#64: Disciplined Imagination: The Adam Coelho Story

Read This If You’re Trying to Break Status Quo

…or if you’re trying to figure out how to move from where you are to somewhere different.

…or if you’re navigating real-world work dynamics like layoffs, reorganizations, shifting leadership, and the constant uncertainty that comes with it.

…or if you’re looking for examples of people who didn’t just accept the status quo and instead built something different and you want to understand how they actually did it.

This newsletter features Adam Coelho, a former Google executive, who represents what it looks like to navigate all of that in real time while building something entirely different underneath it.

The Pattern I Didn’t Have Words For

I didn’t have language for this when I was building my life.

Police Officer. Federal Agent. Corporate. Real Estate. Now executive producing, creating, living a completely different version of life. None of it felt like a master plan at the time. I could just feel status quo living wasn’t for me.

So I leaned on the greatest faculty we have. My imagination.

Not in a passive way. In a directed one. In my mind I could see different versions of life that didn’t match my current reality. Instinctively, I kept returning to those imaginal thoughts over and over, making decisions from them before there was any external validation that it was possible.

A few years ago I heard a 1975 lecture by Dr. Joseph Murphy where he called this Disciplined Imagination. Finally I had language for something I had already lived.

Once I heard it, I started recognizing people doing it everywhere. Adam’s story tracks this pattern clearly.

The Real-World Example of Adam Coelho

On the surface, it looks like a familiar path. He built financial independence through the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement, stepped away from a high-level role, and moved into entrepreneurship and deep meaningful relationships and experiences. He moved into his envisioned next version of life.

What I’m highlighting is what happened before that.

Adam stumbled into mindfulness through a colleague. That practice gave him awareness of his own thinking, his patterns, and stories shaping how he experienced work and success. At the same time, he was building financial independence as a foundation that would eventually give him room to move.

Then came the moment most people recognize. Multiple reorgs, increasing pressure, and eventually a performance warning. For most, that moment narrows everything. Decisions become reactive. Energy shifts toward holding on.

Adam used that period differently.

Because he had already spent time imagining a different version of his life, he used that window to move toward it. He started building something new while still inside the system. By the time he was let go, the direction of his life had already shifted.

What’s Driving the Change

When people look at stories like Adam’s, they tend to focus on the visible steps like saving, investing, hitting a number, and leaving.

Those steps matter, but they are not the full story. They follow something deeper that I can now recognize clearly in people.

Adam had already seen a different life. He had already spent time there mentally. That internal direction shaped how he made decisions when things became uncertain.

That is the lever most people overlook.

Different Language, Same Mechanism

I call it the Perfect Day. Joseph Murphy called it disciplined imagination. Adam approaches it via mindfulness and visioning.

I hope you’re picking up on the trend.

You begin to see something before it exists and you return to it consistently enough that it starts to influence how you think, how you decide, and how you act. Over time, your external world begins to organize around that internal direction.

The Real Driver Behind It All

Understanding the concept is one thing. Applying it is the work.

Adam chose a framework. The FIRE movement gave him structure, a target, and the financial stability to make decisions without the same level of pressure. He called it his ‘set it and forget it plan’. 

I chose a different framework. I built systems around income, assets, and geographic freedom. That structure allowed me to move toward what I was already seeing internally.

In both cases the framework wasn’t the driver. It was support.

What led everything was imagination, a clear sense of what life could look like beyond the current situation. The framework made it possible to move in that direction with consistency.

In other words the vision came first. The financial framework supported it.

Money was not the goal for either of us.

The Real Driver Behind It All

Understanding the concept is one thing. Applying it is the work.

Adam chose a framework. The FIRE movement gave him structure, a target, and the financial stability to make decisions without the same level of pressure. He called it his ‘set it and forget it plan’. 

I chose a different framework. I built systems around income, assets, and geographic freedom. That structure allowed me to move toward what I was already seeing internally.

In both cases the framework wasn’t the driver. It was support.

What led everything was imagination, a clear sense of what life could look like beyond the current situation. The framework made it possible to move in that direction with consistency.

In other words the vision came first. The financial framework supported it.

Money was not the goal for either of us.

How This Plays Out in Real Life

What’s important is how this played out.

Because Adam had built financial independence through the FIRE movement, using the 4% rule as a foundation, he created income outside of his job. That gave him something most people don’t have in those moments.

Options.

So when Google eventually let him go about 18 months ago, it wasn’t a collapse. It was a transition. He already had an off-ramp. He had already started building his entrepreneurial path while he was still employed. And most importantly, the style of life he envisioned was now starting to organize around him.

The job ending didn’t create the change. The change had already been set in motion.

If you want to hear how he navigated that in real time, and how money gave him options while vision gave him direction, listen to Episode 156: Money Buys Options, Vision Creates Life — The Adam Coelho Story.

Where This Leaves You

At this point the pattern should be clear but what matters is what you do with it.

Taking control starts internally.

It’s the work of disciplined imagination. It’s taking the time to clearly define what your life looks like, whether you call it a Perfect Day or something else, and actually sitting with it long enough to feel it. Not once, but repeatedly, until it becomes familiar.

It’s the mindfulness and visioning work Adam described. Becoming aware of the thoughts you’re carrying, choosing new ones, and returning to them consistently. That’s where direction comes from.

From there, the external begins to follow.

You start to take different actions. You notice different opportunities. You make decisions from something more grounded than whatever is happening around you that day.

That’s the shift.

Because the reality is layoffs, reorganizations, and work pressure are all still going to be there. The difference is whether you’re reacting to it or moving through it from a vision you’ve already decided on.

When you do this well your environment stops dictating your decisions.

Your vision does.

And over time your life begins to organize around that.

And that’s how you break Status Quo and Try Life On.

Maurice

Bonus

If you want more examples of dealing with layoffs, reorganizations, or trying to figure out how to navigate career while building something else, I break down exactly how I approached 25 years of internal dynamics in Episode 153: Leverage Your 9-5 More Than It Leverages You