What's the Secret to Living the GOOD LIFE?

Join us on the Prosperous Human Podcast as Jim Johnson takes you on a journey to discover what true prosperity really means. In this episode, discover the secret to living the good life and finding fulfillment beyond just money.

Through practical insights and lessons learned, we explore how focusing on money and status often leaves us feeling empty. Instead, Jim encourages us to rethink success by putting purpose and service to others at the core of our lives. 

Tune in to discover how living with intention can lead to lasting fulfillment.

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Transcript

Jim Johnson: 0:00

Hi, and welcome to the Prosperous Human Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Johnson, the Good Life Coach. And that's what I'm here to do is to help other people find what truly living the good life looks like. This idea of living a prosperous and fulfilled life. You see, 20 years ago, I was an absolute wreck, the most selfish human being and able to achieve what the outside world looked at as success, only to find out that I had been chasing all the wrong things, that it wasn't some kind of finish line and enjoyment and everything was going to be great. As a matter of fact, I felt very empty. Which put me on a journey to find out what true prosperity really look like. And through 10 years of research and study, I was able to find what I call the seven elements of a prosperous life and living those elements. And then being able to put my finger on those elements has helped me to live a life where I don't feel alone. Feel a whole lot of pain. I get to live in this thing. We like to call the sweet spot here at Prosperous Human. There's no such thing as true work life balance, but there is a place called the sweet spot. We want to help walk you along on this journey together. Through this podcast, as we learn more about the seven elements of a prosperous life, the concept of orbital thinking, which started it all, which radically goes counter to traditional thinking and may open your mind to why you continue to go down the wrong path and end at a brick wall, stopping you from living this life that you really thought you were going to get to. And finally, the litmus test. This test that says I am either living in the sweet spot or not. We're excited to walk along with you. We're going to have amazing guests. You're going to see me sharing my own journey with you and giving you some insights along the way. So sit back, relax, take out a pen, take some notes, and we'll see you On the inside, the inside of a good life. Hey, welcome to today's show. And I want to talk to you today about the linchpin core concept behind this journey towards a prosperous life. This approach to thinking that goes counter to what we may all perceive as traditional thinking, Uh, to achieve a goal or outcome. See, most of us consider the outcome, the thing that we're after first. And we think that thing is a certain thing because the world has told us. So whether that be a lot of money, a big house, the sports car, Whatever it is that you might be chasing and so what you do is or the big business. Let's add that one in there And so what we do is we start to build backwards from that outcome Uh these steps that we think we need to take to get to that. It could be getting the right job. It could be Um working at the right place. It could be Um, taking on a YouTube influencer, like whatever, uh, different approach to getting to that outcome. There's a multitude of those that we all go through and we all go through this cycle over and over and over again. I watched hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people just watch social media out there and how people approach this idea of getting to a thing. And I would like to argue that most of the time the outcome or the thing that we're chasing, um, is confused with what we're really trying to achieve. It's not actually this thing of money or this house on a property or that sports car, or the wife and two kids, the dog and the house with the picket fence. It's not actually this thing of money or this house on a property or that sports car, or the wife and two kids, the dog and house with the picket fence. What we're actually doing is we're trying to find a lifestyle that allows us to be who we are, allows us to live the life that we want to live, uh, what we like to call here the good life. And I think a lot of times we get confused with what the good life is versus what a life of lies and untruth looks like. Which causes us to end up feeling empty in the end when we achieve what we're after. So, uh, 20 years ago, I was following that same path that we all follow this, Hey, I want to make a bunch of money. Cause when I make a bunch of money, I'm going to be able to retire and put back investments, buy houses, continue to grow my empire. And because I grow my empire, I'm going to have this wonderful life of gallivanting all around the world and doing all the things I want to do. But what really ended up happening is it did not give me this ability to actually live that life. So I started to actually own me, and we probably feel like that there's never absolutely enough. We tend to want even more every time we achieve like one of the things we just like get some more. So we build a business that gets to where we want it to be. Oh, we need to add to that business. We need to make it bigger. We need to scale. We need to expand. And what it does, it keeps us from living the life that we truly set out to live in the first place. Hopefully, but the reality is, did we? Was it just a dream or a fictitious thing or some kind of lie that we told ourselves that that's what we were going to do? Or do we get tempted and pulled into this world of gaining more and going after more and bigness and look at me and pride and ego and greed? I would argue it's the latter in most cases. And we keep doing it because we don't get the feel that we want. We don't get that fulfillment that we were looking for. We go, if we just get more, we'll be more fulfilled. I went through all of that, built up a big company, lost everything, built up a big company, didn't get the fulfillment that I was looking for, and from the outside, everybody looks at me as like super successful, you know, 25 million company, making great money, the wife, the kids, the cars, the house and all the stuff, still feeling like, man, there's something missing. And it caused me to rethink the way I was going after the thing that I wanted because we all have this central force. Think of it as the gravitational thing that drives us to do anything. That thing is called desire and we're desiring something. And it's the only reason we actually think about anything. Whatever we desire is what's closest to our heart, which causes us to think about it. Which, when we think about things, we start to talk about those things. And when we talk about things, we tend to do those things. It's a pretty common progression. And so, what our heart desires is this one thing, but we're actually out there doing another thing. That causes conflict inside of us. And so we have to really understand, first off, what do we truly desire? Is it this money and wealth and status and power and this look at me thing? Or is it really this place of fulfillment? Freedom and doing right by other human beings and knowing that you're making an impact that not only is going to give you the fulfillment in your life that you're looking for, but may carry beyond you as impact and a ripple in the cosmos, you have done right by another person. And that person may do right by another person because of you. And it may build upon itself knowing that, Hey. Anytime I do something right by another human being, it causes me to feel good and I don't do it for the reason to gain some kind of accolade. I do it because I actually love that other human being. I love that person enough to give willingly into them. To sacrifice some of my own needs and my own wants to pour into them so that they might achieve their potential through the things that I know. The reality is most of us don't look at it that way. Most of us are all about achieving ourselves and pushing everybody else down. The funny thing is, when we help enough people achieve what they're after, it just happens that we end up achieving what we're after. It's an interesting dichotomy and goes counter to what the world tells us out there whenever it comes to how we should approach the world, and I think that's on purpose. I think it's on purpose to keep us from this secret that allows us to get to where we want to be. So let's talk about that secret of how we should maybe think about things. Um, I call it orbital thinking. Uh, most people think progressive thinking, like I have a problem, here's the steps and I'll achieve that outcome because of it. And that does work. Don't get me wrong. It does work. It just sometimes leads to a place of a lack of fulfillment, joy, and freedom because what you were after and what you thought you were after wasn't real. You didn't understand what you truly desired inside of you. But if we actually understand what we truly desire, This idea that I want to help other people, I want to serve other people. I want to be good to other people. I want to live a life that has value to it. The next thing we start to consider and think of this as like a solar system, I got desire here. That's now the thing I'm thinking about. And I start to create the steps and solve the problem and get to the objective of doing, and then I'm out of order because now I'm doing something and I get to the end of it and it owns me. I'm working in a way I don't enjoy working. I'm not living the life I want to live, and it's all because I didn't consider that first. And that's the biggest and most important thing in this, this desire I may have. How does it affect the lifestyle that orbits around that? If we only would desire this thing and go for the outcome, and we don't consider the lifestyle first, we create all these steps. And procedures along the way that end up eating our lifestyle away and truly eating the good life away. We start to become an employee of our business. We start to achieve anxiety and boredom in the things that we do because we didn't consider how important the life was that we wanted to live right now. Not the one that we think will happen in the future because we achieve this magical outcome. But did you know you could actually live the lifestyle you want right now, today? Because you can actually plan for it. And I'll give you a perfect example. As a contractor, um, I wanted to live a lifestyle that allowed me to truly lead my business instead of work in my business. And because I knew that, it changed the trajectory of my business from a 3 to 5 million business to a 25, 30 million business. The company I worked for before me, because I thought about these things this way, allowed me to go from 3. 7 million to 34. 7 million in just one year, which I realized was a little too much because it was stealing away from my lifestyle. I knew what that lifestyle was that I wanted, and so I went after it doing an approach that gave me the lifestyle I wanted. Because I knew what that lifestyle was, I wanted to spend time with my family. I wanted to take care of my body. I wanted to spend time spiritually with my Lord and Savior and having a relationship with Him so that I could live this good life. Because I knew what those things looked like, I dug a little bit deeper. I wanted to be able to travel. I wanted to see things. And so I started to plan for those by developing a lifestyle design plan that said, Hey, this is the life I want to live. These are the things I want, the experiences I want, the way I want to feel. And because of that core and that thing around my desire, I was able to then start to look at what investment do I need to make? Which would be the next planet or orbital ring around your desire is what kind of investment is this going to take? Um, and that has a lot to do with what stage you're in, which is the third ring, and you could flip those two rings depending on who you are and where you're at, because if your stage is early on, you may have more of an investment in time and energy. Where if your stage is more master level, um, you may not have as much investment time and energy, but it could be financial because you're moving into bigger things and I don't think most people think about like time and energy as an investment. I always think about money, but there's also this amount of time, that time is really predicated on the stage of knowledge you have, the understanding that you have. What kind of foundation have you laid for this? Because if you don't have the foundational stuff, you tend to start trying to skip steps because you want to get to your outcome faster, which you think is gonna deliver the desire that you want, but when you actually realize what your desire is and the lifestyle you want to live. And you start looking at, Hey, this is this, I'm a beginner. I've got a lot to learn, a lot of information. I can start to lay things foundationally while still living this lifestyle I want. Hey, while I'm doing this, I'm going to learn these things, get this knowledge and still spend time with my, with my family. Life or significant other, your family, your friends and so taking into consideration more factors than problem and outcome is super important to your thinking. Now, at various points in your life and after various things that you're wanting to achieve, those things that are orbit around your desire will move. There's four of them in particular that can shift and change problem, outcome, investment, and then stage. Sometimes the stage could be closer to the lifestyle, sometimes the investment, sometimes the problem, sometimes the outcome. But understanding what those things are will now help you walk through a filter of everything that keeps that lifestyle that you're looking for. As I was working for a software company for our industry, I started to realize that I was working outside of what I wanted my life to look like. I wasn't getting as much time with my wife and family as I wanted. I wasn't feeling as fulfilled with the work as I wanted to be. I didn't feel like I was having the positive impact on human beings as Large as I thought I probably could and I had the potential for it because those are the things I desire Which allows me to live a certain lifestyle, so I stepped away Resigned from that going. Hey, this isn't the life. I want to live. I want to design what I do around that life I want to spend time with those that I love and care about. I want to do things with them when I want to do them. And I want to do them in places that are truly enjoyable and fulfilling and enlightening to me. And because of all that, I chose to go down the path of coaching and consulting, helping people get to where they want to be while still living this lifestyle that I want to live. That allows me to travel, that allows me to spend time with my kids and grandchildren while still doing impactful work that's very fulfilling. As a matter of fact, I've done this longer than I've ever done anything while still being able to live that ideal lifestyle that I want because I truly desire to help other human beings live a good life. I hope that from this you start to see like, Hey, what does that look like for me? And how do you know, how do you know whether you're, um, on the right path or not? Well, the very first thing you're going to need to do is you're going to need to really test yourself on your true desire. Are you really desiring all the money? Or is the money a tool to get to the life that you want? And what does that life look like? Can you actually define it? Is there amount of time that you're working, a place that you're working from who you're working with or for how you're serving them? Like, have you, Written those things down and really designed what your life should look like in order to achieve those things and then the actual execution of the work. Is it something where you're on site with people? Are you off site? Like I am most of the time? Are you, um, never? Um, interaction with others. You're a writer or a creator and they're just consuming what it is. The, all of these things are things that we need to really strongly consider before we start to go solve a problem to achieve an outcome, because the outcome that we think about. Might be actually the wrong steps to get there. Now, as I talk about this, there's actually been some studies on this. Um, most people with traditional thinking have a very hard time actually achieving the thing they want. And when they do, they don't feel like, Hey, that was, What I was expecting it to be, or I need to get more because I didn't feel the way I wanted it to feel. But McGrath did a study on this and they found out that 33 percent of leaders are more likely to achieve the thing that they're going after through what's called discovery driven planning, which is very similar to this orbital thinking thing. We want to discover truly what it is that I want, and then I can start to Taylor. the things that I need to do to get there. The problem now becomes a different approach. The outcome may have a different final result. And the reality is, if we hit it right and do it well, the outcome isn't a finish line. It's just a step along the journey. We start to enjoy this thing that we do every day because it truly has value, not only to us, But to other human beings, and so I want to really challenge you like truthfully. What is it that you desire? I tell people all the time when we do coaching. It's one of the things where you actually have to get quiet I know this is the way that it worked for me is I was so frustrated and struggling all the time Uh, as a matter of fact, I talked about this in one of our other podcasts, the, the introduction podcast to what prosperous human is all about and the seven elements. And as I was trying to figure out what those seven elements of a prosperous human were, I never knew that there were seven. I was on my journey to figure them out. I realized that what I was doing was chasing these things that I truly desired, this life that allowed me to feel value. To feel purpose. And I think our purpose is pretty clear. Really? I just think a lot of us miss it. Our purpose is to add value to other human beings because when we do, we receive value in return. We feel that, um, we have had an impact that is valuable to somebody else. Which gives us a good feeling inside. It gives us warmth. It gives us a feeling of a clean conscious. Like I didn't take advantage of that person to gain something. I added something to them and they added something back to me. So first step, getting your desire figured out. Second step, Literally writing out what your lifestyle should look at. Are you working from home? Are you working in an office? Do you work with a team? Do you work individually? Um, do you travel? If you so, where are you married and what kind of time do you have date nights or not? Do you have, um, Uh, different functions that you're involved with, with your kids, like literally writing it out. What it is that you, and you can take these three factors, they're pretty simple. What is it that you want? Cause it's okay to want things, just don't make them the priority. It's okay to want them. What experiences would you like to have for yourself and for those that you care and love about? And then finally, how do you want to feel? I think this is one of those ones that some people miss a lot because it's easy to figure out the what's. Man, I want the cool stuff and all the amazing things and all that. Um, the experiences is easy as well. Like I want to go do fun stuff all the time. But the feel part is the most challenging part. I want to feel like I have value. I want to feel healthy. I want to feel, um, that those that I love, love me as well. I want to feel certain things and so do you, but you probably haven't considered them in your approach to the thinking that you have about what it is that you're going to truly do on this planet. So I want to challenge you a little bit there to consider what What does that lifestyle look like? And so you've got to identify those true desires. You've got to filter the decisions through that ideal lifestyle lens. There's actually a study out there by Deloitte's, uh, 2020 global human capital trend survey found that 94 percent of executives believe a holistic approach to problem solving is the best. It's critical for business success in the modern area. In other words, we have to have this, um, broader view of how things work for us to get this truly fulfilling, good life that we're after. Now the next thing we want to do is we want to take this prosperity litmus test, this test that lets us know if we're living in the sweet spot or not. This is actually something you can go to our website, Prosperous Human. We have a workbook on it and I have video that goes with it to walk you through the seven elements of the Prosperous Human. That allow you to look at your work fulfillment, the community and relationships that you have, the, uh, well being and performance aspects of the physical part of your life, your mental creativity and capacity. These areas that we talk about in our seven elements, feel free to go to the website, check out more of those, or listen to our introduction podcast and learn more about those, but take the test. Are you living in the sweet spot in each one of these elements? Because if you're not, it's the thing that you haven't been able to put your finger on. That's a part of the lifestyle that you want to live. That was the big challenge for me is to find out what those things were. So when I didn't feel like everything was clicking just the way I wanted to, I could go put my finger on something and do something about it. And it's not a. Full or empty thing. It's a being in a spot between too much or too little, which we like to call the sweet spot. So you want to take this assessment. It's got, um, the seven different areas. So you can actually take the assessment and then a challenge at the end is a seven day challenge to walk through how you can move the needle from too much or too little to get it closer to that sweet spot. From today's podcast, your takeaways should be that there are desires that I want. There is a lifestyle that I want to live. I need to consider those two things before I start to go and solve problems or outcomes. And then have I laid the right groundwork? What stage am I at in my progression towards that outcome? Because that's going to have a lot to do with the amount of investment that I need to make. This idea of a perfect work life balance is an absolute myth. There is no such thing. I wish there was, it'd be wonderful. Hey, I'm going to work half the day and I'm going to spend time with those I love and do all the things I enjoy half the day. The reality is it varies over time. It's a little bit more like a teeter totter because I'm over here in a building phase, I may be spending more time at work than I would like because it's sacrificing time over here and other areas. But if I'm not aware of those things, I may spend too much time and become over obsessive in my work and lose sight of the important things like my relationships and community with my family and friends and also my health. And my mental state, my emotional state, my spiritual state. And so if I'm aware of those things, I don't go too far. I might go over and be more on the positive side, knowing that I'm sacrificing here, but just for a short period of time. And I have a plan to pull it back closer to that sweet spot. This idea of harmony between these seven areas of your life Is the most freeing, enjoyable piece of knowledge and understanding that I've gotten in my entire 55 years. This idea that, wow, I don't have the burdens of trying to live up to the world's expectations of who I am or what I'm supposed to achieve in life. The only thing I have to do is to Know what I desire, design my lifestyle around it, knowing that the outcome is already predetermined because of the steps I'm going to take and the investment I'm going to make. It's shocking how freeing that truly is. The next thing you probably want to consider in all this It's really important. It's just, where are you? Okay. Are you a beginner as you start to move towards some of these decisions and lifestyle that you want? What more do you need to learn? If you need to learn more about what that looks like, keep paying attention to this podcast. We're going to journey there together. Maybe you want to go over to our website, ProsperousHuman. com and learn more there. Get involved in one of our groups. Uh, the good life group is a great place to start with that, where we just pour back into you as you have questions, as you try to move from beginner to intermediate, to advanced, to mastering this. Prosperous human life that you're looking for. Then the next thing you want to consider is investment. Like as you move towards this, so many people like jump and try to do too much, too fast. They're doing the right thing just at the wrong time. Because the stage they're in is foundational at this point as beginner, let's get the basics down. That shouldn't take a whole lot of financial investment, but it may take more investment. Um, time and energy investment. So take time over it so that it doesn't steal from those areas of your life that are important. Include it, but don't go overboard because the second you go overboard and start to push it towards the extremes, that's when we get out of the sweet spot. I've watched so much in the world today of people living in the extremes. I actually think. That it's something that's intentionally happening out there. I'm not sure exactly why, but for whatever reason, we're being provoked and encouraged and tempted to live in the extremes. You're either all of this. Or none of that. Or the reality is there's a sweet spot in these places. I have to bust my ass and grind at work and work 12 hours, days as some kind of sign of worthiness, knowing that I'm sacrificing my health and my fortitude and my family and my relationships over here. Like that's some kind of badge of honor. The world is lying to us and telling us, I want to make smart investments. I want to spend a specific amount of time and design my lifestyle around that. I put it in my routine. Um, you really want to think about time like that as where does this go in my routine? If I want to get over there, that's wonderful and great, but what does it cost me over here? Anytime we are going to take on a new thing, it's going to cost us something somewhere else. How much of that sacrifice are we willing to make to achieve the thing will have everything to do with the amount of speed in which we get to there. Sometimes we're younger times available and things are good. Go ahead, man. Get out after it. And as you get more and more things in your life that are important to you, the sacrifice of them. isn't necessary. Just expand the time. It's okay. There's no rush the patient and consistent effort of a process done on a daily basis. The outcomes already determined. So if you want to get somewhere and it's going to take some time investment, put a small amount of time into your schedule, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, whatever it is that you can afford on a daily or every other day basis to get The stage of where you're at moved up a little bit so that you can now take the next step. So I hope you found a little bit about this valuable. You want to stay in the loop on this, you know, subscribe to this podcast, go click that subscribe button, share it with your friends. If you really thought it was valuable. I clicked the button that says, uh, newsletter on here that I think we have a link down below. You can go to our website, prosperous human. com, you get signed up for a newsletter. I'm constantly putting out, uh, high value content to help you live a good life. I'm doing this because I want to, and I don't even know like if it's going to turn into anything. All that amazing. There's no big scheme or anything to like, Hey, make a whole bunch of money. That's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because of the life I want to live. This is a desire that I have. I know that I have. Maybe mastered some things that are valuable that I can share with others. So my investment is minimal. I got to do some things, some podcasts and some content and stuff like that, where maybe I can be a value to you. I want you to find this good life. I want you to feel that you are living in a prosperous life. So let's work together on becoming truly prosperous, both in your business and in your life. I'll see you in the next episode.