What is The Memento Vivere Project?

In this debut episode of The Memento Vivere Project, Cameron introduces the inspiration behind the podcast: Memento Vivere, Latin for “Remember to Live.”

Rooted in the reality of Memento Mori, “Remember you’re going to die,” this episode explores how the awareness of life’s limited time can become a powerful invitation to live with more purpose, gratitude, courage, and joy.

Through personal reflections on time, loss, grief, and the daily distractions that keep us on autopilot, Cameron challenges listeners to ask one important question:

When was the last time you truly felt alive?

This episode sets the tone for a podcast about intentional living, meaningful stories, bold dreams, small moments, and the ongoing project of becoming more fully alive.

Transcript

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I'm Cameron Tesky and welcome to the Memento Vivere Project, the podcast that reminds you life is not something to survive, it's something to truly live. Here, we sit down with dream chasers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, and everyday people doing extraordinary things to uncover what it takes to leave comfort behind, overcome challenges, pursue what matters most, and remember to live. Whether you're searching for inspiration, courage, or a reminder to start living more intentionally, you're in the right place. This is the Memento Vivere Project. Remember, you're going to die. There's a Latin phrase for this, memento more. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. Death, it's inevitable, and time is always ticking. I've always been fascinated with timekeeping pieces my entire life. Wall clocks, wristwatches, pocket watches, hourglasses. There's an art and a design element to it all. But on a deeper level, appreciating the finite amount of time we're given and not wanting to waste such a precious commodity has always been a value of mine. Hanging above my desk right now I have an Andy Blank designed collage style piece of art featuring dozens of wristwatches. I have an hourglass sitting next to me. I have a unique clock to my right that flips numbered hour and minute cards as time moves on. In my room I have a display case full of watches that I've worn throughout my entire life. I've got Memento More tattooed on my wrist, so when I'm not wearing a watch, I'm always reminded that time is still ticking. And your body's clock is ticking too. No one knows when that ticking is going to come to a stop. The philosopher Marcus Aurelius once said, You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. When I was about thirteen, I attended at least half a dozen funerals of people that were pretty close to me in a relatively short amount of time. I've had way too many people close to me take their own life. I've even walked in on someone hanging themselves. I've had a friend murdered. My late wife died in her early thirties when our son was just two years old. But these are all details and stories for a different time because today I don't want to focus on the dying part. There's a reciprocal Latin phrase that I want to feature that will set the tone for this podcast and it's the namesake for this podcast. Memento vivere. Remember to live. This isn't about fearing death, but rather embracing life. When was the last time you truly felt alive? Just as there's an art to designing beautiful timepieces, there's also an art to living in appreciating the moments, and spending time purposefully, and living each day with passion, joy, and gratitude. And each of us has our own challenges, distractions, or monotonies to deal with that may get in the way of truly enjoying life and living with the memento vivari mindset. We unfortunately get trapped in routines and just go through each day all too often on autopilot. We start our morning in chaos, trying to get kids ready for school and out the door on time, leaving us feeling unorganized or unprepared for the day. And then we spend our day at jobs that don't fulfill us, leaving us feeling drained. We may sit in traffic at the end of the day, putting us in an impatient, bad mood to walk in the door at home. And there's never-ending to-do list when we get home of house projects that are constantly running through our minds. It's cold outside and gloomy yet again. So inside, you're feeling cold and gloomy. Our bank accounts are running dangerously low, so we feel it's constant pressure to make more money, pay more bills. We compare our lives to glamorous Instagram accounts that often have us feeling defeated, that we don't have this apparently perfect life. And spoiler alert, it's not as perfect as it seems. And besides, comparison? That old bastard is the thief of joy, as they say. One of my favorite quotes comes from Randy Posh's book, The Last Lecture. Posh was a professor at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University. He was facing a grim battle with pancreatic cancer and was given an opportunity to give a last lecture before his cancer took him from this earth. In that lecture, he shared these words. So if a guy literally counting down his days can play a losing hand with hope, intentionality, optimism, and appreciation, I have no doubt we can too. It shouldn't take a terminal diagnosis to be a wake-up call to transform our lives, to remember to live each day. It's my hope that this podcast brings inspiration for you to live intentionally, to appreciate small moments throughout your day, to go on that vacation, to take that leap of faith, and to take on each day with a memento vivari approach. And I'll do that through interviews with people who truly and purposely remember to live life, along with some of my own brain dumps and ramblings, resources I come across, anecdotes I find worth sharing, inspiration, and I don't know, really anything else in between. And I hope you'll join me as we keep working on this project together. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming inspirational episodes that will help you remember to live. Follow the Memento Vivari project on your favorite social media platforms for quick tidbits or little pieces of inspiration. And tell your friends about this because the journey of life is much more fulfilling when there's love and camaraderie along the way. And remember, we're each carrying a weight no one else can feel and fighting a battle no one else can see. So show love to each other, and maybe more importantly, show some love to yourself. No matter what life throws your way, today, remember, how will you remember to live? Keep working on yourself because this is the Memento Vivere project.