Mortality Awareness: Meaning, Motivation, and Your To-Die-For Life with Karen Salmansohn

Self-Helpless

Cloud10

Alternative Health, Science, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Delanie Fischer is joined by Behavioral Change Expert and Bestselling Author, Karen Salmansohn, to discuss insights from her latest book, Your To-Die-For Life: How to Maximize Joy and Minimize Regret . . . Before Your Time Runs Out. Karen combines neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and personal stories to share effective mindset hacks, exercises, and the core values that will help you avoid the top regrets of the dying, be present, and have more fun—more often. Plus: + 7 Core Values That Ward Off Top Regrets of the Dying + The Marble Jar, Greater Than Sign, and Your To-Die List + Beast Mode vs. Best Mode and Pleasure vs. Happiness Self-Helpless on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/selfhelpless Your Host, Delanie Fischer: https://www.delaniefischer.com EPISODES RELATED TO THIS TOPIC: Flip the Script on Aging: Strength, Vitality, and Purpose with 74 Year-Old Icon Babette Davis: https://www.delaniefischer.com/selfhelplesspodcast/episode/23c49ad2/flip-the-script-on-aging-strength-vitality-and-purpose-with-74-year-old-icon-babette-davis Overcoming the Fear of Death with Kelvin Chin: https://www.delaniefischer.com/selfhelplesspodcast/episode/20d70e6d/overcoming-the-fear-of-death-with-kelvin-chin Compounded Grief: Coping With Multiple Losses At Once with Stephanie Edwards: https://www.delaniefischer.com/selfhelplesspodcast/episode/250aef7a/compounded-grief-coping-with-multiple-losses-at-once-with-stephanie-edwards My Dad Was Diagnosed With Lewy Body Dementia with Erika Martin: https://www.delaniefischer.com/selfhelplesspodcast/episode/21b228bf/my-dad-was-diagnosed-with-lewy-body-dementia-with-erika-martin 20+ Years Thriving With Stage IV Cancer with Kris Carr: https://www.delaniefischer.com/selfhelplesspodcast/episode/22f2b084/20-years-thriving-with-stage-iv-cancer-with-kris-carr When I Found Out I Had A Brain Tumor with Athena Trombly: https://www.delaniefischer.com/selfhelplesspodcast/episode/25e37bb7/when-i-found-out-i-had-a-brain-tumor-with-athena-trombly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm no good. I take in good advice and I'm self-careless, so don't tell me twice that lately I've been so stuck in my head that I forget just about everything my therapist said. Maybe I'm self-helpless.
0:24.8	Hey everyone, welcome to self-helpless. I'm Delaney Fisher. And today I'm chatting with Karen Salmanson, who is a behavioral change expert, bestselling author with over
0:29.9	two million books sold, Oprah and Psychology Today columnist. And we are talking about the insights
0:36.3	from her latest book called You're to Die for Life.
0:39.5	There are so many hot tips and fun exercises in this book. Many of you know I'm a big fan of
0:45.3	using mortality awareness to make decisions. Basically, I think about death multiple times a day,
0:50.9	every day. And that can be both motivating and terrifying. I find it more on the
0:55.9	motivating side. I know some people might not like to think about that stuff, but Karen shares how we can
1:03.2	really use this kind of awareness to our benefit, you know, in order to live a meaningful life,
1:08.3	to avoid the top regrets of the dying, and to have more fun
1:12.7	more often. So she's sharing some of her favorite hacks like The Greater Than Sign, which is
1:18.4	something you can use multiple times a day, the marble jar, which is a beautiful visual and
1:23.9	activity that you can do every month, and also why identity-based statements are really the
1:29.3	foundation of significant change. She mixes neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and I really
1:37.8	appreciate that she also offers up some deeply personal stories that shifted her own perspective
1:43.8	as well. Karen and I also
1:46.1	connected on our love of wordplay, which was especially enjoyable for me. So you're about to hear
1:51.0	all kinds of fun names for these exercises, everything from how to be good in deathbed to an end
1:57.4	of life plan that she calls over my dead body. We've all heard about near-death experiences,
2:02.6	but she coined something called a near-life experience. Just, you know, I love all that stuff
2:08.0	as somebody who named this podcast self-helpless. And having co-authored a Napalty recipe book
2:13.4	called MockTales, spelled M-O-C-T-A-L-E-S all about literary themed mocktail recipes like
	...

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