What if your life wasnβt meant to be perfectly planned and finishedβbut continuously shaped, refined, and reimagined?
In this final episode of our Inner Architect Reset series, we explore how to become the agile architect of your own life. Youβll learn five powerful, science-backed strategies to help you adapt with grace, design for change, and build a life that evolves as you do. Weβll unpack how to turn setbacks into fuel, how to let go of perfection so progress can happen, and how to run joyful, low-stakes life experiments that lead to real insight.
This isnβt about fixing yourself. Itβs about working with yourself. Building a life that flexes and flows with who you are nowβand who youβre becoming.
By the end, youβll walk away with a practical framework for navigating change, finding meaning in the messiness, and staying aligned with what matters most.
If youβve ever felt like the plan isnβt working or the ground keeps shifting beneath you, this one’s for you.
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Episode Transcript:
Jonathan Fields: [00:00:00] So ever notice that life doesn’t always go according to plan? Especially these days. Well, that’s what we’re diving into today on this fourth and final episode of our special summer series, The Inner Architect. Reset. So if you haven’t caught the first three episodes, no worries at all. Feel free to dive in today. And if you enjoyed, if you find value in it, then take two seconds afterwards and go tee up the first three episodes in this series. It’ll give you some really powerful added insights, context, and strategies that complement this in a really big way. So if you’ve been with me on this journey, you know that we’ve covered some pretty powerful ground. We started with that vital mid-year reset. We paused. We took a deep breath. We looked honestly at what was working and what wasn’t, and what we wanted to release to make space. It was kind of about clearing the canvas, getting ready. And then in the Future Self project, we grabbed our drafting tools and started to envision this magnificent blueprint, that compelling, vivid picture of who you truly want to become and what you want your next chapter or season to feel like. And we talked about how your brain it kind of works like a powerful GPS ready to tune into that vision and guide you and explore some of the signs behind that too. And then last week in the third Foundation and Flow episode, we got incredibly practical.
Jonathan Fields: [00:01:18] We dove into some of the surprising signs around habits, learning how to design our days, our environments, and our routines to build the very foundations of that future. One intentional brick at a time. And it was all about turning aspiration into actionable steps. And now here we are at the final piece of the puzzle, the capstone of this summer series. Because here is the truth about building anything truly meaningful, whether it’s a dream home or a deeply fulfilling life. It’s never truly finished. Life is fluid. Circumstances change and we change. So the big question today, the one we’re going to explore together is how do we keep building, keep growing, keep evolving. When the ground beneath us inevitably shifts, sometimes it feels like it is constantly and perpetually shifting. How do we embrace the unpredictable nature of life? Learn from inevitable detours and find joy in the ongoing process of creation, rather than feel like we’re getting pummeled by it. So this week, we’re going to discover how to become the agile architect. And in fact, that is the name of this final episode, The Agile Architect Your life as an Evolving Blueprint. We’re going to uncover some powerful common sense strategies rooted in science that will help you not just build your good life, but also continually refine it, adapt it, and ensure that it remains vibrant and aligned. Kind of like this living tribute to your essential self no matter what comes your way.
Jonathan Fields: [00:02:51] It’s about cultivating a mindset of joyful, continuous agile creation. So excited to share this with you. I’m Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project.. So welcome back. We are here for the final episode of the Inner Architect Reset series, and it’s a big one. The agile architect your life as an evolving blueprint. So, you know, there’s this kind of pervasive cultural narrative that tells us once we achieve a certain goal, get that job by the house, reach the fitness level, find a partner that will finally, quote, arrive, that will be finished, and then presumably, we’ll just live this happily ever after in a perfectly constructed, unchanging life. It is a bit of a beautiful fantasy, maybe one that you read about in books or seen movies, but like the end of the fairy tale, even though we see it in movies, we’ve written books, and sometimes we unconsciously adopt it as our own life script. We work tirelessly Towards a fixed destination, believing that true peace and fulfillment await us. Only after we have checked off all those boxes. But that’s not reality. You know, in reality, life is anything but static. The ground beneath us is just constantly shifting, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically, and we encounter unexpected challenges. You know, a a job loss, a health issue, a relationship shift. New opportunities arise that we never anticipate. Our priorities evolve as we gain new experiences and insights. And we as human beings were just always growing and changing and learning and expanding.
Jonathan Fields: [00:04:33] So the person you are today is not the person you were five years ago, and certainly it’s not the person you’ll be five years from now. I had a friend of mine once tell me years back. She said, you know, if I’m the same person that I am standing here talking to you today, seven years from now, I have failed. And I thought that was such a fascinating perspective, rather than being terrified of change. She not only expected it, but invited it and wanted it. So if your kind of blueprint for life is rigid and unyielding, designed for a static world, or a static view that does not exist and will never exist, it’s bound to crack under pressure. It’s kind of like building a magnificent house on a fault line, without accounting for earthquakes, or designing a complex piece of software without anticipating bugs or user feedback. It just won’t stand the test of time, even if for a hot second in the moment. It works right now. And this is why the whole concept of the agile architect is so important. It’s about cultivating a mindset that embraces fluidity and curiosity and continuous learning from every single phase of your life. Really. It’s about seeing your life not as a finished project or building, but as this ever evolving design project a living, breathing piece of art that you are constantly refining, adding to sometimes even gently deconstructing and rebuilding parts of.
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:02] It’s about finding joy not just in the destination, but in the ongoing process of creation, recreation and adaptation itself of being agile. And this concept is not just kind of woo woo fluffy self-help. It’s actually deeply rooted in principles from fields like engineering, software development, and even biology. I mean, think about the whole concept of iterative design, a core principle from many innovative industries. They call it different things human centric, agile. But this is kind of built into a lot of the way that we build things and companies and organizations and brands now and these fields, you don’t build a perfect product on the first try and you don’t expect to. That is a recipe for stagnation and failure. Instead, what you do is you create a prototype, what’s often called a minimum viable product, and you test it rigorously, and then you gather feedback from real world usage. You actually want people to interact with it when it’s not as good as you know it could be. And then you learn from what worked and what didn’t. And then you iterate, you refine, you improve, you adapt, and you release a new version. And this cycle of build, test, learn, repeat is how complex, robust and truly effective systems are created. It’s how companies like Apple or Google continuously refine their products, always improving, always adapting to user needs and new technologies.
Jonathan Fields: [00:07:28] And here’s the thing your life is the most complex, dynamic, and personal system you will ever design. Applying that sort of iterative design approach iterative design principles to your personal growth, to the way that you actually show up in your world and evolve. It means constantly learning from your experiences, your habits, your projects, your relationships, your responses to challenges, and then adjusting your approach along the way. It’s about being a scientist in your own life, always observing, always experimenting, always refining. It’s kind of about cultivating a mindset that sees every experience, every outcome as valuable data for your next iteration. This also ties really beautifully into the work of doctor Carol Dweck and her groundbreaking work on what is often known as the growth mindset. So people with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities and intelligence, their kind of static, unchangeable traits, and they often tend to avoid challenges and give up easily when faced with obstacles and see effort as fruitless. So if they actually have to work to make something happen, They see it as fruitless because they believe their innate talent is all that matters. But those with a growth mindset believe their abilities can be developed through dedication, through hard work, through learning experience. They embrace challenges. They persist in the face of setbacks and see effort not as them hitting the end of their innate talent. So why bother? Just give up. But actually as a path to growth, to competence, to skill and eventually, if it is meaningful to them, to mastery.
Jonathan Fields: [00:09:17] So the agile architect mindset is inherently a growth oriented mindset. It thrives on the belief that your very life, your skills, your happiness, all of it can be continuously developed and improved through intentional effort, learning and adaptation. So you see challenges, not so much as these roadblocks that stop you or put everything to an end, but as Opportunities as these windows of possibility to refine your design, to learn something new. To become stronger and more capable. And underpinning all of this is the incredible, almost miraculous power of neuroplasticity. This is your brain’s astonishing ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout your entire life. It means your brain isn’t a fixed, unchanging organ under basically the exact same rules, the exact same things as of childhood. We used to believe that was so, but research over the last two decades has shown. In fact, it is not. Every time you learn something new, every time you adapt to a new situation, every time you change a habit, every time you reframe a thought, your brain is literally rewiring itself. It’s building new pathways, strengthening existing ones, and even pruning away old, unused connections to be more efficient and effective. This means you are not stuck. You are never stuck. Even if your brain is spinning that paralyzing story that says this is you for life.
Jonathan Fields: [00:10:51] It is a lie. You have the biological capacity to learn, to grow, to adapt, and to continuously redesign your internal and external world. Your brain is literally built for this. It’s built to be agile and agile architect, just constantly evolving and optimizing itself based on your experiences and intentions. In fact, some very new research is showing that one particular area of the brain, the hippocampus, where a lot of people thought, actually, it’s not just like the hippocampus, but pretty recent science even said, you know, once you hit a certain age, you have the brain cells that you have. And then from that point forward, basically you’re just losing them. And very new science actually shows that that is very likely not true at all. In fact, areas of your brain may be regularly regenerating new neurons. So we’re at the edge of science here, where just amazing new discoveries are supporting all of this in so many ways. So the question is, how do we put this into practice? How do we become this agile architect in our own lives? So let’s explore some key strategies. We’re going to walk through five different strategies here to become the agile architects in our own lives. Right. So strategy number one let’s call this the quarterly review and revisioning. It’s kind of like your life’s board meeting. So just as successful companies hold regular board meetings to assess progress, adapt strategies, plan for the future. Your life benefits immensely from a similar structure.
Jonathan Fields: [00:12:27] Check in. Now, this isn’t just about reviewing your habits from last week’s episode. It’s about revisiting your future self project that vision that you hold for what you want to become and how you want your life to be. That we talked about, actually in the second episode in the series and seeing how it’s evolving. It’s a dedicated time to to step out of the daily grind and into the role of CEO of your own life. And the purpose of this strategy, it’s really to to ensure that you’re still aligned with your deepest desires, to acknowledge shifts in your priorities which happen, and to proactively adjust your blueprint. It’s kind of a moment to step back, gain perspective, and make conscious, informed decisions about your direction rather than just drifting or reacting to external pressures, which I’m raising my hand. I have done so many times in my life, and I’m really trying to do a better job at not this regular reflection. It prevents small or misalignment from slowly building into major detours. It allows for a gentler, more intentional Your approach to course correcting before you’re completely off the track, and it’s really your chance to recalibrate that internal GPS that we’ve talked about. So how does this work? From just a very practical standpoint, I want to get practical with all of these strategies. So what I would recommend is setting aside 1 to 2 hours every quarter monthly, if you feel the need for more frequent check ins, especially during periods of rapid change, but at a minimum at least a quarter.
Jonathan Fields: [00:14:04] So we’re literally only talking about an hour or two every three months. That’s not a lot. In order to get the benefit of this, check in. Find a quiet space, bring your journal or a fresh notebook, whatever app you’d like to use to actually do this work. You want to make it so that the tools you’re using feel supportive to you and easy to you, and then revisit your future self. That letter or blueprint that we talked about earlier in this series. This was your personal board meeting with yourself. Treat it with the same seriousness and respect that you would a major business meeting. So. So this is how we want to just set it up. Now what do we actually do in this board meeting. What are we what are the prompts that we write about. And before I actually share the specific prompts, I remind you that just like with all the episodes in this series, you will have a link to a downloadable PDF that sort of like walked you through an overview of this, uh, this installment, and also the specific exercises and prompts and strategies that I talk about today. So you can write these down, but you don’t have to. You’ll get it all in the PDF afterwards if it’s something you want to actually do.
Jonathan Fields: [00:15:14] So let’s talk about the questions that you’d ask yourself in this personal board meeting one. What parts of my future self vision still deeply resonate? So what feels even more true now? Have any aspects of that vision already started to manifest, even in small ways? And when I use the word manifest, I’m not talking about sort of like woo woo metaphysics. I mean, like, just become real, right? What have I actually made happen? Um, where am I already living into that future? Right. So that’s kind of the first set of prompts here. After that, we start to explore. Well, what, if anything, has changed in my vision? Have new inspirations emerge? Has a priority shifted? This isn’t failure, it’s growth. So perhaps a new passion has ignited. A life event, has reshaped what truly matters to you right now. Or you simply learned something about really just how to be more yourself and be open to these evolutions. And if you tuned in for that first episode in the series, you’re probably noticing some similarities in these prompts with the sort of like the mid-year reset. And there are some similarities, but this is a little bit deeper, a little bit more involved. It’ll take a bit more time, which is why we do this more on like a quarterly basis. So we really allow ourselves to space to go deeper here. Next, think about prompts like what’s working well in my life right now.
Jonathan Fields: [00:16:31] What habits or behaviors or routines are truly serving me? What relationships are nourishing? Um, what areas bring me joy and energy? And what progress have I made, no matter how small? Right. We want to calibrate these wins. Acknowledging progress, even incremental, even tiny little bits of progress. It’s vital for motivation and building self-efficacy. Next up you can ask yourself what’s not working? Where am I feeling stuck or drained or misaligned? Be honest, but also be kind. It is a particular relationship. Um, you know, is it a type of work? A recurring thought pattern, a digital habit or an environment that’s depleting? You see, if you can really pinpoint the specific areas that need attention. And then you can ask yourself, what’s one small adjustment that I can make to my blueprint, to my habits or my environment to better align with my evolving future self. I think about micro adjustments here. Not big disruptive overhauls. What’s the smallest tweak that would yield the biggest impact? I call these levers. You know, like what are the small inputs of small effort things that will make an exponential difference? They can ask, what do I need to release or say no to in the coming quarter? To create space for what truly matters? I have to tell you, I am deep in this question myself right now as I look at the fall. Um, and there are some really big important things that have bubbled up that I didn’t necessarily see coming, but it’s actually really exciting me to be able to create this space and release certain things.
Jonathan Fields: [00:18:11] This could be commitments, digital distractions, internal narratives, even physical clutter. So what’s taking up mental or physical bandwidth that could be used better? So why does this work? Like is there any science behind doing exercises like this. You know, it’s kind of like the science of reflection. The practice leverages something called metacognition, and that’s thinking about your own thinking. I know, sounds weird, right? But it’s actually a really powerful concept. It allows you to become an observer of your life rather than just a participant. And this kind of semi detachment for just, you know, a moment, it helps you identify patterns, maybe biases and areas for improvement that you might miss in just the day to day rush of life. It also engages your prefrontal cortex, sort of like the seat of executive function, the part of your brain responsible for planning, problem solving, and making your intentions more concrete and your decision making more deliberate and even more this regular review. It’s a form of what is sometimes known as cognitive restructuring, where you’re actively evaluating and potentially reframing your thoughts and plans based on new information and experiences. Says, and this can be incredibly helpful in preventing negative thoughts, spirals, and encourages just a more agile mindset, really letting you proactively shape your reality rather than just react to it.
Jonathan Fields: [00:19:36] It builds self-awareness, which is also the cornerstone of pretty much all personal growth. So example from my own life here. I use a version of this for Good Life Project. both personally and professionally. Every quarter or so, I step back and I take a look at like, what is the mission for? For me, for our team. What about our community, our viewing and listening community and our content? The actual things that we’re creating and putting into the world? You know, we ask, are we still serving our community in the most impactful way? What’s resonating? What’s not what? New ideas have emerged, and are we creating work that genuinely lights us up as well? And sometimes we realize that a project we were excited about maybe a few months ago, just no longer aligns with that evolving vision or a new opportunity has presented itself that’s a better fit. It’s not about being flaky, and I think that’s a really important distinction to make, right? Because sometimes you do let go of things in fairly rapid order. But what’s really happening here is it’s about being responsive and intentional. It’s about being willing to let go of a good idea for a better one, or to adapt our approach based on what we’re learning from our community. So my personal life, I also apply this to my vitality bucket. In fact, I applied to all of my good life buckets.
Jonathan Fields: [00:20:56] You know, I check in and ask myself, am I feeling energized? Am I moving my body in a way that feels good? Am I nourishing myself? Kind of questions along those lines and if not, I don’t beat myself up. I just ask, what’s one small adjustment that I can make this quarter? And maybe it’s trying a new form of movement, like incorporating more walking or hiking or walking meetings, even into my schedule, or dedicating one evening a week to meal prep or simply committing to an earlier bedtime. It’s this kind of a more gentle, consistent refinement, not a big, drastic overhaul which rarely ever works. And this really prevents small energy dips from becoming chronic fatigue, and ensures that my physical foundation really supports my mental and creative work. You know, um, I’ve also heard from listeners around some of these concepts as well over the years, and also just folks attending various events and trainings. I remember one, um, we’ll use the name Sarah. I’m always like using other people’s names here because just to protect the privacy of those who share things with me. Um, but this is also probably a pretty relatable story, right? Um, just a couple years into a career that she wanted. Um, she did her version of what we, we didn’t officially call a future self project, but kind of like a visioning. Um, and it had been about, you know, back then climbing the corporate ladder and achieving a certain status that was kind of like what the future self was calling her to.
Jonathan Fields: [00:22:25] And she was successful by all external measures. But internally something kind of felt a little bit off. And she did this quarterly review and kept noticing kind of a persistent feeling of dread on Sunday nights and a deep lack of creative fulfillment during her work week. And she initially dismissed it as so many of us do. And I’m raising my hand here. I dismissed this for years, thinking she just needed to, quote, try harder or, you know, like, buckle down. Except this is what adults do. This is just what work is. And she felt kind of guilty, even for not being happier because objectively, from the outside looking in, things are pretty good. But by consistently asking herself what’s not working? What’s draining me? Is this truly aligned with my evolving future self? During her reviews? She finally came to a place where she was able to acknowledge that her vision had actually, subtly, but pretty profoundly Family shifted. So her future self now was less about external status and more about internal impact and creative expression. And that realization born from just consistent, compassionate reflection, doing these types of exercises. It really gave her the insight and the courage to start exploring just a completely different path, one that felt more aligned with her evolving desires and eventually move into a role that combines that business acumen that really drove her with more of a passion for design.
Jonathan Fields: [00:23:46] And she attributes that not so much to a sudden big epiphany, but just a regular, honest check ins. It seems so small that it couldn’t make a difference, but it really does. In fact, that’s often the only thing that goes after a word. And that led to a pretty major redesign. So let’s talk about strategy. Number two, the fail forward philosophy. This is all about learning from the quote unfinished edges. This is maybe one of the most liberating strategies for the agile architect. It’s about fundamentally changing your relationship with setbacks, with mistakes and anything that doesn’t go according to plan, which is pretty much most of life. So instead of seeing them as failures, you see them as invaluable data points, as essential feedback for your next iteration. It’s kind of about embracing the messy, imperfect reality of creation and knowing that every mistake holds an important lesson. Right. So we start to reframe setbacks as data and not ending. So in iterative design, which we talked about a little bit already, it failed prototype. It actually isn’t necessarily a bad thing or a disaster. It’s a treasure trove of information. It tells you what doesn’t work. So it really allows you to refine your approach. And when you apply this to your life, right, you can look at and say like, did a new habit not stick? That’s not a failure of character, which so often we feel like it is like, well, I said I was going to do this thing and I didn’t do it.
Jonathan Fields: [00:25:17] It’s a failure of character. I don’t have the grit, I don’t have the discipline. But when we apply sort of like this, this different lens, we don’t look at it as a failure character. It’s just data. Perhaps the cue wasn’t strong enough, the friction was too high, the reward wasn’t compelling enough, or the timing was off. This information is gold. It illuminates a path forward. It’s kind of like a scientist whose experiment doesn’t yield the expected results. They don’t give up. They analyze the data and design a new experiment. Right. And this brings in what’s often called the science of cognitive reappraisal and its relationship to resilience. So cognitive reappraisal, um, is really sort of like a powerful emotion regulation strategy where you consciously change the way that you think about an emotionally charged situation to alter its emotional impact. And instead of viewing a setback. As you know, I failed. I’m not good enough. You reappraise it as. I learned something important about this process or about myself. This isn’t working yet, but I can adjust, and I think I can make it work. So this shift in perspective, it can dramatically reduce negative emotions like shame, frustration, or self-blame, allowing you to respond just so much more constructively and move forward instead of getting stuck.
Jonathan Fields: [00:26:40] It’s about shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset in real time. Actively choosing how you interpret your really the experiences that come your way. Right. So studies on resilience also consistently show that it’s not about avoiding adversity, but about how effectively you recover and learn from it, which ties into that whole notion of cognitive reappraisal. So those who are resilient, they don’t see setbacks as permanent. They see them as temporary Early challenges that offer opportunities for growth and adaptation. They engage in what’s called post-traumatic growth, where adversity actually leads to positive psychological change, making them stronger, wiser, more often more compassionate. It’s about finding meaning and learning through pain and challenge. So we blend what we know about resilience and cognitive reappraisal, and this becomes a really powerful approach. So an example from, um, from my life, my experience, my work. Um, where do I even begin? With my own failures, by the way? There’s just way too many to to start to choose from here. Um, you know, I can think back to when even launching Good Life Project., which was. I can’t believe it was 13 years ago now. You know, it wasn’t a straight line. It was more like a winding, sometimes rocky mountain path. There were programs we launched that didn’t resonate, marketing campaigns that flopped, ideas for videos and audio content that landed with a thud. And I remember one particular online course that we poured months of effort into.
Jonathan Fields: [00:28:12] We were just so excited about it. We thought it was exactly what our community needed, and we’d launched it. And crickets. Nothing. Um, the response was just so minimal. And it was. Yeah, it was really deeply disheartening. But the old me, the one prone to self-criticism, would have spiraled into self-doubt and questioned everything, maybe even thrown in the towel. So I’m just walking away. I’m not good enough. This was a terrible idea. What was I thinking? But the agile architect in me, the one that I’ve been cultivating, it’s stepped in and we didn’t really dwell on the failure. We immediately went into quote data collection mode. Right. We surveyed the few people who did sign up. We looked at the analytics. We talked to our community members who seemed interested but didn’t actually opt in or choose to, um, invest in the program. And we realized we built something that we thought they needed, not that they were actually asking for and the messaging was off. The language we used in connect with their actual pain points and desired solutions, and we took those outcomes, iterated on it and refined all these different elements and relaunch a completely different version months later. And it wasn’t the same product, but it was born from the failure of the first, and it went on to become pretty successful. So that initial flop wasn’t actually an ending. It wasn’t just a failure that stopped us in our tracks.
Jonathan Fields: [00:29:36] It was essential feedback for a far better iteration that was just so much more deeply of service for so many more people. It was a detour that ultimately led to a better outcome. Right. We see this in just the case of entrepreneurs all the time. Think of any successful entrepreneur. Their journey is rarely ever a smooth ascent. You know, I was thinking the other day of the story of Kevin System and Mike Krieger, who are the founders of Instagram. Before Instagram, they actually launched a location based checking app called Bourbon. Um, it was overly complex, didn’t gain much traction. Most people would call that a failure. It was a product that didn’t resonate with the market or, as they say, and tech land world. Um, no product market fit. But instead of giving up, they looked at the data. They noticed users were primarily engaging with one feature photo sharing. So they took this fail forward approach by stripping away everything else, focusing solely on the photo sharing and filtering aspect, and that iterative learning, that willingness to pivot based on feedback. Their failure data led directly to the creation of Instagram, which became one of the most successful apps in history. Now their failure with bourbon, it wasn’t an end. It was the crucible in which really, the seeds of true success were forged. They embraced this iterative process. They learned from the unfinished edges and adapted their blueprint.
Jonathan Fields: [00:31:04] So I kind of love that strategy, and I have lived that strategy so many times. It’s not just about business or work on entrepreneurship. It’s about every element of your life. It’s about your health. It’s about your relationships, about all the different aspects. Look for the data embedded in the experience. Allow that to inform how you’re going to move forward differently and better. That brings us to strategy number three here in cultivating the agile architect of life mindset. This is all about cultivating curiosity and the beginner’s mind. Sort of the architect as an eternal student. So the agile architect is never truly done learning. They tend to approach life with a profound sense of curiosity, kind of a a willingness to explore new ideas, even those that challenge their established blueprints or maps of the the territory or cherished beliefs. And this is about maintaining a beginner’s mind, as Zen masters call it, an openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject. Even when studying your own life, which is a pretty big subject. It’s about approaching every situation with a sense of wonder, as if you’re experiencing, for the very first time, shedding the burden of knowing it all already. It’s about openness to new ideas. So, I mean, the world is constantly changing and so are you. So clinging rigidly to old ways of thinking or doing, even if they worked really well in the past, can lead to stagnation, to frustration, and to a lot of crashing and burning.
Jonathan Fields: [00:32:43] The agile architect that mindset. It remains open to new information, to new perspectives and new ways of being. And this means actively seeking out diverse viewpoints. Reading books outside your comfort zone. Listening to podcasts that challenge your assumptions, reading essays that think differently than you might, and engaging in conversations with people who think differently and see the world differently than you. It’s about expanding your mental models, not just reinforcing existing ones. Right. And this, again, we kind of touch into the science of novelty and neuroplasticity. Once again, it’s it’s this repeated theme in all of this work. Your brain thrives on novelty. When you encounter new information, learn a new skill, or engage in unfamiliar experiences, your brain actively forms new neural connections that neuroplasticity that we talked about in action. It’s literally how your brain grows and adapts continuously, seeking new knowledge and experiences. It just keeps your brain agile, adaptive and primed for growth. It makes you smarter and more flexible, enhancing cognitive function, problem solving abilities, and creativity. It’s kind of like giving your brain a constant workout, keeping it limber and strong, preventing it from being rigid and set in its ways. And part of this also when you embrace novelty. You may not realize it, but you’re also inherently embracing discomfort. Curiosity often leads to stepping outside your comfort zone, to learning something new, trying a different approach, or engaging with unfamiliar ideas.
Jonathan Fields: [00:34:17] It can feel awkward, even uncomfortable, especially if you’re used to being the person who knows everything about something or the person who’s proficient at something. The agile architect understands that growth happens at the edges of discomfort, not in the center of complacency. They see discomfort as more of a signal that they’re expanding, not failing, and that they’re really on the path of new insights. So again, example from my life I tend to be a naturally curious person, but I’ve also learned to cultivate it actively. For example. A few years ago, I became fascinated by the science of movement and longevity, something that I hadn’t deeply explored before. Maybe it’s because I’m getting a little bit more into the seasoned time of my life. So I have a personal interest in it and my background, though it was more in business and personal development, and my personal fitness routine had become a bit stagnant, and my curiosity was piqued by some conversations I actually had on the podcast with primary researcher scientists, and I started reading everything I could get my hands on scientific papers, books, listening to new podcasts, even experimenting with different exercise modalities that were completely new to me. You know, like specific types of strength training protocols or new forms of mobility work. And this wasn’t about becoming an expert or achieving a specific athletic feat. I wasn’t training for something like that. It was about curiosity and this kind of genuine desire to learn and feel better.
Jonathan Fields: [00:35:56] And that curiosity led me to completely rethink my own approach to physical well-being, eventually integrating new practices that really had profoundly improved my energy and vitality and even my mood. As we know, all the good life buckets affect all the good life buckets. It’s shifting my personal health blueprint, and really simply because I allowed myself to be a beginner and explore even when I felt a bit clumsy or out of my depth and didn’t want to be seen as a beginner, I just kind of let that go and said, let’s just try and see how it feels. You know, we see this also oftentimes, um, in career changes, especially midlife or later in life, career changes. Um, I’m thinking actually right now of a longtime friend of mine, Lisa Congdon, who’s this, you know, beautiful illustrator and does illustrations and artwork and books that are now widely published all over the world. Um, she had a whole different life before art. I think she was a teacher, if I remember correctly, and in fact was always kind of the one who assumed that she was the one in the family who actually didn’t get the art Jean, but something inside her in midlife. She just kept getting curious. So she committed herself to creating one thing a day. In the very beginning, it was literally just collections of stuff. Um, it wasn’t even her illustrating back then and then sharing it on Instagram, largely for accountability purposes, just so she knew she would do it once, once a day for literally 365 days.
Jonathan Fields: [00:37:20] And over time, she actually, like, started to develop this aesthetic sensibility around her curation and collections. And she started to have a following that grew and grew around that. And she loved not just the accountability, but also the interaction and the feedback. Even though she hadn’t done this before, she wasn’t trained in it. You know, this was all brand new to her, and she was doing it. She was learning and being that beginner in public, and it was validating the possibility that there might actually be something bigger there. So as she continued to learn with that beginner’s mind, she began to focus on developing more of her own artistic sensibility and language and style. And more people kept showing up as she was learning and developing skill in public, and then eventually buying her work. At some point, she had this really big platform that led to her first book deal, which over the years mushroomed into this whole beautiful library of books and prints and licensing and beyond. And the deeper she got into it, yeah, tons of things fell apart. She had to learn how to tap dance, to be agile, and to keep dropping back into that beginner’s mindset again. Right. But those same years, they just gave her increasing clarity about that future self that she wanted to inhabit.
Jonathan Fields: [00:38:35] She kept showing up. She kept saying, there are things that I don’t know that I’m excited to keep learning. Fueled by deep curiosity about the process and a quite desire to explore this new part of herself, she embraced the beginner’s mind, letting go of the need for perfection and the fear of judgment. She just focused on the joy of mixing colors and feeling the brush on the canvas or pencils, ink, paint, markers on paper, eventually stylus on screens. The simple act of creation. Learning everything from nothing. At each point along the way, and now, years later, she’s this wildly successful professional artist author finds immense. Join it. And it’s really opened up a whole new way of seeing the world, bringing a vibrant new dimension to her life. Because she kept being willing to be curious and to keep stepping into that beginner’s mindset. Right? Her life blueprint has expanded in this beautiful and unexpected direction, all because she dared to be curious and hold on to that beginner’s mind. That brings us to strategy number four here. Remember, these are the strategies that allow us to be agile when things don’t happen the way we thought they would. And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. And this I would shorthand as the good enough principle for progress. Kind of about building with grace and not perfection. This strategy is really about liberating yourself from the tyranny of perfection, which is often the silent killer of progress and joy and all things good.
Jonathan Fields: [00:40:06] The agile architect really understands that a good enough iteration that’s put into the world and learned from is infinitely more valuable than a perfect one that never sees the light of day. It’s about valuing momentum and really learning over this elusive and often completely unattainable and fictional ideal, right? So it’s really about combating perfection here. And perfectionism often stems from just this fear of judgment or failure. It creates immense internal resistance. A constant voice whispering, it’s not ready yet. It’s not good enough. Or maybe I’m not ready yet, and I’m not good enough. And this keeps us stuck. Just endlessly tweaking. Never launching, never truly living. It’s the enemy of iteration. Because if you can’t tolerate imperfection, you can’t learn from real world feedback. It’s the architect who never breaks ground because the blueprints aren’t absolutely flawless, or the writer who never publishes because the manuscript isn’t perfect. What we’re looking here for the strategy is really progress over perfection. The goal is consistent forward movement, not flawless execution. So each step, no matter how small or imperfect, provides valuable feedback and builds momentum. Everything ties into everything else here. And by the way, I’m sure you’re seeing the strategies all kind of feed into and speak to each other. It’s about getting to the next iteration, learning and improving.
Jonathan Fields: [00:41:34] And this is a core tenet of agile methodologies and project management. Deliver that minimum viable product, get feedback, then iterate. It’s about getting something out there, even if it’s rough. To start the learning process. And when we do this, we also have to talk for a moment about the science of compassion and self-compassion in particular. So Doctor Kristin has extensive research on self-compassion. It really shows us that treating ourselves with kindness, with understanding and acceptance, when you suffer or feel inadequate, it’s just it’s far more motivating and effective than harsh self-criticism. When you make a mistake in your life, design or something isn’t perfect. Approaching it with self-compassion rather than fierce judgment or shame or blame, it actually allows you to learn and adapt rather than shutting down in that shame or frustration. It helps build resistance and encourages continued effort rather than paralysis or stagnation, Creating just a more positive internal environment for growth, right. And what we also know is that complementing this notion of self-compassion. It’s a little bit of a lesson from behavioral economics. Um, I had the great pleasure years back of sitting down with Daniel Kahneman, who’s was kind of known as, as the father of behavioral economics, the intersection between psychology and economics, which is like, why do we do the weird things that we do? And from a behavioral economics perspective, the quote good enough principle actually directly reduces friction. When the bar for starting or completing is impossibly high.
Jonathan Fields: [00:43:18] And that would be what perfection is. The friction is immense, and you’re just less likely to act because it feels like it’s impossible to act. This leads to procrastination and inaction. Lowering the bar to good enough actually reduces friction, making action any action. Imperfect action more likely and really then enabling the iterative cycle. So it’s about making the starting line easier to cross and the finish line less intimidating. And again, I have experienced this in so many different ways in so many different parts of my life. Good Life Project. again, is actually a bit of a testament to the good enough principle. I mean, when I first started my interviewing skills, my production skills, my sense of taste, of what I wanted to create were still developing. And they still are. Sure. You know, but that’s also probably putting it kindly, especially in the early days. You know, like from my skills to my sensibility to even like the website just really basic. And podcasting wasn’t even an industry yet. Um, if I had waited until everything was perfect, like perfect sound, perfect skills, perfect knowledge, perfect questions, perfect website, business model to support it all. I just would never have launched like what you’re listening to now. What I’ve been doing for the last 13 years would not exist. I’d still be waiting. Or I would have just abandoned it and moved on to the next thing, then abandoned that and moved on to the next thing, and abandoned that when none of it could be done perfectly.
Jonathan Fields: [00:44:49] I would be paralyzed, probably by the pursuit of an impossible ideal. But that’s not what happened. You know, I launched with what I felt was good enough. I tried to raise the bar as much as I possibly could to do something I was really proud of. You know, but I also knew that it was a beginning. And I was going to learn a ton. And then I just iterated. I learned from every episode, every piece of feedback, every technical hiccup, every person I came in conversation with. And the show has evolved in so many ways. Hopefully you’ll agree that the quality is improved, but it really started with good enough. The value is in the consistent delivery, the consistent showing up, the being willing to step in and step in and step in and know that it’s not where I want it to be now. And even if I have a clear sense of what I want it to be, I don’t have the skill or the ability to knowledge to close that gap yet, but I will. So it’s not about flawless execution from day one. It’s about showing up and growing and iterating. And this applies to so many areas of life also. My first book, my first attempt at a new skill. My first efforts at conscious parenting. You know, if I waited for perfection, I would still be on page one of every part of my life, or stuck in analysis paralysis, never experiencing the joy of creation or the lessons of the journey.
Jonathan Fields: [00:46:08] And you see these lessons just all over the place. I had the great joy of being friends with a lot of writers and authors. Um, as you probably started to guess by now, I was catching up with an author friend who was talking about the fact that, you know, she had struggled for years to finish her novel. Brilliant ideas, vivid characters, a compelling plot, but she was very much a perfectionist, and every sentence just had to be perfect, every chapter flawless. And she’d write a few pages and then literally delete them and then rewrite and delete again. And she was stuck in this loop of endless revision, never actually moving forward. Her version of a future self project was to be a published author, but her current good enough wasn’t good enough for her, and the gap between that ideal and her reality it just felt insurmountable, leading to incredible frustration and self-doubt. And through a whole bunch of just sort of like letting go and coaching and introspection and working with people who helped her really reframe. She adopted more of a good enough principle, at least in the early part of the writing. So her new rule was to write a messy first draft just to get the words down.
Jonathan Fields: [00:47:14] It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to exist. And she gave herself permission for it to be imperfect. And knowing that a messy first draft is always so much better than a perfect blank page, she focused on completing a chapter, and then a section, and then the whole draft, knowing that she could always iterate and refine later. And by embracing that good enough for the first path, she really reduced the immense friction of starting right. And she finally finished the novel. And while it wasn’t perfect, it was done. And then she could take the time and spend the time needed in the process of editing and iterating, moving towards publication, and get it then to a level that she really felt proud of, but she gave herself permission to just be good enough, especially in the early days, because it removed the friction and it let her take action. Her good enough was the foundation for eventual great. It was the act of doing that allowed her to learn and improve, rather than being paralyzed by the fear of imperfection. Years ago, I had the chance to sit down with the children’s book author Katie Camilla for just a beautiful conversation that has stayed with me for so many different reasons. But one of the things she shared with me then was that the, um, the early draft of one of her biggest books, Um, it might have been when Dixie is on display publicly, I think at the local library or somewhere, and with all of the the markups and the changes and and because she wanted people to see like things don’t come out perfectly for did she want to set the expectation for others that even something that becomes this stunningly successful work that’s turned into movie and stuff like this, it starts out this really, really imperfect, good enough thing and then improves from there.
Jonathan Fields: [00:48:57] And that brings us to the final strategy, strategy number five here, embracing the experimental mindset. Play prototype and discover. And you know, I’ve been referencing this kind of indirectly through the entire time. But let’s just get into it more directly. The final strategy is really the playful heart of the agile architect. It’s about approaching your life design not as a rigid plan to be executed, but a series of low stakes experiments. And this mindset encourages really curiosity that we were talking about. It reduces the pressure of getting it right, The perfectionism that we’re talking about reduces the friction that we’re talking about, accelerates the learning that we were talking about and discovery. It allows you to more comfortably fail forward because it’s just an experiment. It’s about treating your life as your greatest laboratory. So think of your life as kind of like a series of experiments. This is something I’ve been doing literally for decades. Instead of making these huge, irreversible bets, think about small, manageable experiments that you can run in different areas of your life.
Jonathan Fields: [00:49:56] Uh, and, um, wrote a fantastic book that goes into a ton of detail about this called Tiny Experiments, Too. So ask yourself, what’s one thing that you could try for a week or maybe a month? What’s a kind of a hypothesis that you have about what might make you happier, or more productive, or more connected? And this approach allows you to gather real world data without the pressure of permanent commitment. This has been huge for me. Literally, the reason that the the name of Good Life Project. has a word project in. It is because from the very beginning this was an experiment. It was a project. I didn’t know how it was going to go, and I wanted to give myself permission to let it go or not go wherever it needed to. And it has just been this evolving experiment. And that’s where, again, the power prototype becomes really important. So in design again, think of a prototype as this kind of like a rough early version of something. It’s meant to be tested, broken and learned from. Apply this to your life. So if you want to try a new morning routine, don’t commit to it for life. Just prototype it for three days. Want to explore new hobby? Don’t go out and buy all the gear and say like I am now doing this. I am now, you know, like a person who builds boats.
Jonathan Fields: [00:51:10] I am now an artist. Just try beginner’s workshop or borrow supplies as an experiment. Um, want to test a new way of communicating a relationship? Try it in a low stakes conversation first. I have done this with so many business ideas over the years, and had I just gone all in and said, I’m doing this thing, it’s going to happen, rather than saying, I think this sounds interesting to me, let me run the experiment. I would have consumed so many years of my life and also felt really bad about a lot of them. So the life as a series of experiments approach, it also helps to reduce that fear of failure that we were talking about earlier. Right. If something is an experiment, it can’t truly fail. It can only yield data. And this shifts your mindset from I might fail to I will learn if I pay attention. And that significantly lowers the stakes and makes you more willing to just try new things. Fostering a sense of of psychological safety around trying and learning. It also helps foster a sense of playfulness and discovery. Right this experimental mindset. It encourages play and curiosity, and adventure allows for Her unexpected discoveries and pivots opening doors. You might not have seen if you were rigidly sticking to some predetermined path and said, this shall happen. It’s about being a curious explorer in your own life, embracing the unexpected turns, right? It’s kind of about what happens in our brains also when we look at life this way.
Jonathan Fields: [00:52:45] In fact, research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that play and exploration, they’re vital for learning, for creativity and well-being not just in children, but in us grown ups, too. When we engage in playful experimentation, our brains are more open to novel solutions and less inhibited by fear. And this state of open exploration can also lead to unexpected insights and aha moments. Really fostering true innovation not just in your work or in your business, but in your life. So it also taps into intrinsic motivation, that joy of the activity itself, rather than relying solely on external rewards. Right? My own, what I call my two by 20 or my two by 20 project is a really good example of this. So long time listeners, or even not so long time listeners or folks who follow me. My week at the wheel newsletter have heard me speak and write about this over the last year or so. It’s actually never supposed to be a public thing. It was my own personal project, but apparently it’s resonating deeply with so many people right now. And this was about an experimental mindset. It’s something that I’ve been living deeply into for the past couple of years. Um, I call it my two by 20. I’ve written about it, and it’s become a core part of how I approach my own life design in this particular season of life.
Jonathan Fields: [00:54:04] The idea is simple of taking two years to run intentional experiments designed to help me craft my next 20 year season of contribution around simplicity, significance, and joy. And instead of making just one massive all or nothing leap. I’ve been running just dozens of small, low stakes experiments across different areas of my life. Not just my work, by the way. So it’s my work, my creative pursuits, my relationships, my health, my daily rhythms. For example, I might experiment with a new writing schedule for a month to see how it impacts my energy or output. I have done different trainings and certifications. Again, stepping into that beginner’s mind point of view, but doing it as an experiment. Not saying I’m going to go and do this training and then become this thing, but just saying I’m going to do the training because it’ll give me data and I’ll see if I’m actually genuinely even interested in the training or what it might lead to. Or I might try a new approach to digital boundaries for a week to see if it increases my ability to be present. I have prototyped different ways of connecting with community. Different forms of movement. Different approaches to structuring my days. Each experiment is a question. I wonder if this will make me feel more joyful. I wonder if this will increase my sense of significance or meaning, and I wonder if this will add simplicity and ease to my life.
Jonathan Fields: [00:55:28] So the success. It isn’t whether the experiment works in the traditional sense, and this is the beauty of it. The success is simply whether it yields valuable data. If it doesn’t work, I learn why and I iterate. And if it does, I integrate that into my evolving blueprint. And this approach has allowed me to discover just amazing, joyful, profound insights and make some really significant shifts in my life, some of which I’ve shared publicly and some of which I will unfold in a much more public way in the months to come. You know, and and I’ve done it without the paralyzing fear of failure, because every outcome is just data. I don’t have to succeed at the thing. I just have to learn something. It’s allowed me to continuously refine my own blueprint for a good life. One joyful experiment at a time. I was actually talking to a friend last year. I was feeling completely overwhelmed by the constant digital noise and the feeling of being kind of perpetually quote on, and his version of his future self project. Granted, like we weren’t using the phrase future self project, but just thinking about like, what he wanted life to become or feel like it involved. More presence, deeper focus, less distraction. He was also working on a book. Yes. If you’re detecting a pattern here. Um, I just seem to have a lot of friends who like to write.
Jonathan Fields: [00:56:52] So instead of permanently deleting all social media, though, or going off grid forever, which felt really extreme and daunting, you know, but that’s what a lot of people sort of like do or threaten to do, and it rarely ever works. And then when they quote, fail at it, they feel like a failure. So instead of doing that, he decided to just run a bit of a short and sweet digital detox experiment. The hypothesis was if I go completely offline just for one weekend, I’ll feel more rested, more present and creative. So he prototyped it from Friday evening to Sunday evening. No phone, no computer, no TV. Yes. Believe it or not, that can even happen in this day and age. Told his wife and his daughters prepared some analogue activities like books, board games, walks in nature, meditating, movement and the test. It was just a weekend. The data that he collected was how he felt initially restless and a bit anxious, as we can sometimes feel when we actually remove technology from ourselves, we become so reliant on it. But then, pretty quickly, surprisingly calm and more engaged with his family. When he came back and deeply rested, and he learned that he didn’t actually need to cut everything out permanently. But that intentional, just regular periods of disconnection were incredibly valuable to his well-being. And then his next iteration was to implement a sort of a digital Sabbath every Sunday, a small, consistent experiment that transformed his weekly vision.
Jonathan Fields: [00:58:24] You know, he discovered just this profound sense of freedom and presence that he hadn’t known was possible, all from a simple, low stakes experiment. So let’s bring this all together and bring it home. You know, the pursuit of a meaningful life isn’t a grand, abstract quest that happens somewhere out there. It’s not a destination you arrive at and then simply exist in. It’s it’s this vibrant, living, evolving journey. It’s built brick by intentional brick in the quiet moments of your day, by the choices you make, the habits you cultivate and the environment you design. And crucially, it’s sustained by your willingness to learn to adapt and continuously refine your blueprint. So this week, as we wrap up our Inner Architect Reset series, the main call to action is really to embrace the agile architect mindset. Schedule that quarterly review to block out the time. Revisit your mid-year, reset the insights and your future self project. Ask those honest, kind questions and celebrate your wins. Acknowledge your challenges and really decide on your next iteration. Make it a non-negotiable appointment with yourself. Second, lean into curiosity. Identify one new area that you’re curious about. How can you explore it with a beginner’s mind this month? Maybe. What new perspective might it offer for your life’s blueprint? Maybe it’s a new hobby, a new book genre, a new skill, a conversation with someone from a different background.
Jonathan Fields: [00:59:49] Let your curiosity lead you. Three reframe setbacks. So the next time something doesn’t go to plan or you feel like you failed. Just pause. Instead of I failed, ask, what is this teaching me? What’s the data here? How can I iterate? What is the next small step that I can take based on this learning. See if you can see every challenge as an opportunity for refinement and redirection. And then number four embrace good enough. So where are you holding yourself back with the need for perfection. This is one I’m still working on. What’s one area you can simply commit to good enough progress and then learn from the doing? Just get it out there, get it started and then refine. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. And then finally five run a life experiment. So inspired by my own two by 20 or whatever approach you want to take. Pick one small area of your life where you’re curious about change. Design low stakes experiments to test a hypothesis. Prototype it for a day, for a week, for an hour or two, whatever it is, and then ask yourself, what do you learn? Um, what data does it yield? What’s your next iteration? Just have fun with it. Hold it lightly. You don’t have to commit to these big, heavy things. Run tiny, joyful experiments. Remember, this isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress. It’s about making small, consistent deposits into the bank account of your future self.
Jonathan Fields: [01:01:15] It’s about building the architecture of a life that truly supports your deepest desires. A life where you can experience more moments of effortless engagement and profound fulfillment and connection and joy. So this summer, we’ve gone from resetting your foundation to designing your future, to building daily habits and now embracing the continuous evolution of your life. So I’m hoping that your inner architect may always be busy and joyful and creative and kind of forever exploring and playing and refining the blueprint of that good life in real time. Until then, keep living that good life and being present and paying attention, and keep building one intentional step and day at a time. Until then, I’m Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. This episode of Good Life Project was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and me, Jonathan Fields. Editing help by, Alejandro Ramirez and Troy Young. Kristoffer Carter crafted our theme music and of course, if you haven’t already done so, please go ahead and follow Good Life Project in your favorite listening app or on YouTube too. If you found this conversation interesting or valuable and inspiring. Chances are you did, because you’re still listening here. Do me a personal favor. A seven-second favor is share it with just one person. I mean, if you want to share it with more, that’s awesome too. But just one person, even then, invite them to talk with you about what you’ve both discovered to reconnect and explore ideas that really matter. Because that’s how we all come alive together. Until next time. I’m Jonathan Fields signing off for Good Life Project.