You Only Die Once

A kick-in-the-pants wake-up call to start living meaningfully in light of how many Mondays you have left from longtime coach, positive psychology expert, and Penn Resilience Program instructor Jodi Wellman

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"YOU ONLY DIE ONCE is a spirited and funny but also profound and highly practical manual for anyone who yearns to show up more fully and wholeheartedly for their all-too-finite time on the planet."
Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

How many Mondays do you have left?

Does that question send you into a panic spiral, or are you convinced that, unlike everyone in the history of life on earth, you will somehow avoid the tragic end and live to tell the tale? Statistically, we get about 4,000 Mondays in our lifetime, so if you're halfway through your life, you might have roughly 2,000 Mondays to go. The good news is that you are in charge of how you spend those days: toiling at a job you hate, or creating a career you love; scrolling mindlessly for hours a day, or pursuing the hobbies and travel that light you up; dreading the end, or living a full life that allows you to greet the Grim Reaper with a smile.

Built around the principles of positive psychology, You Only Die Once is the jolt that will bring you back to life, no near-death experience required. Full of practical takeaways and research-backed content, this book will motivate readers to take action on the life they want to be living, acting like a defibrillator for the soul. Accompanied by author Jodi Wellman's charming illustrations, this book won't lecture you about eating more kale or insist that the only path forward is to quit your job and move to Provence (although it's not not suggesting you do that either. The latter, that is. We'd never ask anyone to eat more kale.). Instead, it's a real-life guide to small changes that reawaken your passion and curiosity for life. Packed with inspiring stories, exercises, quizzes, quotes, and a step-by-step plan to awaken the liveliest version of you, You Only Die Once is the healthy dose of mortality you need to start living with urgency and meaning.