101 : Sabbatical Series #3 : Reflecting on my First 2 Months Off work & Achieving a Long Time Dream : Adam Interviewed by David Moltz

Welcome to the Mindful Fire Podcast,a show about crafting a life you love and making work optional using the tools of mindfulness,envisioning in financial independence.I'm your host,Adam Koyo,and I'm so glad you're here.Each episode of the Mindful Fire Podcast explores these three tools through teachings,guided meditations,and inspiring interviews with people,actually living them to craft a life day love.At its core,mindful Fire is about creating more awareness and choice in your life.Mindfulness helps you develop self-awareness to know yourself better and what's most important to you by practicing a kind,curious awareness.Envisioning is all about choosing to think big about your life and putting the power of your predicting brain to work to create the life you dream of.And financial independence brings awareness and choice to your financial life,empowering you to make your vision a reality by getting your money sorted out and ultimately making work optional.And here's the best part,you don't have to wait until you reach financial independence to live out your vision.Mindful fires about using these tools to craft that life.Now on the path to financial independence and.If you're ready to start your Mindful Fire journey,go to mindful fire.org/start and download my free envisioning guide in just10minutes.This guide will help you craft a clear and inspiring vision for your life.Again,you can download it for free@mindfulfire.org slash start.Let's jump into today.Moltz welcome back to the mindful fire podcast.I'm glad to have you back.Thanks for

having me.I think when you reached out,you said it's been two months and that's quick.A lot of time has passed excited to chat with you today.I can't believe it's been over eight weeks already since we last chatted.

Yeah.Pretty crazy to think that I'm already two thirds through my three months sabbatical and yeah,it's two months in already.I can't believe how fast time is going,but it's been really good.And I'm excited to catch up with you today and talk about some of the learnings and lessons that have come up during this.

what have you done because yeah,we haven't chatted since again,a couple months ago.

Yeah,sure.So I started my time off on February7th.And as we talked about in our last conversation,and as I talked about in the episode I did with Julia Lee exploring my motivations and my hopes for the time off.I was really looking to create space in my life and really focus on a theme that was summarized in three words.And those three words are rest,play and connect.Right.As you know,I'm all about creating opportunity through connection.And a lot of times that takes a very active and almost like I've realized like a striving type of energy to it.I was very much focused on resting and being intentional about creating space to rest and setting aside all the normal things I would do in the past.I would probably use this time.hustle on the podcast or my side businesses or whatever.I think back to a time I went to Barcelona and I actually stayed a week later and hung out with a friend of mine from a program I was in the foundation and I was hustling on my side hustle during that time and getting a taste for what it would be like to be a full-time entrepreneur.And while I'm glad I did that,that is not the energy I wanted to bring to this.As we talked about on the last time I've been working for11years straight at Google with three weeks being the longest time I've taken off,not for paternity leave.And so I really wanted to just.Practice resting and that turned out to be pretty interesting,

I know in Pop's podcasts,people are talking about carving out time for exercise or TV or other tasks.So what did you do?What are some

examples?As I mentioned it didn't come naturally to me,so I needed to set some parameters around it.the big one was setting aside the podcast.Cuz I had been chasing this schedule that I set for myself for so long of weekly publishing.And at the beginning of the year,I decided to slow it down a little bit to monthly and.after we spoke last time,I was wrapping things up so that I could go into the time and not think about it at all.So what that meant is I set up some kind of things to auto publish a couple weeks out,but then I just didn't even look at it.And that was really nice,right.Not having to spend my Sunday and Monday night racing to edit an episode,to get it out there by Tuesday.An arbitrary deadline that I set was really nice and not having that time pressure always in the back of my mind was really nice.

Can you remind us did you release any repeat any previously already recorded podcasts or did you just take the time off entirely?

So I did release one previously recorded one with my friend,Anna.And that was about two weeks after I started.And I released maybe one or two meditations that I had previously recorded and in that last weekend,before I started after you and I spoke.That is when I edited those and got them ready and scheduled to release,but that only got me like three weeks into the future.And so after that,I just didn't publish anything.Interestingly,that first month was one of the best months I ever had on the podcast in terms of downloads,but the next month was not So after a while I think people,just aren't finding it because it's not popping up in their player often.So that was of what I did there.say you

set aside work,set aside the podcast.So what did you do all day is the question and then the follow up question is,did

you get bored?Yeah.So that's a good question.so at the beginning,my rest time,my free time is when my son is either at school napping or sleeping.And so that's when I would do all of the podcast and other things.But during this first week I was taking naps.I normally I would do the inner MBA program I'm in,on Monday.Another thing I do,and I set that aside as well.I was like,I'm not even gonna worry about it.I'm just gonna release all the pressure of doing anything.And so I just would relax,I was watching comedy on Netflix.I was.Taking naps.I took probably three,two or three naps in the first week.Going for a lot of walks,right?When the weather was warm enough to go out ideally into nature.I've gotten into this groove of Tuesdays when my mother-in-law comes over to watch Carter,I go and I do some sort of nature hike.And like I did a hike with AAM,our friend Arum the other day who lives nearish in New Jersey.I did another one where I was talking with Carrie Jacobs,another friend of ours and just walking around the woods.And a couple of just solo ones where I'm just either listening to a podcast or just walking around each Tuesday that's become a thing.And yeah,I was still doing my weekly.Community meditation still holding the space for that What I did a few weeks in as well is I have a inner MBA group call where we just catch up and support each other.And talk about the program a little bit.That was on Friday.And I realized that I had scheduled myself to have something on Wednesdays and Fridays.And so I asked them and was able to consolidate that to Wednesdays.So now I have things I do on Wednesday morning things that I want to do and I like to do,but now it's freed up Friday for things like I went and played pickleball with Kathy one time for the first time.And yeah,it just gives me space to do things right.One day we were watching this show Yellowstone.And so we just finished the finale like one day while Carter was at school and it was great.So that's what I did during the day,and then also I should say.I had this question around like,what is rest?What counts as rest?And I talked a little bit about that with you.And I talked about it with Julia as well,and it's really like different things for different people.So I was reading like,is reading rest or is that like work?Because a lot of the times I'm reading nonfiction,either business books or leadership books or mindfulness books or whatever.And I like doing that.And so that's rest.But in it to be a little bit more on the side of doing things that I would normally do,I was reading a fiction book.I was reading snow crash which is all about the metaverse.And it's the one I had heard about a bunch of times.And.Truth be told I'm only halfway through it.It's a very long book.And honestly,I'm like,it's interesting,but is anything actually happening here?And so I'm gonna keep reading it and see if I want to finish it.But at the same time,like I don't need to finish it.There's no,one's forcing me to finish it.So if I don't want to,I'm just gonna stop.And that was really the energy of it.It was like,I'm gonna do whatever I want to do.I'm gonna spend the time.If I just wanna watch Netflix,I'm just gonna watch Netflix.If I wanna go for a walk,I'm gonna go for a walk.And so sounds a little bit like not the most profound stuff,but for me,letting go of that energy of wanting to do stuff constantly and move forward and progress and think about thing.Like the future was a challenge in itself.Especially,because had a couple conversations with ARU about him moving to a new job and stuff,and I'm like,man,maybe I should be looking for a new job.Oh.And then I was like,Nope,that's not the time if I feel like doing that later on,I'll do it later on,but that's not the purpose of this

for sure.And I guess you alluded to this a second ago,but I guess,did you get bored,when you were hanging out did you feel guilty?Like you just referenced,like watching in Netflix or entire TV series,did you yeah.Did you get bored?Did you feel guilty about just resting?How did,think

back on that,I'd say mostly I did not get bored.overall on the whole looking at this time off so far,I did not get bored and,I'm also treating this as like a mini retirement,right?Like a test run of what would it be like if I didn't need to work for money.And I feel like I could do this for a long time.I could do this for a long time.And there were times where it was like,okay,maybe I've watched enough Netflix.It wasn't so much of getting bored.It was just like,I've had enough.I'm not,this is not.This is not entertaining me enough that it's like worth my time.So look,let me try something else.Let me go for a walk.Or I was also doing a pushup challenge.Let me do my pushups and things like that and that yeah.But I don't feel like I was like ever just what do I do with myself?Yeah,no,

I can relate,managing a household doing chores dishes,errands is always very time consuming.Being a full-time parent is time consuming as well.So I just remember when you and I first met each other,we were,single and had lots of time.So I imagined that you would've gotten pretty bored without something to do all day back before having a family and a house and whatnot.But I can definitely relate to,it's still a lot going on even outside

of work.Yeah,exactly.it's not like I have24hours a day to fill.I have five or six hours a day to fill,because the other times are taking care of Carter or doing things around the house and that kind of thing.So it's not like I had a huge amount of time to just figure out what to do with,for sure.Which is a constraint in itself.

Yeah.I hear that.A follow up question I had was how long did it take to decompress?You often hear about,people taking a one week vacation and they say they're still thinking about work for the first few days.They may stop thinking about work middle of the week,but then Thursday,Friday,they're already thinking about returning to work the following week.So they,the joke is like a one week off.You're still thinking about work the majority of the time.I guess tell us,how you thought about from,when you first closed down your laptop and put up your out of office message to like how many days did it take to decompress.And I know it's been two months,so I imagine that might have changed as well.

I'd say it took a couple of weeks,right?I'd say two to three weeks.And the reason I think it might have taken a little bit longer for me is cuz I had stuff I needed to do in the first week.So I had a mindfulness session that I had already agreed to do on Wednesday.And so I did that and then I also had to do my performance review.And so I had to log in and do that.I think that being on my mind made it a little bit harder to decompress from work.Having said that once I did that,and I basically just logged in and like in an hour,knocked out my perf,which is the best feeling,because it was just like,in reality,like unless something bad happens,I'm gonna get a meets expectations.And so why am I gonna spend hours of my time off doing it?So I just knocked it out.And then I was like it was like a,almost a clean break.It was like,I'm done with this.I don't need to deal with this anymore.And just set it aside.And then I think,a week or,another week or two to just let go of that,I should be doing something energy.And for me,like part of it's like thinking about work.But also just that more of the side hustle energy,that for me is the bigger thing.

so Adam,you just talked to,a lot about the,your first few weeks of rest decompressing and taking time off.So that's your first month.And then how about the second month?How did things change if at all after you finally got into the groove of being off

work?I tried to set pretty specific guidelines for rest,making that the priority and play as well.But just like having fun,doing things like going on hikes and whatnot,that was supposed to be for the first month now in like the third or fourth week an opportunity came up,which I've talked about a couple times on the podcast and that is,I had this vision,so to speak.I had a vision of one day teaching mindfulness at camp Woodward a camp that I attended when I was younger that place that holds a very special place in my heart.And also,has amazing skate parks.And now that I'm an adult roller blade,since the pandemic I've gotten back into aggressive inline skating,I had this idea one night that I wanted to go and maybe teach mindfulness there for a couple of reasons.One is I wanted to skate in their skate parks,but also I know I like leading workshops and I think that there might be a place in my future,my post Google future early retirement of wanting to build a business around teaching and leading workshops at companies,but also potentially for kids and teenagers or young adults to help them with my mindfulness and financial independence.Because I think about how different my life might have been.Not that it wasn't okay or great,but that I would've saved myself a lot of mental energy,having these skills of mindfulness and understanding financial independence earlier.So I think there's definitely a place in my future for teaching that to people.So I had this idea,I wanted to teach mindfulness at Woodward.And last summer I went on their website and.Ended up on the job site and saw they were hiring for a wellness instructor position.And so I said,okay I can't actually go there and teach,do do this,cuz I have a full-time job,but let me just see what they're doing.And so I emailed office@woodward.com and said,I teach this at Google and I'd love to just meet you and hear about what you're doing.And I went to the camp when I was a kid,blah,blah,blah.And a week later I heard back from Meredith,who is the director of health and wellness and long story short,we essentially have,met after the summer was over and became friends and had many conversations about her vision for wellness and mindfulness and things like that at the camp.And just kept in touch and.Getting back to your question,three weeks into the sabbatical.We had another conversation and it became clear that there might be an opportunity for me to go to the camp and lead a workshop of sorts for their quarterly meeting.So they were gonna be together there for four days and starting to plan for the summer ahead.And I proposed,they do like an alignment in envisioning session at the start of the week.And they thought it was a good idea.And so while my intention was to be resting,the opportunity came up.And so I started working on that opportunity,which really was having a couple of conversations,figuring out what price to put forth and offer to them.And also of course,building out the presentation and all of.And so I ended up a big part of the first month and beginning of the second month was getting ready for,and then going and delivering that90minute presentation.

That's great.And did that feel like work or did that feel more just like a hobby or something you'd do in your free time?

Yeah,it,it definitely felt a little bit like work.But work that I like to do.It didn't feel like answering emails for angry clients.It felt more in line with what I do at work for like search inside yourself.Preparation and stuff like that.So it felt a little bit more in alignment,but then again,it was also,there was some,a little bit of fear came up as well around like wanting to do a good job and am I gonna be doing a good enough job?And what do I actually ask them for?I was procrastinating quite a bit on actually like putting forth a dollar amount.I kept,I asked her a few times what's the budget like,cuz you know,I've never done this before.So I had to really think about what am I going to charge?And ultimately I asked for a number and they said they had budget for a little bit less than that.And turns out that was the amount that I wanted to ask for in the first place.So it all worked out great.and then going there was absolutely amazing.It was just such a cool thing.Like I was able to drive from here.It was about four hours away and I pulling up there,like this place that I love and really wanted to get back to.And then it was just,it was amazing.I was in the mountains in Pennsylvania and I had to wait an hour,maybe a half hour,an hour late to start the presentation cuz they were having a meeting.And then it's hard to know if they're gonna like it or not.Because it's just like a BU a group.People just like a pretty young group of like skateboarders and BMXers,so it was of hard to read the room,but I got a lot of good feedback afterwards and then was able to stay overnight.And basically after the session was done,I went with a group of BMXers and went skating in the skate park,like right away.I thought I'd be wait until the next day.But that night I went and skated.And then the next day I woke up and had the entire place to myself,cuz they were all in a meeting.And so it was just such an amazing opportunity to not only get to go there,to lead the workshop,but also to get paid for it and to get my first paid workshop.Kind of out of under my belt,that was the thing that I wanted to do this year.And I thought would be something I wanted to do towards the end of the time off is try to make a paid workshop happen,but turns out the opportunity came my way earlier in the time.

Congrats.That's amazing.It seems like the universe aligned to be able to have this opportunity in general,but also when you've been off work cuz taking vacation days and whatnot is pretty difficult.So seems like everything aligned to be able to make this happen.So congrats,before we pivot to how you're thinking about the next month,was there anything else about your second month you wanted to talk about?

Yeah.Yeah.So interestingly,Zooming out a little bit,One of the things about financial independence or pursuing any goal is in my experience,it's I'm very focused on making it happen.I often tell myself this story.If only I could teach mindfulness at Woodward,then everything will be great.If only I got to my fire number,then everything will be great.Yep.Okay.I'm not alone on this,but I think a lot of people feel this it's like it's all focused on external out there,something needs to happen.And then everything will be great.What I realized is a couple of things first is that.As soon as I got back from the Woodward thing,my mind immediately went to now,what's next?What's the next goal?That's not very useful,especially when I just achieved like a lifelong dream,that I had been subtly thinking about for many years.Like it wasn't so like,I wasn't forcing it.I wasn't spending so much energy on it,but it was something that I really wanted to do in a number of ways.Getting to Woodward,leading my first paid mindfulness my first workshop outside of Google,all of that stuff.But immediately after it was done,it was like,okay,what's next?And that's when I started getting into a,a bit of a feeling of.Okay.I rested for a month.I did this thing now,what?And over the next couple of week,like the next week,or so maybe week,two weeks,I started to think about all these things that I had in my mind that I wanted to do or needed to do.Like chores around the house or reading books or getting back on the podcast.Cause I had initially planned to rest for a month and then go and do other things.And so I was starting to have this like antsiness and striving energy coming back.And I'll talk about that a bit more in a second,but one other observation,a around the.Feeling of reaching your goal.And then there just being another goal,that kind of a realization that I've had this year earlier this year,but has shown up again.And again is the insight that everything I say I want or need to be happy I already have.And if I'm willing to practice that awareness,if I'm willing to,again and again,come back to that fact that it's not out there.It's already here.I have it.I wanted to teach mindfulness at Woodward.I did it.I can do it again.If I want to have the financial means to do something.I already have it.I wanna do my first paid workshop.It's already done.I've done it.So even before I did my first paid workshop,I had already done my first paid workshop because I get paid to do workshops at Google.It's not my official job,but they're certainly paying me.And I'm certainly doing it.So there's just been so many examples of this in my life.I was talking to our friend Rashaun one night and I was talking about how,I wanna,I really wanna develop my thought leadership in the mindfulness and financial independence space.And he's dude,you've already done.You have75episodes.You are literally a thought leader,right?You could do it more,but you've already done it.And so it's not something that's out there.And that has been something I've been trying to come back to.And what's actually,it's not like something I figured out it's something that I need to remember because I had this conversation.I probably mentioned it to you on the podcast last time.And I certainly mentioned it to Julia on the conversation we had.And she looked at that as,okay,so you wanna practice gratitude,right?You want to be grateful,practice being grateful for all the wonderful blessings that you have in your life.And so she recommended,I start like a gratitude journal,just a practice of.Writing each day,three things about today that I'm grateful for.And three things about my life that I'm grateful for.And so when I got into this like minor rut of feeling like,okay,there's so many things I need to do.I'm about halfway through.I've only got,seven weeks left or whatever it was.And I had the feeling and Julia warned me.This would happen that the time was going to be coming to an end soon that time was short.around the same time,my son who's three years old was being pretty difficult.They say there's the terrible twos.And then apparently no one tells you this,but there's also three major which is apparently worse.It turns out because he can,he can talk,to me,like I'm talking to you and he does not have anything else to do.So he has,he can just say no or ignore me or whatever.And it was driving me crazy.And I was really resisting it a lot and it was frustrating me and I was losing my temper.And obviously that's not how I wanna be showing up.And so after,I don't know,maybe a week of that,where it was like really bad We were just like butting heads.And I had a realization that he's just reacting to me.Like we are reacting to each other and amping each other up and causing problems and turns out he's a three year old,so I'm going take care of my own stuff.And I realized like I had not been meditating.I wasn't meditating,especially when I was in this energy of I need to do stuff.I,I need to,I'm running out of time.I need to do stuff.So I realized,okay,I don't have the foundation that I need.I need to have that solid foundation of meditating each morning or meditating in some way,doing some journaling.And I tried to do that in a way that like was still aligned with rest.And so realizing that I needed that to show up more effectively with Carter I started carving out more time in my day to meditate,right?So I wasn't gonna be like,just randomly watching a Netflix comedy special.instead of meditating.I realize that is foundational to how I wanna show up.And to just my,like all the other things were stemming from that the mental swirl of feeling I needed to do stuff.And just the tension with Carter.I feel like I need to do these things.My brain's telling me I need to do these things,but I still feel like I need to rest.Especially after the Woodward thing,I like was very intentional okay,I'm done with that.Now I'm gonna rest because I cut my rest short and that was a big effort to do.And honestly the second month I did a few things that were productive,so to speak,like I did the Woodward thing and I also hosted two podcasts.Right.I had a guy,Jonathan Reynolds on the podcast and I had our friend Dirk on the podcast as well.And those were on the books and I didn't want to cancel them because of my rest.But I,enjoyed it a lot.And interestingly,when I spoke with Jonathan,it.Very much in the middle of my situation with Carter.And he he used this concentric circles analogy that he thinks about his life as the first inner circle is himself.He needs to take care of himself.He needs to have his practices and his meditation practice is journaling,whatever the practice is that sets the foundation well.And then from there,he can show up better for his family and then his community and then his work so on and so forth.And that really was like the universal lining for me as well.And then one day when I was at the bagel store I just mentioned that I had all the time in the world,cuz my son was at school and she's like,how old is he?I'm like three.And then I was complaining about how the fact like he doesn't listen anything I'm saying and he's,and she says,they're just a reflection of ourselves or something like that,she's like,they only do what we teach them and I was like oh,wow.Yeah.So here it is,again,here it is.Again,me getting of like the universe showing me that I need to take care of myself and my own stuff So I can show up more effectively with.Yeah.

It's the typical like airplane put on your mask before helping others that very similar logic.And then,yeah,it's interesting when you're talking about how even though you've had a lot more time off,obviously without work,you haven't been meditating.And I think that's an interesting thing as well.One,you assume when you have time,you might do more stuff,which isn't always the case.And then second of all,I think maybe people think about meditation as a way to combat the stress of work.So maybe people meditate Monday through Friday,but they don't do it on the weekends.But as even if you're not working,you still have other stresses in your life,like traffic and car breaking down and family and all that stuff.I think that just reiterates the like importance of doing it,not just to combat work stress,day to day for everything else going on.

Absolutely.And it's funny,like I should have seen this coming because when I go on vacation,it's the same thing.It's really,I think getting out of the.And I had the routine still of showing up for the mindful fire community on Wednesdays and for my inner MBA group.Like I would meditate in those settings,but I wasn't making the time for it elsewhere.And without that,yeah.Like I just didn't have the space.There's that quote that between the stimulus and the response,there's the space in that space lies our power to choose our response.And in our response lies our growth and our freedom.That is what was lacking.I just realized I just needed to create more space and meditating is how I train that space.And now,it hasn't been perfect.And certainly I was frustrated with him when I was putting him down for a nap today,but I kind.Realized like it's always the same times.It's always,when we're transitioning,it's always,when I'm trying to get him in the bath or to get him down at night,like he's always coming up with things that he needs to do so he can avoid going to bed and I know it's gonna come.So I just need I'm finding myself like,okay,I'm going in.Just stay calm,create space,just pause.And that's been helpful.And then of course having the meditation as the foundation for that has been super helpful.For

sure.Adam,with our remaining time,I'd love to pivot to how you're thinking about your final month.I know it's an interesting thing.I think you referenced this a little bit earlier,but it reminds me of a Friday.You're so excited.You've got the full weekend ahead and Saturday you're enjoying yourself and then Sunday comes and you're like,oh man,it's my final day before getting back to work in the start of the week.How are you thinking about your last month before heading back to work?

Yeah,it's a good question.And I come back to the realization that I had in the last couple of weeks.Which is really the fact of,I feel like there's some things that I wanna do.And I feel like I.Maybe should do or need to do right around the house or with some various aspects of my life,but I still wanna rest.a realization that I had along those lines is really that I don't need anything to show for this time.If I have nothing at the end of this to show for it,that's okay.I just,I've found myself untangling or unraveling this tightness,this energy of just gotta produce,gotta achieve constantly.And I find that,two months into this time off.I'm not feeling that as much anymore.Most of most days,I don't even know what day it is,which is nice.I really like that every day feels like Saturday.It's great.Every day feels like Saturday.And so I got to this point where I realized like I could spend the last month just trying to hustle and do stuff and make things happen on the podcast and set up my next paid workshop and all of this.I don't wanna,I don't feel any need to do that.to answer your question,so I don't feel the need to.Do anything specific over the next month,I'm still resting,playing and connecting.I'm not going to find a new job.I told my boss I'm coming back.my wife and I are expecting our second baby.So I'm not going to get a new job anytime soon.I'm chilling.I'm gonna come back.Do my thing,have the baby.Hopefully everything's okay.And take some time off again.So I don't feel the need for that.I might spend a little time on the podcast.A friend of mine who was on the podcast Nick Whitaker is helping me think about the podcast a little bit differently.get some help,right?hire someone to do the production of the podcast.Cuz what I realized during this time is I love not having to edit,right?I do the editing because it sounds so much better than if I didn't do it.The episode,the end product is so much better,but I'm not that good at it.It's not like other people can't do it for me.so what I came to find is that when I did those podcast interviews,I loved it.I love the podcast interview process.I love having these conversations,but I don't love the editing,so I don't need to do the editing.And I've come to realize through conversations with Nick and our friend Rashaan,that there's definitely some hesitancy that I have around money.One,you know,I'm cheap and why I'm cheap.I did this course through the inner MBA called the inner mastery of money,which is actually was put on by Spencer Sherman,who was joined us on episode three of the podcast.And I did some kind of reflection on like why I,money stories from my childhood and long story short things have come together to help me realize that I have a real hesitancy to invest in myself.Invest money in myself and in my projects.So I like don't wanna spend money on anything usually,but especially I'm very hesitant and think it won't pay off.If I invest in like the podcast,for instance,and Nick is helping me realize like one that doesn't necessarily serve me and two,I could also make money with the podcast,right?Like I could get a sponsor,you don't have to have a huge amount of audience to get a sponsor that could benefit from being on the podcast and pay for the editing.Like it doesn't,it's not like I need to make a million dollars to pay for an editor and then I can focus on what I really like in the podcast.And the last thing I'll say about this is.As I've had time to reflect on the podcast.what is the purpose of the podcast?Step back.The purpose of the podcast for me is not to grow the biggest podcast audience.It's really a couple things.Number one,it gives me a reason to reach out to people that I wanna talk to.I'm all about creating opportunity through connection.I'm all about connection.So the podcast is a very good way to reach out to people.I have a90plus percent success rate with people saying yes to coming on the podcast.And most of the time,my number one skill is like,Making friends with people and establishing trust and relationship.And so I basically make friends with pretty much everyone who comes on the podcast and that's what it's really about for me.And then also building up my thought leadership,which will eventually lead to more paid workshops and opportunities for speaking down the road that I don't need to force.It's not like I'm trying to make a living off of this huge audience that I need to build.And so that is all to say that I'm going to maybe be doing a little bit more with the podcast,but not really forcing it and not letting it consume the last month.

So Adam again yeah,just focusing on,I guess the last month in returning to work,are you feeling anxious about coming back to work?As it's a very fast moving space with email and pings and and you've been off.So I guess,how are you feeling about that?And I guess,are you doing anything to prepare for the transition back?I would say as opposed to you're take enjoying the first couple months

off.Yeah,it's a good question.Honestly,I haven't thought too much about it.Part of me is wanting to not think about it until I,until it just happens,but I do need to have a conversation with my boss this week or next week.I need to tell him that I'm expecting a child and kind of what the plans are for coming back and all that.So it's on my mind a little bit,but at the same time,I don't wanna let that consume my time and energy.Like worrying about going back and in terms of how I'm feeling.It's definitely gonna be an adjustment if I'm nervous about anything.It's the fact that today is the first day of our hybrid work week.So that means that I'm expected to be in the office two,three days a week.I assume that you'll be going in tomorrow.And that I think that if anything is making me a little bit more worried for the obvious reason of the commute and also COVID right.Cause my son is still in vaccinated.I have a pregnant wife,so that's the one thing that's on my mind.Going back,certainly it's gonna.A ramp quite a quick ramp back and we'll see,the nice thing is I've done this job for six years now,seven years almost.And so I have a pretty good handle on it and I don't think it's gonna be too aggressive.It's gonna be aggressive compared to doing nothing,but yeah.So we'll see,I imagine that as the time comes closer,it will be more on my mind,but I'm trying to let that stay in the future.Like I don't need to bring that into my current reality.And I think by continuing to create space,it's gonna serve me better.Perfect.

Adam,we have a few more minutes.Was there anything else you wanted to discuss today or any other things you wanted to share with the audience or any other last minute reflections

on your time?Sure.Yeah,one thing that has come up,since going to Woodward,really,one of the things that had been on my mind a lot,and I've talked a lot about on the podcast and to you as well,is wanting to design and build my own skate park casita.And since I went to Woodward and actually skated on these wood ramps,that is very much back in my mind.And so like for the week after,or two weeks after,and even still,that was very much like I really wanna do this and how do I make it happen?And bouncing around my head has been,one like what it's gonna look like and how it's gonna come to be.And also just this idea of potentially,thinking a little bit more long term around,like again,back to,I wanna teach mindfulness and envisioning and financial independence.I'm honing in on what I want to focus on in terms of concepts for the podcast and the future.I've been thinking about and exploring the potential of creating a nonprofit in this space.And it's a much longer conversation,which we can have another time,but I think there might be an opportunity to use a nonprofit structure to.Do this work that I want to do,create impact with mindfulness envisioning and financial independence and also potentially to build the skate park casita in a tax advantaged way.And so that's a longer conversation,but I think that it's something I've thought about for a long time.And as I think about the future and what it looks like after Google and after early retirement in quotes,maybe I'll have enough money.And the ID,obviously,if I'm early retired,I'll have enough money.Maybe I just need to cover my costs.And I can do that in a way in a nonprofit,rather than trying to build a for-profit business.Maybe there's some advantages of doing it as a nonprofit.And so that's something that's pinging around my mind and we'll see where it leads.Yeah,

that would be a really great future episode.Actually,if you have one of your contacts or friends,come on and who's knowledgeable in this and help you actually talk through how you might be able to do this.And also what some of those tax benefits are since part of this podcast is financial would be interesting.Have a session.Is you work through that?

Yeah I think that's a good idea.And I had one that'll probably come out in the near future with a,he calls himself fiery philanthropist.He's anonymous on the podcast and we talk about that and we talk about donor advised funds and that's why I created a donor advised fund.And so it might be an opportunity to do something in that realm.And I have a lot of questions and the podcast is a great opportunity,right?Exactly.Exactly.I can invite a nonprofit lawyer on.I've thought about that as well.So anyways I know we're outta time,but thank you.Moltz,it's super helpful to talk through all of this with you and to reflect live and to have this to go back to,because I went back to our previous conversation and my conversation with Julia and like for instance,the gratitude journal,like I put that into practice and that's made a difference as well,just picking up on small things that really I'm

grateful for sure.It's like a journal.And it's interesting to see like where you were in your head space right before your time off,this is checking in now and I'm sure we'll have a follow up once you're back in a month or two.But no,thanks again,Adam,for having me I asked you the mindful fire final four on the last one.So we don't have to do that again,but thanks for having me on your podcast and good luck with the transition and enjoy the rest of your time and we'll chat soon.

Thanks for joining me on today's episode of the Mindful Fire Podcast.If you enjoyed today's episode,I invite you to hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this.This just lets the platforms know you're getting value from the episodes and you want to be here when I release additional content.If you're ready to start your Mindful Fire journey,go to mindful fire.org/start and download my free envisioning guide in just10minutes.This guide will help you craft a clear and inspiring vision for your life.Again,you can download it for free@mindfulfire.org slash.Thanks again and I'll catch you next time on the Mindful Fire Podcast.