Mindful FIRE : Life Design for Financial Independence

In this episode: career to calling, meaningful experiments, enoughness, mindful discernment, financial freedom with Lance Diaresco
Episode Summary
After leading global brands at Disney, Levi’s, and Google, Lance kept asking himself question: “Is this all?” He shares how a sabbatical, mindfulness, volunteering, and small experiments inside Google helped him move toward coaching and purposeful work without one reckless leap. Adam and Lance explore enoughness—balancing drive and contentment—and how to define success across ambition, workload, money, and time.
Guest Bio
Lance Diaresco is a former global brand leader at Disney, Levi’s, and Google. He now coaches leaders, facilitates workshops and retreats, and is developing work on discernment.
Resources & Books Mentioned
Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie
The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
Search Inside Yourself
Guest Contact Information
Website
LinkedIn
Key Takeaways
Let “Is this all?” open a process of curiosity instead of forcing an immediate answer.
Experiment before leaping: facilitate, volunteer, coach, and learn what creates energy.
Define enoughness as the balance between ambition and contentment.
Use financial freedom to design meaningful work, protect time, and contribute without pressure.

In this episode: arriving in the present, kind curiosity, breath awareness, beginning again, intentional action with Adam Coelho
Resources & Books Mentioned
Free FI Life Jumpstart journaling exercise
Mindful FIRE Legends community
Episode Summary
Rest in the simplicity of this moment with a short guided meditation from Adam Coelho. You’ll notice how you’re arriving, settle attention on the breath, and practice returning without judgment whenever the mind wanders. With nowhere to go and nothing to accomplish, each inhale and exhale becomes an invitation to experience your life as it is happening now. The practice closes by helping you choose how you want to show up for yourself and others.

In this episode: financial independence as runway, career reinvention, self-imposed pressure, writing a first book, coaching-driven leadership with Jeff Jaworski
Episode Summary
Three years after leaving Google, Jeff Jaworski returns to share how FIRE gave him room to build The Shift, write The Leader Shift, and shape work around family and purpose. Jeff and Adam explore why the habits that create success can hold us back in a new chapter—and how to build without recreating the pressure of the rat race.
Guest Bio
Jeff Jaworski is the founder of The Shift Coaching & Consulting, a former Google executive, and the author of The Leader Shift. He coaches leaders and organizations to replace heroic leadership with teams that think and scale.
Resources & Books Mentioned
Adam's free FI Life Jumpstart exercise
The Leader Shift by Jeff Jaworski
Mindful FIRE episode 151
Guest Contact Information
The Shift
Jeff on LinkedIn
Key Takeaways
FIRE can create options and runway for meaningful reinvention - not just retirement.
Distinguish pressure that is real from pressure you manufacture yourself.
A new chapter requires new behaviors; what got you here may hold you back there.
Scalable leaders ask before telling, explore possibility, and lead performance - not metrics.

In this episode: visualizing your work-optional ideal week, mindfulness, financial independence, life design, mini experiments
Episode Summary
In this guided meditation, Adam invites you to settle into the breath and visualize your ideal work-optional week. You’ll explore where you are, who you’re with, what you’re doing, and how that life feels in your body. The practice closes by turning your vision into one small experiment you can try today.
Resources & Books Mentioned
Mindful FIRE Legends community
Free FI Life Jumpstart Exercise
Key Takeaways
Meet yourself as you are with the kind, curious awareness of mindfulness.
Picture an ordinary week in your financially independent, work-optional life—including an “ideal Tuesday.”
Notice the feeling of that week and where you experience it in your body now.
Choose one mini experiment—one small step toward your ideal week—to take today.

In this episode: mortality as motivation, memento mori, pre-grets, escaping autopilot, one-more-year syndrome, living wider and deeper with Jodi Wellman
Episode Summary
Jodi Wellman explains how remembering that life is finite can help us stop postponing it. She and Adam explore counting your remaining Mondays, turning “pre-grets” into action, balancing future security with aliveness now, and using small experiments to add vitality, meaning, and connection.
Guest Bio
Jodi Wellman is an author, speaker, positive-psychology practitioner, and founder of Four Thousand Mondays. After 17 years in corporate leadership and 12 years in executive coaching, she made memento mori—remembering we must die—her life's work.
Resources & Books Mentioned
You Only Die Once — Jodi Wellman
Die With Zero — Bill Perkins
Monday Mornings Left Calculator
Astonishingly Alive Assessment
Mindful FIRE Episode 232 with Pete Adeney
Shay's Warriors
Guest Contact Information
Website · Instagram
Key Takeaways
Count your remaining Mondays to make time feel scarce and valuable.
List “pre-grets,” then give each meaningful goal a date and first action.
Keep useful routines, but add novelty before habit domination turns life into autopilot.
Assess whether your life needs more width—fun and vitality—or depth—meaning, purpose, and connection.