Jodi Wellman is an executive coach and speaker, and the author of You Only Die Once. And she's a big fan of Memento mori, Latin for “remember that you will die.”
And boy did she remind me. Again and again and again.
She’s not trying to depress me or demotivate me.
Quite the contrary, in fact.
Acknowledging the scarcity of our time, she insists, can help us make the most of the time that we have.
And it doesn't have to be morbid. It can be fun. Jodi keeps skulls as decorations, and they're surprisingly cheerful-looking.
Remembering that we don't have infinite time and infinite opportunities can provide a much needed push when we're stuck.
So we can live the life we want, rather than waiting and rationalizing and looking back with regret at the end.
In our conversation, I get free coaching on making some bold moves in my life.
We talk about my fear of “indulging,” even a little — that it will turn into a one-way highway to depravity — and how I might explore some balance between self-indulgence and Puritanical austerity.
In summation: “Life is short. We gotta get on with this shit.”
As you may know, I’ve spent the past couple of decades helping people go more plant-based. I started by writing books, and eventually decided that coaching was a better fit for my talents and inclinations.
And the more people I coached, the more curious I got about the real obstacles to change.
I realized that it wasn’t the food — not really.
It wasn’t the kitchen skills.
It wasn’t the initial motivation.
It wasn’t the knowledge.
It was whether people could develop the ability to master their own mindset.
When their conscious mind and their subconscious impulses learned how to pull together, they succeeded.
When there was continuous struggle, and they had to “willpower” through again and again, they reverted to their old ways.
As I helped my clients master their mindsets, we discovered that the benefits extended far beyond diet.
They adopted fitness habits.
They cleaned up relationships by having difficult conversations rather than defer and avoid them.
They made bold moves in their lives and careers, assessing risk soberly and claiming their capacity for change and growth.
This ability to play the “inner game,” I’ve found, is perhaps the single more important thing in our lives.
If this interests you — in domains that range far afield from plant-based eating and advocacy — then I invite you to join me in a weekly conversation: the Mindset Mastery Memo.
It’s a brief newsletter. I try to keep it relevant, practical, and goofy.
And I’d love for it to be a two-way conversation.
In terms of my business, this is the work I’m pursuing in the world — helping leaders and their teams achieve massive traction on what matters most to them and to the planet.
In other words, I’m looking to scale my impact so that I can rest every night knowing I’ve done all I can to contribute to what Buddhist activist and scholar Joanna Macy calls “The Great Turning”: the global shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. (And make enough dough to pay the rent.)
Thanks for listening, reading, and engaging with Plant Yourself. I hope you find The Mindset Mastery Memo fun, practical, and inspiring. (And if you know someone who should be reading it, please spread the word!)
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