Jonathan Fields > Quotes

“Fear of judgment stifles our ability to embrace uncertainty and as part of that process delivers a serious blow to our willingness to create anything that hasn’t already been done and validated.”
― Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

“The more certain you are of the answer or the outcome in advance, the more likely it is to have been done already—to be derivative—and the less anyone will care, including you. Anything certain has already been done.”
― Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

“A good life is not a place at which you arrive, it is a lens through which you see and create your world.”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“There is vitality, a life force, energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. . . .”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“research shows that the eight-hours-in-one-shot approach to sleep may be somewhat of a modern invention. When people are removed from all artificial sleep cues, one study found, they start to shift to a sleep pattern of about four hours asleep, 30 to 60 minutes awake, then another three to four hours asleep.”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“For those driven to create something extraordinary from nothing, there is no end. There are only ebbs and flows.”
― Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

“Viktor Frankl tells us in Man’s Search for Meaning that “between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” And in that growth and freedom lies the heartbeat of a life well lived. Question”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“As Mark Twain famously offered, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Where”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“All he knew was he was going to put one foot down in front of the other in that direction. There”
― Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

“Many medications also actually put you into more of a hypnotic state than a true deep sleep. That may leave you feeling like you’ve been out cold, but there is increasing doubt about whether it really provides anywhere near the restorative benefit true sleep delivers.”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“One person’s success isn’t necessarily another person’s loss. There is no zero-sum game. It must be assumed that all ships can rise, and the more that rise, the better it is for everyone.”
― Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

“Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.26”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“Reactive Life Syndrome. Living each day not by choice, but by default. Doing what we can simply to keep up and tread water.”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“Awareness is the seed of more aligned being and doing, which”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“What if you don’t so much have a passion or purpose as much as you pursue something, or a bunch of things, with passion and a sense of purpose?”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“Mindfulness is about slowing down, noticing and seeing what is really happening in front of you in this moment, without the anxiety of expectation or the haze of regret. In”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“much of the industry has been built around solutions that work for the industry, but not for the people it seeks to serve. Rows”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“I’ve come face-to-face with these two questions countless times as a writer, an entrepreneur, a painter, a musician, and even a lawyer. On a more immediate level, the questions relate to the project you’re working on. If you’re a painter creating a collection of work, you may start to feel the questions arise as you explore whether a canvas or the collection is taking shape as you have envisioned it. On a more expansive level, the question emerges in the context of whether you should even be a painter or a writer, a coder, an entrepreneur, a CEO. I’ve seen actors struggle to build careers for decades, never coming close to earning enough to cover their bills. Yet they keep on keeping on, because their big break could be one audition away. And this is what they feel called to do. These are some of the most difficult and defining moments every creator faces. I’ve been told by legendary entrepreneurs, “If you have to ask, assume it’s resistance and soldier on.” They claim that you just know whether or not a project is meant to be. But I’ve witnessed countless people commit to perpetually unsuccessful projects or careers or, on the other side of the spectrum, come a breath away from what would’ve been breakthrough success had they just held on a bit longer. So I began to explore a more systematic process, a set of benchmarks, tests, and questions that might better guide these moments and help people decide whether to keep leaning into the journey, alter their course, or walk away and do something entirely different. We start by asking, “What was your inciting motivation?” What made you undertake this endeavor to begin with. Was it, in some form, the expression of a calling? Was it something to keep you busy? Was it about serving a group of people, solving a problem, or serving up a delight? Was it about money or doing anything you could to get your parents off your back and avoid grad school? Begin by going back to the time surrounding your decision to create whatever it is you’re creating and answer this question. Then move on to the next question. In light of the information and experiences you’ve had along the journey to date, does that original motive still hold true? Are you still equally or even more determined to make it happen? And given what you now know, do you believe you can make it happen?”
― Jonathan Fields, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

“The National Institutes of Health suggest that school-age children need at least ten hours of sleep daily, teens need nine to ten hours, and adults need seven to eight hours.”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”
― Jonathan Fields, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom

“And, even though we can turn back and point to the great work we’ve done, the litany of accomplishments, we still walk through life hollow. Just a touch sad. Unfulfilled. Living in a haze of pace, achievement, and exhaustion.”
― Jonathan Fields, Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive