Have you ever achieved everything you were “supposed” to (career, money, relationships) only to feel an emptiness inside?
In this episode, we dive into the groundbreaking work of Christian W. Schnepf, a sociologist and human behavior expert who left behind conventional success in his early twenties to explore what truly creates a fulfilling life. Through years of research and global exploration, he developed the “Science of Good Times”, a revolutionary framework for measuring and optimizing your quality of life in real-time.
- Discover why chasing traditional success often leads to dissatisfaction, and what to pursue instead
- Learn the five life areas that determine your “Good Time Ratio” and how to optimize each one
- Gain a practical, data-driven method for aligning your life with energy flow, fulfillment, and joy
If you're ready to measure what really matters and start living a life that truly feels good, press play and explore the science behind lasting fulfillment.
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KEY POINTS AND TIMESTAMPS:
02:56 - Christian's Personal Journey of Questioning Success
08:10 - Exploring the Motivation Behind Life Choices
09:19 - Defining the Science of Good Times
12:07 - Measuring Good Times and the Good Time Ratio
22:02 - Five Life Areas and Measuring Satisfaction
30:29 - Advice for Professionals Feeling Unfulfilled
34:28 - Closing Insights and Personal Development Perspective
38:52 - Final Thoughts and Call to Action
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MEMORABLE QUOTE:
"Trust yourself, because deep down, you already know what's right for you."
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VALUABLE RESOURCES:
Christian's platform: https://goodtime.app
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Explore coaching with Agi: https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/mentor
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🎙️ Want to be a guest?
Message Agi on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/personaldevelopmentmastery
˚
Personal development interviews exploring key principles of personal development, self improvement, self mastery, personal growth, self-discipline, and personal improvement — all supporting a life of purpose and fulfilment.
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Personal development podcast offering self-mastery and actionable wisdom for personal growth and living with purpose and fulfilment.
A self improvement podcast with inspirational and actionable insights to help you cultivate emotional intelligence, build confidence, and embrace your purpose. Discover practical tools and success habits for self help, motivation, self mastery, mindset shifts, growth mindset, self-discipline, meditation, wellness, spirituality, personal mastery, self growth, and personal improvement. Personal development interviews and mindset podcast content empowering entrepreneurs, leaders, and seekers to nurture mental health, commit to self-improvement, and create meaningful success and lasting happiness.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Agi Keramidas (00:00):
The Hidden warning signs you are stuck in
okay times instead of goodtimes, and how to measure and
optimise the good time ratio.
Welcome to personal developmentmastery. The podcast for
(00:22):
intelligent, busy professionalswho've achieved success but feel
something's missing and areseeking clarity, purpose and
fulfilment. Each episode helpsyou grow by inspiring aligned
action through practicalinsights you can actually use.
I'm your host. Agi Keramidas,join us every Monday for an
(00:44):
insightful conversation with aguest, and it's Thursday for a
shorter episode where I reflectand share with you. This is
episode 538, if you are lookingto understand fulfilment more
deeply and move beyond society'schecklist of success, this
(01:09):
conversation explores how thescience of good times can help
you design a life you trulylove. By listening, you will
learn the five life areas thatdetermine your good time ratio
and gain a practical method tooptimise them before we start,
(01:33):
if you resonate with the topicswe discuss on the podcast, and
you are navigating a transition,or perhaps feeling called to a
next chapter that is morepurposeful and intentional. I
offer one to one coaching andmentoring to help you get clear,
(01:53):
reconnect with what trulymatters and move ahead with
confidence to explore what thatcould look like for you visit
personal development masterypodcast.com/mentor or just up
the link in the show notes. Now,let's get started. My guest
(02:14):
today is Christian W Schnepf.
Christian, you are anadventurous sociologist, human
behaviour expert and creator ofthe science of good times. Your
work blends PhD level researchwith real world exploration
across continents, and you havedeveloped a data driven approach
(02:39):
to measure and optimise life'squality. You're passionate about
helping others, making theconscious pursuit of good times
the number one priority in lifeand work. Christian, welcome to
the show. Such a pleasure tohave have you today.
Christian W Schnepf (02:57):
Thank you, Agi, it's my pleasure to be here
Agi Keramidas (03:02):
good times. And the science of good times is
such an intriguing and I think,I think very few people would be
not interested in good times orhaving good times. So we will
certainly talk about that beforewe do Christian, I wanted to as,
(03:23):
wouldn't you? To tell us youdescribe in your journey,
walking away from conventionalsuccess in your 20s to, you
know, journey the world, etc,what was the internal turning
point that made you questioneverything, and do that.
Christian W Schnepf (03:46):
The first time I started questioning
everything regards theconventional definition of
success, was when I reached mostof the things that I've been
told were success. I was around2021, maybe, and yeah, in my
case, back then, I've been toldhigher education is success. If
you get recognition andattention, that's success. If
(04:09):
you have money, that's asuccess. If you're in a good
shape, that's success. If youhave friends and perhaps a
girlfriend, that's all success.
So I reached that very early,and I figured out that it's not
even a matter of luck. That'sliterally just I'm doing ABC,
and then I get what I was aimingfor. And when I reached those
points, I felt increasinglyempty. I realised I'm not really
(04:33):
fulfilled. And I was wondering,Where is this leading? Because I
could see in society that thisis literally the blueprint, and
then you would just continuedoing this. And I was 20, so
according to the average lifespan people can expect, I had
another 60 years in front of me,at least with a healthy body,
(04:56):
even more and. And I'm saying,basically, I'm just reaching the
time until I'm dying, becausemore satisfying it won't be. It
wasn't bad, though. So I saidit's okay, but there got to be
more. And as there wasn't more,and I couldn't find more in my
environment, I slowly lost,really, the motivation to be
(05:19):
alive. The
Agi Keramidas (05:25):
two things, thank you for sharing this. And there
are two things that reallyhighlighted. One was the fact
that you came to thisrealisation. You were blessed, I
would say, to come to thisrealisation early in life, in
your early 20s. Because for me,personally, and many people I
(05:46):
know, this realisation comesmuch later. It's usually in
their, you know, 40s that theysee all these things
differently. So that was onething I I find fascinating. And,
you know, to have thatrealisation so early. The other
thing there was something thatyou said, and I think that's
(06:09):
very important, and many canrelate to that. You said that it
wasn't bad, you know, that's Iwill leave the situation many of
us find ourselves in. It's notlike we are unhappy or miserable
or this. Things are okay on theoutside, but there is something
(06:31):
lacking, perhaps on the inside.
I use the word fulfilment inthese cases, but I think
everyone can fill in the blanksof what it is, but it is
something more internal so. Sothis is just as my observations
in your story. And I don't knowif you want to add anything to
(06:53):
that before I move on to theactual
Christian W Schnepf (06:58):
I would like to add something because
after I lost that hope and theoutlook that things could get
better, I mean, I could just domore of the same, which is, if
it's not fulfilling, it won't befulfilling if I do more of it.
And after I lost thatmotivation, slowly things fell
apart because I didn't have adriver, I didn't have to, I
(07:18):
didn't have anything to to putmore efforts into the things I'm
doing. So after things fellabout apart, things became
actually very bad. So in thatmoment, it wasn't just okay, it
was then bad, and it didn't giveme even it didn't give me the
solution to Okay. Now it's worthgoing more actually, it was the
(07:39):
opposite. Now it actuallysupported the idea it's just no
point to be alive. It's neithergood, it's neither Okay, nor
okay. So that became a turningpoint for me to say, at one
point, I'm deciding to continueliving however things got to be
different, and I'm seeking outto figure out what it is that
needs to be different. I
Agi Keramidas (08:03):
so that led you to your your journey, the
exploration, the need foranswers, eventually, different.
Christian W Schnepf (08:10):
It took a while. It took a while because I
needed to start searching in myenvironment. Of course, you
start a new, immediateenvironment to look around for
answers, and after I didn't findcertain answers, I expanded my
scope, and that took a while. Ieven made a second test of the
same approach that I had before,just bigger, different
(08:32):
environment and same result.
It's not fulfilling. So a coupleof years later, I eventually
said, Let's go hardcore all inand that led me abroad.
Agi Keramidas (08:45):
It's led you abroad, and it led you to the
work that you have created allthese years that we were going
to talk about. And actually,let's move on to that straight
away Christian and tell us as adefinition. Let's start with
something, let's say fundamentalas a definition. What exactly is
(09:07):
the science of good times, andhow is it different, you know,
from other traditionalapproaches to, let's say
happiness or self improvement,
Christian W Schnepf (09:19):
yeah, the science of good times, in a
nutshell, covers the idea tofind what it takes to maximise
good times, maximise the amountof good times, versus non good
times, which were okay times,and of course, then the bad
times, how we define them. Thedifference to happiness is that
happiness is an emotion that canbe a good time. However, it's
(09:42):
not limited to so if I'm havinga serious conversation that is
very intriguing and triggerscuriosity, I would describe that
as a good time, but my innerstate, I wouldn't describe as
happy. And that's that's wherethe difference is in that I'm
not looking only for chemicalreactions in my body and giving
it. And isolated, yeah, lookingisolated at one emotion, but the
(10:06):
general scope of positiveemotions, and here it becomes,
here comes the definition thatI'm drawn towards. Basically,
I'm appealed by something, andthat can be triggering
happiness, that can betriggering curiosity,
inspiration, or in the idealcase, it leads to fulfilment. So
(10:28):
from a biological point of view,humans are equipped with
basically two navigators or twotwo indicators whether we walk
in the right direction or not.
And that is simply, I'm puttowards something. I'm attracted
by something which gives me afeeling of a positive feeling, a
good time, or I'm repelled fromsomething which is commonly
described as a bad time. And ifI have neither an attraction
(10:53):
towards something nor arepulsion from something, we
usually use the wording, it'sokay. We tolerate it. We just
don't know where to go. And froma physical point of view, is
actually very simple. We areequipped to have those
tendencies in order that ourinner energy system is
(11:13):
functioning, that energy isflowing, that not in the
spiritual, spiritual sense, butin the literal, physical sense
that blood is flowing, that wemoving and utilise our kinetic
energy, energy and yeah, naturedidn't, didn't require us to
have a complex frontal cortex toanalyse all of that stuff. But
(11:35):
any animal is equipped tonavigate life, to avoid energy
blockages and emphasise energyrelease and energy flow. And
basically, the science of goodtimes is looking for where
energy is flowing and whereenergy is blocked, and is
looking for what are the factorsthat contribute to energy flow?
(11:56):
In other words, contribute tothat I'm constantly attracting
to the situation I'm findingmyself in.
Agi Keramidas (12:07):
I think what you just said, that last thing that
you just said, now it's kind ofit answered quite a lot of
questions that were starting toform with the description. So
you were talking about, andthat's what I wanted to, you
(12:28):
know, understand a bit betterabout the actual, how do you
define the actual good time? Soyou were saying that it is not
an inner state, not necessarily,anyway. And you, you said, you
use the phrases something thatwe are attracted by or appeal.
(12:50):
It appeals to us. So theexperience was the word that
came to my mind as what a goodtime is at least in the way that
I perceive something. So Iwanted to give us a little bit
(13:11):
more explanation, or perhapssome examples of apart, you
know, from the obvious, but someother things that would fall
into the category of good times,as you said, Yeah, might be
ideas or experiences or whateverelse it is, so that we can
(13:31):
really, you know, understandthat, and then we will move on.
Christian W Schnepf (13:35):
So as you described, as you said,
correctly, it's an experience into be exact, it's an experience
measured in the moment. So it'snot something like I experience
a really bad time that I want toescape from, and years later I
look back and say, That's was agood time? No, it was not a good
time. It brings you a good timenow. It just helped you to have
a good time later, but in themoment itself, it wasn't a good
(13:58):
time, and that's why theexperience always takes place in
the present. And if we take alook to make it more concrete,
just ask yourself, example ofwork, would you like to go to
work, even though you wouldn'tget anything for the future out
of it? It's just a pills. You'reattracted to go to work and do
(14:20):
what you're doing because itfeels good in the very moment.
It gives you a good time in thevery moment, without thinking
about it, will give me a goodtime later. And if the answer is
no, then it's not a good time.
If the answer is like, actually,I, I would, I would do anything
to be not there, that's a badtime. If you say it's okay, and
usually it's an indicator foryou don't know what to do
(14:42):
better, or it is something youneed to do in the hope it brings
you a better time in the future.
For example, it gives you theresources, it gives you money,
or it gives you recognition,acknowledgement, whatever,
whatever it is that you need.
It, and a good time usually, isnot coming out of moment of
scarcity, out of a place ofscarcity. It comes more from the
(15:06):
I'm okay, where I am, and it'sjust making it better, and not I
need to do that. That's actuallythe opposite. It's a different
driver
Agi Keramidas (15:18):
that's great. And thank you for that. And now that
this is hopefully, it is moreclear to everyone, let's talk
about measuring these goodtimes. First of all, because you
have there is a very scientificand precise approach, which I
(15:42):
would like to hear more about,how we can measure the good
times. And also, perhaps itwould be relevant if you think
there is any other backgroundyou want to give before you
actually explain the measuringbit, you can also give that for
the sake of, you know,completeness,
Christian W Schnepf (16:02):
I think the background I would like to give
is, why would we need to measureit? What's the point of
measuring stuff? And for me, thenumber one reason, before I
started into getting measure,into getting into measuring,
was, what does it actually beaiming for? And I needed to
clarify, really, and I'm veryclear about this, meanwhile,
that literally, everything we'redoing is driven by the
(16:24):
motivation to get a good time,whether it's a good time now or
it's a delayed good time in thefuture for longer, and then also
the amplitude. How strong isthat good time? Is it like
little is good or it's amazing?
There's a difference. Andbasically everything we do, any
human ever did and will ever do,is driven by that motivation in
(16:44):
the human context, as socialspecies. We can extend that even
to to beyond our lifetime, thatwe say, this gives a good time
for the following generation,for my children, etc, but it is
aiming for having maximised goodtime. So for me, that was very
important to clarify what isactually the goal in life.
(17:06):
Because if I'm not clear aboutthat, I'm chasing other stuff.
For example, I'm chasing careersuccess. But what if I'm having
that and I'm feeling empty? Sowhat happened? So then what am I
actually looking for? And forme, that was that was a big part
of my initial non academicresearch, where just went around
(17:29):
and was trying to distil thisnumber one life objective. So
after I got clear that, yes,everything we want is maximised
good times for as long aspossible, for as good as
possible and for as long aspossible, then that means that
everything we do is aiming toachieve that. So whether we go
to work, whether we build aneconomy, whether we build even a
(17:52):
society, whether we go intorelationships, anything we do is
basically supposed to maximisethe times.
Agi Keramidas (18:01):
Can I ask? Sorry, I will interject to that,
please. Do you mean anythingthat we do consciously, or
anything that
Christian W Schnepf (18:10):
anything even unconsciously? Okay? That,
yeah, that is, that is the thingthat I found later. But I can
come to this in a moment, if youwant. What I found, however,
after it is so clear thatbasically all of our efforts,
individually and as a society,as collective, is aiming to
(18:30):
achieve this. How do we knowthat what we do is actually
leading there and is not leadingthere? Maybe we doing maybe we
driving crazy around, doingsomething and put all of our
efforts in that's not evenleading us to more good times.
And the opposite is happening.
We have classic examples ofbeing in a relationship where we
think, like, what would give mea better time if I'm with her or
(18:51):
with him? And eventually, yeah,it's just a really, really bad
time, and you want to leave, butyou're not really, because, for
whatever reasons, if it'spsychologically, if it's through
your culture, you believe beingin it is better, and better
needs to define, needs to bedefined in a way. And I defined
(19:11):
that point, and we'll come tothis in a moment, okay, but we
stick in those situations andthose relationships, and those
work with, with in our habitsthat are not really serving us,
and we might not we, maybe theyserve us, but we don't even know
because we didn't measure it. Sothat's where I found the need to
(19:32):
develop a metric, or toactually, I found the need to
measure it. I just wanted toknow the factors. But in my PhD,
I realised, okay, let's just gotto be a metric out there that we
measure which factor is actuallyleading to more good times. And
I found there is no, no reliablemetric out there. So that
became, eventually, meanwhile,three year endorsement to. To
(19:56):
develop that metric that iscurrently called the good time
ratio GTR, that basicallymeasures the proportion of
positive experiences versus nonpositive experiences, including
negative and okay. And accordingto that goal, what we had in the
(20:17):
beginning over a lifetime seenover a lifetime, success would
be therefore defined as thematurity of time you spend your
experience as positive, and thatallows, eventually to to
orientate on the best practices.
(20:38):
What is doing, what person andwhat practice leads to a
maximum, maximised life positiveexperience throughout lifetime
for myself and the people thatmatter to me and that became the
foundation of the GTR, the goodtime ratio metric, which
eventually along the researchconnected to what I described
(21:02):
earlier, to physical energyflow, where I found the
connection to why do weexperience good times in the
first place? Because it's abiological indicator for energy
is flowing versus a bad time. Asan indicator energy is blocked,
initiating us and triggering usto take immediate actions to
change it, to unblock energy.
And therefore we can actuallyroot it back, not just
(21:23):
subjectively, but evenobjectively measure how good
someone's lifetime is.
Agi Keramidas (21:32):
That's great. So guide us in a simple way,
without, you know, going intothe scientific analysis of it,
how, or perhaps, which factorsso we can get an idea in in our
life, might you know contributeto that rate or ratio? What,
(21:56):
what things you know one countsin order to calculate that in
the end,
Christian W Schnepf (22:02):
so eventually we are limited to
five areas in our lives where wefeel attraction to or feeling
repelled from it. And those fivelife areas, I like to take the
metaphor as life is a game,because it makes it easy to
grasp. Imagine life is a game,which I believe it is. Then you
are the player. So that's layerarea number one. It's the self,
(22:25):
the player. Then there are otherplayers, that's social. That's
the second area. Then you haveactions, so you can do some
stuff. That's the third area.
You have obtainments, whichbasically you can get from the
outside, can be money, can belove can be acknowledgement. And
we have a map, a playground, thehabitat where we live, that's
(22:45):
the environment, that's thefifth area. And we can tell to
maximise good times. Webasically say, in a nutshell, I
truly love who I am, with whom Iam, what I do, what I get, and
where I am. And we can measureeventually you can, you can just
ask inside of yourself. Wedeveloped, meanwhile, a software
(23:06):
with a dashboard. It's a goodtime. Dot app where you can
measure that morecomprehensively and get get an
get a report. However, you canjust ask yourself, right now, am
I? Am I satisfied and attractedby being myself. Am I attracted
to spending my time with thosepeople I'm spending my time
with? Or would I prefer notdoing this if I don't need them?
(23:28):
And am I attracted to do thethings I'm doing? For example,
if you go to work, do you likegoing to work? Or would you
prefer doing something else? Anddo you are you also attracted by
the things you're getting sofrom life? Are you? Are you? Do
you like the food you eat? Doyou like the comments you get
from the outside? Do you likethe resources you have access to
(23:50):
and at the delivery the lastarea? Do you like where you are?
And if you're not sure aboutthat, that means not because I
really I asked so many people,and if someone really liked
where they are or each of thoseareas, they correct me when I'm
(24:10):
asking, Do you like it? Theyinstantly shoot back and say, I
love it. I love it. So yeah, Igot some comments from some
people in different disciplines.
They say, yeah, love is theanswer. I mean, it sounds a bit
too romantic, but eventually,love is nothing else but pure
energy flow directed towardssomething or not directed
(24:33):
towards something. And basically00, in a blockage. And if
there's zero in a blockage, theresponse comes immediate, and
the response comes withemotions. It's not like, yeah, I
love it. No, no, no. It's like,I love it. It's like, clear
statement. So if the answer isfor you not like this, then
there might be some blockagesomewhere.
Agi Keramidas (24:57):
This is fascinating, and I will come
back. To the the energy, theflow, the blockages, all this
because it is, I'm keeping thatfor sure, because there are some
things to discuss, but I willstick to what we have been
saying. First of all, I findthis classification of those
(25:20):
five core areas fascinating, andwhen you were describing it, I
was trying to find someargument, you know, against one
of them or something that ismissing. And I couldn't, no, no,
it is. It is different thanother classifications that I
have used, you know, to measuremy satisfaction or happiness, or
(25:44):
things like that. So that's onething that I noted, the self
social action subtainments andmap, which is a very, in a way,
different way of classifying.
Christian W Schnepf (26:00):
Can I really give a comment to that?
Please? Do? You said it'sdifferent from the other ways
you you measured. Did you usethe wheel of life?
Agi Keramidas (26:09):
Yes, yeah, the one that comes to mind is wheel
of life.
Christian W Schnepf (26:12):
Wheel of Life. And that's a common
approach that that that I tried,and that I think I succeeded in
challenging or overcomingbecause it, it is factor based.
Basically, it has assumptions,like, we assume we have a
relationship, and how well isyour relationship going? And I
(26:34):
used the wheel of life manyyears ago, and I when I started
researching and started havinginterviews, and I found people
that say, I'm really, reallysatisfied with my life, but I
don't have a relationshipaccording to the wheel of life,
that would be a failure. So youbecause you didn't reach that.
How satisfied are you with yourcareer? Ask a retired person who
is completely fulfilled doesn'thave a career. So we assume
(26:57):
those things, and that's alsowhere most life satisfaction
metrics are built upon. And forshort, Happiness Index is
assuming that you need to have acertain amount of income to be
satisfied, and that's based onassumptions. And my approach was
we need to find some commonground that applies to any human
living today, in any culture, aswell as to any human ever lived.
(27:22):
And what are those? What is theframework? And that's where the
five areas distilled over time.
Agi Keramidas (27:29):
One other thing, you said, assumptions, and one
other thing that, personally, Ihave found challenging when
filling in this kind ofmeasurements is how subjective
it is. So if I have to give ascore from one to 10, it is,
(27:49):
honestly speaking, whether it'sgoing to be six or seven, I
can't really pinpoint that. Itis quite subjective. Of course,
it gives a rough idea. But as ascore. So I'm fascinated to go
deeper and see how precise theway that you measure it.
Christian W Schnepf (28:12):
Yeah, so one thing we do is we don't use
a score. We don't ask from oneto 10, because that requires
already to use your brain, andyour brain is usually more is a
great tool to find threat and toavoid problems, but it's not
really a great, great tool totell you how you feel, because
you don't think satisfaction.
You feel satisfaction. So that'swhy we don't use the scale. We
(28:33):
asked, How do you feel? And wecurrently, in our current
version, we allow users to justselect on, yeah, we could call
it a scale, but it's not a realscale. Like from I hate it to I
really dislike it. I like Idislike it, I'm okay. I like it,
I really like it, and I love it.
(28:53):
And if there's some hesitationto click on, I love it, then
there's not, I love it, period.
And that's, that's where you canjust feel in into those so we
may make those experiments wherewe saw what people tending to
click on, and we give even thewe give even the opportunity to
choose two things. So you say, Ilike some parts, but some parts
(29:14):
I dislike, and something inbetween, and calculating,
therefore the ratio within eachelement that takes place in
someone's life. And in thatcase, yeah, it wasn't. It was an
experiment some time ago to seewhether that works, and it did
work, and we saw on thedashboard a highly accurate
outcome and prediction whatneeds to be done and where the
(29:38):
energy is blocked. We gotfeedback from users who
literally say, I wasn't aware ofthat, but I'm surprised that you
could pinpoint that my biggestchallenge in life currently is
the relationship with person Aand how did you know? And that
is literally, is very preciseindeed. So.
Agi Keramidas (30:01):
Agi Christian for someone listening right now who
has ticked the boxes or thetraditional boxes of success,
but feels unfulfilled or at acrossroads, perhaps, what's one
insight from the science of goodtimes that can help them realign
(30:24):
with their life and meaning?
Christian W Schnepf (30:29):
That is a very good question. And
eventually, let me give a bit ofcontext that this is understood
so in the in the frame of energyflow. Let's describe it that
way. It is about that yourorganism, you as a self, you are
functioning. Your life isfunctioning. And one of the
biggest challenges why this isnot the case is because you are
(30:50):
orientating on societaldefinitions of success. That's
why I did my PhD, or do my PhDin Sociology, because I realised
it's a big, big factor ofinfluence how people think they
need to do what they need to do,but it is not fulfilling if you
do something that is is that youhave been told to do while your
(31:12):
inner energy system is notworking. So it is for you
focusing on yourself and saying,I need to be satisfied with
myself sustainably. So if Iwould just drop that one as one
single orientation, orientation,then if you would really, you
could stop listening at thatpoint and really just asking
(31:35):
yourself, I'm orientating mywhole life that I am 100%
satisfied with myself for aslong as possible, sustainably.
If you do this inevitably, youwould pay attention to all the
other areas supporting yourself.
You would pay attention to thatno one is that, that you are,
that you're not depending onacknowledgement from others. You
would pay attention to that. Youwould have enough, enough
(31:58):
income. That is, you canactually move in all directions
you want to go, and you can eathealthy food, and you can do the
things you want to do. You woulddesign your work in a way that
you feeling like, Yeah, I'm, I'mexcited to do those things, and
I'm not feeling an innerresistance all of those stuff.
So that is basically, that isbasically the direction I would
(32:19):
give as a recommendation to askyourself, Am I truly satisfied
being who I am, or am I tryingto fit in? And am I chasing what
someone else defined for me, thesuccesses, and what would it
really be for me? How would Ireally want to live and for the
long term, and then designing,designing your own life,
(32:44):
designing things in yourenvironment that they work for
you. That means choose theenvironment that you say, I
really want to be here, and notbecause I grew up here or
because that's what I've beentold is the most practical for
work. No, I really want to behere, and I'm not spending time
with the people because I grewup with them, or that's my
(33:04):
colleagues. No, I really want tospend time with those people.
And then how much money do Ineed to earn? I need 10k per
month. That's what I've beentold. Is it true, or am I
actually very, very satisfiedwith 2k or 1k and living a
simple life, that as long as youcan live the life you want to
do, because that's especiallywhen it comes to money, it's a
(33:26):
big, big trade off that ismostly not in the favour of the
individual. And I say I'mspending most of my time to get
something that I actually don'treally need, but no, I don't
know. I don't have the time todo the things that I actually
want to do, and then designingall of that around. But it is
about you, and it is about beinghighly satisfied with yourself,
(33:49):
from your health and physicalcomfort, bodily comfort, to your
mental clarity, to your innerstate, your inner peace, and
eventually aligning all youractions around what you believe
is right for you. Radically,just, just radically, just
sorting out what doesn't serveme doesn't fit in here, but I'm
(34:11):
not saying doesn't serve me fora moment, but later I might
regret it. Now, think itthrough, but then trust
yourself. If it doesn't serveme, then I can trust myself it
doesn't serve me. I choosesomething else that serves me
better.
Agi Keramidas (34:28):
Christian, thank you for this insightful and
inspiring answer you gave. Iappreciate very much as I will
start wrapping things up fortoday, I would like to ask you,
first of all, where would youlike to direct the listener of
(34:52):
this conversation to find outmore and carry on the journey
with you?
Christian W Schnepf (34:57):
Go on goodtime, dot app. Go. Time dot
a PP, I developed a toolTogether with a team, meanwhile,
that doing exactly that,basically allowing you to
navigate your life based on datarather than guesswork. And we
are currently still in thedevelopment but we want to, want
to get people on it and have theexperience that we've got from
(35:21):
the first users that iseventually our way to impact as
many people as possible andsupport people. Before I was
coaching, I still offer that incase someone wants to have an
intensive support, but it hasits limits. I'm currently only
offering to three people a year,also considering my capacity.
But with a good time dot app wehave we have unlimited support
(35:45):
opportunities, and it's a simpleway to to navigate life clearly.
Agi Keramidas (35:52):
Thank you.
Christiana, I also have twoquick questions for you, and one
is, what does personaldevelopment mean to you,
Christian W Schnepf (36:06):
becoming the best version of myself every
day and sustainably so can Ilook into the mirror? Am I
saying I'm living the way Ibelieve is right? And am I do I
have the courage to also look atthe things that I'm not
satisfied with with myself, andthen accordingly, change it. And
(36:28):
for me, this is personaldevelopment being the best
version of myself.
Agi Keramidas (36:33):
And hypothetically speaking, if you
could go back in time and meetyour 18 self, what's one, one
piece of advice you would tell
Christian W Schnepf (36:42):
him, trust yourself. Trust yourself. Yeah.
I mean, really, I, as you say,you you basically saying it's a
different person. You're 18 yearold, and I agree with that. I'm
there are some parts of this 18year old still outside of me,
but I basically would say that'sanother kind of another person.
(37:03):
And I have respect of that guy.
He did a lot of stuff correct,and really well, just wasn't
sure about it, and was lettinghimself be influenced by the
voices from others, sayingmaybe, maybe it's not good to do
to pay attention to fitness allthe time. Maybe it's okay to
just stay up longer, maybe,maybe I just don't know, and
(37:23):
someone else knows better. Thatwas my thought back then. So I
How can I tell if I didn't tryboth? Man, you just knew it.
Just you knew it a bit, andtrust yourself.
Agi Keramidas (37:38):
Christian, I want to thank you very much for this
conversation we had today. I wasI was I was telling you earlier
I was looking forward to it, andit's really satisfied. And more,
you know, intellectually in mycuriosity and I believe that the
(38:01):
insights and some practicalthings, especially what you were
just saying in the end, aboutasking those questions and
really taking the time toconsider, I believe they're very
useful. So thank you very much.
I want to wish all the best withyou know your journey with the
app and your mission, I willWhat I would like to leave it
(38:28):
with. Actually, it will be yourparting words. If you would like
to offer something actionable aswell to the listener you know as
your parting words for thisconversation,
Christian W Schnepf (38:52):
something actionable. I think it starts
with committing and and thebelief around I deserve to live
good. I deserve to live well,and I deserve to have a good
life and getting clarity aroundthis and allowing yourself,
listening inside of yourself andsaying, Hey, you're great the
(39:13):
way you are, and you deserve tohave a good life. I would
encourage people to take thetime and convince themselves
eventually that they startbelieving and it is possible to
love every day of my life, tolove myself, to love the people
in my environment, to love whatI do, to love what I get, and to
(39:34):
love where I am, and I deservethat, because the moment you
really believe I deserve thatbecomes just the puzzle to to
fill. You just start looking outfor what, what makes it
possible. But if you don'tbelieve that you don't deserve
it, you start, or you continue,sabotaging yourself. And that is
(39:54):
there's a strategy. You deservebetter. So I, I, I. Send it with
all my love and all my mygoodwill to to the listeners,
love yourself and believe thatyou deserve it to have a good
life and everything elsepractically fill the gaps, and
if our tool helps you, it's ourpleasure.
Agi Keramidas (40:19):
Thank you for listening to this conversation
with Christian W Schnepf. I hopeit has given you a fresh
perspective on what it reallymeans to create a good life. If
this conversation inspired youor gave you something
meaningful, consider supportingthe show. It's like, buy me a
(40:43):
coffee in return for the valueyou received. Visit personal
development masterypodcast.com/support or just tap
the link in the episodedescription. Until next time
stand out don't fit in.
The Hidden warning signs you are stuck in
okay times instead of goodtimes, and how to measure and
optimise the good time ratio.
Welcome to personal developmentmastery. The podcast for
(00:22):
intelligent, busy professionalswho've achieved success but feel
something's missing and areseeking clarity, purpose and
fulfilment. Each episode helpsyou grow by inspiring aligned
action through practicalinsights you can actually use.
I'm your host. Agi Keramidas,join us every Monday for an
(00:44):
insightful conversation with aguest, and it's Thursday for a
shorter episode where I reflectand share with you. This is
episode 538, if you are lookingto understand fulfilment more
deeply and move beyond society'schecklist of success, this
(01:09):
conversation explores how thescience of good times can help
you design a life you trulylove. By listening, you will
learn the five life areas thatdetermine your good time ratio
and gain a practical method tooptimise them before we start,
(01:33):
if you resonate with the topicswe discuss on the podcast, and
you are navigating a transition,or perhaps feeling called to a
next chapter that is morepurposeful and intentional. I
offer one to one coaching andmentoring to help you get clear,
(01:53):
reconnect with what trulymatters and move ahead with
confidence to explore what thatcould look like for you visit
personal development masterypodcast.com/mentor or just up
the link in the show notes. Now,let's get started. My guest
(02:14):
today is Christian W Schnepf.
Christian, you are anadventurous sociologist, human
behaviour expert and creator ofthe science of good times. Your
work blends PhD level researchwith real world exploration
across continents, and you havedeveloped a data driven approach
(02:39):
to measure and optimise life'squality. You're passionate about
helping others, making theconscious pursuit of good times
the number one priority in lifeand work. Christian, welcome to
the show. Such a pleasure tohave have you today.
Christian W Schnepf (02:57):
Thank you, Agi, it's my pleasure to be here
Agi Keramidas (03:02):
good times. And the science of good times is
such an intriguing and I think,I think very few people would be
not interested in good times orhaving good times. So we will
certainly talk about that beforewe do Christian, I wanted to as,
(03:23):
wouldn't you? To tell us youdescribe in your journey,
walking away from conventionalsuccess in your 20s to, you
know, journey the world, etc,what was the internal turning
point that made you questioneverything, and do that.
Christian W Schnepf (03:46):
The first time I started questioning
everything regards theconventional definition of
success, was when I reached mostof the things that I've been
told were success. I was around2021, maybe, and yeah, in my
case, back then, I've been toldhigher education is success. If
you get recognition andattention, that's success. If
(04:09):
you have money, that's asuccess. If you're in a good
shape, that's success. If youhave friends and perhaps a
girlfriend, that's all success.
So I reached that very early,and I figured out that it's not
even a matter of luck. That'sliterally just I'm doing ABC,
and then I get what I was aimingfor. And when I reached those
points, I felt increasinglyempty. I realised I'm not really
(04:33):
fulfilled. And I was wondering,Where is this leading? Because I
could see in society that thisis literally the blueprint, and
then you would just continuedoing this. And I was 20, so
according to the average lifespan people can expect, I had
another 60 years in front of me,at least with a healthy body,
(04:56):
even more and. And I'm saying,basically, I'm just reaching the
time until I'm dying, becausemore satisfying it won't be. It
wasn't bad, though. So I saidit's okay, but there got to be
more. And as there wasn't more,and I couldn't find more in my
environment, I slowly lost,really, the motivation to be
(05:19):
alive. The
Agi Keramidas (05:25):
two things, thank you for sharing this. And there
are two things that reallyhighlighted. One was the fact
that you came to thisrealisation. You were blessed, I
would say, to come to thisrealisation early in life, in
your early 20s. Because for me,personally, and many people I
(05:46):
know, this realisation comesmuch later. It's usually in
their, you know, 40s that theysee all these things
differently. So that was onething I I find fascinating. And,
you know, to have thatrealisation so early. The other
thing there was something thatyou said, and I think that's
(06:09):
very important, and many canrelate to that. You said that it
wasn't bad, you know, that's Iwill leave the situation many of
us find ourselves in. It's notlike we are unhappy or miserable
or this. Things are okay on theoutside, but there is something
(06:31):
lacking, perhaps on the inside.
I use the word fulfilment inthese cases, but I think
everyone can fill in the blanksof what it is, but it is
something more internal so. Sothis is just as my observations
in your story. And I don't knowif you want to add anything to
(06:53):
that before I move on to theactual
Christian W Schnepf (06:58):
I would like to add something because
after I lost that hope and theoutlook that things could get
better, I mean, I could just domore of the same, which is, if
it's not fulfilling, it won't befulfilling if I do more of it.
And after I lost thatmotivation, slowly things fell
apart because I didn't have adriver, I didn't have to, I
(07:18):
didn't have anything to to putmore efforts into the things I'm
doing. So after things fellabout apart, things became
actually very bad. So in thatmoment, it wasn't just okay, it
was then bad, and it didn't giveme even it didn't give me the
solution to Okay. Now it's worthgoing more actually, it was the
(07:39):
opposite. Now it actuallysupported the idea it's just no
point to be alive. It's neithergood, it's neither Okay, nor
okay. So that became a turningpoint for me to say, at one
point, I'm deciding to continueliving however things got to be
different, and I'm seeking outto figure out what it is that
needs to be different. I
Agi Keramidas (08:03):
so that led you to your your journey, the
exploration, the need foranswers, eventually, different.
Christian W Schnepf (08:10):
It took a while. It took a while because I
needed to start searching in myenvironment. Of course, you
start a new, immediateenvironment to look around for
answers, and after I didn't findcertain answers, I expanded my
scope, and that took a while. Ieven made a second test of the
same approach that I had before,just bigger, different
(08:32):
environment and same result.
It's not fulfilling. So a coupleof years later, I eventually
said, Let's go hardcore all inand that led me abroad.
Agi Keramidas (08:45):
It's led you abroad, and it led you to the
work that you have created allthese years that we were going
to talk about. And actually,let's move on to that straight
away Christian and tell us as adefinition. Let's start with
something, let's say fundamentalas a definition. What exactly is
(09:07):
the science of good times, andhow is it different, you know,
from other traditionalapproaches to, let's say
happiness or self improvement,
Christian W Schnepf (09:19):
yeah, the science of good times, in a
nutshell, covers the idea tofind what it takes to maximise
good times, maximise the amountof good times, versus non good
times, which were okay times,and of course, then the bad
times, how we define them. Thedifference to happiness is that
happiness is an emotion that canbe a good time. However, it's
(09:42):
not limited to so if I'm havinga serious conversation that is
very intriguing and triggerscuriosity, I would describe that
as a good time, but my innerstate, I wouldn't describe as
happy. And that's that's wherethe difference is in that I'm
not looking only for chemicalreactions in my body and giving
it. And isolated, yeah, lookingisolated at one emotion, but the
(10:06):
general scope of positiveemotions, and here it becomes,
here comes the definition thatI'm drawn towards. Basically,
I'm appealed by something, andthat can be triggering
happiness, that can betriggering curiosity,
inspiration, or in the idealcase, it leads to fulfilment. So
(10:28):
from a biological point of view,humans are equipped with
basically two navigators or twotwo indicators whether we walk
in the right direction or not.
And that is simply, I'm puttowards something. I'm attracted
by something which gives me afeeling of a positive feeling, a
good time, or I'm repelled fromsomething which is commonly
described as a bad time. And ifI have neither an attraction
(10:53):
towards something nor arepulsion from something, we
usually use the wording, it'sokay. We tolerate it. We just
don't know where to go. And froma physical point of view, is
actually very simple. We areequipped to have those
tendencies in order that ourinner energy system is
(11:13):
functioning, that energy isflowing, that not in the
spiritual, spiritual sense, butin the literal, physical sense
that blood is flowing, that wemoving and utilise our kinetic
energy, energy and yeah, naturedidn't, didn't require us to
have a complex frontal cortex toanalyse all of that stuff. But
(11:35):
any animal is equipped tonavigate life, to avoid energy
blockages and emphasise energyrelease and energy flow. And
basically, the science of goodtimes is looking for where
energy is flowing and whereenergy is blocked, and is
looking for what are the factorsthat contribute to energy flow?
(11:56):
In other words, contribute tothat I'm constantly attracting
to the situation I'm findingmyself in.
Agi Keramidas (12:07):
I think what you just said, that last thing that
you just said, now it's kind ofit answered quite a lot of
questions that were starting toform with the description. So
you were talking about, andthat's what I wanted to, you
(12:28):
know, understand a bit betterabout the actual, how do you
define the actual good time? Soyou were saying that it is not
an inner state, not necessarily,anyway. And you, you said, you
use the phrases something thatwe are attracted by or appeal.
(12:50):
It appeals to us. So theexperience was the word that
came to my mind as what a goodtime is at least in the way that
I perceive something. So Iwanted to give us a little bit
(13:11):
more explanation, or perhapssome examples of apart, you
know, from the obvious, but someother things that would fall
into the category of good times,as you said, Yeah, might be
ideas or experiences or whateverelse it is, so that we can
(13:31):
really, you know, understandthat, and then we will move on.
Christian W Schnepf (13:35):
So as you described, as you said,
correctly, it's an experience into be exact, it's an experience
measured in the moment. So it'snot something like I experience
a really bad time that I want toescape from, and years later I
look back and say, That's was agood time? No, it was not a good
time. It brings you a good timenow. It just helped you to have
a good time later, but in themoment itself, it wasn't a good
(13:58):
time, and that's why theexperience always takes place in
the present. And if we take alook to make it more concrete,
just ask yourself, example ofwork, would you like to go to
work, even though you wouldn'tget anything for the future out
of it? It's just a pills. You'reattracted to go to work and do
(14:20):
what you're doing because itfeels good in the very moment.
It gives you a good time in thevery moment, without thinking
about it, will give me a goodtime later. And if the answer is
no, then it's not a good time.
If the answer is like, actually,I, I would, I would do anything
to be not there, that's a badtime. If you say it's okay, and
usually it's an indicator foryou don't know what to do
(14:42):
better, or it is something youneed to do in the hope it brings
you a better time in the future.
For example, it gives you theresources, it gives you money,
or it gives you recognition,acknowledgement, whatever,
whatever it is that you need.
It, and a good time usually, isnot coming out of moment of
scarcity, out of a place ofscarcity. It comes more from the
(15:06):
I'm okay, where I am, and it'sjust making it better, and not I
need to do that. That's actuallythe opposite. It's a different
driver
Agi Keramidas (15:18):
that's great. And thank you for that. And now that
this is hopefully, it is moreclear to everyone, let's talk
about measuring these goodtimes. First of all, because you
have there is a very scientificand precise approach, which I
(15:42):
would like to hear more about,how we can measure the good
times. And also, perhaps itwould be relevant if you think
there is any other backgroundyou want to give before you
actually explain the measuringbit, you can also give that for
the sake of, you know,completeness,
Christian W Schnepf (16:02):
I think the background I would like to give
is, why would we need to measureit? What's the point of
measuring stuff? And for me, thenumber one reason, before I
started into getting measure,into getting into measuring,
was, what does it actually beaiming for? And I needed to
clarify, really, and I'm veryclear about this, meanwhile,
that literally, everything we'redoing is driven by the
(16:24):
motivation to get a good time,whether it's a good time now or
it's a delayed good time in thefuture for longer, and then also
the amplitude. How strong isthat good time? Is it like
little is good or it's amazing?
There's a difference. Andbasically everything we do, any
human ever did and will ever do,is driven by that motivation in
(16:44):
the human context, as socialspecies. We can extend that even
to to beyond our lifetime, thatwe say, this gives a good time
for the following generation,for my children, etc, but it is
aiming for having maximised goodtime. So for me, that was very
important to clarify what isactually the goal in life.
(17:06):
Because if I'm not clear aboutthat, I'm chasing other stuff.
For example, I'm chasing careersuccess. But what if I'm having
that and I'm feeling empty? Sowhat happened? So then what am I
actually looking for? And forme, that was that was a big part
of my initial non academicresearch, where just went around
(17:29):
and was trying to distil thisnumber one life objective. So
after I got clear that, yes,everything we want is maximised
good times for as long aspossible, for as good as
possible and for as long aspossible, then that means that
everything we do is aiming toachieve that. So whether we go
to work, whether we build aneconomy, whether we build even a
(17:52):
society, whether we go intorelationships, anything we do is
basically supposed to maximisethe times.
Agi Keramidas (18:01):
Can I ask? Sorry, I will interject to that,
please. Do you mean anythingthat we do consciously, or
anything that
Christian W Schnepf (18:10):
anything even unconsciously? Okay? That,
yeah, that is, that is the thingthat I found later. But I can
come to this in a moment, if youwant. What I found, however,
after it is so clear thatbasically all of our efforts,
individually and as a society,as collective, is aiming to
(18:30):
achieve this. How do we knowthat what we do is actually
leading there and is not leadingthere? Maybe we doing maybe we
driving crazy around, doingsomething and put all of our
efforts in that's not evenleading us to more good times.
And the opposite is happening.
We have classic examples ofbeing in a relationship where we
think, like, what would give mea better time if I'm with her or
(18:51):
with him? And eventually, yeah,it's just a really, really bad
time, and you want to leave, butyou're not really, because, for
whatever reasons, if it'spsychologically, if it's through
your culture, you believe beingin it is better, and better
needs to define, needs to bedefined in a way. And I defined
(19:11):
that point, and we'll come tothis in a moment, okay, but we
stick in those situations andthose relationships, and those
work with, with in our habitsthat are not really serving us,
and we might not we, maybe theyserve us, but we don't even know
because we didn't measure it. Sothat's where I found the need to
(19:32):
develop a metric, or toactually, I found the need to
measure it. I just wanted toknow the factors. But in my PhD,
I realised, okay, let's just gotto be a metric out there that we
measure which factor is actuallyleading to more good times. And
I found there is no, no reliablemetric out there. So that
became, eventually, meanwhile,three year endorsement to. To
(19:56):
develop that metric that iscurrently called the good time
ratio GTR, that basicallymeasures the proportion of
positive experiences versus nonpositive experiences, including
negative and okay. And accordingto that goal, what we had in the
(20:17):
beginning over a lifetime seenover a lifetime, success would
be therefore defined as thematurity of time you spend your
experience as positive, and thatallows, eventually to to
orientate on the best practices.
(20:38):
What is doing, what person andwhat practice leads to a
maximum, maximised life positiveexperience throughout lifetime
for myself and the people thatmatter to me and that became the
foundation of the GTR, the goodtime ratio metric, which
eventually along the researchconnected to what I described
(21:02):
earlier, to physical energyflow, where I found the
connection to why do weexperience good times in the
first place? Because it's abiological indicator for energy
is flowing versus a bad time. Asan indicator energy is blocked,
initiating us and triggering usto take immediate actions to
change it, to unblock energy.
And therefore we can actuallyroot it back, not just
(21:23):
subjectively, but evenobjectively measure how good
someone's lifetime is.
Agi Keramidas (21:32):
That's great. So guide us in a simple way,
without, you know, going intothe scientific analysis of it,
how, or perhaps, which factorsso we can get an idea in in our
life, might you know contributeto that rate or ratio? What,
(21:56):
what things you know one countsin order to calculate that in
the end,
Christian W Schnepf (22:02):
so eventually we are limited to
five areas in our lives where wefeel attraction to or feeling
repelled from it. And those fivelife areas, I like to take the
metaphor as life is a game,because it makes it easy to
grasp. Imagine life is a game,which I believe it is. Then you
are the player. So that's layerarea number one. It's the self,
(22:25):
the player. Then there are otherplayers, that's social. That's
the second area. Then you haveactions, so you can do some
stuff. That's the third area.
You have obtainments, whichbasically you can get from the
outside, can be money, can belove can be acknowledgement. And
we have a map, a playground, thehabitat where we live, that's
(22:45):
the environment, that's thefifth area. And we can tell to
maximise good times. Webasically say, in a nutshell, I
truly love who I am, with whom Iam, what I do, what I get, and
where I am. And we can measureeventually you can, you can just
ask inside of yourself. Wedeveloped, meanwhile, a software
(23:06):
with a dashboard. It's a goodtime. Dot app where you can
measure that morecomprehensively and get get an
get a report. However, you canjust ask yourself, right now, am
I? Am I satisfied and attractedby being myself. Am I attracted
to spending my time with thosepeople I'm spending my time
with? Or would I prefer notdoing this if I don't need them?
(23:28):
And am I attracted to do thethings I'm doing? For example,
if you go to work, do you likegoing to work? Or would you
prefer doing something else? Anddo you are you also attracted by
the things you're getting sofrom life? Are you? Are you? Do
you like the food you eat? Doyou like the comments you get
from the outside? Do you likethe resources you have access to
(23:50):
and at the delivery the lastarea? Do you like where you are?
And if you're not sure aboutthat, that means not because I
really I asked so many people,and if someone really liked
where they are or each of thoseareas, they correct me when I'm
(24:10):
asking, Do you like it? Theyinstantly shoot back and say, I
love it. I love it. So yeah, Igot some comments from some
people in different disciplines.
They say, yeah, love is theanswer. I mean, it sounds a bit
too romantic, but eventually,love is nothing else but pure
energy flow directed towardssomething or not directed
(24:33):
towards something. And basically00, in a blockage. And if
there's zero in a blockage, theresponse comes immediate, and
the response comes withemotions. It's not like, yeah, I
love it. No, no, no. It's like,I love it. It's like, clear
statement. So if the answer isfor you not like this, then
there might be some blockagesomewhere.
Agi Keramidas (24:57):
This is fascinating, and I will come
back. To the the energy, theflow, the blockages, all this
because it is, I'm keeping thatfor sure, because there are some
things to discuss, but I willstick to what we have been
saying. First of all, I findthis classification of those
(25:20):
five core areas fascinating, andwhen you were describing it, I
was trying to find someargument, you know, against one
of them or something that ismissing. And I couldn't, no, no,
it is. It is different thanother classifications that I
have used, you know, to measuremy satisfaction or happiness, or
(25:44):
things like that. So that's onething that I noted, the self
social action subtainments andmap, which is a very, in a way,
different way of classifying.
Christian W Schnepf (26:00):
Can I really give a comment to that?
Please? Do? You said it'sdifferent from the other ways
you you measured. Did you usethe wheel of life?
Agi Keramidas (26:09):
Yes, yeah, the one that comes to mind is wheel
of life.
Christian W Schnepf (26:12):
Wheel of Life. And that's a common
approach that that that I tried,and that I think I succeeded in
challenging or overcomingbecause it, it is factor based.
Basically, it has assumptions,like, we assume we have a
relationship, and how well isyour relationship going? And I
(26:34):
used the wheel of life manyyears ago, and I when I started
researching and started havinginterviews, and I found people
that say, I'm really, reallysatisfied with my life, but I
don't have a relationshipaccording to the wheel of life,
that would be a failure. So youbecause you didn't reach that.
How satisfied are you with yourcareer? Ask a retired person who
is completely fulfilled doesn'thave a career. So we assume
(26:57):
those things, and that's alsowhere most life satisfaction
metrics are built upon. And forshort, Happiness Index is
assuming that you need to have acertain amount of income to be
satisfied, and that's based onassumptions. And my approach was
we need to find some commonground that applies to any human
living today, in any culture, aswell as to any human ever lived.
(27:22):
And what are those? What is theframework? And that's where the
five areas distilled over time.
Agi Keramidas (27:29):
One other thing, you said, assumptions, and one
other thing that, personally, Ihave found challenging when
filling in this kind ofmeasurements is how subjective
it is. So if I have to give ascore from one to 10, it is,
(27:49):
honestly speaking, whether it'sgoing to be six or seven, I
can't really pinpoint that. Itis quite subjective. Of course,
it gives a rough idea. But as ascore. So I'm fascinated to go
deeper and see how precise theway that you measure it.
Christian W Schnepf (28:12):
Yeah, so one thing we do is we don't use
a score. We don't ask from oneto 10, because that requires
already to use your brain, andyour brain is usually more is a
great tool to find threat and toavoid problems, but it's not
really a great, great tool totell you how you feel, because
you don't think satisfaction.
You feel satisfaction. So that'swhy we don't use the scale. We
(28:33):
asked, How do you feel? And wecurrently, in our current
version, we allow users to justselect on, yeah, we could call
it a scale, but it's not a realscale. Like from I hate it to I
really dislike it. I like Idislike it, I'm okay. I like it,
I really like it, and I love it.
(28:53):
And if there's some hesitationto click on, I love it, then
there's not, I love it, period.
And that's, that's where you canjust feel in into those so we
may make those experiments wherewe saw what people tending to
click on, and we give even thewe give even the opportunity to
choose two things. So you say, Ilike some parts, but some parts
(29:14):
I dislike, and something inbetween, and calculating,
therefore the ratio within eachelement that takes place in
someone's life. And in thatcase, yeah, it wasn't. It was an
experiment some time ago to seewhether that works, and it did
work, and we saw on thedashboard a highly accurate
outcome and prediction whatneeds to be done and where the
(29:38):
energy is blocked. We gotfeedback from users who
literally say, I wasn't aware ofthat, but I'm surprised that you
could pinpoint that my biggestchallenge in life currently is
the relationship with person Aand how did you know? And that
is literally, is very preciseindeed. So.
Agi Keramidas (30:01):
Agi Christian for someone listening right now who
has ticked the boxes or thetraditional boxes of success,
but feels unfulfilled or at acrossroads, perhaps, what's one
insight from the science of goodtimes that can help them realign
(30:24):
with their life and meaning?
Christian W Schnepf (30:29):
That is a very good question. And
eventually, let me give a bit ofcontext that this is understood
so in the in the frame of energyflow. Let's describe it that
way. It is about that yourorganism, you as a self, you are
functioning. Your life isfunctioning. And one of the
biggest challenges why this isnot the case is because you are
(30:50):
orientating on societaldefinitions of success. That's
why I did my PhD, or do my PhDin Sociology, because I realised
it's a big, big factor ofinfluence how people think they
need to do what they need to do,but it is not fulfilling if you
do something that is is that youhave been told to do while your
(31:12):
inner energy system is notworking. So it is for you
focusing on yourself and saying,I need to be satisfied with
myself sustainably. So if Iwould just drop that one as one
single orientation, orientation,then if you would really, you
could stop listening at thatpoint and really just asking
(31:35):
yourself, I'm orientating mywhole life that I am 100%
satisfied with myself for aslong as possible, sustainably.
If you do this inevitably, youwould pay attention to all the
other areas supporting yourself.
You would pay attention to thatno one is that, that you are,
that you're not depending onacknowledgement from others. You
would pay attention to that. Youwould have enough, enough
(31:58):
income. That is, you canactually move in all directions
you want to go, and you can eathealthy food, and you can do the
things you want to do. You woulddesign your work in a way that
you feeling like, Yeah, I'm, I'mexcited to do those things, and
I'm not feeling an innerresistance all of those stuff.
So that is basically, that isbasically the direction I would
(32:19):
give as a recommendation to askyourself, Am I truly satisfied
being who I am, or am I tryingto fit in? And am I chasing what
someone else defined for me, thesuccesses, and what would it
really be for me? How would Ireally want to live and for the
long term, and then designing,designing your own life,
(32:44):
designing things in yourenvironment that they work for
you. That means choose theenvironment that you say, I
really want to be here, and notbecause I grew up here or
because that's what I've beentold is the most practical for
work. No, I really want to behere, and I'm not spending time
with the people because I grewup with them, or that's my
(33:04):
colleagues. No, I really want tospend time with those people.
And then how much money do Ineed to earn? I need 10k per
month. That's what I've beentold. Is it true, or am I
actually very, very satisfiedwith 2k or 1k and living a
simple life, that as long as youcan live the life you want to
do, because that's especiallywhen it comes to money, it's a
(33:26):
big, big trade off that ismostly not in the favour of the
individual. And I say I'mspending most of my time to get
something that I actually don'treally need, but no, I don't
know. I don't have the time todo the things that I actually
want to do, and then designingall of that around. But it is
about you, and it is about beinghighly satisfied with yourself,
(33:49):
from your health and physicalcomfort, bodily comfort, to your
mental clarity, to your innerstate, your inner peace, and
eventually aligning all youractions around what you believe
is right for you. Radically,just, just radically, just
sorting out what doesn't serveme doesn't fit in here, but I'm
(34:11):
not saying doesn't serve me fora moment, but later I might
regret it. Now, think itthrough, but then trust
yourself. If it doesn't serveme, then I can trust myself it
doesn't serve me. I choosesomething else that serves me
better.
Agi Keramidas (34:28):
Christian, thank you for this insightful and
inspiring answer you gave. Iappreciate very much as I will
start wrapping things up fortoday, I would like to ask you,
first of all, where would youlike to direct the listener of
(34:52):
this conversation to find outmore and carry on the journey
with you?
Christian W Schnepf (34:57):
Go on goodtime, dot app. Go. Time dot
a PP, I developed a toolTogether with a team, meanwhile,
that doing exactly that,basically allowing you to
navigate your life based on datarather than guesswork. And we
are currently still in thedevelopment but we want to, want
to get people on it and have theexperience that we've got from
(35:21):
the first users that iseventually our way to impact as
many people as possible andsupport people. Before I was
coaching, I still offer that incase someone wants to have an
intensive support, but it hasits limits. I'm currently only
offering to three people a year,also considering my capacity.
But with a good time dot app wehave we have unlimited support
(35:45):
opportunities, and it's a simpleway to to navigate life clearly.
Agi Keramidas (35:52):
Thank you.
Christiana, I also have twoquick questions for you, and one
is, what does personaldevelopment mean to you,
Christian W Schnepf (36:06):
becoming the best version of myself every
day and sustainably so can Ilook into the mirror? Am I
saying I'm living the way Ibelieve is right? And am I do I
have the courage to also look atthe things that I'm not
satisfied with with myself, andthen accordingly, change it. And
(36:28):
for me, this is personaldevelopment being the best
version of myself.
Agi Keramidas (36:33):
And hypothetically speaking, if you
could go back in time and meetyour 18 self, what's one, one
piece of advice you would tell
Christian W Schnepf (36:42):
him, trust yourself. Trust yourself. Yeah.
I mean, really, I, as you say,you you basically saying it's a
different person. You're 18 yearold, and I agree with that. I'm
there are some parts of this 18year old still outside of me,
but I basically would say that'sanother kind of another person.
(37:03):
And I have respect of that guy.
He did a lot of stuff correct,and really well, just wasn't
sure about it, and was lettinghimself be influenced by the
voices from others, sayingmaybe, maybe it's not good to do
to pay attention to fitness allthe time. Maybe it's okay to
just stay up longer, maybe,maybe I just don't know, and
(37:23):
someone else knows better. Thatwas my thought back then. So I
How can I tell if I didn't tryboth? Man, you just knew it.
Just you knew it a bit, andtrust yourself.
Agi Keramidas (37:38):
Christian, I want to thank you very much for this
conversation we had today. I wasI was I was telling you earlier
I was looking forward to it, andit's really satisfied. And more,
you know, intellectually in mycuriosity and I believe that the
(38:01):
insights and some practicalthings, especially what you were
just saying in the end, aboutasking those questions and
really taking the time toconsider, I believe they're very
useful. So thank you very much.
I want to wish all the best withyou know your journey with the
app and your mission, I willWhat I would like to leave it
(38:28):
with. Actually, it will be yourparting words. If you would like
to offer something actionable aswell to the listener you know as
your parting words for thisconversation,
Christian W Schnepf (38:52):
something actionable. I think it starts
with committing and and thebelief around I deserve to live
good. I deserve to live well,and I deserve to have a good
life and getting clarity aroundthis and allowing yourself,
listening inside of yourself andsaying, Hey, you're great the
(39:13):
way you are, and you deserve tohave a good life. I would
encourage people to take thetime and convince themselves
eventually that they startbelieving and it is possible to
love every day of my life, tolove myself, to love the people
in my environment, to love whatI do, to love what I get, and to
(39:34):
love where I am, and I deservethat, because the moment you
really believe I deserve thatbecomes just the puzzle to to
fill. You just start looking outfor what, what makes it
possible. But if you don'tbelieve that you don't deserve
it, you start, or you continue,sabotaging yourself. And that is
(39:54):
there's a strategy. You deservebetter. So I, I, I. Send it with
all my love and all my mygoodwill to to the listeners,
love yourself and believe thatyou deserve it to have a good
life and everything elsepractically fill the gaps, and
if our tool helps you, it's ourpleasure.
Agi Keramidas (40:19):
Thank you for listening to this conversation
with Christian W Schnepf. I hopeit has given you a fresh
perspective on what it reallymeans to create a good life. If
this conversation inspired youor gave you something
meaningful, consider supportingthe show. It's like, buy me a
(40:43):
coffee in return for the valueyou received. Visit personal
development masterypodcast.com/support or just tap
the link in the episodedescription. Until next time
stand out don't fit in.
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