Worklife with Adam Grant ReThinking: Living each day like it’s your first with Suleika Jaouad
128 snips
Nov 11, 2025 
Suleika Jaouad, an author and lifelong journaler, shares her journey through cancer in this engaging conversation. She challenges the advice to 'live every day like it's your last,' proposing instead to embrace each day as if it's your first. Suleika discusses how her journaling practice helped her cope with illness and strengthened her relationship with musician Jon Batiste through shared rituals. She highlights how private writing can unlock intuition and deepen connections while emphasizing the importance of savoring small moments and balancing seriousness with play.
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Live Each Day Like It’s Your First
- Living each day like it's your first combines present awe with future curiosity and avoids the pressure of 'last day' urgency.
- Suleika Jaouad frames this mindset as playful attention to small moments while still dreaming about tomorrow.
Painting Through Blindness And Fever Dreams
- During a transplant when her vision failed, Suleika switched from writing to daily watercolors of her fever dreams.
- That pivot turned fear into curiosity and sparked a lasting passion for painting.
Use Shared Letters To Deepen Connection
- Try a shared morning-letter journal with your partner: write three pages to each other and exchange photos each day.
- This practice revealed deeper topics and strengthened Suleika Jaouad's conversations with Jon Batiste.
