This is my daugther and her best friend, enjoying a fresh breeze at Ikea while the Mediterranean summer outside obliterated anyone who decided to step outside of air conditioned spaces for more than 30 seconds.
My daugther’s best friend lives across the hallway, literally. They spent most of their awake non-school time together. They run, they fight, they negotiate, they create their own worlds.
And at this age, their friendship requires me to embrace my role as a digital settler. They need me to invest into our local community to create the time and the space they need to grow up together. Even summer trips include regular check-ins about each other, including asking us parents to send pictures back and forth.
My daughter has a best friend, and I’ve decided to make this part of my decision process.
You see, my work is location independent. I sometimes travel for speaking engagements (more here, if you are interested) or to meet with colleagues. And yet, I usually work from home or a coworking space.
Funnily enough, it’s not because of the kids. I came to Barcelona roughly 15 years ago. The kids just put a spotlight on what’s important to me and that I will not sacrifice.
Community and taking care of my chosen family is one of those core values for me.
And in a world where work-from-anywhere and digital nomads are having their moment (and rightly so), being a digital settler on purpose sometimes feels profoundly unsexy.
Or maybe it’s just the lack of visibility, because there’s less breathtaking views from my desk. Well, there is - but it’s the same daily view and at some point you stop catching your breath and just continue breathing.
So here’s my question for you: what are you optimizing for in your own life? What are your core values, your North Star?
Every product strategy starts with those values that help you decide on your next move.
Every career strategy should start with your values to make sure you don’t end up in a company that is totaly unaligned with what you believe in.
And every life strategy should start with your values so you don’t accidentally optimize for what everyone is telling you.
So - what do you believe to be true? How has it guided your decisions in the past?
PS: I do a core value exercise with all my mentees. If you want to dive into YOUR core values with me - book yourself a one-off session and write “core values” into the box for your questions. And THEN get ready to do some homework - this is not for the faint-of-heart.