From Rock Bottom to Restored Dreams: The Week Everything Started to Click
Starting a fresh week in Oaxaca and I’m so glad to be starting a routine again, I’ve got myself a co-working space for the next month (£130!), I’ve started running again and I’m off the takeaways (update: Folded like a deck of cards and inhaled a pizza on Wednesday).
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A quiet day today because it’s Easter Monday for everybody else, but just another day in paradise here in México. The beauty of that is, I can crack on with work without being disturbed 👌
Interestingly, in LATAM, which is predominantly Catholic, they instead have “Holy Week” or Semana Santa, and instead of having a four-day weekend where they all sit in a pub, they have an entire week of cultural celebrations including the infamous “Carnival”, which of course is more famous in Rio.
I bloody love Latin culture, everything is about getting outside, being with friends and family, bright colours, incredible food. British culture is about getting twatted in the pub and starting a fight with somebody 😂
Happy Tuesday! My legal client went public today on LinkedIn and wow, it’s been a viral success – his post has blown up and in-turn my profile has as well, I’ve had over 100 people look at my LinkedIn (and counting), lots of connection requests from my target market and a great boost of traffic to my portfolio, too – happy days.
Mid-week and nothing much on today, a Spanish lesson and a catch-up with my client as he wants to discuss a retainer (RESULT) and that’s all! Bit of work in the afternoon and I’m calling it a day.
Damn it’s Thursday already… time has gone so slowly these past seven months and now that I only have one month left in LATAM, I can sense time speeding up. I read this cool thing about “memory density” which refers to the amount and richness of memories formed over a period of time. When more distinct or vivid memories are formed in a short span, it feels like that span was longer, because you remember more happening. I look back at things I did just two or three months ago and it genuinely feels like a lifetime ago. But now that I’ve slowed down, stopped doing touristy things and settling into everyday life, I’m making less memories and everything is speeding up.
Anyway… today I’m getting my retainer proposal finished for my legal client… finally… a retainer… I honestly worried I might never get one. As they say, it’s not over till the fat lady sings and she hasn’t hummed a tune yet, so let’s wait and see 🤞
End of the working week and I cried on my way to work this morning. When I left, I said that I would give myself until the end of May to get a consistent income and plan a new life after my shitty previous employer torched my last one. I’ve had a few projects over the past few months but nothing consistent.
But in the last month I’ve:
✅ Polished off 2 projects with 2 more on the horizon
✅ Secured a lucrative retainer
✅ Completely rebranded my portfolio (you can see it here)
✅ And I’m finally on the home-stretch of recovering from my surgery
✅ Secured e-residency in Estonia, which will give me a legitimate path to a location-independent limited company
I can’t put into words how low I dipped 8 months ago when I got on that plane and I’ve worked hard on myself and on my future every single day to get to this.
Think I’ll have an Aperol. Good idea.
It’s the weekend and I am heading out for a “long run”, finally found a decent running path in Oaxaca (it’s difficult to run here, decent pavements are an alien concept in Mexico) and managed to knock out 15K, finally getting back to it!
I’m also BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS today. Because… it’s the twentieth anniversary of Revenge of the Sith… the. greatest. film. ever. made. It’s back in cinema’s and they’re showing it here in Oaxaca in English.
This is where the fun begins.
Nothing else to report for today… other than a comment on a medium popcorn here is the size of a one-bedroom apartment and a medium coke is a litre. American influence is alive and well.
Wrapping up the week and a typical lazy Sunday, went for brekky, got 10,000 steps in and that’s about it.
