Building an AI Coach to Help Tame My Monkey Mind

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the author's experience using an AI chatbot as a personal coach to help manage mental health challenges such as "monkey mind", imposter syndrome, and the hedonic treadmill. It describes the author's process of building their own AI coach, named Tara, using the Vapi platform, and the benefits they have experienced from conversing with the AI coach.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Building an AI Coach

1. What mental health challenges did the author experience?

• The author experienced "monkey mind", chronic imposter syndrome, and the hedonic treadmill.

2. What techniques did the author use to improve their mental well-being?

• The author meditated, wrote morning pages, and kept a gratitude journal.

3. How did the author use ChatGPT as a therapist and coach?

• The author found ChatGPT to be surprisingly helpful in providing an external perspective, asking follow-up questions, challenging assumptions, and helping untangle thoughts and emotions.

4. What inspired the author to build their own AI coach?

• The author was inspired by a tweet from Swyx about using voice as a modality for interacting with an AI coach.

5. How did the author set up their AI coach, Tara?

• The author used the Vapi platform to create Tara, an empathetic, insightful, and supportive AI coach. The author provided a first message and a system prompt to customize Tara's personality and capabilities.
• The author also purchased a virtual phone number to enable calling Tara via a regular phone line.

6. What benefits did the author experience from conversing with Tara?

• The author found the conversations with Tara to be natural and helpful. Tara acted as a sounding board, helped the author prepare for difficult scenarios, and provided an external perspective by reflecting the author's emotions back to them.

[02] Sharing the AI Coach Experience

1. What did the author invite readers to do?

• The author provided a phone number for readers to try out Tara, the AI coach, and offered a 10-minute setup guide for readers to build their own AI coach.

2. What did the author request from readers who found Tara helpful or built their own AI coach?

• The author requested that readers comment or DM the author to share their experiences.

3. How did the author suggest the article be cited?

• The author provided a citation format for the article, including the title, author, publication date, and URL.