly compelling. So, you can go listen to those episodes if you're experiencing pain. That was Nicole Saxs and James Pennibaker, especially if you've tried everything or you thought you've tried everything um, especially the mainstream things and nothing has really helped and you're curious about a different approach. So big picture, what I'm realizing as we zoom the lens out on vitality bucket and the experiments that I've been running and still plan to run is that vitality for me, especially heading into the next season, it isn't about peak performance. It's about resilience and longevity, lightness, meaning, and joy. It's all boiling down to those guiding states. It's about building a body and mind that can handle the complexity that's around me and that I know is coming and that I, as a maker, will probably create more of. It's a continuous neverending investment. So let's move on from vitality bucketbased experiments in my 2x20 into connection bucket experiments and insights. For me, connection is the oxygen that fills the space created by vitality. It's where the energy goes out and comes back in and the touchstones remain. Um, and my wife and daughter and close friends and family are really at the core of it. So, the Sunday three bucket check-ins with my wife Stephanie have been so powerful, something we both look forward to. And if you haven't heard prior episodes, basically what this is is every Sunday morning we sit with a cup of coffee and use the good life buckets as a quick check-in. This can last anywhere from 10 minutes to sometimes it if there's really a lot to check in with a couple of hours and that is actually a great thing when that happens. We share really how full or empty each of the bucket has felt over the last week. We literally go bucket by bucket. We explore what's contributed to the feelings. And then we talk about how to support each other or what changes we might want to make to to keep them feeling better. And of course, when we get to the connection bucket check-in, we include our relationship in there, too. And it's become this great time to get honest about what we're feeling and explore what's driving it. Whether the feeling is disconnection or deep connection, it's this safe space to center what needs to be centered, to to build on what's working, to catch things that are getting hinky before they go off the rails. Did I just use the word hinky, by the way? Um, and to repair what needs repairing. I I would highly recommend this to anyone. So, that's a 2x20 experiment that has now become just a part of both of our lives. And I've also been focusing more on being really being present emotionally on a nano or micro level, meaning on a second to second or minute-to-minute basis, spending a lot of time together, not just being physically present, but also emotionally there. And honestly, that can sometimes be a challenge for me. As much as I have these long-term mindset and presencing and attention practices in no small part because the maker swirl that can sometimes consume me and also because technology constantly kind of like shouts at me. But my mindset practices do help me notice when I'm checked out more quickly and come home to the person in conversation that's right in front of me more quickly as well. And they also helped me put down the device and turn off notifications. On the connection side, also having our daughter home with us for a bit was this beautiful thing. I can never get enough of being with her. Whether we're doing nothing, whether we're walking through a green market, hiking on some beautiful trail together, just talking about life. Um it's like soul food for my heart. My wife and daughter are and will always be my ultimate ride or dies. I mean, talk about lightness, meaning, and joy. They are the most direct sources of those for me. And of course, then you factor in friends and hikes and coffees and regular calls which are still bedrock. I started running these micro experiments there as well. Making sure that I scheduled at least one call or Zoom, so that's remote and one in-person connection with friends a week. And sometimes you think that's really hard to do on a weekly basis. And yeah, it takes some energy, but once you just start doing it over and over, you realize it gives you back so much energy and and keeping those connections deep and alive is so nourishing and so important. It's worth it. It's worth setting aside the time to both schedule it and then make it happen. And that's become a truly important part of my days, too. They're kind of like the essential rhythm. No longer experiments at this point over the last two years. They're just life. No big changes there. just really baking them from actions and behaviors into habits and then increasingly just an identity level thing. And wh --- n happening for the last 6 months or so. So, I was very intentional about not narrowing focus too early. I wanted to keep experimenting and keep exploring and trying new things. But as my experiments made it ever clear what I wanted to focus my energy around, probably around 18 months into my 2x20, it felt natural and good to start really narrowing to homing in and building into the next season of contribution in a more focused way. And one of the big questions that I had and this really started coming up sort of like in the second year for me was whether coaching or advising in some form might be a part of my next big season of contribution. Now I've done a lot of advising and strategy work over the years. Uh but this was different in that the demand for my help right now, the call that is the loudest has been actually around helping others develop and implement their own 2x20 adventures, which is a different thing for me. Um I'm used to working with people in business, with founders, with strategy, with um you know, all sorts of things in in those domains. And this is just a whole different world, one that I'm deep in myself. Um but I didn't know how it would feel to work with others in this context. So, I decided the only way to know was to run my own experiments, taking on a very limited number of coaching clients. Now, before I did that, for some reason, even though I've literally been doing versions of this for decades, this voice inside of me said, "Well, maybe it makes sense to explore some more formal training, certification." Even those colleagues who know me well and are exceptionally skilled advisors and coaches told me that for me it probably wasn't going to give me what I needed or more accurately thought I needed. I thought maybe I knew better than them though because that's sometimes where my brain goes. So, if you've been with me on this journey, you'll remember I actually ended up doing two different coach certifications, both as what I call long-term experiments, meaning they took months. And I learned that what I wanted to know was not going to come from them. I should have listened to those friends and colleagues earlier, at least not from the ones that I did. So sure, I gained some new skills, but the real experiment had to take me into learning by doing in a much more embodied way. Studying the very things that I wanted to learn and at a pace that worked for me and me alone, not the average learning style and pace of a group. It really wasn't working. There were they were like important steps that ultimately helped me realize that I am at heart an autodidact meaning I need to design my own learning containers. They gave me language and structure but the modalities just weren't a good fit. It was a lesson in trusting my gut and also those who know me well and knowing when to say thank you next. That said, they also helped me realize the only way to know if coaching might be a joyful and rewarding part of my next season was to coach. I'd learned that I was kind of looking for a crutch I didn't need or an excuse not to just run the experiment of doing the thing, which is very unusual for me because I usually just do that. But there was resistance there. It was interesting to feel that. So early in the summer, I opened up two coaching spots for a three-month coaching engagement. The idea was to do a half-day deep dive session to do a lot of early wisdom transfer and start building momentum and action taking in this intense opening move and then work together twice a month over 3 months to help develop and guide and evaluate experiments as these amazing people crafted their own kind of juicy, rewarding 2x20 journeys. and it was all supposed to be virtual. A quick wrinkle occurred. So, first the two spots that I felt like I actually had time for, not that that would have been a great test anyway. Um, were filled in less than 10 minutes. It's kind of a big oof. Um, so I reworked my schedule a bit and and I figured I had to carve out some other time to take on three more clients for a total of five, which which again was actually probably a smart move because that gave me a lot more data. It was a it was a better experiment for me to run. And again, the added spots went so quickly that also really surprised me. Um, and the final one, this was the second wrinkle. The final person wanted to actually get on a plane and do the opening half day with me in person. Huh. Okay. I guess I decided to look at that as another kind of experiment, like a version of the experiment I thought I was doing with some different data to put in. The question was, would it be something that they'd enjoy and get a lot of benefit from, and would it be something that did the same for me? It had to be a two-sided. Yes, here for the experiment. So, big picture, I related it back to my three guiding words. Would it let me potentially feel more lightness, more meaning, and joy in the way I focus my contribution energies moving forward? Interestingly, and this was another I wouldn't call this a wrinkle, but it was something that I wanted to kind of test that we we did very differently. I didn't vet these opening clients, uh, which was another experiment. Everything I've ever done that was based around individual advising or service has had some kind of application interview process to help really just ensure fit before we started working together. But again, that adds complexity and takes more time. And so I was actually curious how worth it the process truly was. So for these I kind of took a big risk and took away that layer and turned out five incredible and very different people showed up. The work we did and for some continue to do was was really powerful. It felt fairly easeful and energy giving for me and I really enjoyed working in such an intimate and hands-on way which again kind of surprised me a little bit. That said, it also became clear that four clients at any given time or five was the absolute max for me. both in order to honor my introverted nature and need for solitude and creative work and also just because there are some other very big things that have been revealed and other I mean I'm also running two other companies at the same time right now and that I'm super excited to to keep building and shaping and bringing to life that'll take a pretty meaningful amount of my time. The final part of this experiment was the one person who asked to do the opening half-day session in person. They flew to Boulder. I grabbed a space at a local co-working space and we spent the morning um and then lunch together and I have to say um the in-person opening move felt very different to me. Different in a way that I think is at least on my side better just more energized, more direct, more alive. I mean there's a transfer of ideas and energy that happens when you're in a room with someone at least for me that's nearly impossible to replicate in the same way in the virtual space. So what was the verdict then with this experiment as the current cohort of coaching work starts to wrap up? I have decided to create space in my calendar to take on a max of probably two new coaching clients uh a month and I may end up actually having to cut that less as other things start to ramp for these limited 3-month engagements or what I call my 2x20 coaching immersion. And another big difference moving forward, I decided that the opening kickoff sessions will be in person here in Boulder because I just felt like there was a stronger connection that way. Again, adding to my connection bucket in addition to contribution. And that um we could do some really good juicy work. And another change that I'm seriously considering is making these opening sessions full day instead of half day. This would let us focus not just on exploring the models and doing some really powerful self-discovery work but also getting immediately into the whole approach to 2x20 experiments and then brainstorming, narrowing, defining and even implementing them in real time. So there'd be even more powerful momentum coming out of that opening day. And of course this doubling of the amount of time will also mean a bump in what in the amount of time that it takes for me. and also that would need to be reflected in what the cost would be. But I really believe these shifts will be worth it. So, I'm super excited to start inviting new clients into this experience as I head into my next 20. And the final change um will very likely also be adding in an application and discovery call as part of the process. The five clients that I've been working with have been amazing. And moving forward, I'm just feeling like it'll be important to have a process in place to ensure that great fit with new clients. And of course, since we're talking about 2x20 related experiments, that brings me to the second big 2x20 related experiment that was under my contribution bucket. And that is the 2x20 3-day retreat that we just wrapped a few weeks ago in Palm Springs. So, I mean, okay, beyond the fact that we hosted it at this stunning oasis of a home, just everything about it exceeded our hopes and expectations, 20 big-hearted open-minded beautiful humans showed up ready to learn and grow and do deep work and to connect and be vulnerable and real and just drop any facades and let their humanity lead. And the questions and the conversations that emerged from them were so rich and genuine and alive with both curiosity and awakening. And we work really hard to create a container that feels safe and warm and then build the experience from the food and the hospitality side which my wife Stephanie who's incredible experience designer oversees to a curriculum that's just packed with not just ideas and learning but also doing the work in real time in the room and not just individually but in groups and pairs and sharing and discussing and taking action along the way. We didn't truly know what to expect um going in on this. We've done a lot of experiences in the past from you international retreats to year-long programs to for 5 years we ran an adult summer camp that by the end you know had probably close to 450 people coming from around the world to do it. But this was different and we didn't know what to expect. We were blown away by what unfolded and also by how connected these 20 people who were strangers in the beginning felt by the end. Um were there glitches or things we change next time? Of course. This is where the learning comes from. This is why it's an experiment and will keep being an experiment as we keep learning. We were constantly making changes and refining along the way. I kept literally building and rebuilding the curriculum in real time based on what I was seeing unfold. when people were leaning in, when they were leaning out, which led to the biggest ahas or what were the juiciest conversations, and in the week that followed, I did a series of debriefs with Stephanie. But still, we pretty much knew by the end of the 3 days, this was something we wanted to keep doing. And then when the feedback started to come in and we started hearing in detail how impactful it was for the participants, I knew this was something that I wanted to keep deepening into and inviting people into as a part of my my own next big season of contribution. I mean lightness check. Um and I didn't know whether lightness would be a part of this experience for me because again introvert likes solitude. Um, and I was surrounded by, you know, like a people all weekend long for 3 days. But the way, the context, the the the way it all unfolded was very easeful for me. And there was a feeling of lightness with it. Meaning, oh, check big time. Just the the explosion of light bulb moments and awakenings and just even just sort of like low-grade sustained insights. Um, and seeing people connect and form relationships was so meaningful to me and joy a lot of moments of joy during it. So, we're going to keep doing it. Um, this was a really interesting experiment. I want to say also that if we had decided after this that it wasn't checking all the boxes, that would not have been what I consider a failed experiment. Do we have a hypothesis going into our experiments? Yes, this is part of my process. like and I I kind of have a feeling that we'll enjoy doing it and want to do more. But the key the key metric for our experiments the way we run them in 2x20 is learning not quote success by some other metric. Um so the the answer either way would have been have I just learned something really important. The answer would have been yes either way. It turns out that the information validated the hypothesis. Um, so it was learning plus a validated hypothesis that said do more. So in fact, we're going to do that. Um, by the time this episode airs, there will there should be new pages posted on my I think it's going to be on my personal website that both detail the coaching and retreat experiences with tons more info and links to apply or sign up if you're interested. I'll drop a link to those pages in the show notes, by the way, just for ease if you're curious about it. So those experiments um have been amazing, but they're also not even the big ones. The real seismic shift in the final year has been confronting the thing that both actively have been craving with every fiber of my being and also kind of simultaneously been avoiding for much of my entire adult life. And that is centering the artist um the maker. but not just the maker of things like businesses, brands, books, and media, which I've been doing for decades and exist largely in the virtual space, but rather things that get made with your hands with raw materials, things you can touch and feel that exist in the world. From food to bread to paint to canvas to metal to wood and beyond. These things are so core to who I am. They are the purest expression of my maker impulse. And yet I've created largely in the screenbased or mediacentric domain for most of my adult life. And it's been like it's been amazing --- in the immersive way I want to and keep writing regularly and publicly at the same time, especially given some of the other projects that I currently have going on and the ones that are soon to take a lot more of my time and energy. And finally, under the contribution bucket experiments, it was time to zoom out to the big enduring projects that have been centered in my contribution bucket for many, many years now. Because part of the 2x20 requires that I not have any sacred cows. There's nothing that I can hold back. I have to examine, be willing to examine everything, especially when it comes to my contribution energies. It was important to put everything I was doing up against the wall and consider whether it was something I wanted to keep investing energy in to keep doing to keep doing but maybe do it differently or to bring to an end or transition it. And what I realized is that I've been avoiding doing this in a meaningful way with the two major endeavors that have consumed much of my contribution energies for years now. this very podcast, Goodl Life Project, and also my other major endeavor, Spark Endeavors, which houses all the intellectual property and programming and services associated with the Sparketype body of work. So, looking at this podcast, many of you know I was very early to the podcasting world. We launched in 2012. It's I've been at it for 13 years now. And over that time, the show has grown into a pretty big thing. We've been blessed with a very large devoted global audience, many of whom have been with us for a very long time. And the show has been listened to and watched over a hundred million times. I mean, that's kind of insane. And as podcasting has become a real industry, um, and we just never quit, even when times were really hard and very few people were listening and the economy got challenging, we also grew to become a real viable business. And I'm proud to have grown with an amazing team who's been together for many years now. I never would have dreamed that what we've created is was even possible when I began. And I've also been careful to regularly try to do the dance of figuring out how to keep the show valuable and interesting and entertaining for our audience while also finding ways to ensure it's enough of a conduit for my own evolving and everchanging interest and curiosity that I'm excited to keep showing up for it month after month, year after year. And look, sometimes I do a better job of that. other times I don't. It's a really interesting challenge to honor how you've changed, to integrate that into the work that you're doing and keep striving to find the sweet spot between that and what others value. And I am incredibly grateful to know that you and so many others keep showing up and saying yes to the way that we're showing up. And in the same vein, as my interest and focus shift, you'll see that continue to be reflected in the shell over time. And it's why we keep running experiments with the show to find that sweet spot, including with solo episodes like this, where I get to just share a lot more of the behind the scenes, the big awakenings, be more personal, and and share what I've been discovering and thinking and feeling along the way, and I hope you find value in that, too. So, at the same time, we're also working on some very cool new experiments in the way that we produce and where we focus. We have a we have a really cool new series coming your way like our 8week future of medicine series that's happening here on the podcast every Monday actually in November and December. It's been incredible finding and interviewing some of the leading voices in science and technology and medicine over the last few months and learning about the incredible new discoveries and treatment modalities are coming and working with just my amazing team to put this whole thing together and experiences like this creating the space for evolution. um and change and letting our creative output reflect the evolving interests. Um that is part of what keeps things like the good life project which literally has the word project built into it alive and growing and and energizing for me over time. And that brings me to that one other long-term thing, the Sparotype body of work. So I developed the Sparketype assessment in 2018. Since then, over a million people have completed, generating one of the world's largest data sets on work and meaning, and more importantly, helping more than a million people really figure out what kind of work makes them come alive so they can go and do more of it because they need it and the world needs it right now. And the tools and programming have also they've been implemented in some of the biggest most innovative companies in the world. sometimes through our network of certified Sparketype advisors, other times directly through me and my own work with leaders and teams. Um, I literally was paid for a gig once in ice cream doing the Sparketype work because the gig and the client meant so much to me. So, it's been a pretty fun journey. It's a body of work that I'm incredibly proud of. And there's still so much more potential for new applications and programs and demographics to be impacted. And there's also, as much as I try to fight it, again, only one of me, which creates a lot of tension. So part of what I'm doing behind the scenes over the last year is working on running these micro experiments to trying to figure out the best way forward not just for the brand which now has global recognition but the full body of work and more specifically what will my or potentially others roles in that be. It's a big question with a lot of exciting tentacles that's going to take some time to figure out. So, I just been deep into the exploration and conversation mode, working on where it all fits into the mix of my next 20. So, no answers yet, but the tiny experiments are starting to yield more insight. Micro experiments to see what feels best, and those are already creating a bit of a trajectory here, but still too early to know exactly where it leads. But I wanted to bring it up because this is all a part of my contribution mix. And as you start to add new things into your contribution mix, it's really important to look at the things that have been there for a long time and ask the question, what is their continuing role? So this part of the exploration, it will continue past the opening two years of my 2x20 and we'll see what 2026 brings. And that brings me to today. As I record this, the window on the two-year part of my 2 by 20 is closing in just a few weeks. And I'm already transitioning into the 20-year season of transformation and new growth and creation. All designed to support my ability to do more of what makes me come alive while surrounding myself with people I cannot get enough of and bringing more lightness and meaning and joy into as many moments and days as I can. There's an incredible amount of clarity and momentum. As I spent a lot of the last 6 months shifting from learn, do and explore mode into narrow and create or build mode. The foundation is already largely laid, the scaffolding is largely there. And while there are still open questions, many answers and a sense of path along with the core elements of it have become clear. And I'm loving how it's all coming together. And what's been amazing is because I gave myself the full two years to get here, there's been this powerful blend of creative tension, I wanted to use this window of time to take action to learn a ton and start to build my next big season of work and life. And at the same time, knowing I'd given myself two full years and not two or six months has also built a lot of grace into the process. It's been driven more by curiosity, action that feels more like play or an exciting unfolding rather than any sense of force or friction or aggression. It's all just felt incredibly joyful and organic. And the level of clarity and insights and awakening and change kind of floored me because honestly, it hasn't felt all that hard. I mean, yes, I've worked really hard at it. Um, but it's also felt aligned and easeful, like kind of coming home to who I've always known myself to be and to how I've always known I wanted to live and work and be in the world, but never quite let myself own or make happen. It's almost like I'm finally just letting myself show up and assemble the pieces of my world in the shape of a puzzle that's a more honest, truer representation of me. And it feels a bit scary, but also the more I open to it, it also feels just really, really good. So now that I'm shifting into the next big season of work and love and play and life, what does that look like? A deepening of the relationships that matter most to me, my daughter, wife, family, and close friends. a deeper commitment to listening to and caring for my mind and body, but not in ways I've been told I'm supposed to do, but rather in ways that I have experimented with to know what truly fits who I am and what I need. The artist work, the work of the maker in me, especially the hands centered maker is coming closer and closer to center stage. Again, I'll share a whole bunch more on that um very shortly. The teaching and advising work is refined. My limited coaching work is now exclusively focused on guiding individuals in the creation of their own 2x20s, helping others design their next great season using all the frameworks and tools I've now developed and also gathering people a few times a year in a gorgeous retreat format for three transformational days and reallocating more of my writing energy back to longer form to books and stories. There may even be some fiction coming at some point, which really scares me, but also really entices and excites me. And also just books that spend less time telling you what to think and do in order to feel the way you want to feel and just making you feel it. And again, that'll tie in in a big way to the maker focus project that I'll soon share more on. In a more limited way, stepping back into some speaking facilitating the the 2x20 retreats is one mode I'm really excited about. actually just did my first TEDex in 15 years. I loved it. And strangely, now that I've gotten clear on how I want to show up as a speaker, interestingly, opportunities seem to be arriving courtesy of the strange universe we live in. Though, the topics will change to really better reflect where I'm focusing these days. And yes, the next 20 years will center much more on the creation of beautiful, meaningful, tangible things that exist in the real world, wrought not just from words and images, but also metal, wood, paint, and more. All from hands, which I'm literally sitting on as I share this because I know what it's going to look like, but I'm still not quite ready to reveal it. So, stay tuned. So if this whole 2x20 journey has taught me anything, it's that self-awareness is not a destination. It's this perpetual unfolding. And also manifesting what you want to be real in your life is not a destin. It is a perpetual unfolding. And by manifesting, I don't mean in the woo sense of the word. I mean just by making it happen, making it real. And if you let yourself be guided by these things, by this unfolding, you will naturally and eventually be moved into a state of change. And that can be scary. But you know what's even more scary? Letting fear stop you from becoming, or maybe more accurately, returning to who you've known yourself to always be. Before you built a life around expectations and desires that weren't entirely your own, or at least based on the truest possible understanding of who you really are, what truly matters to you, and what you need to feel and experience in order to not just exist, but feel alive. And you can't do this by just focusing on a single domain of life. Because, as I've shared, everything affects everything. So, you've got to put it all up against the wall. Stop trying to think your way to answers and solutions. You've got to do your way to them. Find support, even if it's just your dog, who likely knows you better than most and supports you more unconditionally than most. And do the joyful work of coming home and coming alive. And as I've come to learn over these last two years, this isn't just my story. This is the story of anyone who is at a crossroads wondering what their next great season could be. The answer is rarely found in the head. It's found in the doing, the experimenting, the courageous act of asking the question and then living your way to the answer. So, as my 2-year window closes and I shift into my next big season, I want to turn the question back to you. What is your next season going to look like? What is the thing you've been avoiding out of fear? What is the experiment or the experiments that you need to run to find your clarity? And what if you committed to spending the next two years learning, doing, and building your way into a 20-year season of work and love and life that just felt so much more alive? Or if 2x 20 doesn't feel right for you, adjust it to fit you and your needs, your desires, and life. Maybe yours is a 1x5 or 10 or 6 month and 3 years. Whatever it is, the invitation is to be intentional with the quest to know yourself on a level that empowers more aligned and honest action and to craft a future that lets your life shine more brightly than ever before, no matter what's going on around you. And of course, as a side note, if you'd like a little help with that, you can learn more about the upcoming 2x20 retreat or coaching immersion spots. I'll just drop a link in the show notes below. This journey has been amongst the most fun and fulfilling of my adult life. I don't have all the answers, but I have a lot more tools and insights and curiosity and clarity to keep exploring, and I hope you will, too. And as always, thank you so much for being here. You are good people, and I truly love doing this thing called life with you. I'm Jonathan Field signing off for Good Life Project.