Mindsets & Meaning: A Socratic Look at Recovery

Mindsets & Meaning: A Socratic Look at Recovery

What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? Here, Coach Blu Robinson and Wendell Wood use New Year’s Day – and a very early morning – to ask the sort of big questions most people spend years dodging. Instead of talking about tactics and to-do lists, they focus on mindset, using Socratic questioning as a way to get brutally honest with yourself.

You’ll hear them unpack questions like, “What do you believe is your purpose in life?”, “How do you define success for yourself?”, and the more uncomfortable, “What assumptions are you making about yourself that may not be true?” Coach Blu talks about seeing everyone as a creator: “We can create joy… but we can create chaos and hate and anger,” and how his own purpose has settled around service, from his work to helping neighbours and team-mates.

Wendell shares how his sense of purpose has shifted in the past year towards family, service, and helping others see that “your addiction, it doesn’t define you.” They have a relaxed, conversational style with plenty of humour (including a missing Nike advert about being your own cheerleader), yet the questions cut deep. Success gets reframed from big, flashy goals to “celebrate those small victories” – getting out of bed, going a little further, having one honest conversation.

As Wendell puts it, comparing your everyday struggles to someone else’s polished social media highlight reel is a fast track to shame. The episode also touches on self-relationship, inner critics, fear of failure, and the idea that “Every trigger, it’s a trailhead” – an invitation to be curious rather than condemn yourself. Wendell even shares his fear and excitement about applying for a master’s degree so he can help others more.

If you’re in recovery, supporting someone who is, or just sick of living on autopilot, this conversation offers practical questions to start asking yourself today. So, what would you do if you truly believed you wouldn’t fail?