Ever notice how, the moment you step into a new level of accomplishment and visioning, it’s amazing, but it almost always comes along with a success-sized helping of struggle, fear and uncertainty that leads to suffering? Our guest today, Laura Gassner Otting calls this, "wonderhell,” that moment where you’re both celebrating and simultaneously grappling with the burden of your potential to do more, be more, achieve more. It’s both wonderful, and it’s hell. According to Laura, "Wonderhell" is an essential part of any journey that finds you striving for something more. The burden of your potential is real, maybe even unavoidable, but the suffering doesn’t have to be. The success industrial complex, which teaches us to grind harder, lean in, and achieve more to be happy, leaves us unprepared for the messy middle, filled with doubt and uncertainty.  In her new book ‘Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn't Feel Like It Should...and What To Do About It’, she offers a toolkit to help people achieve their potential, with a "choose your own adventure" journey through three towns of Impostor Town, Doubtsville and Burnout City, each with five rides, to help people overcome their fears and doubts. Whether you're an entrepreneur or simply trying to achieve a personal goal, this episode offers practical tips and strategies for redefining your relationship with doubt and uncertainty and embracing wonder hell as a necessary part of the journey to success. Laura also speaks from a place of personal experience. She’s has literally spent decades riding the Wonderhell roller-coaster, and developed a powerful set of tools to help find your way through with more ease and less chaos and suffering. SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Laura Gassner Otting | Website  Laura Gassner Otting is an Author, Catalyst, and Executive Coach and inspires people to push past the doubt and indecision that keep great ideas in limbo by helping audiences think bigger and accept greater challenges that reach beyond their current, limited scope of belief. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, Harvard Business Review, and Oprah Daily. She served as a Presidential Appointee in the White House and founded, ran, and sold her own global search firm. Her bestselling book, Limitless, was chosen by Robin Roberts as one of Good Morning America's Favorite Books of the Year. AND HOSTED BY: Jonathan Fields Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED. How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Website Read more on the Sparked Newsletter on LinkedIn. Connect with Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn. Presented by LinkedIn.

Got a career or business question for the Brainstrust? Submit here. Have you ever found yourself stuck in the endless cycle of indecision, unable to make a choice, and constantly seeking input from others? What if we told you that the key to making better decisions lies within you, and that decision by committee may not be the best approach? In this episode of SPARKED, we dive deep into the art of decision-making and explore the different types of decision-makers out there. From "mavens" who seek more information to "spontaneous" decision-makers who rely on their gut feelings, we discuss the pros and cons of each approach and provide insights into how to make better decisions. Throughout this conversation, we reveal the five most important takeaways you'll learn: There are different types of decision-makers, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. Some seek more information before making a decision, while spontaneous decision-makers go with their instincts. Understanding your own decision-making style can help you make better choices. Trusting yourself is crucial when making decisions. While it's important to seek input from others, ultimately, you are the one who knows best what's right for you. Decision by committee can be dangerous, especially when everyone involved has a stake in the outcome. It's essential to take ownership of your decisions and not rely on others to make them for you. Time can be a significant factor in decision-making, but it's essential not to rush into a choice without considering all the options. Sometimes taking a step back and allowing yourself time to think can lead to better outcomes. Finally, we discuss the dangers of absolutes in decision-making and how to balance the risk with the potential reward. By being open to possibilities and weighing the risks and benefits, you can make more informed and better decisions. So, whether you're a spontaneous decision-maker or a careful planner, this episode has something for everyone. Tune in to learn more about the art of decision-making and how to make better choices for yourself and your business. SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Karen Wright | Website Karen is the founder of Parachute Executive Coaching, acclaimed executive coach, advisor to senior leaders for more than two-decades, and the author of two great books, The Accidental Alpha Woman and The Complete Executive. YOUR HOST: Jonathan Fields Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED. How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Website Read more on the Sparked Newsletter on LinkedIn. Connect with Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn. Presented by LinkedIn.

Got a career or business question for the Brainstrust? Submit here. Question - when it comes to work, do you really care about being more productive, or is the real goal to get all the important stuff done, but in a way that actually gives you back more free time to do the things, in both work and life, that you’re genuinely passionate about and excited to do? Because, they’re not the same.  Sometimes, we talk about productivity as if it’s the end-goal. It’s not. The real goal is what it gives us. Which begs a question, are all those productivity methods, tools, strategies actually working for you? Are they giving you back your life? And the free time to choose what matters most, even if it’s just taking a nap or playing, and spend more time doing just that? This is where we’re heading in today’s provocative hot take with SPARKED Braintrust regular, Jenny Blake. These Hot Take episodes are where we look at hot topics in conversation with expert guides from the SPARKED Braintrust. In today’s Hot Take episode, Jonathan & Jenny discuss: The benefit of scheduling a ‘do not schedule’ time block on your calendar Asking what can you batch, delegate or automate? The power of A-synchronous communication tools How a rolling agenda can save you time and bring less friction to a meeting Why we need to run our own experiments on when and what works best for us Why we shouldn’t underestimate how helpful systems & processes can be ie. Canned or Guided Responses in your email for repeating conversations And, today, we’re going on a myth-busting journey, taking a bit of an ax to old school ideas of productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, and sharing powerful insights and practical tools from her body of work designed not just to help you be more productive, but to literally create a volume of free time you never knew was possible.   Jenny also reminds us that ‘Free Time’ is not about floating through life as if on perpetual vacation. Free Time is about optionality: the ability to choose when you work, with whom, and on the projects that most excite you—on the work that you and only you can do. It is about moving from friction to flow through the power of focus and smart systems. SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Jenny Blake | Website Jenny is a podcaster, career and business strategist, and an award-winning author of three books: Life After College, the groundbreaking Pivot for navigating what’s next, and her recently published Free Time for optimizing what’s now.  IN CONVERSATION WITH: Jonathan Fields Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED. How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Website Read more on the Sparked Newsletter on LinkedIn. Connect with Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn. Presented by LinkedIn.

Got a career or business question for the Brainstrust? Submit here. There’s a mythology in work and in life, of the individual who goes out and does all the things they want to do, completely on their own. The Self-reliant, capable of anything and everything human. We have a misguided story that that kind of self-sufficiency is an achievement, that anything less than that is a burden, and asking for help is a sign of weakness, lack, or inability. This myth is doing us a lot of harm and, in turn, causing a lot of suffering, and keeping us from not only succeeding at a higher level in every area of life, but also creating opportunities to more deeply connect with other people.  But, how do we ask for help, in a world where no one teaches us how, and we’re concerned about how our request will land? The reality is none of us have all the answers, and while we could probably figure out many things on our own, why would you when you could garner support from someone who has walked the path before you? Why wouldn’t you ask for guidance and potentially save yourself time, money, stress and disappointment? And build deeper relationships along the way. In part one of today’s Hot Take episode, Jonathan & Deborah discuss: Why should we ask for help & why it’s so difficult Research that reveals the surprising reasons we don’t ask for help The benefit of garnering support from someone who has walked the path before you And why we should ask for what we actually need rather than what we think we can get SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Deborah Owens | Website After a long career in leadership in some of the biggest companies in the world, Deborah founded her own consulting firm, Corporate Alley Cat, where she advises and coaches People of Color in all aspects of career visioning and development. She has this incredible ability to see what’s happening under the surface in any given situation, and ask questions that get to the heart of the matter and reveal possibilities that feel both empowering and expansive. AND HOSTED BY: Jonathan Fields Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED. How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Website Read more on the Sparked Newsletter on LinkedIn. Connect with Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn. Presented by LinkedIn.

We’re all in a moment. Asking big questions. Especially about work. Should I stay, or should I go? Just keep my head down and ride it out? Or tap out and do something new? Is there a way to keep the security of a paycheck, but reimagine what I’m doing to give me more purpose, excitement, and joy? How do I navigate overwhelm and burnout, the work-from-home that’s somehow morphed into never-stop-working? What about starting my own thing? How do I know when it’s time to leap? Can work actually give me more than just money? And should I even expect that? These are the questions we dive into on the SPARKED podcast.  SPARKED is co-hosted by Jonathan Fields, a dad, husband, founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast. Jonathan is also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED. Every week on the SPARKED podcast, we invite a listener to share what’s going on in their work & life, then pose a specific question to me and a rotating lineup of wise and kind mentors - the SPARKED Braintrust. Then, we dive in, sharing eye-opening, often surprising insights, ideas, strategies, resources and tips to help navigate this moment in a way that helps not only the listener who posed the question, but all if embrace more of the work that makes us come alive, and less of what empties us out. So, come join us, as we explore how to spark your work and life. More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Workshop | The Website Presented by LinkedIn.