615 Find Your Belief with Jonathan Fields

“Let your personal experience tell you whether your belief is still valid or something has to change.” One of the most important things you can do is keep your beliefs elastic. This gives your mind the freedom and room to grow if it wants to adopt new principles. For those who lock into a set of beliefs, they close themselves off to outside influence. When you do this, your mind stops growing. For this episode of 5 Minute Friday I wanted to bring you this valuable clip from an episode with Jonathan Fields. Jonathan is the founder of a mission-driven media and education venture called Good Life Project, where he and his team lead a global community in the quest to live more meaningful, connected, and vital lives. His new book How to Live a Good Life offers a gateway to a life of meaning, connection, and vitality. Today he shares his insights on why staying open to new beliefs is the ticket to always growing. If you’re looking to expand your mind, listen here on Episode 615. “The moment you lock into certainty about your beliefs is the moment you stop growing.” In This Episode You Will Learn: Why Jonathan Fields believes certainty is the moment you stop growing (0:50) What Jonathan Fields sees as the cause of people’s lives going sideways (1:32) How Jonathan Fields responds to people who are locked into their beliefs (1:56) The definition of a good life according to Jonathan Fields (2:11) What Jonathan Fields asks from people who are locked into their beliefs (3:01) Jonathan Fields’ views on accepting norms (3:21) Plus much, much more... Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  For those that don't know who Jonathan Fields is, he's a New York City dad, husband, entrepreneur, podcast host, and award-winning author. He founded a mission-driven media and education venture called Good Life Project, where he and his team lead a global community in the quest to live more meaningful, connected, and vital lives. His new book, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom, offers a gateway to a life of meaning, connection, and vitality.

• 0:50Jonathan Fields?

  I think the moment that you lock yourself into certainty about your beliefs is the moment that you stop growing, is the moment where you, Milton Glaser, had this amazing conversation with, he's one of the most iconic living designer. And at one point, I mean, he has designed some of the most incredible things on the planet. You may not know his name, but you know something that he's created. And he said to me, like, certainty is a closing of the mind. The moment you are certain, the moment like you lock down the possibility that something might be different, or you might believe differently in the future, is the moment that you stop asking questions. It's the moment where curiosity ends. It's the moment where the uncertainty that's necessary for possibility to emerge in your

• 1:30Jonathan Fields?

  life vanishes. Because if you're certain about something, then you stop exploring anything beyond that, right? And the moment you stop exploring, there's no possibility in your life anymore. Your life starts going sideways. Man, I don't know about you or like your listeners, I'm pretty sure about you, I'm pretty sure probably about your listeners too, but I'm not here to go sideways.

• 1:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:50Jonathan Fields?

  If you are indeed living a good life with your beliefs, no reason to change them, right? But the question you gotta ask is like when somebody's like, well, this is what I believe, I believe, and I'm pretty sure I'm right, and it's all good, and it's given me the life that I have. You know, the next question is, well, how's that working for you?

• 2:07Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 2:07Jonathan Fields?

  Like, are you actually sitting here, living a good life? Yeah, like, do you have these beautiful, deep, and enduring relationships? Are you doing meaningful work where you feel like you're fully leveraging, utilizing the world? Are you connected to source and people? Or is your body, like, are you vibrant? Like, are you radiating health? Because if somebody says, "I'm locked into my beliefs," and they're good, they're viable, solid beliefs, and that's how I live my life according to those beliefs. And you can point to major, you know, places in their lives that are relatively disastrous. Right. Something's not working. Yeah. You know, so part of the process, I think, sometimes with, if you have that conversation with somebody, is literally ask them, not from like an arrogant little "how's that working?" standpoint, but just, like, "How's that actually working for you?" That's cool.

• 2:51Jonathan Fields?

  Like, if you have these beliefs and they've been with you for life, and you feel like you're actually really living life that you're, you want to live and you're meant to live, go for it. Keep them. Right. But if you're not, something's got to change. Yeah. You know, so, I mean, it's like I say in the book, like, I'm, I'm not asking for anybody to buy into anything. The only thing that I ask anybody for is to be open to the possibility that there might be another story, another truth. You know, something else that they can do out there that might allow them to be better in the world. Yeah. You know, and then try it. I'm not a huge fan of just, like, leaning into what anybody tells you on pure faith. It's like, run and experiment. Yeah, yeah. You know, let your personal experience tell you whether your belief is still valid or whether something's got to change. Right.