The Mindful FIRE Podcast

“One of the best things that you can do for your financial independence is to look at what's out there that is sustainable, that you can make a good living at, and that you can make a difference in.” - Val Coelho Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m so glad you’re here.  On today’s episode I’m again joined by my dad, Val Coelho for part 2 of our conversation. As a reminder, in part 1 of our conversation we dove into his story of coming to the United States from Portugal at age 24, meeting my mother while working on the cruise ships and how they eventually started a business that provided a financially secure life for our family. If you haven’t listened to that yet, I recommend checking it out, since it provides context for what we discuss in this episode. In this episode, Val and I explore the lessons about money he learned growing up in a family in Portugal during a very tumultuous time for the country. We also explore the money lessons he tried to teach my brother and I. We even discussed one of my first big purchases, a $600 sound system with two 12-inch subwoofers for my tiny GMC Sonoma truck.  We also get his thoughts on the FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement. I was eager to hear his thoughts on this, since he and my mother are still working as small business owners and are hoping to retire soon, around regular retirement age. In the discussion, he brought up a great point about privilege and the fact that most people don’t have the luxury of thinking about retirement at all, since they’re focused on surviving under very difficult circumstances.  Val also shares: His top advice for those early on the path to financial independence His advice for those getting started with mindfulness One thing he’s grateful for His philosophy that “What other people think of me is none of my business” I re🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

Our body is constantly giving us rich information (raw data) about what’s going on inside us; what we’re feeling. If we pay attention, we can use that information to guide our thinking and actions more effectively. Unfortunately most of the time we are unaware of all of this information because we simply aren’t paying attention. We haven’t trained ourselves to tune into the body and to our emotions in the body.  For me personally this has always been a challenge. I’m just not naturally very aware of feelings and emotions in my body. When I practice being aware, through this practice of the body scan, I find that I’m more in tune with what I’m feeling when things happen in my life. For example, I can notice myself getting nervous before a presentation. The more I practice this the more easily I notice feelings. When I’m aware of them, I can use that information. In the example above, if I notice that I’m feeling nervous, I can take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. The ability to bring a kind awareness to our body, especially to emotions in the body, is an incredibly powerful skill. Like all skills it can be developed with practice. When we practice being aware of sensations and emotions in our body, we gain access to rich information that will allow us to navigate our emotions rather than being driven blindly by them.  In today’s practice I share a 15 minute guided body scan practice. We begin by settling the mind on the breath. Then we slowly scan our bodies with an attitude of openness, curiosity and kindness, feeling whatever sensations we feel, from the feet to the top of the head. I hope you find this practice helpful I’d love to hear how it was for you and if you find it easy or hard to sense emotions in your body? Each Tuesday I release a guided meditation or inspiring interview on the topic of mindfulness and the financial independence retire early (FIRE) movement. Subscribe for future meditations and episodes! More Meditations: https://bit.ly/3cbYc3C Inspiring Interviews:  🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

“There's also this idea of neuroplasticity. It's something we talk a lot about in mindfulness, which is that you have the power to change your brain based on what you pay attention to.” - Julia Li Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here.  In this episode, I'm joined by my friend, Julia Li.  Julia and I met a few years ago when a mutual friend of ours introduced us because she was interested in becoming a facilitator of the popular course search inside yourself, which is an emotional intelligence course at Google, which teaches emotional intelligence through mindfulness. I'm excited to bring you this interview with Julia, because she's at a point in her life where she's about to make a big move. She's about to leave Google and switch into a totally different space of sustainability.  And this conversation goes into a lot of different areas, but it really. Points to the importance of creating sustainability within your own life. Being intentional and thoughtful about how you're spending your time and figuring out what's important to you and where you want to go with your life.  Julia share some really practical tips and practices for envisioning the future that you want to live, including thinking about how you want to feel in the future and how we can start to bring those feelings and practices into our life right now. Julia and I are planning on recording another episode, maybe five or six months down the road, once she's taken this time off and started thinking about embarking on her next chapter in the sustainability space. So definitely subscribe so that you can see that future episode as well. And see what Julia is up to in the future. In this episode we explore:  How Julia and I know each other How her interest in mindfulness led Julia to work at Google.  Julia’s intentional approach to work and her🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

Intentions are incredibly powerful when set clearly and practiced often. They allow us get clear on what we want and how we want to show up in our lives. By setting intentions we orient our minds in a particular direction, which makes it much more likely that we will show up in that way. Join Adam Coelho for this guided meditation practice where we set our intention for 2021 and then practice sitting in that intention. What I mean by "sitting in the intention" is imagining that the intention we're setting is infusing every cell of our body. We practice feeling the intention in our body, making it alive in us, now in the present moment, at a physiological level. Then we practice visualizing ourselves living out that intention in our lives. Finally we finish the practice with a short self compassion practice of loving kindness and then send that compassion out to all beings in the world. I hope you enjoy the practice and welcome your feedback. Please write a 5 Star review on Apple Podcasts! It REALLY helps more people find out the show. Full Show Notes at MindfulFIRE.org 🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

“We have the knowledge we need and want. We just need to trust it.” Morgan Bricca Welcome to The Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I'm your host, Adam Coelho. I'm so glad you're here. On today's episode. I have a bonus for you. I've invited back my friend Morgan Bricca, who joined us on episode 6 and 7 of the podcast. And I've invited her back to share her approach to year-end reflection and planning. I've compiled all of the learnings and tips into a short PDF guide that you can download at MindfulFIRE.org/2020🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

Join Adam Coelho for this short guided meditation focused on mindfulness and gratitude as we approach the end of 2020.  Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and wonderful new year ahead. Thank you so much for supporting the show by listening and sharing with your friends.  Show notes at mindfulfire.org🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

“Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans” - Val Coelho (my dad) Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. On this episode I’m joined by my dad, Val Coelho, on his birthday, November 15th. That day was also my 10th anniversary of working at Google so it was a good day to have a reflective conversation. I’m breaking our conversation into 2 parts to make each episode more focused. This first episode, Part 1 of our conversation is all about my dad’s adventure of coming to America and building a life here. It took a lot of guts to leave behind everyone he knows. Part 2 will be released in 2 weeks and focus on Val’s thoughts about money lessons and the FIRE movement. Subscribe below and we’ll let you know when Part 2 is available. Val Coelho came to the United States from Portugal when he was 24 years old. He left working in a 5 star hotel in Portugal to come and work on the cruise ships in Miami. He meets my mom working in the dining room on the cruise ship. They fell in love and got married. My dad worked at UPS for 14 years until he and my mother started a small business of assisted living facilities. Val shares the story of how they went from 0 facilities to 3 facilities in the first year and then to 6 facilities with 44 residents in 5 years. I learned a lot and really enjoyed my dad’s stories. I hope that you enjoy it as well. Make sure to subscribe below to receive Part 2 of my conversation with my dad in 2 weeks.  Full show notes at MindfulFIRE.org🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

Join Adam Coelho in this short guided meditation practice on gratitude & compassion. We begin by calming the mind and then bring up a feeling of gratitude and direct it at our body and mind. Then we finish the session by sending compassion to ourselves and to all those suffering during this challenging year 2020. Full Show Notes @ MindfulFIRE.org🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here.  Today we dive into part 2 of my conversation with my friend, Nicholas Whitaker. If you haven’t yet listened to Part 1 of our conversation where we dig into Nick’s backstory of going from poverty to working at Google,  you can check it out here. It’s one you don’t want to miss.  Nicholas has an incredible story of going from living in poverty, with housing insecurity and just scraping by, to changing his mindset and his entire life to ultimately be working at Google for the last 10 years.  For the past decade, Nicholas has leveraged the scale and resources of Google to support the journalism industry through high impact educational products, programs, and strategic partnerships, reaching more than half a million journalists worldwide. Throughout his time at Google, Nicholas has also managed stress and anxiety through an active mindfulness practice, extensive study of emotional intelligence, resilience, and the impact of technology on well being as well as regular therapy.  He spends a portion of his time facilitating mental health talks, meditations, host experts in the industry to talk about mindfulness and resilience, and facilitate team development experiences to help teams and colleagues manage stress, cultivate trust and psychological safety, and learn more mindful ways to communicate. I'm also coaching a limited number of clients outside of Google. In Part 2 of our conversation Nicholas and I dive into: How Nick thinks about Financial Independence Retire Early with what he calls a “modified FIRE approach” How and why Nick places a huge value on where he is spending his attention. Quote: “Attention is the cash value of time” - Sam Harris Nick’s practical advice for living in alignment with your values and using your attention wisely. The importance of becoming aware of the stories we’re telling ourselves Why Nick says everyone can benefit fr🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...

Need I say more?  2020 is brutal and life is crazy. One thing is for sure.  You deserve a break!  Yeah YOU! Here it is. Press play. Subscribe for new meditations and inspiring interviews about mindfulness and financial independence every Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed this practice. If you do, please share it with your friends...I bet one or two could really use it right now. Please write a 5 Star review on Apple Podcasts! It REALLY helps more people find out the show.  🔥 Did you know that only 14% of reorgs are successful? That means 86% of reorgs fail to achieve their goals. Shocking! Honestly, after living through 11 reorgs in my last 10 years at Google it kind of makes sense. I created the Ask What's Possible Workshop to help newly formed teams rebuild trust, create psychological safety, and align around a BIG shared vision in hours, not quarters. 🔥 Want to accelerate your speed-to-alignment? Book a no-obligation fit call with me 🔥 What teams walk away with: Rebuilt trust and psychological safety A co-created, ambitious shared vision everyone is energized by Clear alignment between personal goals and team vision A short list of mini-experiments to generate momentum immediately 🔥 What makes this workshop different: Executive-level facilitation with a track record at CEO-level forums, including sessions with 27 Google VPs at Sundar's leadership conferenceOne VP shared: "Adam was masterful as he guided us through exercises to expand our perspective and ambition on our vision of what we could be and do." Neuroscience-backed, mindful conversation practices th...