Life is messy and it’s not uncommon to have regrets about something you did or said in the past. The problem comes when you let those regrets dominate your current circumstances, so you’re no longer enjoying the life you’re living now. Jodi Wellman, founder of 4000 Mondays, believes living with intention is the key to avoiding deathbed regrets.
About Jodi Wellman
Jodi Wellman is a speaker, executive coach, assistant instructor in the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania, and the founder of 4000 Mondays which offers life enhancement programs.
During Jodi’s appearance on the Live. Love. Engage. podcast, she explained that 4000 Mondays refers to the number of Mondays the average person gets in life. She discovered this while studying Temporal Scarcity at the University of Pennsylvania. Through her research, she discovered empirical evidence that living life with intention is beneficial. This discovery inspired her to create the 4000 Mondays platform to help people live life wider and deeper.
During the podcast, Jodi said that living life wider is about adding more vitality into your life. That means taking part in fun experiences that bring you pleasure. The cost doesn’t matter – you can have fun on a budget, or enjoy a luxury cruise, for example. The deepening part is where you add meaning and purpose to your life. It’s the feeling that you are connected to other people, and the feeling that you’re giving to others. Jodi believes that we can achieve a balance between living wider and deeper by being intentional with our time and energy. We should focus on the things that matter most to us and make us happy. This can include spending time with loved ones, pursuing our passions, and making meaningful connections with others.
If we want to live a life without regret, Jodi encourages us to treasure our days and not wait for a wakeup call in order to appreciate life. This means being present in the moment and finding joy in the small things. It’s about cultivating gratitude and practicing mindfulness. In this way, we can live a life that is full of meaning and purpose.
Of course, life has a persistent way of throwing us curve balls – such as experiencing the death of a loved one, an illness, or job loss. Practicing an attitude of gratitude and appreciation for life right now creates an optimistic mindset that can be tapped into when life’s challenges come your way. Jodi also suggests imagining you were on your deathbed tonight to identify areas where you would experience feelings of regret. These may be things you always wanted to do, but never got around to them. She recommends making a list of those items and then start doing one at a time, focusing on those items that will make you feel great and more alive and will prevent a future regret.
Finally, Jodi encourages us to make the Latin phrase Memento Mori – which translates to “remember that we must die” – a daily practice. It’s not about focusing on our eventual death but putting the concept to our advantage by remembering that time is ticking, so let’s live today. In that way, avoiding deathbed regrets is possible when we live with intention and focus on what truly matters to us.
