What if the key to living a fuller life… is realizing it won’t last forever?
In this episode of Plot Twist Radio, Erin sits down with Michael Drake—author, educator, and mindset coach—to explore a powerful shift in perspective that can change everything.
After experiencing personal loss, Michael began asking deeper questions about time, purpose, and the way we live day to day. What started as private letters to his daughter evolved into his book The Paradox of a Mortal Mind—a philosophy centered on embracing mortality as motivation rather than fear.
Together, they dive into:
- Why we live on autopilot—and how to break out of it
- The role of loss in reshaping purpose and perspective
- Lessons from sports, teaching, and leadership
- How to stop waiting and start living intentionally
- The mindset shift that can change your future
This conversation isn’t about fear—it’s about urgency, clarity, and choosing the life you actually want.
Because every decision you make today… is a vote for your future self.
🎧 Listen now and start living with intention.
Where to find Michael:
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Welcome to Plot Twist Radio, the show where creativity,
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storytelling, and the unpredictable path of the
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creative life all collide. I'm your host, Aaron Egnatz.
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There's a moment, quiet, almost invisible, when life forces you
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to pause, not because you planned it, but because
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something shifts. A loss, a realization, a
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question you can't unask. What if time isn't as endless as
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we pretend it is? Today's guest didn't just ask
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that question. He built an entire philosophy
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around it, from the football field to the classroom to a
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deeply personal journey shaped by laws and reflection.
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Michael Drake turned letters to his daughter into something
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bigger, a message about urgency, perspective, and what it really
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means to live. This is a conversation about
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mortality, but more importantly about what we do with the time
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we have. Hi, Michael.
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Welcome to the show. Thank you, Aaron.
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Nice to be here. Great to have you.
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So can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself?
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My name is Michael Drake, born and raised in Canada.
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I recently wrote a book called The Paradox of Immortal Mind.
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It's I have a copy of it right here.
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It's a book about just developing a mortal mind is what
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I call it, where we kind of recognize our own mortality,
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which gives us a sense of urgency because it kind of
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creates scarcity with, you know, your time and you want to make
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sure that you're utilizing it to the best of your abilities.
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It's about living. It's about kind of recognizing
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the finite nature of our lives and really embracing the fact
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that why not do it today? Why not, you know, go for the
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goals that you have and go for all those things that you want
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to have in your life. So that's kind of what the books
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about. Love that because I don't think
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enough of us think like that. I think a lot of us just think
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about the future and the what ifs, but we don't live in the
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moment and enjoy it. So I like that you have the
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story. I think that this is an
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important story to have. And I also feel like we, we get
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distracted very, very easily with everything that's around us
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and the what the hyper speed of, of, of life in the Internet,
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social media and, and all of a sudden, you know, three months
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pass and you don't even realize it.
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And, you know, it's a chance for us to kind of slow down and just
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look at life from, from that perspective.
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And I think it's really helped me and I'm hoping it helps my
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readers as well. Absolutely.
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So what inspired you to take this path to write this?
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You know what, I never knew that I'd be an author, honestly, I
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grew up as an athlete and, and, you know, a social person.
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I just kind of live my life that way.
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And then, you know, there's a series of events in, in my life
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and personal passings of people that were really close to me.
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And, you know, it just kind of led me to start thinking more
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and more about it. I'm in my mid 40s now.
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And, you know, a good friend of mine passed away a couple years
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ago and he was only 42 and he had a daughter that's the same
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age as my daughter. And, and I just, it really hit
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me hard. There's one of those funerals
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that you don't really forget. And I had a lot of emotion
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around it and it really started making me think about my own
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legacy with my daughter. And and then my therapy was
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through writing and I started writing letters to her just, you
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know, nothing that I was going to give her right now.
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It was letters that I intended on reading for her one day with
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maybe just snippets of my advice and, you know, different things.
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But those letters morphed into more and more and it just led me
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into writing the book ultimately.
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And so the chapters in the book are really letters that I wrote
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to my daughter and, and I just morphed it into a different
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style that could be absorbed by the masses.
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So that's kind of what led me to it and, and, and help me through
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the writing process. And it took me about 10 to 12
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months to get it done after I was getting in a good groove.
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And yeah, that's kind of the story behind it.
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And ever since I've been kind of living that and I've been doing
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some coaching and some some speaking engagements as well
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that kind of resonate with the message as well.
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So I have a few things online that kind of go through that as
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well. So that's kind of how I started
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where I'm at now, and now speaking with people like
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yourself and in front of audiences, the message is really
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resonating, so I'm going to keep it up.
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Very cool, I love that. So as you said, you were very
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involved in sports growing up. You even played football in
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college, which is my favorite sport.
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I miss football season already and needs to come back.
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So what does sports teach you about discipline and resilience
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that carried into the rest of your life?
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And like, learning the fact that losing is not necessarily a bad
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thing. You know, it's I've, I've played
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sports my whole life and I've also coached for close to 20
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years after my playing careers have been over.
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And, you know, I've had seasons where we're undefeated and the
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team has this false sense of, you know, they inflate the how
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good they are and, and, and all of a sudden they face a team in
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the playoffs and they weren't ready for it because they
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weren't preparing for it, right. So, and I've also had seasons
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where we're terrible. You know, it just, it goes to
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show what, what lessons those can have.
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But I also love the lessons of being a good teammate, you know,
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and doing what's best for the team and doing doing your
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individual part like a good team is a bunch of individual parts
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and you recognize your role within that system and you do
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that to the best of your abilities.
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So you can obviously apply that to your to your life as well,
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especially if you're part of a team at work or your family life
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also, right, like you're a part of a team there as well.
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All of those lessons are definitely carry forward in my
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life. And you know why I really view
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those as lessons that you can use for a variety of different
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things in your life. And my daughter's also into
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sport and I'm really encouraging her to be a part of that because
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of the team, team aspect. And you know, the, the lessons
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about, you know, what you got to endure failures and you have to
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endure hardships and sometimes you're going to be faced with a
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better opponent. What do you do about that?
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And you know, there's certain skills that you need to develop
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and the meaning of practice and, and, and getting and making
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those things perfect, you know, and so all of those things can,
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can lead to, to success and happiness and, and good
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friendships and, and all of the above.
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So I love. I still do.
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You know, I'm a big fan of all kinds of different sports.
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But yeah, I could go on and on about that.
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Yeah, I could do You spent nearly two decades in education,
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correct? Yeah.
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So what originally drew you to teaching?
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Because I I'm also an education. I've noticed that many of the
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guests I have start an education.
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Yeah, you know what? I found it to be a natural thing
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for me. Like I, as I grew older, like
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you mentioned, I did play collegiate football and as I got
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to my senior years, I became A-Team captain.
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And, you know, just that role of leadership, you know, I found to
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be really comforting. And I, you know, I thought I was
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getting quite good at it. And then when it came to
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deciding what I wanted to do for a career, kind of teaching was
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was a natural progression for me or teaching like it was, you
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know, there and now I'm in physet like I teach, I teach
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kids how to be fit and throw football and you know, all that
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good stuff. And I'm like, you're paying me
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to teach kids how to do this. Like this is pretty sweet.
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So it wasn't just a natural progression really.
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Like, and as I get older and, and, you know, I, I kind of
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developed my own style and, and, you know, I find what resonates
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with students and what doesn't. And you know, again, you learn
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from failures as, as you teach and sometimes my lessons suck
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and sometimes they're fantastic. And you know, you learn from
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those as well. And, you know, as I've gotten
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older, I find that just motivating students about life
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and understanding. I, I bring my book into the
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classroom and it talks about just guys, you're, you're, I
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know you're only 16. You don't see it like I see it,
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but I promise you, you're going to see it one day like this.
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And you know, why wait? Why not go for things?
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Why not start thinking about life and why not, you know, take
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a risk and, and, you know, do those types of things.
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So it's really been a blessing in my life.
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And my family is teachers as well.
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My sisters are teachers, my wife's a teacher.
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And it's just it's kind of naturally progressed that way.
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So it's been a good career almost 20 years.
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I'm getting getting up there now.
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Impressive, impressive. It's, it's hard to stay in
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education, at least in here where we live in America,
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because teachers are so underfunded.
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But it's such a rewarding career that it's hard for someone like
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myself to leave because I, I love the interaction with the
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students and I love teaching life experiences.
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It's it's hard to do that with history a lot of times, but you
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know, I try and blend in the 2 you pointed out that you bring
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your book into it. I think that that connects the
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students to you, that they're going to remember.
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And it comes in many forms too, like teaching doesn't need to
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just be in a classroom. I've noticed, you know, teaching
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can come in many, many forms. In many ways, I think the
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education system is becoming updated.
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You know, it's with the speed of, of technology and AI and,
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you know, the jobs that we're teaching kids how to do, will
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they even exist 10 to 20 years, like, and so, you know, my
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teaching is kind of morphed and I've, I've had the benefit of
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kind of looking at it from a variety of perspectives.
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This book that I've written is just another way to teach,
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really. Ultimately, at the end of the
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day, yeah, it's been a very rewarding process.
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Sure. So I was taking a look at your
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website and 2020 was a turning point for many people.
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For you, it sparked a period of reflection and questioning.
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What are some of the biggest realizations you had during
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that? We're all going to die.
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It's, you know, I, I, I was very careful to not turn this into a
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morbid topic, right? Like I'm not sitting here asking
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people to just think about that. I, it's more about, you know,
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using that as motivation and fuel.
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And, you know, the older I get it, you know, there's more sore,
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my knees are from all my old injuries.
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And you know, that kind of stuff it, you know, you appreciate
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they, the process that life takes right in every phase that
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you go through. And, you know, just having the
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mindset of gratitude and abundance and, you know, being
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thankful for everything that, you know, God has given us.
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And it's, it's been really, it just took me out of autopilot.
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You know, it, it, it took me out of that, you know, OK, get up,
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do the thing, do the same thing I did yesterday, you know, and
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really made me just step back and think about life from a
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broader perspective. And I thought about what people
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like, how I make people feel. And it's really, my life has
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gotten a lot better since I've stepped back and looked at it
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from a broader point of view and from the viewpoint of abundance
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and, and just having gratitude for everything that I have in my
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life. It's really made my life more
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fulfilling. And I think it's made my life
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with my, like my people around me.
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I think I've made a better impact on them.
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And I'm going to continue to do it because it makes me feel
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good. I think I'm leading a better
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legacy. You know, it's about how Maya
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Angelou, you know, my age, it's about how you make people feel
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at the end of the day. And so I'm going to continue
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going down this road because it's really natural for me.
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And I'm getting a lot of intrinsic rewards from as well.
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So that period in my life, it was just, you know, I was
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turning 40, you know, just I realized, you know, I got a lot
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more to give than what I'm giving and it's about time I do
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that. So yeah, I'm happy with with
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where I am and where I'm going to, right.
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Like I just got back from a seven week vacation with my
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family. We took time off work and we
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went to Australia and New Zealand and I just pushed the
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pause button on everything and just spend time with each other.
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And it was amazing. It was.
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It was so good. Wow that sounds amazing, I would
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love to do that. I wish my husband liked to
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travel. But there's nothing stopping.
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You that's right, I'm hoping to plane to Miami tomorrow so.
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There you go. Good.
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I love that you pointed out that you were turning 40 and that
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kind of made you pause and think, I'm turning 40 this year
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and I'm not really handling it all.
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But so it's good to see how you embraced it and looked at the
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positive and you seem very happy.
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So I need to do that. Well, listen, there's not
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there's. I've learned a long time ago,
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like, don't stress over things you can't control.
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You can't control the fact you turned 4.
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You just embrace it and, and you know, there's a lot of good
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things that come from turn 4. There's so many good things,
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right? And so, you know, for you to
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turn 40, it's a blessing. It's like you're, you're going
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to love like the 40's, the new 20.
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Just keep yourself in good shape and have the energy you need to
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have and you know you'll, you'll be fantastic.
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You'll be graded for it. Don't worry about it.
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Thank you. I appreciate that.
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So let's let's pivot over to your writing journey.
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You touched on it a little bit with the letters, which is a
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brilliant way to start a story or a book.
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At what point did you realize, and you, like I said, you
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touched on this before, did you realize those letters had turned
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into something bigger that could become a book?
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They had common themes. You know, as I was writing them,
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I realized that there were so many connecting thoughts.
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Like they all kind of came from the same place, and they
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effectively turned into the chapters that you see within the
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book. And so like, you know, my
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chapters, you know, I'll give you a few titles of the chapters
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where, you know, the first one is talking about facing the
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fear. And I was talking to my daughter
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about when something scares you. Maybe that's when you lean into
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it a little bit more. And so I realized I'm like, so
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many people fear death. And that's where the title comes
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from too. It's called the paradox of a
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mortal mind. It's like when you fear roller
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coasters. If you just avoid roller
00:14:00
coasters, you're never going to get over this year roller
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coasters. Just get on the roller coaster
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and you're going to realize you're OK, you're good, right?
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And so the fear kind of subsides.
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And so when you lean into your mortality, well, you know what?
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I can't avoid it anyway, so I may as well use it as fuel.
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And so that's kind of where that came from.
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The 2nd chapter is called Humble Yourself, right?
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So it talks about how small you are ultimately, right?
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And you're 1 of 9 billion people.
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You look up into the sky full of billions of stars and you
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realize our planet is just a tiny little grain of sand
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compared to the size of the universe.
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And you know, our problems that we thought were problems are not
00:14:40
really that big of a deal. And so treat them that way,
00:14:43
right? Another chapter is called power
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perspectives, and I talk about a variety of different
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perspectives that you could have about problems.
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So be like water, like you know, when you, you've heard of the
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Bruce Lee, be like water, be more adaptable.
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And so when you're facing problems, a lot of people just
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keep on smashing against the problem over and over again, not
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changing their methods. And I'm like, well, just be more
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adaptable. Try a new way, you know.
00:15:07
And so that was a letter I wrote.
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And so, you know, it was it's, and they all kind of morphed
00:15:12
into that and they all had a common theme.
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So then I just said, you know what?
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I had to write about this a bit deeper.
00:15:18
I just and then they were all jumbled up there, like the book
00:15:21
was all over the place, like the chapters didn't make any, like
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they didn't flow into the next chapter and everything right.
00:15:27
So it took me a while to kind of figure out how to connect all
00:15:30
the dots, but it was a really rewarding experience, to be
00:15:33
honest. It was, you know, I got up every
00:15:36
morning at 5, like because I was teaching, right?
00:15:38
So in order for me to fit this in, it was like I'm writing for
00:15:42
5:00 to 7:00 AM every day. And so I did that every day.
00:15:45
And you know, 12 months later, it was, it was done.
00:15:50
And, and I'm proud of it. I I'm pretty happy that I was.
00:15:53
I was able to do it. Sounds like a very rewarding
00:15:56
experience. I wish.
00:15:57
I want to kind of explore that as an author.
00:16:00
I write fiction, but it sounds so therapeutic the way you do it
00:16:04
that I need to. I need to try something like
00:16:06
that but probably won't. Well, we all have our own
00:16:08
methods, right Like it. I didn't have a playbook.
00:16:11
I just I just did it with my heart.
00:16:13
And you know, the disc one piece is, is obviously your writer,
00:16:17
you know, like, like if you don't dedicate the time and to
00:16:21
to be disciplined with that and you're never going to really get
00:16:24
it done. And then it won't be the quality
00:16:26
that you want it to be. And so that part of it was a big
00:16:28
piece, but as the writing happened, it was just, you know
00:16:32
what, I really think I need to talk about this or that.
00:16:35
Even after the book was done, I'm like, man, I should have
00:16:37
included more about that or that, but it's never going to be
00:16:40
done, right, You know that. Absolutely.
00:16:43
So what do you hope readers walk away thinking after they read
00:16:47
it? Do you like hope that they see
00:16:50
hope? Do you see it as like a
00:16:51
philosophy? It's an invitation to slow down
00:16:56
and evaluate your perspective on life.
00:17:02
I do my best when I give myself space to think when I'm on
00:17:07
autopilot, like I mentioned earlier, I don't give myself
00:17:10
space to actually reflect and think about where I'm at, where
00:17:14
I'm going. When I give myself that space,
00:17:17
I'm a much more productive person.
00:17:19
I'm a more thoughtful person. I'm a more healthy person.
00:17:24
And I'm like, well, then that should be part of my life,
00:17:27
right? And so the book gives you it.
00:17:31
There's nothing in the book that will surprise you.
00:17:34
It's it is, yeah, I kind of get that.
00:17:37
And oh, yeah, I haven't thought about that for a while, but
00:17:40
yeah, that that makes a lot of sense.
00:17:41
And and so it gives you that sense of urgency to say yes now,
00:17:45
like me taking the time off work scare the shit out of like,
00:17:49
truthfully, like, you know, financially it's a hit, you
00:17:52
know, will my career be sidetracked?
00:17:55
But I then I think when I'm 60, looking back at me now, do you
00:18:01
think that 60 year old will say you shouldn't have done it?
00:18:04
No, not a chance. He's going to say that was the
00:18:07
best trip you took. That was the best decision you
00:18:09
made. And so I kept on reminding
00:18:12
myself that. And so that what I hope readers
00:18:15
get out of it is, you know, say yes to things, say well, say no
00:18:19
to other things, cut out the shit that's not serving it.
00:18:21
Like and every decision I make today, it's a vote for my future
00:18:27
self. That makes sense.
00:18:28
I like that. That's a great message.
00:18:30
So where can the listeners find you?
00:18:34
I'm on Amazon. If you just look up The Paradox
00:18:38
of a Mortal Mind, it's available on Amazon worldwide.
00:18:40
It's also available on Audible and I have socials under the
00:18:44
Mortal mind handle. So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,
00:18:49
it's under the mortal line and you'll see a whole bunch of my
00:18:52
motivational talks there where I I spoke to a whole variety of
00:18:56
students in different audiences about a lot of the lot of the
00:19:00
stuff in my book. And so I encourage people to go
00:19:03
and check those out as well and follow me if you think it
00:19:07
resonates. We, we put up like, you know,
00:19:09
one to two-minute, you know, parts of my, my talks and I
00:19:14
talked to people about all kinds of things that I just talked to
00:19:16
you about, about perspective and, and different things like
00:19:19
that. So I'm enjoying it.
00:19:21
I'm going to start doing it more and more and taking on people as
00:19:25
a coach as well, like a perspective and a mindset coach.
00:19:27
And I'm hoping that it continues to grow and, and it's available
00:19:31
all over the place. Hopefully you can find it.
00:19:33
Absolutely. I'll make sure that the links
00:19:35
are in the show notes for everyone.
00:19:38
I appreciate that. Michael, thank you so much for
00:19:40
joining me. I appreciate it.
00:19:41
I appreciate you. Thank you.
00:19:47
There's something powerful about being reminded that time isn't
00:19:50
guaranteed, not in a way that scares you, but in a way that
00:19:54
wakes you up. In this episode, Michael
00:19:56
challenged us to step out of autopilot, to stop waiting, and
00:19:59
to start choosing intentionally how we live.
00:20:03
Because every decision we make today is a vote for the life
00:20:06
we'll look back on tomorrow. If this conversation resonated
00:20:10
with you, you can find Michael's book, The Paradox of a Mortal
00:20:13
Mine, on Amazon and Audible and connect with him on social media
00:20:17
under The Mortal Mine. And as always, all links are
00:20:20
waiting for you in the show notes.
00:20:22
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to follow rate and
00:20:25
share Plot Twist Radio. And remember, sometimes the
00:20:28
smallest shift in perspective can change everything.
00:20:31
Until next time, stay curious and embrace the plot twist you
00:20:35
never saw coming.