“What are my values and what are my goals? Am I moving myself in that direction. If I'm not moving myself in that direction, what am I doing?” - Nicholas Whitaker

Welcome to the Mindful FIRE Podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond. I’m your host Adam Coelho and I’m glad you’re here. 

Today we talk to my friend, Nicholas Whitaker. Nicholas has an incredible story of going from living in poverty, with housing insecurity and just scraping by, to changing his mindset and his entire life to ultimately be working at Google for the last 10 years. 

For the past decade, Nicholas has leveraged the scale and resources of Google to support the journalism industry through high impact educational products, programs, and strategic partnerships, reaching more than half a million journalists worldwide.

Throughout his time at Google, Nicholas has also managed stress and anxiety through an active mindfulness practice, extensive study of emotional intelligence, resilience, and the impact of technology on well being as well as regular therapy. 

He spends a portion of his time facilitating mental health talks, meditations, host experts in the industry to talk about mindfulness and resilience, and facilitate team development experiences to help teams and colleagues manage stress, cultivate trust and psychological safety, and learn more mindful ways to communicate. I'm also coaching a limited number of clients outside of Google.

In this episode Nicholas and I dive into:

- Nick’s philosophy on life: Figure out how I can have the most impact on the world around me, in a positive way.  How can I do that in a sustainable way. Is there some reality where I could be doing that full time? 
- Why he’s inspired by the quote “Chance favors the prepared mind”
- What is neuroplasticity and how does it shape our lives?
- How he went from poverty to financial stability
- How he used education as the first step to move forward
- How he developed awareness of his inner critic 
- How the words of his mentor inspired him to think bigger about his life
- How do I make the most of the resources I do have in this moment and best set myself up for the future? 
- What does Nick’s long term vision look like?
- How he thinks about quality of life investments 
- Advice to someone who feels stuck in his/her life
- Advice to someone getting started with Mindfulness
- Advice to someone on the path to financial independence

And so much more. I hope you enjoy Part 1 of my conversation with my friend Nicholas Whitaker. Remember to subscribe to be the first to know when Part 2 is available. 

Check out Nick's website:  www.NicholasWhitaker.com

Full Show Notes at www,MindfulFIRE.org (https://bit.ly/376okcb)