060: Adam Coelho – Mindfulness, Envisioning, & Financial Independence

Adam Coelho is the host and executive producer of the Mindful FIRE Podcast, a show about crafting a life you love and making work optional using the tools of mindfulness, envisioning, and financial independence. He is also a father, husband, entrepreneur, speaker and facilitator. For the last twelve years, Adam has worked in Sales at Google, where he has an additional role teaching mindfulness to Googlers all over the world.

Today, Adam joins the show to discuss the role mindfulness plays in our financial lives, what it means to engineer serendipity, and why he’s rethinking the ‘RE’ portion of the FIRE Movement.

📺 Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/fkLpmscEquo

Key Takeaways

00:58 – Jonathan introduces today’s guest, Adam Coelho, who joins the show to discuss early lessons he learned about entrepreneurship, both the highs and lows, from his parents

05:28 – Adam expounds on his money origin story

07:58 – How Adam’s parents’ relationship with money impacted his own relationships

09:35 – Adam’s career journey and the power of envisioning

16:49 – Adam’s introduction to mindfulness and meditation

25:19 – What does mindfulness have to do with money?

28:22 – Engineering Serendipity

34:25 – How Adam was introduced to the FIRE Movement, and why he calls it Financial Independence, Reprioritize Early

40:37 – Adam dissects what he teaches in one of his typical programs

47:01 – One thing we can do to today to have better outcomes in our lives and one thing to completely avoid

50:17 – One thing Adam has recently changed his mind about and his thoughts on what matters most in life

53:46 – Jonathan thanks Adam for joining the show and lets listeners know where to connect with him

Tweetable Quotes

“For me, it’s really important that my wife is fully on board, understanding, educated, and able to manage [finances] independent of me. One, for our general wellbeing. But, if I get hit by a bus, she needs to know what we have, how it works, what to do so that she’s not preyed upon by someone who doesn’t have her best interests at heart.” (08:56) (Adam)

“The thing that I find funny is I almost envisioned myself out of a job. And then it was also envisioning that helped me through that difficult time and resulted in this whole new chapter of my life where I became a mindfulness facilitator, and started facilitating programs at Google, and designing my own programs. And then the podcast came about as a way to really figure out that I’m exploring and on the path to financial independence.” (10:44) (Adam)

“The best thing that I was taught is when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. That’s kinda how I try to show up now. I’m not gonna preach [mindfulness] to you. If you want to learn it, I’m happy to teach you. But I’m not gonna go preaching it because it just wasn’t effective.” (24:00) (Adam)

“Mindfulness allows us to look and pay attention to what’s going on with our money with a kind, curious awareness.” (25:56) (Adam)

“If you set aside all the limitations that you have, all the constraints and ideas of what’s possible and you think, ‘Five years from now, I’m sitting at my kitchen table, and I’m writing out how amazing my life has gone, if everything goes better than expected, what does my life look like?’ And I suggest that because it doesn’t cost anything. It just takes a willingness to be curious and to ask yourself, ‘What do I really want?’.” (29:41) (Adam)

“I love the concept of ‘F you money.’ If you’re in a situation where you don’t want to be and you have money, you have options.” (38:02) (Adam)

“The more I just relax into the experience of life – into enjoying what I have already – the happier I am and the more quickly I move towards things that I want.” (49:03) (Adam)