Name Your Mattering Project & Find a Path to a More Meaningful Life (w/ Rebecca Goldstein)

What drives the most successful people to their greatest achievements—and sometimes their darkest moments? Alongside writer and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, we explore the mattering instinct - the fundamental human need to justify why we deserve attention in our own eyes - and discover how identifying your mattering project transforms this universal longing into a meaningful life path. We unpack why this one psychological force is responsible for both our greatest accomplishments and our most destructive ideologies. We uncover the mattering map’s four core strategies—heroic strivers who pursue excellence, socializers who find meaning through connection, competitors driven by zero-sum thinking, and transcendents grounded in spiritual purpose—and learn how recognizing which strategy aligns with your temperament reveals where you’ve been chasing unfulfilling projects. 👉 Get the full Listener's Guide here ❤️ Free Newsletter & the Chase Club 🏁 New to Chasing Excellence? Start here! See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

You can listen to Name Your Mattering Project & Find a Path to a More Meaningful Life (w/ Rebecca Goldstein) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Name Your Mattering Project & Find a Path to a More Meaningful Life (w/ Rebecca Goldstein) is an episode from Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings.

This episode is 00:55:23 long.

This episode was published on Feb 26, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Chasing Excellence when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.