It’s Not Too Late: The 5 Shifts That Will Change the Rest of Your Year with Ed Mylett

Episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast · October 26, 2026 · 1 h 4 min

Mel Robbins talks with Ed Mylett about his father's death, heart problems, worry, identity, intentions and why it is never too late to change your life.

Summary

In his first public interview in roughly two years following cardiac events, entrepreneur and speaker Ed Mylett joined Mel Robbins to discuss how one decision can change a person's life. Mylett described growing up on welfare in Boston with an alcoholic, drug-addicted father, and said that holding his father's hand as he died about three and a half years earlier convinced him people are not their bodies, possessions, accolades or worries. He said the experience led him to audit his life, ranking what still mattered to him and writing down his fears, most of which he concluded were baseless.

Mylett argued that a better life comes from removing things rather than adding them, illustrated by a story of a bald eagle on his island that plucked out her feathers after losing her mate and rebuilt her life. He called himself a professional worrier, said worry is caught rather than taught by children, and suggested that chronic stress contributed to his heart problems. He presented a thermostat metaphor for identity, arguing that people unconsciously return to the emotional settings they believe they deserve, and that associations most strongly affect those settings. Robbins shared her own past dominant emotions and how she changed them.

Mylett recounted his father's decision to get sober "one more time" and stay sober one day at a time, and his discovery that the man who helped his father had been sober only 31 days, leading to his idea that people are most qualified to help the person they used to be. He described a chance meeting with mentor Wayne Dyer, who told him to draw confidence from his intentions rather than his abilities, and spoke about regret, the death of his infant nephew, and not postponing joy. He closed by describing his daily routine of prayer, exercise and writing, including letters addressed to overlooked people such as an airport cleaner named Griselda, and by honoring his mother as the quiet hero of his family.

Chapters

0:00
Introduction and one decision away
Robbins introduces Ed Mylett, who argues that expecting new opportunities is the key to noticing life-changing decisions.
4:36
Helpless to helpful
Mylett discusses his childhood with an addicted father, his lingering insecurity, and serving others when feeling helpless.
6:00
His father's death and the life audit
Mylett describes being with his father when he died and the audit of goals and fears that followed, including the story of the eagle Wilma.
14:29
Cardiac events and making room
Mylett explains how two cardiac events and reevaluation led him to believe success is about creating space, not adding more.
18:34
A tool to stop worrying
Mylett explains how he inherited worry from his father and how writing worries down drains their power.
23:19
The identity thermostat
Mylett uses a thermostat to illustrate how identity and dominant emotions pull people back to familiar states, and Robbins shares her own experience.
30:04
His father's sobriety and the power of one more
Mylett recounts his father getting sober for love of his family and the recovering addict who helped him, concluding that people are most qualified to help who they used to be.
37:10
Wayne Dyer and confidence from intentions
Mylett tells of meeting Wayne Dyer on a Hawaii beach and learning to draw confidence from intentions rather than ability.
41:35
Regret and the gift of time
Mylett reflects on wishing he had given himself more grace and the death of his infant nephew as a reminder not to postpone joy.
44:51
Intentions, criticism and associations
Robbins and Mylett discuss resisting criticism and how the people around you shape your thermostat setting.
47:34
Catalyst habits and writing to the invisible
Mylett describes his morning prayer, exercise and writing routine and the overlooked people, including Griselda and his mother, he writes to.
58:43
Parting words
Mylett recalls his grandfather's belief in him and urges listeners to make those who believed in them proud.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

Ed Mylett
Mylett argues that a person is always one decision away from changing their life and means it literally.
“You are literally one decision away from changing your life. And that is not rhetoric to me in any way”
Listen from 3:31 · Self-improvement
Ed Mylett
Mylett recounts being raised by a father who was an alcoholic and drug addict.
“I was raised with an alcoholic and a drug addict dad”
Listen from 4:44 · Addiction and recovery
Ed Mylett
Mylett recommends that people who feel helpless try to help others.
“When you feel the most helpless, attempt to become the most helpful”
Listen from 5:22 · Self-improvement
Ed Mylett
Mylett argues that improving life is often about removing things that no longer serve you rather than adding more.
“sometimes in life, it's not about adding a bunch more stuff. It's the reverse. It's about re-auditing”
Listen from 10:53 · Self-improvement
Ed Mylett
Mylett says writing down his fears made them lose much of their power over him.
“And once I wrote them down, they lost a lot of their power over me”
Listen from 14:01 · Worry and anxiety
Ed Mylett
Mylett says he experienced two cardiac events, which he saw as a forced slowdown.
“I had two, what I would call, we'll call them cardiac events”
Listen from 14:44 · Worry and anxiety
Ed Mylett
Mylett argues that worry makes people relive bad events many times, even those that never happen.
“Worrying allows you to live through an event multiple times that even if it happened, should only happen to you once”
Listen from 19:40 · Worry and anxiety
Ed Mylett
Mylett argues that children absorb habits like worry by example, as he did from his father.
“I think with children, things are caught, not taught. I caught that from my old man”
Listen from 19:45 · Fatherhood
Ed Mylett
Mylett believes chronic stress and worry contributed to his heart breaking down in his early 50s.
“I physically think my heart just could not take any more stress”
Listen from 22:11 · Worry and anxiety
Ed Mylett
Mylett claims that, next to God, the strongest force is the drive to stay consistent with one's self-image.
“I believe next to God, the most powerful force in the world is to be consistent with the way you view you”
Listen from 23:36 · Self-improvement
Mel Robbins
Robbins says she changed her negative emotional patterns by recognizing that only she could change and no one was stopping her.
“there is absolutely nobody that's going to do this for me. And there's nobody stopping me from changing either”
Listen from 28:36 · Self-improvement
Ed Mylett
Mylett argues that lasting change requires linking it to love for someone else, oneself or God.
“If you want to make one of these changes in your life, you've got to link it to your love of someone else that you care about”
Listen from 30:40 · Addiction and recovery
Ed Mylett
Mylett says his father stayed sober for the rest of his life by committing one day at a time.
“my dad stacked up those one more days, the rest of his life, never had another drink, never used another drug”
Listen from 31:55 · Addiction and recovery
Linked moment · 34:37Skip to 34:37 using a listen link in the info box.
Ed Mylett
Mylett says the man who helped his father get sober had himself been sober for only 31 days.
“That man, by the way, was only sober 31 days the day that he held my dad”
Listen from 34:37 · Addiction and recovery
Ed Mylett
Mylett argues that past struggles qualify people to help others facing the same problems.
“The reason that that qualified him is you're most qualified in life to help the person you used to be”
Listen from 35:24 · Addiction and recovery
Ed Mylett
Mylett, following Wayne Dyer's advice, says confidence can be drawn instantly from one's good intentions rather than ability.
“And I would say our friend listening to this, you know what, you can shift your confidence in an instant”
Listen from 40:48 · Self-confidence
Mel Robbins
Robbins argues that knowing your intentions and values is the most powerful way to build self-confidence.
“that is the single best best and most powerful way to start to build confidence in yourself”
Listen from 45:17 · Self-confidence
Ed Mylett
Mylett names the people one associates with as the biggest influence on one's identity setting.
“You know the number one impact on your thermostat setting? Associations”
Listen from 46:39 · Self-improvement
Ed Mylett
Mylett says his catalyst habit is exercising early in the day, even though he rarely enjoys it.
“I've lifted weights for 35 years. I've enjoyed maybe seven of those days”
Listen from 48:02 · Self-improvement
Ed Mylett
Mylett describes a daily 30-minute writing practice in which he must start writing within one minute.
“And my thing is I have to write within one minute. I have to put something on that paper”
Listen from 50:03 · Journaling
Ed Mylett
Mylett says he came to see his mother, not his father, as the hero of his family.
“it took me a long time to figure out, my dad's not the hero of our family. It's my mom”
Listen from 52:48 · Fatherhood

People

In the conversation

Mel RobbinsAmerican author, podcast host and former lawyer who hosts The Mel Robbins Podcast
Ed MylettAmerican entrepreneur, motivational speaker, podcast host and author of The Power of One More

Discussed

Wayne DyerLate American self-help author and speaker

Topics

1072. Q&AF: "Dead-End" Career, Safe Job Vs Dream Job & Reclaiming Your Fitness
REAL AF with Andy Frisella · Oct 26, 2026 · 47 min
Andy Frisella and co-hosts answer listener questions about being passed over for promotion, leaving a safe job for commission real estate, and regaining fitness after kids.
#2561 - LL Cool J
The Joe Rogan Experience · Oct 6, 2026 · 2 h 38 min
Joe Rogan and LL Cool J discuss the birth of hip-hop and Def Jam, discipline and mastery, martial arts, lost civilizations, time travel and artificial intelligence.
The Ultimate Life Advice: How to Get Motivated, Build Confidence & Create Better Relationships
The Mel Robbins Podcast · Oct 5, 2026 · 1 h 6 min
Mel Robbins answers listener questions on moving away from family, book recommendations, finding passion, diet and fitness, managing emotions, breakups, and career decisions.
How To Go Hard, Even When You Don’t Want To - Sam Sulek - #1157
Modern Wisdom · Oct 1, 2026 · 1 h 41 min
Chris Williamson and bodybuilder Sam Sulek discuss training hard over optimising, married life, winter discipline, bodybuilding culture, self-coaching, and peptides.
LUCY HALE: “I Was Sabotaging My Life.”
On Purpose with Jay Shetty · Sep 21, 2026 · 1 h 24 min
Actress Lucy Hale tells Jay Shetty about self-sabotage, early fame, four years of sobriety, freezing her eggs and finding healthy love.
Coach for SpaceX & OpenAI destroys your limiting beliefs for 88 minutes straight
My First Million · Sep 18, 2026 · 1 h 28 min
Executive coach Joe Hudson walks Sam Parr and Shaan Puri through limiting beliefs, self-reliance patterns, conflict avoidance, negative self-talk and weekly self-awareness experiments.

From the publisher

What if the best part of the year hasn’t happened yet? If you’ve been feeling stuck, behind, and sick of your own bad habits, this conversation is for you. In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Mel sits down with bestselling author, entrepreneur, and one of favorite people Ed Mylett. They talk about what it takes to stop living on autopilot and start building a great life, at any age. Ed believes you are always one decision away from a different life. But here’s where Ed’s advice is completely fresh and different: Ed says building a great life isn’t about doing more, achieving more, or adding another goal. He knows: The most powerful thing you can do is make room for the life you want by letting go of what is keeping you stuck. After losing his father and facing serious health challenges of his own, Ed was forced to rethink the way he was living. He began questioning what success really means, how much of his life he had wasted worrying, and whether the things he was chasing still mattered to him. What he found, and is sharing with you today, changed the way he thinks about time, confidence, purpose, relationships, and what makes a life meaningful. In this episode, you’ll learn: -How you can change the direction of your life with one decision -The simple life audit Ed uses to figure out what he needs to let go of -How to break the patterns that keep pulling you backward -Ed’s simple tool to stop worry and take back control of your life -To create a different future, even when your current circumstances make you feel stuck -How to build confidence by creating small wins that prove you can trust yourself -To trusting your intentions, even when you doubt your abilities -How “one more day” helped save Ed’s father’s life, and became one of Ed’s most powerful ideas. -Why you are most qualified to help the person you used to be, and how your greatest struggles can become a source of purpose -How helping someone else can pull you out of helplessness and reconnect y…

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on October 29, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.

Categories: Self-Improvement·Mental Health