Simply put: What are the things that allow you to do your best work?
Those things that make you the happiest at work, the most productive, creative, focused, and high performance. Those are the things that should be your non-negotiables when thinking about a job.

It is hard to have them crystal clear, since they might change throughout your life and career, but it is important to work on having them updated and “on top of your mind” so you don’t end up “suffering” your job.

For example here are some non-negotiables people shared with me:

• Max has 3 non-negotiables: 100% remote working, >= $80k yearly salary & stock options in the company he will work for.
• Juliette has 4 non-negotiables: a great office space to work from, availability to work during night instead of day time (night owl), at least 1 o2 or meeting-less week days (to focus), >$125k yearly salary .
• John has 3 non-negotiables: >$50k salary , flexible schedule and work days as long as he hits his performance targets, asynchronous communication (no expected immediate chat responses).

What are your non-negotiables? have you thought about them? How do you communicate them to recruiters and potential companies that want to hire you?

And last but not least, companies also should have their non-negotiables clear and upfront, so applicants and recruiters avoid wasting time and resources.

What has been your experience? I would love to hear what you think.

I hope these lines give some perspective on what people in different contexts have been going through during these challenging times.

Being a new mom, during a pandemic, in a foreign country, without my family or a support system to rely on, motherhood & maternity leave has been harder than I could have ever imagined.

I remember planning (and even promising) to return to work 4 months after giving birth 😆. And afterwards, realizing how it became impossible to do so; between constant lockdowns making it difficult to hire a nanny and managing “working from home” with a new born it became obvious I needed to focus 200% in being present with our son.

On top of that, both of us (my husband & I) are working on startups, so you can imagine how the demands on time and effort are way above average when you are trying to build and scale-up a company. And, I have payed the price; feeling like I’m letting down both my son as a mother, and my company as a team member.

It’s been exhausting in every way, physically mentally and emotionally. Trying to stay on top of it all while managing what my doctor called: “normal postpartum depression, not severe enough to require intervention but strong enough to monitor it”.

Just like this example of my current context, I’m sure you (reading this) have also been going through a sum of challenging situations. So here I am sharing my challenges to hopefully make you feel less “alone” in how you might be feeling right now.
Maybe this pandemic teaches us enough to stay open and understanding in our post-pandemic world.

It is important to also mention that businesses need to keep going (“the show must go on”), we all depend on a healthy economy where businesses keep growing, evolving and creating value. This is why we keep pushing, this is why we keep caring about our jobs and responsibilities. Because it is during these times when companies needs us the most, these are the challenges that make companies thrive or die, and all of us in the workforce are the ones who will define that.

With all this in mind, I would like to ask for patience and empathy with everyone you are interacting with. The easiest way I have found to do so is to Always first assume positive intent.

This premise helps all interactions to be much more constructive & productive specially when so many of those interactions are happening digitally. Lets assume the best intent from people until proven wrong. Remember, we are all in this together.

I hope I get so see you soon.

Big hug, Ale.

Is time for my “alter ego” to leave the building.
When I started this blog it was intended to be an experiment to build a brand in a niche where I was learning both: Yoga and Coding.
I tried to keep it as a separate character, tried to hide it from co-workers, friends and family until I had no choice but to embrace it when they found me online 😅
My full name, location and so on many other personal data points were not disclosed in an attempt to keep it as a separate, safe character.
But this blog stopped being a brand long ago to become a space for me to connect, express & create. And the “me” in the equation was not well defined by only “yogi & coder”:
I’m a woman, sister, daughter, friend, mother, wife, marketer, entrepreneur, employee, yogi & much more.
Like any other normal adult, Im interested in so many things that it would be impossible to put it all in a social media handle: @LifeMeditationLoveEntrepreneurshipMotherhoodPsychologyBusinessYogaFitnessPartnershipTechnologyMarketingGrowthCareerdevelopmentCoachingBooksBrandingPerformanceResearchFinancesFeminismFreedomEqualityHealthVeganismGeneticsTravel..
you get it .. it would be a joke of a handle.. 😂

So its time for “the yogi coder” to leave and for me to use this space as I please for creativity and to connect and learn from more humans around the world.

Hi, my name is Alejandra but everyone knows me as Ale Arce (or Ale Maple; same tree 🌳🍁 different language 😜) you can learn more about my professional career here on my linkedin and from now on this is my space to express and connect with so many talented people like yourself reading this post.

Thank you!!

Ale Arce
-unrevised-

Launching a podcast is one great way to put your creativity out and build your brand without having to use your face (which is what a lot of people are afraid of doing) .
This is one of the many formats you can find that might be the most comfortable for you to create content that ads value to an audience.

1. Choose the niche, subject area of expertise or learning you want to talk about.
   Something you enjoy learning and talking about, maybe you are already an expert in the subject, maybe you like listening to other experts around it, maybe you just like sharing your learning path on it, whatever it is it doesn’t matter, the most important thing is that it is something you actually enjoy talking about since that’s what you will be doing hehe . Also, please don’s worry about seeing so many other podcasts already on the subject, the same with blogging and any creative activity it is not about the information itself it is about your unique perspective and particular way of communicating that makes you different which is what builds a unique audience of listeners who enjoy your outtake on the matter.
   It is also highly recommended that you write a bit about it, it doesn’t have to be perfect but more like a guide on what you want to talk about so you don’t forget while you are recording.
   
2. Download Anchor.fm on your phone and hit record.
   You can record, edit, host and publish all 110% for free.
   And if you ever want to add sponsor segments (and get payed per listener) they have a platform for it, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
   You can add an intro sound and music, segments, edit and all. I don’t edit because I like the flow of a natural conversation and because I have no time for it hehe but It is a great creative outlet I have found enjoying more than writing captions on IG 😉
   
3. Design your icon and visual creatives.
   It doesn’t have to be perfect, don’t overthink it, you can simply use the free version of Canva and either use their templates or search for your favourite podcasts and copy their style or design it can just be an image with the podcast name as an overlay. That simple. Don’t overthink, remember you can (and should) always edit and change along the way.
   

Now you can just hit record and publish! 😀

Extra:
If you want to build a channel to share about your podcast every time you publish, I would recommend opening an IG, youtube (if you want to record yourself while you record the podcast) , FB groups, Forums that are around the subject you are going to be talking about (avoid following podcasts forums), if you already have a blog publish it in your blog, if not you can even just share a bit about it on a medium blog you can open with the name of your podcast.
This channel (I use Instagram intimate business profile) is a great way to be able to have a two way communication with your audience, not only to share when you publish a new episode but mostly to actually listen to their feedback, interests, what they want to listen next, etc etc..

Growth Marketing tip* the best way to advertise a podcast to grow your audience is to advertise in other podcasts as a guest.
Reach out to podcasts you already like (it doesn’t matter if they are small or big) and share why you can add value as a guest, hunt for it and get invited to them with the subject you have in mind for your podcast: for example: if I have a podcast Intimate business where I discuss career growth, women in tech and building your freedom I can reach out to several podcasts I like with a blurb saying that I have successfully negotiated 3x salary twice in my career, launched 2 businesses, work while being pregnant, aim to work while being a parent…. bla bla bla and while I add value to the podcast I’m invited as a guest, I can also mention this is what I share on my own podcast : “intimate business make sure you check it out” 😉
So remember to reach out to as many podcasts with a clear short email sharing how you think you can add value to their awesome audience. 1 out of 10 will answer back with a positive invitation so don’t get discourage if you don’t get as many answers.

I hope this tips, tools and steps helped and share with me your podcast and how long it took you to publish! Im curious to hear if you managed to do it fast and easy with these steps! 😀

See you around!
Alex- The yogi coder

I’m answering a great question from some of you with my own perspective on the matter so far as a pregnant professionally ambitious woman.

I receive a message from an great woman I know through IG asking what were my thoughts on this subject since I am pregnant and working in tech. She started by sharing the following quote from the book Women in tech by Tarah wheeler:
Family chapter: “Children will interrupt your career plans. If you want to have them, go for it, but understand that doing so will incur a penalty on your career time-line. Your are choosing to spend time with your children instead of your career, and it really not possible to have it all. “

I kindly disagree, based on my own experiences but mostly based on what I have seen in women around me that I admire, so I am here to tell you YOU CAN HAVE ALL YOU WANT to!
Not what others expect from you or even what you used to expect from yourself. So you have to be very honest, conscious and self aware to truly understand what is it that you want.

The whole objective of equal opportunities is for all of us to be able to have a free choice about what we want to do with our lives! not to follow anyones expectations or norms.

So far, I have heard:

” I don’t want to stop my career..”
“I don’t want to be like my mom, who was a housewife and was the best mother ever but I could tell she was not happy or full-filled”
“I don’t want to be an absent mother who needs to hire a nanny 24/7 to take care of my children for me.. “

Which actually should be turned into:
“I want my career to keep growing and developing”
“I want to be happy and full-filled.”
“I want to be a present good parent”

You see how everything changes ? from focusing on what you Don’t want.. to focusing on what you DO WANT , it all seems much more achievable.

Because having a career and being a good parent are not mutually exclusive. The same way that if you suddenly want to and can afford turning into a full-time parent and stop your career growth , you have to know that you are allowed to, the point of all movements searching for equality is for us to be able to choose freely, so lets not turn these movements into forcing all women to choose one same thing.
The same for men, gender equality fights for men to also be able to have that possibility to choose, if they want to and can afford to as a family.
This is about people having the same opportunities to choose what they want disregarding of their gender, race, nationality, etc.

What do you think? Please let me know on the comments.

Disclaimer: I’m not an educator, not an expert, I’m not perfect.
So with that disclaimer here are some lines with my perspective:

1. Humanity is actually not doomed, but it is improving and moving forward.
You are 100% percent right, 1 single case is 1 case too many and we shouldn’t stop addressing this situation until there is 0 people being affected by our systemic racism. That is a fact. We shouldn’t stop bringing this up and fighting for justice until there is no need to demand justice because no innocent people is getting scared, stopped, blocked, murdered by our systemic racism.

It is important to acknowledge that things have and continue to improve throughout the years just for the fact that it gives us all hope that all these historical efforts, strikes, energy and movements are actually having an impact.
Being aware that these movements have an actual real impact on society and how we are evolving as humans is actually what motivates us to keep participating in these movements, to keep bringing important matters that need urgent change up, to make our voices heard.
If we don’t acknowledge that we together can have and are having an impact in these issues then what would be the motivation to do so?
Do your research and acknowledge how things have actually been improving dramatically throughout the years, even with the bumps in the road of having racists leaders in power.

Read Factfullness.
This book is not about #BLM but it gives an overall view of humanity’s issues and how the numbers and the facts show dramatic constant growth and improvement throughout the years.
I recommend you to read it and to give it as a gift to anyone that has ever said “nothing has changed” or even worse: “Nothing will change”.

We have to be aware of the facts to actually understand that we have the power to change things and to make things better for everyone around us. So people don’t take the “easy” choice of becoming indifferent and doing nothing because anyways “things will never change”.

2. We are all part of the systemic racism we live in.
No mater which country you live in, no matter what color your skin has, no matter how privileged or unprivileged you feel, we are all part of the system.
It doesn’t mean we are all racists, it just means that we are all in this together, and if we want real change we need to accept that even when it might be non-intentional, we are all living in the same system that has oppressed people simply because of the color of their skin.

Acknowledging this is a huge step forward, it will bring our consciousness to it in our every day life and be more aware in how are we contributing for change and for equal opportunities for everyone regardless of their skin color.

This shouldn’t bring a feeling of guilt but a feeling of empowerment because the fact that you are part of the system means that you have the power to have an impact in the system. So take that awareness and turn it into empowerment to make a difference from now on.

3. You are not GOD. You are just an imperfect Human like everyone else.

Accepting this releases you from:
1. Having to be perfect and know it all from the beginning to the end and
2. Policing other people that are trying to help by telling them that (from your perspective) they are doing things wrong. And becoming a bully and harasser towards other humans that are simply and imperfectly learning how to contribute in their own way.
(If you find that some people are actually trying to work against an equal society it is ok to call them out)
Always remembering that you don’t have the full picture, or the full answer so learn to be as humble as every imperfect human should be.

This movement suddenly turned into shaming anyone trying to be part of the conversation, trying to support the movement, some people decided that in their personal perspective if they were doing it right or wrong and if they were doing anything considered not perfect they try to destroy them in every way..
Policing on people trying to be part of change won’t construct anyone, use your passion and anger and energy on this matter to manifest, to bring people together with you towards evolution towards a better world where all humans have the same opportunities.
Remember that even yourself with all your passion, knowledge and resources are not perfect and even when you might have the best of intentions and actions you can make some mistakes on the way because you are allowed to, you are human. And your fellow change makers will be there to support you and guide you throughout it all. So please stop wasting so much energy in hating on people trying to be part of the change.

So what can we do to be part of the change? A lot!
– Listen.
– Do real introspection. Start with your own perspectives, learnings development; What do you need to “unlearn”? What do you need to reconstruct? …
– Bring this awareness into your every day vocabulary, family life, profesional development,
– Donate if you can.

Where? How? I encourage you to google it. There are thousands of resources, books, articles, experts and educators.
Just like it works with coding; if you are truly interested you will google it and figure it out.

4.Why movements might “require” violence?
Violence in the streets is the physical expression of pain, oppression, and desperation.
These movements have a small group that end up destroying shops, businesses, monuments, and sometimes even hurting people, and I agree it is horrible, and there can be some reasons:
1. They’ve had used every other pacific language before and were not listened to, they have lost all hope in life because they got their loved ones murdered in the worst possible way.
And, historically:
2. Until these movements affect physically every person in society, meaning: no one can drive through because they are blocking streets, businesses loosing it all because of riots, monuments that we see everyday when we walk by being destroyed. Until it affect every single person in society including the ones who are safely at home watching this one the news, until we all feel affected, hurt, blocked, offended, thats when we all start caring and it becomes impossible to turn our faces away from the problem.

Yes, it is UNFAIR:
It is unfair to the business owners who got robbed, it is unfair to the person who might have died in the ambulance because it couldn’t reach the hospital in time due to the manifestation traffic, it is unfair to everyone being affected in anyway, 100% unfair. The same way it is unfair to keep looking the other way when innocent humans keep dying with no consequences, no justice, no impact. This is a reminder that we are all in this together and what happens to one minority literally affects us ALL.

So before you so confidently generalize and “condemn violence”, Lower your voice and try to understand what could have put people in this position of wanting to burn it all.
Just for 10 seconds try, if you do this, just open your mind and heart to try to understand their why, you have walked a long way into empathy and compassion.

and lastly but most importantly:
Why we Say their names:
George Floyd , Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Jordan Davis, Jonathan Ferrell, …
Innocent humans that died in the hands of systemic racism are the famous names representing thousands or millions of people living terrible experiences due to systemic racism throughout their lives, and throughout the world every single day.
Say their names so we remember that a fellow innocent human was robbed of his/her life for no reason and that we still have work on our own to do, we still have justice to demand for and that this movement (like every movement looking for equality and human wellbeing) is not over until NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND again.

In Mexico we have so many names being forgotten, humans getting murdered just because of their gender and vulnerability and that’s why we march, that’s why in each movement we say their names, so their death is not ignored and forgotten, so their death contributes to our pain to demand change in ourselves, in our society in our world.

For those of you who still haven’t heard about F.I.R.E movement: it’s letters stand for :
F: Financial
I: Independence
R: Retire
E: Early
Pretty self explanatory this is a movement where young adults (specially millennials) are looking for a way of achieving financial independence earlier than what traditionally we have been taught by society.
Instead of waiting until you are 65-70 years old to be allowed to retire and finally have the time to focus on doing the things you love the most, like spending time with family, traveling, having flexible schedule, launching the business of your dreams without financial pressure, care more about your health, invest more time in your hobbies, etc etc. Millennials (we) decided that we wanted to experience freedom, health, and happiness as early as possible.

There has been tons of criticism around this movement, some economists claim that it is impossible to save enough money to “retire” so young and support ourselves and our families for so many years since we live longer and apparently are aiming to work for less years.
So, they seem to have a point… But what they don’t address is that this movement is NOT about stop working for good, but more about achieving the freedom you need to be able to do what you love, and explore how can you make a living enjoying your work and your life in the process.

Sounds like utopia right? Well it is actually pretty achievable for most people able to read this blog post, and here is how in 3 steps:

1. The first thing to focus on is: downsizing you cost of living to the lowest possible. Wait, don’t disregard this as anything extreme, it is actually a healthy analysis of your current way of living and the costs that your lifestyle is incurring in your finances vs. the happiness it brings to your life.
For example: if you run a budget analysis on your monthly expenses, from housing, transportation, travel, food, restaurants, everything. Most likely your highest cost is housing whether you are paying a mortgage , or renting this is usually the highest cost.
Before I continue I want to share a quote to put things in perspective:

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to a job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it.

Ellen Goodman

Having said that, you can start understanding what I mean with lowering you living cost, starting from your house/appt, if you think about it most likely you might be able to move to a smaller/ further away / cheaper home in order to save some of that cost.
Here is why the whole “tiny house” movement has been growing so much in the last years. Where we see people moving into a 300 sqfeet home on wheels, where they can live for very little, paying no rent, no mortgage and even their services expenses get very low since they don’t waste much electricity, water etcetc..

• 

• 

If you search for this tiny house movement you will find so many reasons beyond economy, why people are choosing this lifestyle over living in a big house.

But the whole idea is that you are able to lower your cost of living without lowering your quality of life!
I just mentioned the highest cost of living which is housing but you can make your list and understand what your priorities are, so you can start lowering the cost of as much as you and your family can. Please, remember to do at least a quick google search on “more economic alternatives of…. ” anything you think it might be impossible to lower your expenses on, the reality is that you might find new innovative, better and cooler ways of doing things that will bring you tons of savings to your wallet. Housing is just one of them.

I will dive deeper into this on the podcast and with more examples but for the sake of keeping it simple lets move on to the second step:

2. PAY off your DEBTS ! There is no other way to say this, but just make sure you have no debts. Start with any type of credit card debts you might have (since most likely that will be the debt with higher interest rate you are paying) .

Paying everything should be a priority, the way to do this is:
Once you have analyzed your expenses and decided where you will be able to cut down on.. you take that money you just saved and use it to pay as much as you can of your debt every month, turning it into a paying plan, setting clear goals to when you will be able to be completely out of debt.
I don’t think I should have to mention that from the moment you decide to work on your FIRE plan… you should NOT purchase ANYTHING through credit. The rule is:
If you can’t buy it in cash(one single payment) you just can’t afford it.

and last but not least:

3. Save/invest most of your income.

There is a caveat here, this applies only to people with a relative high income (much higher than their expenses), because if you are just recently graduated or didn’t go to college and (sadly) you are not a self taught coder, that can earn very good income (this is why I encourage everyone to learn to code) then your income most likely be quite small and you won’t find it that easy to save 70% of it, even if you have no debt of high cost of living, in this case you should invest your TIME in learning and earning experience that is and will be valuable in the market so you can increase your salary/run a business that pays better.
If you find yourself in the population type that earns good income, has been able to buy a home, and support a high lifestyle then you can cut back in all you can until you are able to save&invest >70% of your income for a couple years.
With this 70% of income saved while your lifestyle cost is only <30%, then in a couple years you will be able to save enough to support you for quite some years (up to 5 years) so you not only enjoy life, time and family but also figure out what is it that you love to do that can add value to society and can create a good enough income for you to support yourself from that activity.

• 

• 

• 

The point is that you save enough to build a good “cushion” that will buy you time to:
1. Figure out what you love doing and where there is an opportunity to market it.
and
2. Invest time in that work/activity you love until it starts producing the income you need to support yourself (since you have already a very low cost of living).
Then your savings left become “retirement savings” and stay in an investment fund where with time it will keep increasing (due to compounding effect) and when you can start adding on that investment a bit every month you will be able to continue your productive life working doing something you enjoy, spending time and money in what you actually care the most for (traveling , family, friends, pets, …you name it), and still be a responsible society contributor adding value with your activity and saving for your old years.

If you are reading this thinking: “I don’t have much, not a big salary or big house or debt or anything to cut down” then you are also in a good position to design the life you enjoy living the most.
Just don’t let media fool you with the idea of “having a lot of money means happiness” because it doesn’t.
Read, listen and learn about yourself and what truly makes you happy so you can start designing and building that life you want.
The key to a steady personal economic growth is to always keep learning and evolving.
Get experience in the field you are interested in, learn as much as possible and keep growing, you will realize in some years when you look backwards(connecting the dots) how important it was for your growth that you kept learning and evolving.

I hope this blog post inspires you to structure and design the life you dream responsibly for yourself and your family 😀

Let me know what you think.
Alex

If you are able to work from home and have no children, then it is not so difficult & here are 10 quick tips on staying sane during your quarantine:
(If you have children, these 10 also apply but I will add some tips from my parent friends at the end 😉 ) :

1. Keep your work schedule (eg. 9 to 5 ) : the key here is to keep your brain in a “normal” healthy and manageable routine.
2. Make sure you take breaks every 45 mins (if you drink tons of water you’ll need to pee 😉 )
3. Stretch & move every time you take those breaks: here are some videos that can guide you: (2 min in desk stretch video)
4. Agree with your team on an efficient communication channel.
   I chose slack text but I’m also 100% open to video calls at any time, that way we can tackle things fast and be connected both personally and professionally.
   Big recommendation: turn on your camera, one of my coworkers brought it up and it is true, it makes us more sane to communicate while seeing each other.
5. If possible connect to your router through a wire, internet is faster and more stable than wireless. 😉
6. Take lunch break, take the time to plan and cook your meals.
   It is healthy and also makes you conscious that you don’t need to go nuts grocery shopping, you have all you need to survive for some time, and if you need to you can always go to the super markets (they will stay open throughout the quarantine time) and get what you need.
   But it is important to keep everyone else in your mind, not everyone can afford to buy it all at once and we need to keep supplies available for all. Buy only what you need for one or two weeks.
7. Add indoor activities to your afternoon & evening.
   Pick 1 or 2 things you wanted to do “but you never had the time”: eg. read for a couple hours with a cup of tea, practice yoga, learn to code 😉 , cook vegan meals, etc.. This is a great moment to put your mind into something you wanted to do but never had the excuse to do so.
8. Stay active. If you are in strict quarantine and not able to go for a walk to an open space outdoors at a time streets might be empty.
   Then search on youtube home workout routines, just adding 20 mins of “movement” day will change your health. This is also important for your immune system.
   If you are not fan of yoga or any of the youtube videos for indoor workouts, you can commit to your own routine: eg. 100 squats, 100 ab crunches, 50 pushups, 10 1-min planks.. you decide. But stay active.
9. Meditate, I know easier said that done, but here are some apps that can help you with guided 5-10 min meditation (some are even free!): headspace, Insight timer, Serenity: Guided Meditation & Mindfulness(free both in ios & android).
10. Limit your social media consumption, social media can be an addiction you pick up during this time and it is not healthy for your mind or body, putting a side that there is tons of incorrect information being shared at the moment. So watch news, do your own research and stay calm creating a good environment at home.

** For weekends, allow yourself to wake up later, stay in pjs for longer and be a day with no strict schedule but allow yourself to think and plan what you want to do that weekend. Because you will have to adapt to the quarantine setup.

For those who have children at home (tips from friends who have children):

1. Explain them what is happening: ” we are helping the world avoid the spread of a virus that can be dangerous for some sick and vulnerable people, it is not dangerous for you or us because you have a strong immune system (cells that fight bad viruses) in your body to fight it just like it fights a flue or anytime you get sick, but there are people in our community who are a bit less strong and need us to stay healthy to avoid getting it from us….”
   The point is finding a good explanation easy to understand that doesn’t scare them but makes them understand the purpose of the quarantine and how important their role is in it.
2. Build a schedule/ routine for them and share it with them as a plan for the next weeks.
   This can include, continuing with what they are learning at school, getting their homework book advanced a bit, deciding together what would they like to learn this week: the planets? the human body? math? don’t be scared all resources you need are online just google it and you’ll find it.
3. If you are parenting with a partner: Take Parenting shifts, agree with your partner hours to be the ones fully present and responsible for children’s entertainment, care and education. (2 hours shift are usually the best).
   If you are single parenting, then try to find activities where they can keep self entertain for small stretches of time, even while being in the same room or space make sure there are moments each can be doing their own thing without interruption for at least 40 mins at the time.
4. Add creativity boosting activities: like reading, knitting, drawing, painting, learning a dance choreography, making bracelets (from whatever thread you have at home ) One good friend created a hunting game that made their kids entertained for 2 hrs XD hiding a list of 20 toys around the house and giving them a paper with the list of toys they had to find and write down where they found them *the one that found the most was the winner of a cupcake or something.
   Children need this to stay sane, their brains are developing so much in so many ways that you need to feed them with creative activities. Again best way to find them: google it! : ” creative indoor activities for children age___ “.
5. Add time and breaks for active challenges: eg. who can last the longer standing on one foot, or doing more squats, or going up and down the stairs.. etc etc.. you can also google: indoor workouts for children.
6. At night create a stable calming bed time routine and shower/bathe them with warm water at night.

I hope this tips help you as much as they are helping me staying sane for so long being indoors and so abruptly having to change my habits and daily routines.

Resources:

Favorite online YOGA classes (for beginners):
Yoga with Adriene , short efficient yoga sessions, easy for beginners and good to follow at home.
To boost your immune system 😉 Yoga Immunity Boosting Routine: Flu-proof (open level)
En español: Xuan Lan Yoga . (she is actually practicing in what used to be my studio in mexico city 😀 )

Keep yourself updated on Coronavirus outbreak numbers per country: Worldometer.info

We have all been there, moments when we feel completely uninterested and even bored by what we are doing. Everyone goes through that, like Steve Jobs used to use analogies comparing love life with work life:
“…As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it..” -SJobs

This also applies for motivation, you can not expect to be at the same level of motivation, excitement, passion & energy ALL THE TIME.. specially throughout long periods of time..
Like in a long therm relationship there will be moments of boredom and disinterest, but when you work on it and remember WHY you are together, WHY you love that person, WHY you want to keep building a life with that person, WHY you admire that person, and so on…. Suddenly you smile ☺️ and get excited, motivated and proud again of your relationship, then start investing more time in re-flourish it, making you and your partner feel like when you were first dating or even better in a more loving mature way.. 🥰

No, this is not a blog about relationships 😅 but it is such a good analogy to use because it is exactly what happens with work and projects.
When you start you are ON FIRE! 🤩 everything is about your new job or your new project your mind can’t stop thinking about it and dreaming with all the possibilities, everything is a possibility, even problems can look more like challenges to you and like Barney Stinson you immediately answer in your head “Challenge accepted!” 😏

Then time passes by, you face several challenges along the way and things do not come out as you imagined, but you still kind of wish it can work even when you have no motivation to continue anymore…

This is the moment when you have to sit down, acknowledge how you feel and (like you would do in long term relationships) :

1. REMEMBER your WHY’s : why you started in the first place, why you used to love it, why you thought it was such a good idea, why you wanted to do it no matter what, why you couldn’t stop thinking about it.. 🤔💭

2. Then you can start objectively defining if those “whys” apply today still.. or might want to even redefine those “whys”. Because you have change, your perspective has changed your ideals have changed, you name it.. for any reason it will be healthy to do a check up of your whys and when needed simply redefine them. (like pivoting in a business after you have learnt what the market actually needs/wants to pay for) 😉

3. Design a sustainable long term plan: Maybe you actually need some tools to help you easy the load of work, maybe you need to have a talk with your boss or maybe you need to commit some weekly time to invest in your project without distractions. (here are some tips on making that a habit that sticks)
But whatever you design now will be more realistic, you have by now the experience of having faced some of those challenges that threw you off the path, so you are actually wiser, less naive and more aware on what to expect so you can plan for it and make it sustainable in the long term. *

After this process you will realise if your WHY was strong enough to keep going and get “re-inspired” or if it is actually a good moment to let it go and move forward with something else or just keep searching (just like” as with all matters of the heart”) .

*sustainable long term: This is a very important matter to mention: if you keep doing things expecting “easy & fast” results please stop and don’t do it at all in the first place. Really, I can not explain with more passion how sad it makes me to see so many people looking for easy fast paths to “success”. Internet has been selling too much crap on the idea of making things easy and fast/immediate and it really doesn’t work that way, nothing is fast and easy, every success you see has behind it thousands of hours of hard work, consistency and patience.

Want to learn to code? Here is my favourite platform where I am learning.

Thank you for reading! There is a podcast episode where a share a bit more about my own process of remembering my whys for this blog ! 😀
Check it out here: and make sure to subscribe 😀

Like most relationships, you will have ups and downs with your social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, tiktok, snapchat, twitter..), whether it is just your personal social media platforms or you have a brand to maintain sometimes it gets rough out there.

Not only because strangers behind a keyboard can be destructive, and influencers or even friends sharing their perfect life can mess up our subconsciousness when we start comparing ourselves with their lives, but even if you don’t experience any of those situations, just the time spent scrolling without adding any value to your life can become ridiculous & purposeless. Many of us have even developed habits around scrolling purposeless through social media every day without having to actively take the decision to do so, it is automatic and scary.

I highly recommend you to get a time spend tracking app, or use Instagram’s feature so you can track your time spend in these platforms, just observe it, don’t try to change your behaviour right away, just notice how much time you spend every day scrolling, then write down how you feel about it, it does’t have to be negative, it can be:

“I spend 50 mins every day scrolling” then sit with how you feel afterwards, it can be things like: tired, motivated, inspired, guilty, self conscious, confident, sad, bored,… be completely honest and non-judgemental with your feelings just observe and write.

• 

• 

If you see that most of what you feel is positive & constructive feelings then its fine for you to spend that time simply scrolling, it might be your relaxing way of entertainment and honestly we all need some simple pointless entertainment in life, not everything has to be around learning or constructing something, we need the balance of just enjoying sometimes. BUT, if you notice that most of the feelings you get after scrolling through social media are not positive, maybe they even give you some anxiety, then you have to do something about it. Maybe taking a good break is what you actually need. It doesn’t have to be long but it has to be total, not just reducing the time but actually stopping, for at least a week if possible a month.
There is no need to worry about you missing out on anything or loosing your voice in your audience, you will see nothing will really change in a week, not even if you are an influencer, you wont loose much by being absent for a week, it might actually be helpful for growing your audience.

This kind of “break” literally breaks the cycle in your habits and you will start to notice you might feel different (hopefully better) afterwards.

Tips on how to break the habit:

1. Change the location of the social media app in your phone, kind of hide it away. So if you want to open it you can not open it by habit taping in the same places in your phone, you will have to proactively look for it which will give you time to think if you should really open it or not.
2. Place an other app on the location that your social media app use to be. You can choose, it can be a mandala colouring app, a meditation app, kindle, audiobook app, this is a good opportunity to create a new habit that maybe you have been wanting to start for some time.
3. If it was a creative outlet for you, choose an other format, maybe you start writing your thoughts or painting or doing something to express yourself without having to be through the app.
4. Define a purpose, for when you are back from the break. Since you most likely don’t want to quit digital life, set a purpose for your time spent in your favorite social media app, it can be anything you want: ” get inspired to get healthier habits” or “support women in tech” or “participate in x movement” ,… etc etc whatever you choose if you define the purpose of your time spent there it will have an automatic positive effect, you will be picky when choosing who to follow, and more thoughtful when sharing your posts. Btw, if you are an influencer this will make your audience grow and connect better with you, since it will be very clear after some time of consistency what the purpose of your content is. 😉

Let me know how you feel and if these tips helped you with some introspection, even more fun if you ended up picking up a new good habit along the way! I would like to read from you in the comments 😀

Personal sharing: Once I came across an article saying that if we use all the time spent on social media for reading, we would be able to read 300 books a year! :O Whhaaaat?! I think the writer was using extreme data and exaggerating a bit but that was what inspired me to at least read 52 books per year (Here the post I wrote with tips how to do it) I have to admit I didn’t keep the same reading pace throughout the years but I for sure increased the amount of books I read every year after that. 😉

If you are here means you have been questioning yourself on how relevant it might be for you to build your brand, and how on earth can you start without it taking all of your productive time.

First I want to share how building my brand has opened doors to me:

1. I stopped being ” Alex from Facebook ” or “Alex from (..insert company I work for here..”). Went from being someone who depended on her job at the big company to be recognised to start being Alex the yogi coder, the entrepreneur, the marketing expert, the motivational speaker, the business owner, you name it… whatever I wanted to focus on. I was able to shape my brand the way I wanted and evolve it as I evolved my business and my skills.
2. Yes yes I became an influencer, The opportunity of growing my audience in different platforms gave me a voice that many big brand wanted to have so yes I got to make money out of choosing the brands I was willing to partner up to sponsor on my audience.
3. Public speaker; I have been invited in so many good events and congress around women in tech, healthy living, career development, engineering, gender equality. It has been a great experience and very rewarding now only by money but by the satisfaction of meeting people in person and transmitting my experience face to face.
4. When I built my consulting company, I was able to prove that I know about marketing, digital media platforms, and market behaviours because I had proven I was able to build a brand from SCRATCH.
5. It opened so many business opportunities, that I am still exploring on how to scale my in-person consulting and workshops into digital resources to reach more people in my audience.
6. It maintains me updated, the fact that I have my own brand across multiple platforms forces me to stay updated in the latest algorithm changes in each platform, strategies and even in new media platform options out there so when Im giving consulting my clients or teaching a course I know what Im talking about..

Well all these might only seem relevant for someone who is in marketing or digital media right? Well.. NOUP, building their brand on the right platforms has helped politicians connect with their voters, investors build their reputation, Software developers connect with the best business people to launch and monetise their tech ideas, get investment, PR, employees have been able to get an extra income source or become independent, other employees have used this to be able to grow in their company or grow by finding a better job somewhere else. So get over the idea that it is all about “becoming an influencer” or building a brand on “social media” .

I will show you how and where you should build your brand according to your own needs. Not everyone has to be on IG…

And remember we have been doing this “building our brand” thing since forever, before internet came along we would build our brand by giving a great service at our business, by meeting and connecting with people creating our “reputation” everywhere we went, with our business cards, social events, etc. Now it just became easier to reach more people with your “personal brand” or “corporate brand”.

So if you are ready to get my first simple tips on how to begin register here:

I will send you the link and we can talk about your specific brand .

And make sure you share this with the people you think might need it most!

Talk to you soon! 😉

Alex – The yogi coder

Wait What!?

This is a test that has been going on for months (or even over a year now) in different regions and countries, and it has worked in a very positive way!

Why would Instagram want to “kill” the likes “game”?
Well… that’s exactly what it has become.. a game.. where people are not only playing but also getting emotionally involved, and no longer sharing freely because they are TOO FOCUSED on the number of likes instead of the message they are sending with their image, inspiration, motivation, you name it..
Remember how it use to be at the beginning? people would share everything that might inspire them to inspire others.. not really caring about the number of likes until it became “a thing”, for some it became a business and a never ending competition and growth challenge.

When stories came along people started sharing snippets of their lives (like they use to do on Snapchat) only to find that unless they had thousands of followers they would be criticized by friends for sharing “like an influencer”. People started feeling self-conscious when all this platform wants it the quite opposite: ” To be a safe inclusive space where you can express freely openly and safely “.

This might be a wake up call not only for the platform itself and the way their algorithm and UI works but also for ALL OF US the users, to stop judging and bullying so much (because we are only projecting our own insecurities) just because we don’t share perspectives or ways of expressing like others.

Going back to the platform (Instagram); they have been testing this specific change for years now, and apparently it has had very positive results in how people share and how people react to the sharing of others! That is why they are slowly rolling it out region by region. Carefully evaluating impact and reactions.
They have learnt from the old days when FB’s first changed the UI to what we now know as timeline, remember how the whole world reacted negatively? there were several FB groups named: we hate the new FB timeline XD haha how weird is that. But reality is that people don’t like sudden change so much even when it is towards something better.

So, yes it is happening number of likes will no longer be the main focus. Now you will get to share whatever you want, without feeling self-conscious about how many likes it will get, or without having to push your posts through every channel in order to hit the amount of likes you need for your Instagram account to “look good”.
Honestly? it is Relieving!!!

This is what Instagram has to say on the matter:

“We are testing this because we want your followers to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get,”

an Instagram spokesperson said.

And please, don’t worry you will still be able to see who liked your posts and who liked other people’s posts you just won’t be able to see “A NUMBER” so your posts and Kylie Jenner’s posts will look the same 😉

Now to the important part:
How do YOU feel about it?
What do you think about this test/change from your own personal perspective, both as a consumer and as a creator?

I can’t wait to read you!
And if you would like to check out my perspective and how I think there are even stronger influencers with 300 followers or less check out the quick video on IGTV or Youtube 😉

Have a wonderful day!!

XD

Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist, or doctor in any way, I am just sharing my perspective. If you are going through a tough moment in life, my #1 recommendation is seek out for a specialist help, it will always be the best investment of your life.

If you are an adult, most likely you have experienced several tragic or difficult moments in life. You might feel your story is tougher than “the average” but when you start opening up to other people and these people start sharing their own experiences you quickly get to realize that most people have had traumatic, tragic, sad & tough life experiences, and here they are, being able to share about it and having a “normal” life where they are able to laugh, celebrate, cry, work, love and so on. This is what I call our human “superpower” ; the human instinct for survival is so strong I haven’t been able to fully understand it, but I appreciate it so much I stay in awe before it every time I get to experience it myself or see other people close to me experiencing it.

Every time we (humans) go through a tragic moment in life, we crumble, question everything, and experience all the 5 grief stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

And while we are at this process before arriving to acceptance, we experience DEEP anger, DEEP suffering and sadness and sometimes it might feel like “there is no way out” or there is nothing to look forward anymore, but then like magic (if you are lucky enough to have a healthy body functioning) you just… move forward… your mind and soul gets to the lovely tough stage of acceptance that opens the door for “something else” for “new beginnings” and moving forward, since you have accepted that what happened cannot be changed and you will have to learn to live with it… there is nothing else to do but moving forward. It is sooo damn beautiful to see (and experience) this process I literally feel like it is almost “magical”.

Every time I have experienced difficult times or traumas: (which I am willing to accept might be average) like having experienced my parents getting kidnapped for 48 hrs when I was 9 years old (they survived and even when we got stolen most of our wealth, we survived as a family) , or after 17 years of my life fainting on a weekly basis and experiencing seizures, having experienced “dead” a couple times after my heart stopped for 1-2 mins, and coming back to consciousness with the most horrible hallucinations memories, having doctors run so many tests on me until I finally got “diagnosed” by 2 weird conditions that “limits” my life quality…
…
(It is so funny how the brain works, while I’m writing this, I’m thinking “What other traumas do I have? I really haven’t gone through that much shit”. haha Isn’t it amazing how our instincts makes us kind of “forget” o fade the memories of bad experiences, this is also the magic of survival I think.)

…seeing my brother and sister in law loosing one of their children during labor was also a very tough moment for me to face life reality and expectations (how good people also get shit from life, and even when it seems impossible to handle they have to survive), two cousins deaths on tragic separated contexts, love disappointments, the first loss of my first pregnancy (was the toughest since I was not ready or expecting it in any way), then the second and third loss.
That would be it, so far… 😉 That’s the thing… the day we came out of the doctor’s office with the confirmation of our last pregnancy loss my husband and I were comforting each other but in a very peaceful state of mind (I think he was more disappointed than I was, I was kind of ready for it) but we both were able to “to get out of our own experience” and see things with a wider perspective a bit more objectively, and so, I said:
“I guess this is just life, we get to enjoy, love, celebrate, and also face sadness, disappointment and tragedy, and we are not even half way!! (we are in our early 30’s)”
The realization that it was normal life situations what we were experiencing and that “this is not it”, more challenges will come because that’s just life; a balance between happiness and sadness because they cannot exist without the contrast of each-other, this realization made us smile (even laugh a little) while being in the middle of a deeply sad moment.

I remember being very young at 6 years old questioning if all the other humans were real, because when I saw them laughing or crying I didn’t think they were actually feeling at the same level I felt all those human feelings, I was literally questioning if all the other 7 billion humans in the world were just fake human like creatures “created” for me, I would literally observe people crying or laughing and question the reality of their existence, I would even talk to my father about it thinking he was not real either haha (I know, I know, facepalm, thankfully later I learnt that this age is the most self-centered age in a child’s development haha so it was not such a weird thought to have at that moment) .
But the point is that, from a very young age I noticed our human reactions to life, and how we could go through very deep pain and simply survive and thrive short afterwards. It has always amazed me, even before having experienced any trauma myself.
Now, as an adult who has experienced different kinds of tragedies, sadness and happiness through life, I’m still amazed (and grateful) by how we are designed to survive and (I would like to extend this phrase to) also to thrive. It is just soo incredibly strong (and amazing) how our survival instincts work.

I have shared tons from my own perspective and experiences but if you search, read all the tragic stories that are happening today in the world of constant war we live in, go on “humans of NY” and read some of the stories there, or simply ask around, you will find so many much more difficult and traumatic stories where people live through it and find a way to survive and thrive. It makes me feel so hopeful, to know that I am equipped with a mind and body that has been designed to survive through tons of shit life brings along with so much happiness and beauty.

So even now, when I am going through my own grieving process, I am aware that more “shit” will come my way and the way of the people I love the most and would like to always protect from any pain.
And it is a fact that we will experience more tragedies and sadness throughout life (since hopefully we are not even half way through life) BUT, we will SURVIVE and TRHIVE through it all, it is funny to say that the acceptance of “more shit will come our way” makes me hopeful, but what really makes me hopeful & peaceful is the awareness that even when more shit will come our way, we will have to survive and thrive just because it is ingrained in our deepest instincts as humans.
It is like having a warranty that we will survive through it all until we die.

I am not sure I am making much sense to you right now, and again, remember I am not a psychologist with any knowledge in any of these subjects. I am only a woman sharing her experience, so if you are going through a tough moment in life (and even if you are not) the best advice I can give anyone is to GO TO A PSYCHOLGIST, get therapy even if you think you don’t need it, It is good to simply go as a “checkup” for some months, just to try to improve and become a better human in society and for yourself.

I felt like sharing this thoughts for 2 reasons:

1. Again, I found this writing & sharing process to by part of my therapy 😀
2. It truly gave me hope and happiness to feel so aware of how well equipped we are to deal with life challenges, and come out from them stronger, wiser and alive. 😀 So I wanted to share in case it might make you also feel hopeful and happy about life.

Thank you so much for reading, Cheers to life and humans design!
Alex

p.s. I realized one EXTREMELY important KEY FACTOR I forgot to mention for this “survival instinct” to succeed, (it came out during a conversation with my husband): Being loved and supported by your partner, family, friends & community is KEY for your humanity to want to survive and to thrive throughout tragedy.
This is actually backed by anthropologic and psychologic studies, we need our loved ones and community to want to survive, so reach out to as many loved ones as you can, this is what will make the difference (along with profesional help).
Even when I have known many stories of humans surviving completely alone just with their own drive to survive, It is always easier to do it with the support of loved ones. Community is key for us humans.

Experiencing my 3rd pregnancy loss..

It is so weird to write this from a current peaceful state of mind. Just when yesterday we started suspecting something might be wrong, and we got to confirm it this morning; no heartbeat to be found anymore.

At the moment, I felt very angry with the whole situation, It made me angry to feel like life has failed us again, my husband was so positive and happy expecting the best out of this pregnancy, so I felt so bad seeing him sad and disappointed while he was taking care of me and my feelings first and foremost.

A year ago we had our first pregnancy and with all the excitement and nervousness we got the bad news at week 11 that our fetus hadn’t grown after week 8. (you can read all about it here) We decided to wait for some time before trying again, we felt the need to heal and to plan.

Then, 4 months ago we got pregnant again but the pregnancy lasted for just 1 week. After 1 day of period delay I felt weird so I took all the pregnancy tests, turned positive and 2 days later I got “my period”. I even remember asking my gynecologist, very hopeful, if It could’ve been a “false positive”, to what he answered: “no, it is very difficult to get a false positive, what happened is that you got an egg fertilized and it just didn’t implanted so your body flushed it as a normal period, this happens 50% of the times and women don’t even notice most of the times, they just think it is a normal period delay”. The whole thing made me feel so sad and frustrated. I cried for a day and moved on. Knowing and feeling that everything is fine and we will get babies at some point.

1 month later without even trying we got pregnant again, it was so wonderful, even when of course I was a bit nervous trying not to “celebrate” beforehand, we were just so happy, my husband was so happy and confident it would all work out this time perfectly.
So it all went well, I got to my first doctor’s screening and finally saw a normal healthy heartbeat!! it was sooo amazing and so relieving!! Then the next appointment came and here we are, I got in there feeling ready to receive any news, and It was bad news, no heartbeat to be found, no movement, no anything. This time I could clearly see somehow the shape of the baby and where the heartbeat was supposed to be seen, but there was nothing, again I asked the doctor: “there is no heartbeat?” he stay silent and kept looking trying to catch anything, until he said: “you are right, Im just trying to confirm there is no heartbeat to be found.”

I feel even guilty to admit that this time I felt no need to cry, but only to comfort my husband (who was at the same time trying to comfort me).
I felt a weird sense of peace and even when we went through all the bad possibilities for “recurrent pregnancy loss” causes and the tests we will need to take with the doctor, I felt like I had cried already all there was to be cried for this with the previous two pregnancies, so I felt sad but in a weird state of peace, comforted by our loved ones we are hopeful that we will get to be parents soon enough.

There are 3 reasons why I think it is important for this experiences to be shared:

1. YOU ARE NOT ALONE, if you have gone through an experience like this, you are not alone, there are millions of women experiencing it on their own looking for answers to their fears and questions. And the pain and sadness you are feeling is 100% justified, I need you to know that and if you know someone going through this I need you to just support even if you don’t feel like you understand their pain just love and support her.
I thank the internet for letting me learn from so many women around the world willing to share their experience of loss and pain management, that made me feel understood supported and hopeful when I saw so many stories of women having multiple losses but finally getting a baby in their arms.

2. ABORTION, is an important matter to discuss openly, specially now with so many crazy people having an opinion and wanting to control women, specially the current situation where white man in power are taking decisions for women, punishing them for something men will never get to experience or understand.
And for all women judging women going through an abortion for whatever the reason is; either natural miscarriage or a woman’s decision on her own life and body, take a step back and understand how difficult this whole terrible experience is, so if you are as “pro-life” as you claim to be, support those women alive trying to take the best decisions for themselves, support their autonomy and their freedom on their own bodies and lives. As a woman who has gone through 3 miscarriages I can only support any other woman going through this process for whatever the reason is.

3. It is THERAPEUTIC, writing it down, and sharing it with everyone makes me feel better, more aware of what we are going through as a family (my husband and I), and more comfortable to face people when they ask “how is your pregnancy going?”. This is my venting tool and I enjoy being able to use it. So if you have gotten to read all the way until here, thank you for ‘listening’ to my therapeutic post. And if you have gone through some similar loss I strongly recommend you to write it down (maybe even share it), and reach out to people who love you for support and care.

And last but not least, to all women happily experiencing their pregnancy with no problems and complications, and happily welcoming children to the world: please don’t ever feel guilty of sharing your happiness! I celebrate you! and I celebrate every child being born into a loving family. I truly have no bad or sad feelings when hearing or seeing a happy mom! So enjoy yourself without tip-toeing around me. I’m happy to celebrate you, your pregnancy and your child!

Hope this message helps you either not feel alone or understand better women going through this grieving process.
And I want to thank everyone of you who has been so loving and supportive every step of the way, I cannot explain how it makes me feel (that is what actually made me cry in a good way, all the loving supportive messages I got) so, thank you!
Love, Alex.

by Ivan Barona from The Compounding

Back in 2008, Jim Carrey starred in Yes Man, an entertaining romantic comedy based on Dany Wallace’s book. 

The movie portrays a man, which went through a rough patch due to his pessimistic and apathetic attitude towards life. After attending to a self-help seminar, where he agreed to unleash the power of yes, he began to experience the sweet side of life once again. However, every excess comes with a flip side, and that’s where life becomes tricky. But I would not want to reveal more details of the films, so I’ll just recommend it if you are fancy of Carrey’s overacted comedy.

Some people believe, as the movie suggests, that in order to experience life at its fullest you should become a “Yes man”. However, sometimes the power of “no” is quite underrated.

In corporate life, there are people who are not comfortable saying no, and while opportunities may arise from being the go-to-guy, his work priorities might get sidelined.

Don’t get me wrong, a team player that is able to deliver will always be considered as a valuable asset. I am speaking of the over stressed guy that gets his desk swamped because he doesn’t know how to say no.

Decision making is not easy, there is no default answer, each one should ponder on what will get done, and what will be set aside.

Finance is another area where learning how to say no will pay nicely.

By frequently saying yes to indiscriminate spending, or shopping sprees, we are actually laying a wall of no’s to our future selves. We are reducing our future options.

Once again, I am not suggesting an ascetic life. You work hard for your money, you should indulge yourself once in a while, just keep in mind that your future self might find it harder to bring that buck home once you’re in your golden years.

Bear in mind that, due to the power of compounding over time, a moderate no today (restrain of current spending) can become a sizable yes down the road.

Let’s do some numbers: 

The US market, measured by the S&P performance, has yielded roughly a 7.8% annual return throughout the last 90 years. As such, by avoiding to spend $100 and investing it in the market when you are 25, could amount to over $2,000 by the time you reach your retirement age. Some 20x return, without considering any dividend or reinvestment sounds nice.

A timely no, opens a hell of a lot more yeses in your future finances.

Which kind of current expenses should face a wall of no’s?

What future “yes” will you cherish the most?

How often have you seen a picture about working remotely; where the authors are hanging by a beautiful beach with their computer and sometimes a margarita by their side?
This is how “working remotely” is portrayed by social media and some entrepreneurs, and though it can sometimes be that beautiful and relaxing (like my photo) most time it is very very challenging to be productive and structured while working remotely. So here we will explore the objective pros & cons of working remotely.

1. FREEDOM
   PRO: you actually get to choose where, how and what you work, whether you do it at home, at a coffee shop or traveling, that is for you to choose, and I have to say: it does feel great. To be able to take a week and go to a beach place, or visit family and as long as you take some hours every day to focus you will be just as productive.
   CON: whether you choose to work from home or traveling or your own office, it can get a bit challenging to focus, it is easy to get distracted by trivial stuff like TV show, Social media or a book, simply because you can. So it requires a lot of commitment and self-structure.
2. TIME
   PRO: you save tons of time not having to a). commute to your work’s office every day, b). get dressed up (or presentable) to go to your office. You also save tons of time that nowadays is wasted in completely useless meetings.
   CON: unless you outsource everything you spend tons of time doing things from different areas like : accounting for your business, or selling acquiring clients, implementing systems, etc etc besides your core work/job.
3. MONEY
   PRO: if you work for your own company your income tends to be much bigger and grow much faster than working for a company while you expect your boss to give you a raise. It all depends on how hard you work to grow your business, and since (hopefully) you are doing what you love, you will work very very hard and motivated for it. And if you work for a company remotely you get tons of flexibility, so you can work on side hustles or build your own company on the side.
   CON: you won’t get a safe&stable monthly income with an amount you are already counting on, so if you are not structured with your expenses it can be extremely challenging to manage an unstable income.
4. INSPIRATION
   PRO: Since you have tons of flexibility in time and space you can participate in events, meet ups, take some time every day to read articles, and meet up with inspiring people from other fields (all of these are very very recommended). In my own experience I really rely on all these activities to stay inspired and get more creative ideas and perspectives to face my company’s challenges. Instead of seeing and talking to the same group of people every day (from your office) you get to choose and explore “outside your box” to get more perspectives and inspiration.
   CON: It is very challenging, and not for everyone; if you dont feel comfortable reaching out to people it will be a challenge (but you could rely on events and reading articles to stay inspired and updated.) It can also get very very lonely; when you are at an office everybody shares some of the burdens and challenges of working for that same company, but when you are alone (or even with a partner) it can be very lonely and challenging to commit to do the activities above to stay inspired and updated.
5. HABITS 
   PROS: you get the freedom to build your own habits on your own best times for each activity, for example; if you prefer working and concentrating at night, you can schedule your concentration hours at night with no problem. If you like working out during morning hours you can do it without a problem it is all up to you and not up to a company’s rules and structure.
   CONS: it is extremely challenging to build habits on your own, for some people more than others, but if you have no place you have to be at a specific time, or meeting to attend (which you will once you have to interact with clients) it gets very challenging to build up constructive habits if there is nothing and no one “pushing” that is why people hire personal trainers for example, and nutritionists, and coaches… must people do better when they have something or someone structuring their lives. So unless you are a self motivated, driven, committed and structured person on your own, it can be very very challenging.

An extra one:
TRAVELING : it is so beautiful to see all these photos (like mine above) of people smiling by a poolside or ocean view or a new city they are exploring etc etc but you dont get to see the full picture; when you are traveling your brain is receiving so much new information from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep that it becomes very difficult to on top of all that demand your brain to produce and work.
Think about it, if you are in a new city or place, you might have to deal with: a) where are you going to stay: new space to adapt to.
b) what are you going to eat (from breakfast to every snack and dinner it will be different structure from home so your brain has to think about all that actively)
c) space and time for work: since you don’t know the place you are at, it will be an other task to find a proper workspace for you during the time of your stay.
d) workout or health habits and time zone: if you actually traveled far (like me this time to Singapore) it will be 100 times harder to adapt to the time zone and stay productive.
So my tips would be: if you want to travel while working, travel for longer periods of time in each location, adapt fast to the time zone oversleeping the first day, and set alarms for 4 of your most important activities/habits: eg: meditate 6am, workout 7am, focus time 10am, read 9pm. and commit.

So it is not impossible but it is very very challenging. I hope this has helped you look at the whole picture of working remotely. 😀

Thank you so much for reading! go to my podcast to listen to more on the subject, including: how almost all professions can work remotely in 2019, and a bit more on the challenges you can face.

People often write me asking this, and I want to share openly what happens in every detail at least in my case:

First, It has to be clearly stated that this is not my job, I do this (blogging & social media) 100% for fun.
Now, since this is not my job, there is no paycheck coming from the content I create so I wouldn’t recommend my “behind the scenes” strategy to anyone who is looking to do this as an actual job.

So here we go;

Blog facts:

The blog started as a way to write constantly.
It has been found that writing is one of the best “brain workouts”, it keeps your mind healthy and creative. So here I am trying to write often and sharing it with who ever would like to read it 🙂

I write about things I find interesting and enjoy sharing about: coding, yoga, digital marketing, etc.

The blog is every platform where I get to share in different ways: the website, IG, the podcast, twitter, or FB. I share in all platforms in different ways, to stay on top of social media strategies and learnings while practicing with my own “blog”.

Photographs facts:

I use my phone camera (not high quality photos) for me is not about the picture but about sharing a moment or a specific content.

I NEVER NEVER ask my husband to take pictures of me, I am too shy for that, & I would be soo uncomfortable asking him to take a photo of me so often, so 99% of the photos you see are taken by self timer, with the phone on a weird position somewhere around or in a shoe and also plenty of selfie (with my own arm) photos. The other 1% are some photos where my husband enters a the room and Im doing something funny so he takes a photo, this happens often; he enters home or a room with his phone camera on to capture “my weirdness” infraganti.

Stories are much more natural than you think, I don’t think to much around them, stories actually take only 10 to 15 seconds at the time, so even when there might be a day when you see I have shared 15 stories if you make the math 15 stories of 10 secs in average only takes around 2.5mins!!! so the key for stories is being spontaneous.

Ads facts:

There have been some ads or collaborations in my IG, but only when it is relevant to me and it is something I have actually used and recommend. As I mentioned before this is not where my income comes from, I always have a full time job even if it is not in an office, I am working on my own consulting company. And that is how I pay the bills.  So if you see ads, just give some ❤ because it is something I actually recommend.

Hope this one answer most of the “behind the scenes” questions! 😀
Alex – The yogi coder.