Discover how Jake Wysocki and his wife reached Coast FI and created their "State of the Union" practice—a quarterly workshop framework for designing an intentional life together. Learn practical strategies for prioritizing life changes, using AI for reflection, and living fully in the present while planning meaningful family adventures.
Get clear on your post-FI vision with my free envisioning exercise: http://mindfulfire.org/start
**Key Takeaways:**
- Reaching Coast FI shifts your approach to risk-taking—Jake left his corporate job to start Intention Craft knowing his savings would grow to retirement
- The "State of the Union" quarterly check-ins help couples zoom out, envision their future, and decide what to change
- Use the Pillars/Wheel of Life exercise to grade 8 life categories (health, marriage, parenting, relationships, finances, occupation, etc.)
- The impact-difficulty matrix helps prioritize which problems to solve first—focus on high-impact, low-effort changes relative to others
- Fire "bullets before cannonballs"—test big changes with small experiments before fully committing
- Time blocking and shared calendars make intentional living practical—block time for your "one thing"
- The opposite of intentional isn't unintentional—it's drifting through life without thinking about what you actually want
- Design your ideal week rather than just your day, since daily routines can be too variable
- AI tools like Claude can help with self-reflection by interviewing you and summarizing your thoughts more concisely
- Memory dividends from experiences (like Jake's year traveling the world) compound over time and enrich your entire life
**Chapters:**
00:00 Welcome & Why State of the Union Matters
00:27 Jake's Journey: Engineering to Sales to Entrepreneurship
02:40 Finding Coast FI and Building Freedom
05:50 The One-Year World Trip: How It Started
08:46 Trip Highlights: Switzerland, Japan, and Patagonia
10:18 State of the Union 101: Quarterly Workshop Framework
11:09 The Pillars/Wheel of Life Method
12:25 Using AI as a Reflection Partner
16:12 Whiteboards & Sticky Notes: Discussing Misalignments
17:42 Prioritizing with the Impact-Difficulty Matrix
23:24 From Problems to Experiments: Bullets Before Cannonballs
25:56 Going Deeper: Travel Planning and Family Board Meeting
29:06 Planning Tent-Pole Family Trips
30:20 The State of the Union Framework Summary
30:50 Josephine Day: Turning Grief Into Ritual
32:03 Year vs Quarter Reviews
33:40 Big Rocks First: Calendaring What Matters
37:46 How to Design Your Year with Whiteboard Calendar
43:33 Daily Non-Negotiables vs The Ideal Week
46:22 Intentionality Philosophy: Stop Drifting
**Resources & Books Mentioned:**
- Choose FI podcast
- [Die With Zero by Bill Perkins](https://www.amazon.com/Die-Zero-Getting-Your-Money/dp/0358567092)
- [Good to Great by Jim Collins](https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996)
- [The One Thing by Gary Keller](https://www.amazon.com/ONE-Thing-Surprisingly-Extraordinary-Results/dp/1885167776)
- [The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey](https://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Powerful/dp/1982137274)
- [Boundless Life](https://www.boundless.life/) family travel program
- Whisper Flow app for voice-to-text
- Notion Calendar
**Jake Wysocki Contact:**
- Website: [intentioncraft.com](http://intentioncraft.com)
- Personal site: [everydayanewadventure.com](http://everydayanewadventure.com)
**About the show:**
The Mindful FIRE podcast is a show about crafting a life you love and making work optional using mindfulness, financial independence, resilience and envisioning.
