Episode 5: “4,000 Mondays and the Courage to Live Fully" with Jodi Wellman

What if you only had 4,000 Mondays to live—and you’d already spent half of them?

In this episode of The Flourishing Leaders Podcast, my Guest Co-host, Jason Viyar and I are joined by Jodi Wellman—executive coach, speaker, and author of You Only Die Once. Jodi invites us into a conversation that’s as life-affirming as it is mortality-facing. Her message is simple, bold, and backed by positive psychology: We don’t flourish by drifting. We flourish by choosing to live astonishingly alive lives—on purpose.

We talk about:

• Her transition from 17 years in corporate health & fitness to the MAPP program at UPenn and her mission today
• Why memento mori (remembering we will die) isn’t morbid—it’s motivating
• The magic of temporal scarcity and the weekly gift of Mondays
• “Pre-grets,” regrets of omission, and how to course-correct before it’s too late
• The “binding contract” in her book (yes, pages 12–14!) and why committing to a better life isn’t easy—but worth it
• The role of humor and playfulness in embracing our one wild and precious life
• A Turkish proverb, an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, and remembering it is NEVER too late to turn around no matter how far you have gone down that path

Jodi also shares her Dead Zones Assessment (found on pages 32–39 of her book) to help you identify where aliveness is missing—and what to do about it.

This is an episode about mortality, meaning, and possibility. Whether you’re a flourishing leader or someone just beginning to wonder, “Do I want to keep doing this with the rest of my Mondays?”—this one’s for you.

🎧 Learn more about Jodi’s work at www.fourthousandmondays.com

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Hosted by Dr. Scott Parsons, this podcast explores how character, virtue, wisdom, and purpose can shape a more flourishing life and leadership journey.

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