Hello everyone and welcome to the Alchemy podcast. My name is Luca Malaguti and I'm gonna be the host for these episodes. I'm a professional freediver and instructor and spearo and part of the Alchemy team. And the goal of the Alchemy podcast is to travel the world and meet with some of the top freedivers, coaches, trainers, athletes, and just some of the raddest human beings out there. And sit down one on one , have a beer and talk about things that most people don't want to talk about.
In this episode, I sit down with Carlos Diezel in Dahab Egypt. I wanted to sit down with Carlos and pick his brain at how he decided at a certain point in his life to leave a good paying job as a professional engineer in Brazil and move halfway across the world to Dahab Egypt, to start a business, become a freediving instructor and professional competitor.
What inspired me about Carlos was how he was able to do all of this, while putting his family first, not just pursuing his own dream, but also bringing his family closer to it. And allowing his kids to be connected with nature and to learn things that would've otherwise never been able to know. And doing so successfully, while also enjoying a very good life.
It required many sacrifices, which we'll talk about in this podcast, but at the same time, his story is incredibly inspiring and I believe it can inspire a lot of other freedivers who want to do this full-time, and also one day also potentially have a family. Today I just wanted to talk a bit about basically past life, business athleticism, and being an athlete, being a family man, and just moving across the world , to live here, which is obviously something that you've done.
You've probably talked a lot about, but I , I want to talk, I also want to have a focus on the struggles and the difficulties.
Cool. That's uh , that's the part of the history that people tend not to talk too much about.
Yes.
Cause of course you kind of don't want to remember that. And also it's not , um , sometimes you are afraid that people will think that your step was a bad one, because then you have like, you're talking about the downside.
Yes.
And then like your ego wants to protect you to from these and like you'll avoid these topics. Yeah . But they are there, there is no perfect history. There is no like , flawless , history.
Exactly.
We can start this like talking already , like about the hardest... For me, the hardest by far was having to confront so strongly my father.
Yeah.
Because he was like radically against the idea of changing career. Like coming from a very stable , ideal environment and working environment from his perspective, because his generation had this dream of working in a multinational in Brazil. And then I was giving up the dream, to l ive another thing that in his head was not sustainable, was like a stupid idea. Y eah. And in the beginning he just didn't accept it at all.
And then it was like, it was, it broke our relationship during at least half a year, if n ot one year.
Right.
Like we always w hen we would communicate, like after the decision was taken and the steps started to be done, like he would just talk about this and in a bad way, because he really thought I was going mad.
Yeah.
In his head, it was like this. Okay. My son, he lost his...
Sense of way...
Sense of way, yeah.
He's growing his hair and he is moving to where, yeah. What, he's becoming a hippie?
Like it's not so much this of becoming a hippie. It's like this, giving up everything, having a family kind of he thought "okay, you're not responsible. You are taking from your kids the opportunity to grow up in a wealthy environment".
Yes.
Like you're giving up this stability that they can have go to the best schools and probably later go to the best universities, this chance that you had, you're not giving to them. And like , you didn't see that there are other advantages in education...
You had kids at the time?
Yeah. They were already...
That's even a bigger step, right ?
Yeah.
To do that.
They were already six and eight.
So, you know , getting ready for college and school.
Yeah . Six and seven are in the Luna term date here. Yeah , yeah . So they had already, and the life we were living was especially good. It was in Brazil, multinational, in a small, very organized town in the south of Brazil. So we can say it's European standards with the benefits from Brazil, like , really nice weather , like amazing nature.
Yeah.
And so we had that like especially good place we were living and , in a very, a good company, like I'd say thinking about corporate world, the company I was working at was really like amazing because they were not, they are not so extremely profit d riven. They think about profit l ong t erm rather than quarter w ise. So this changes a lot, the game, I know that psychologically t he s tress level is different.
Yeah.
But of course there is this , this corporate , mentality there. So there is stress...
Of course.
So in the end and you are under so much stress that your life's not healthy anymore. Although I was very active, like going to the gym, I did jogging, but for my health, that life wouldn't be really sustainable until let's say, when I would be maybe 60 years old. Now I know that when I'm 60, if I keep up doing what I'm doing, it's gonna be easy to be healthy if I'm lucky enough not to have any weird disease .
Absolutely. Of course. Because when you work in those environments, something has to give. Maybe the money's good, of course. But the , just look at just the amount of time you have to sit down.
Yeah.
And be immobile. The effect that has. And then what nobody talks about the psychological effect that has on a family man, a family man that has to provide, especially maybe like an environment like Brazil, which is still a bit patriarchal. There's still that?
Yeah . Not a bit!
Not a bit, very patriarchal! So there's still that, that expectation, like, yo, you have to be a man and you gotta be a man all the time.
Yeah .
And you gotta provide and you gotta...
Yeah.
So that...
It's expected, even if people know there are like families totally successful and happy with the man not being the best salary in the house, it's expected from you. Even deep in our psychological structure, it's there, like it's hard to spend , to get rid of them , but yeah. Talking, like this was the biggest downside, like not to lose the focus , like... The relationship with my father was the hardest...
The hardest thing.
And now it got much better, but now it's already been three years plus, so I'd say after this first year, like I know that he still doesn't really like the idea that we moved here, but I think now it's more for the distance and for the fact that we cannot see each other so often...
Yes.
Than like me being crazy and giving up so nice things. Because I think now he sees that there are other benefits that are not comparable at all. You cannot say , what's best, unless you are the person driving your own life. Like , and for me, I know , okay, this is being really, really good to see that I took .
But what was it that changed his mind? Was it that he saw you successful in the endeavor you took, running one of the most successful freediving schools in the world, or was it more to do family related ? Uh , he saw his grandchildren in like a good environment, an environment that was actually a good environment for kids to grow up in, or it was something else?
Yeah. I think it was , uh , a set of small things that got more and more stable, a long time. So first one, when I came, I wasn't even a freediving instructor yet, so I had still to do the freediving instructor course, to then see how would be life. Well, I didn't know if it was possible to survive as a freediving instructor and having family. I didn't know. I came to check!
With your wife and children.
Yeah. But like in the beginning it was sabbatical period in the company. So I still had the opportunity to come back and it was actually more or less the plan to stay here and like live this life and have this as a , to clear my mind , to have it very clear in my mind, if I wanted to come back, like, how would I want to work in the future? Because it was very clear for me that that job I was doing that time I couldn't do this anymore. Like it was not interesting for me anymore.
So I would either change position and function.
Yeah.
Or not come back at all. So that was like this, this helped a lot having this chance, not to have to throw everything up and then come and... Cause if we would come and it wouldn't be good or I wouldn't, I would realize that I don't like freediving that much or anything like this then probably would have come back to corporate life for sure. Not the same town, but like somewhere in Europe.
Yeah.
Most likely. Yeah . Uh , but yeah, it would be still like , uh , normal life so to say.
Exactly.
But like with time then I started to, to see, okay, I really like this. I like , uh , freediving more than I expected before actually. And , uh , I liked also teaching, like I knew already that I liked teaching, but I didn't know how much specifically teaching freediving would be for me. Like something that I enjoy doing that I'm happy about.
And, and I think he saw this happening and then like all these more steps of , uh , I don't know , becoming instructor then becoming like an established instructor . So I had already a good amount of work. Uh , and then okay, joining Dahab Freedivers and then becoming partner and then all these I think he saw not only that things were sustainable, from a financial point of view, like could be my life, but also that I was taking it serious. I think he saw like , you know , the difference.
He probably still saw in some , uh , way me as a kid. And then he started to say , "okay, now this man is managing his life also out of the, of the easy environment or the ideal environment, he's still making his path and things are happening".
He's finding structure where there isn't structure.
Yeah, yeah. Making a stable enough. Um , because like, of course you can have a less stable life if you don't have a family and you need some more stability, if you have a family.
Yes.
And like, and these things were starting to be stable enough, even for somebody with a family. So it was, I think this kind of stuff that is started seeing, and then of course having contact with the, seeing that , uh , they were learning English here, like things that like the level of English they have now, they would probably not have in Brazil before, i don't know , 16 years old, at least.
A bit of Arabic?
Very little Arabic. Like not, not so much yet. Like I see the interest is growing, but , uh , it's not the focus. Like we were happy with the first development in English and it's happening. And it's actually like super strong. And , uh , I think also when they see that the kids are happy here. It plays a role. Of course, if they wouldn't be , I know the kids , uh , they sometimes they don't , they say a little about this downsides of , uh , Dahab.
They give a little bit of focus, but also you see, they're happy. You know, like, okay, they talk about trash. Let's say the problem number one in Dahab is trash on the streets.
Yeah.
Kids also don't like it and they talk bad about it even to my parents. And for sure when they listen to it, they are not so happy. But they see that overall, the kids they're happy, so they can't say "oh, okay, like I'm stealing the childhood of my kids just to follow a stupid dream".
And they're aware of it. They're like "hey, this is a problem, maybe that will lead them to be part of a movement and work in on something that their connection with the ocean that you've obviously given them".
Like the moments we have in the water together, like , uh , it pays all the effort. Even talking about , uh , teaching and so on, the things that I'm doing more frequently, but like when I'm able to go to the water with them, like, it's amazing. I wouldn't ever be able to go, at least not super often return to the water and to teach freediving, to live in the water, the sea with them...
And maybe in the city, they wouldn't have access to that. Oh , uh , trash is a problem. Oh, connecting trash with, with the ocean. Oh yeah. You know?
Yeah, yeah. This awareness, yeah. Here is like more a bit like real world.
Yeah.
Then like ideal place , like in south of Brazil or Europe, things are good and working, but like , uh , you kind of forget that there are other places where things are not working yet.
Interesting. So really, in the beginning, the hardest part was the relationship with your dad. And being like , and showing that you could be as passionate, as committed into something that is not predetermined. Something that is beyond the cultural norm.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
That you can still succeed. In fact, succeed better. It's just a different definition of wealth.
Yes.
Wealth can be defined as the amount of luxuries you have. That's one definition of wealth. That's okay.
Yeah.
I have a yacht mansion and three cars. The other definition of wealth that fascinates me the most is you are wealthy, if right now you stop working, how long can you survive with what you have? That to me is fascinating . A fascinating , um , definition of wealth. It's a 180 degree You know, like, because that incorporates time and health.
Yes.
As part of wealth. Not just the money, we need money.
Yeah. That's part of the game.
But how much do you need based on your lifestyle? If you want a car every year, well, you're not gonna be wealthy with a hundred thousand dollars a year. If you want a Mercedes every year, you're not gonna be wealthy.
Yeah.
But if you're okay with less...
Yeah. And that's interesting that you touch this subject because like, this is the part, which was way easier than I expected, because I knew I would have to reduce a lot my life standards, so to say, like, after doing this step . Because in Brazil we had a house, which is my house. We still own this house in Brazil. But like, we used to have our neighbor, she was working for us, like doing basically cooking and cleaning the house.
And also very often take care of the kids when we wanted to go out, whatever. Um , like we could afford it.
Yeah.
We had one car from the company, one car of our own. And like, this is super comfortable because, okay, you go to the supermarket, okay, take the car. You go like, this is more things that you, when you'll see the new life come , you'll say, "Okay, I can't afford to have a car. At least not in the beginning". Uh , you're kind of afraid how, how am I gonna adapt to this ? And this is the easiest part.
So you don't have a car here?
I don't have a car. We all have bikes. Like in Dahab you don't need more than this. Like, some people don't even need the bike.
A bike is good.
Yeah . Bike here is good. You cover the distance. It's always comfortable.
And also to not have conversations from point A to point B.
Yeah.
Because that is...
Yeah. You're going on the bike, I don't have to stop with everybody...
I'm on a bike. I can't, I can't possibly stop. There's too much momentum. I can't slow down .
Exactly. That's the official excuse .
Exactly.
No, but , uh , this was easy to adapt. Like the smaller - less comfortable houses. You also like , um , adapt quite easily. Like of course in the beginning were there "okay this shower, I don't know, is not so good, the pressure of the water, and I don't know, like the comfort in your house, like having, not a , such a nice couch.
And I don't know, you don't have the nice TV that you used to have and all these small things like you don't really miss, like after less than a month, you already adapted. Because you have all the rest, you have the sea , you have the mountain and you have the , the freedom. So to say here, like that, you can see, you can be nature in two minutes.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah . Deep in nature already. Deep in nature, literally.
Um, so that's super interesting with , uh , the relationship with your dad being one of the biggest hurdles and for a lot of people, it is because we still come, our generation still that generation , uh, that , uh, we have those, those , you know , those expectations - the engineer, lawyer , doctor, right? That kind of one of...
One of these three, then you are successful .
Exactly . We have that cultural and it's a right brain . It really still comes from the , uh , the right brain workforce. You know, we went from blue collar to white collar to software and technology. And it was really like analytical right brain thinking.
Whereas actually now, there's even a very good book called "why the world will be ran by will by left brainers" , uh , because the left brain is the more , uh , critical thinking, creative , uh , and it basically acknowledges that the way the world economy is changing is that if you're doing a right brain job, software engineer, hey, guess what, your job is, as good as you are, your job is obsolete. Cuz I can hire somebody in India for much cheaper.
Yeah. And later the artificial intelligence, will also do more, more and more.
Exactly, accounting, even radiology.
Yeah. This crazy stuff.
Think about it . Radiology being able to... Some studies showing artificial intelligence will do it better. So the jobs that are coming up are jobs that require more empathy, more creativity, more left brain thinking , uh , this is the premise of the book and , uh , jobs that are , that require more human to human interactions, especially in a world where we are only gonna get worse on medical issues, depression, anxiety , suicide , you know? So I think what we do kind of falls into that.
And breaking away from the norm is basically we're in that transition phase.
Yeah. That's quite interesting because I also think like , uh , it would take a while until we have , um , underwater drone , which is all a good freedive instructor, until then we are useful.
Exactly, exactly. And I'm sure you've had people, students that have come up to you and said, "Hey man, maybe at first I was a bit shy, but like I was in a dark place before I got here".
Yeah.
I was doing a really dark place. I was about to do some bad things to myself. You know what I mean? They start crying... I'm sure you've had that.
This comes, this comes. And uh , I think because of the Corona , I see more and more people like even more than before, like I think people, yeah, it was hard for most of us. Um , or it's still hard.
Still hard. Yeah .
But yeah, like there's definitely something, I guess , a kind of a therapy like we were talking before, like , freediving for beginners can be , uh , life changing and can be also therapy to treat many different psychological or like mind related , diseases.
Absolutely.
Yeah. That's uh , and it's our job to be there. Like good instructors so people can do , can do this safely and uh , progress in a healthy way, literally. Yeah.
And it's only gonna keep growing the mental , uh , the mental health industry is projected to just keep growing and , and we know that there's either, you can go the pharmaceutical way or you can go the natural way and that leads you to breath work, holotropic breathing...
Contacting nature.
What about the social pressure? So we talked about the family pressure, which is very powerful, but the social pressure is also immense because you grew up in a community, you grew up with people, there's that natural competition in a community of like "where are you at? Ooh , you're making a hundred thousand, well, my son's making 120,000" . You know?
And, and then when you flipped literally 180, how is that with friends and other people that saw you grow up in , "Carlos, she's becoming this successful engineer, look a beautiful wife, a beautiful house and car and children. And then you're like...
It's funny because I think , um , I can't remember about any friend who asked me not to do it or would say , "oh, it's a bad idea, why don't you rethink this"? Like, I think everybody from our generation, they are, they understood it very well. Like with my family, like even my sisters, they were a bit , uh , afraid, but also like, I know that that comes also from my father because, of cours,e having contact and seeing him...
That was also because it was hard because I could see him almost getting sick because of this, let's say so it's like, it was heavy. And then everybody who too close was also like, kind of against the idea, just because of t he earthquake i t created in his head. And also like, my m om is also like "yeah, no, I w ant to do what makes you happy, b ut oh my God, does i t have to be that"? And u h, but from friends and like, u m, that was funny. Like everybody was basically saying, go for it.
Yeah.
To just do it. And you know, always like if it doesn't work, you have the chance to come back, to come back to what you were doing before, you were doing this fine. You were doing your career. So that shows that you have , um , not , um , skills. That you won't to forget them , like after , uh , one year trying to do freediving and say , ah , no , you can do it . You come back. Like, of course...
What kind of engineering were you doing?
Well, I'm a mechanical engineer, but I was more like , uh , in the administrative part. I was responsible for finance logistics , uh , and , uh , purchasing in a plant in Brazil. So the commercial plant leader. Yeah .
Stuff you're still doing here, running a business, finance logistics. It's just t-shirts now.
It's related. It's just like with more simpler , uh , tools and products. But like, of course the experience from before helps me a lot now. What I learned there, I won't forget. I might not be sharp on the tables, Excel tables that I used to do, but , uh , I don't need this anymore.
Yeah, yeah, exactly
Like the being able to do things, and project and , uh , I don't know , simulations. No , it's not necessary anymore. Like in this dimension of the business is now a thousand times lower .
Absolutely. A concept that has fascinated me recently , uh , which I'm sure I'm not the one that has coined is this perfect triangle or circle, what geometric shape you prefer - time, money, health, the perfect balance. Let's admit it. Like let's not be hippies. You need money. Money is part of everything.
Yeah.
Money gives you health because it gives you the time for health - mental and physical health. Health gives you the time and the time to make money. Time gives you the ability to make money and health. So it's a constant, perfectly balanced thing. And as an athlete, as a business owner, as a family man, you really gotta have, I guess, a good sense of that.
And that's the biggest challenge I I'm facing now because as you said like an athlete, like I really like developing my own freediving and competing , uh , when it makes sense and uh, running the business and family man. So time is , uh , a very , uh, uh , hard to choose , uh , dimension because money, I already see that it's like, you have to be sustainable. Like your bills have to be slightly smaller than your income.
So you can save a little bit to the size for whatever, like for vacation or for, for things that you wanna buy. Like, whatever, like it's just easy. If it's balanced it's balanced. Like you don't have to worry. Yeah . No, I could be making 50% more if I would change this and that, but this would , uh , come to like, to take more from your time.
Exactly.
Yeah. So is this I want? No. No, this is not the reason why I made this step . So like, I'm not really, now that I see that money in this dimension is sustainable. Like, okay. I am able to pay my bills and to put some money aside to go once , um , a year to Brazil , visit my family and maybe do more vacation, somewhere to train, but I don't know not to go to competition. Then deal . But then time.
Okay. How to choose when I need to, to give it more attention to the center, to give more attention to my training, to give more attention to teaching, which is something I really like. To family, to things I related to family. And for example, the kids, they have a school now, which is like quite small and , uh , it's actually expected , uh , that the parents help, are present in the school helping.
So you have to go to the school.
I have to go like only a few hours a month. But I know that like, the more I give the better is gonna be for the kids, my own kids and for the school in general. So something that I don't want to give the minimum.
And also giving back to the community.
Yeah. It's like , you can teach a lot. There are so many nice things we all can teach. And it's also good for you in the end of the day, like , uh , to help yourself with your teaching skills and like how even , uh , self confidence , all these kind of things like they come. But anyway, like how to balance, this is a bit hard because everything is less stable. It's not a job where , you know, you have to enter whatever 8:00 AM and then you get out 5:00 PM.
Like it's in many corporate jobs in, I don't know Europe , uh , no, it's , this doesn't work like this. You have like peaks of people coming, small groups, and , uh , I don't know . Now with COVID it's super stable because it go down and up super fast. Okay. Well , country A now change the flag for Egypt, from orange to red . And then you have a small , uh , increase of tourist from this country, like from out of nowhere. So, you know , maybe not prepared for that.
And you have to make it be prepared. That is like , um , a center with don't want to people to have people knocking on the door, and "now I'd like to train here, but I can't" right? You want to make it happen for the people, not only about money and business. So I , I learned a lot this year because I was trying to train , uh , at the same time I was in the beginning managing to managing teaching. And then at some point I said, okay, I'm almost not gonna teach anymore.
So when I have all the instructors in this months year , um , and then I'm gonna only do the management, but still I had too much in my, in my head, like , uh , in certain phase of the training I said "I have to stop training because I have too much in my head, I can't progress now" because just like too much, like in my head.
You can meditate all you want, but yeah .
And then like, okay, I learned the lesson like for next year, I have to have it more like the boundaries have to be more clear, when I'm training, at least at the peaking phase, I will be only training and I'll have, I'll have somebody covering , uh , management for the center . Like, it's gonna be like focus. Otherwise you are just trying to do too much and you don't do anything. So the time constraint, and then it comes to hell, because for this all to work, you have to be healthy.
Absolutely.
And like , especially the athletic part and I , this year, like was a big improvement. I didn't get sick. I think at all, like , I don't remember having being sick this year, but I could see that if I would continue, for example, trying to train and to continue all the other activities I would get sick.
And that'd be too much .
Okay. Stop before you see this coming, stop before, recover, organize your life, and then you can do this.
Whereas in the old life, you wouldn't, you wouldn't have that option. There would , there would be no stopping. It'd be, oh , it's a 16 hour consulting day? It's a 16 hour consulting day.
Forget it , no choice.
And then there's still the stress of doing all the other stuff, family, friends, social commitment, and those get affected enormously. You get mad at your family for no reason. You get mad at your friends.
Yeah. So that is like still like , uh , the dimension I struggle to, to have it more like stable.
That makes me feel really good to hear you say that. I mean that honestly, like, cuz I'm still struggling so much and handling my own time. So if I hear you say that I'm still struggling with time, holy shit, that takes so much stress off of me.
Especially now that we are , uh , expected to be available the whole time with the mobiles.
Yes.
It's so easy that you plan to do three things, which are not super challenging to be done in, I don't know, one day. And then because of , uh , this , uh , suppose the variability , you are not focusing and then you do other things which are not as important, but just because somebody's ringing and then , uh , well , "oh no, I didn't do the other thing, which was less urgent, but more important". So , uh , it's so easy to get , uh , to lose focus in the end of the day.
What you know, what you plan to do and then you... So this is the biggest challenge nowadays . I think that's why everybody feels like, okay, have too much and doing too much like, and la la la, because it's hard to cope with the speed of the world.
Yeah .
And then like , uh , learning to say, no, I think is the thing, like I I'm still learning, but I think I got so much better this year, especially in the center because you want to be nice. You want people to be happy. The customers they come to freedive, they sometimes want to go to the water with , uh , me, for example. And I was training then, sometimes I would do make exceptions. "Okay, I can do, I can do your training. No problem". And then, okay, nice.
The person is happy and is good for, for Dahab Freedivers and uh , like for reputation as well. And so on, and so on , but was this really needed? Like, was it what I wanted to do in that moment? Uh , maybe not. So learning how to say no is like always important to be able to do the things you really want to do.
It's very hard and I I'm sure you've burnt out. You've had burnouts before?
Yeah. Like in the past , uh , yeah. Like you feel like you cannot think anymore. Yeah .
Physical, psychological.
Yeah .
Very ugly.
Yeah . It can be really bad. Like it's...
Terrible.
And it's like talking about health. It is like , uh , affecting your health. Your mental health. Like you are not so product anymore because you just...
And if you don't have support systems available that are healthy to help you out of it. That's why midlife crisis and you know, other issues like that.
Talking about mobile, yeah?
Yeah.
Then say don't talk to me, buddy, ok?
The last thing life is a book, advice to others. Life is a book. What I mean by that is if you assume a good book has multiple chapters with a protagonist...
Aha...
Has a different journey. The most ancient and well known , uh , story is the prodigal son . It's in the Bible. It's in the Quran. It's in every textbook. It's in the Gilgamesh. It's in every Greek mythology, the prodigal son .
Yeah.
The protagonist goes on a journey finds enlightenment returns, so to speak, right? Not necessarily we have to follow that, but...
There is the journey of the hero...
The journey of the hero. Exactly. The hero's journey.
This is like the basis for everything.
It's exactly it , the journey. That's what I meant to say. The journey of the hero . Thank you. So life is a book, different chapters and you wouldn't read a book with the chapters all the same. Right, right. You wouldn't want to.
Yeah.
Therefore the concept of living life with, for example, the same partner forever, as romantic as that sounds, but unfeasible and unrealistic and unhealthy, or working with the same company for 40-50 years, it's you'll look back and you'll realize that your book was not as interesting as maybe as you wanted to do .
Yeah.
So to have a plan in place, maybe to be ready to escape or change is a good idea, but at the same time you should establish some basic skills. So what advice would you have for people that, let's say, are in a certain part life, maybe they are doing professional education and I use professional education, whether you're a lawyer doctor , uh , accountant, because you have committed time and money, but you know that it's not for you and that you might be looking for something else.
Yes, yes.
Yeah. What advice would you have for people like that? Not necessarily freediving.
I get it. I get it. Anybody who is in this beautiful journey of life and they maybe in one chapter...
Yeah.
But they have like , uh , an idea about another chapter maybe completely different, maybe not so different, but there is like a change that they can see. I could say that what helped me always, when it got a bit harder to see , uh , uh , the change coming, it was try not to think about the chapter after the next one. Try just to look to the next chapter.
And this is where you need to put your intention as people say, or your like your energy actually like, is this one you can maybe dream, but this is like still like a spark of idea for what comes after. But don't put energy, like allow your body, your brain to pop , uh , ideas about the future, like far away.
Yeah.
But don't put too much energy on this because this is gonna be anyway, like , um , not what you're writing now. You wanna write the next chapter. This is what you put in your energy. Like do what you need to do. Okay. Are you going to Dahab to learn freediving? Okay. What means to learn freediving? Okay. What do you need to do to finish your freediving instruction to become instructor, what do you need to do there? Like, okay, how much money you need to leave there?
Okay. You do a calculation, you do a research and then, you know , um , where can you leave? Where you cannot? This is very practical things.
Yeah.
This is what you need to do. And then...
Good at spreadsheets.
Exactly. And once you have this and , uh , understand, okay, like , uh , I have a picture of my next chapter, then the chapter will be written, naturally. Like , uh , but if you think about, okay, no, instead of going to Dahab you already dreaming about , um , having a freediving school, and you already thinking the days about that freediving school, how it's gonna be and so on. So maybe you are still not yet an instructor and you are already thinking about having a freediving school.
Like you're wasting energy. You don't know how a freediving school works.
Yes.
You can have ideas, sparks . Okay. Save it for later. But don't put energy on this . Like put energy on the next step.
I like it. You're in one chapter, just focus on the next. And you define the length of the chapters. That's the beautiful part of it.
Exactly. Exactly.
You define those lengths.
This is gonna b,e whatever, as long as you want to be. As you want it to be. Yeah.
So be honest, when you were in your last chapter, you're still an engineer before you even knew about freediving. Did you know there was gonna be a chapter change? Did you have a feeling that "the life I have is awesome, I'm privileged, I'm so happy, but I want more, I want different".
Yeah. There was something always with me , uh , wanting to change, like not seeing myself , um , much older in the same lifestyle.
Yeah.
But also there was a little bit of , um , uh , I was afraid of not being able to make the leap.
Ah, yes.
So this was like, there was the desire, but I was , was not sure I would really have the strength and , uh , and do this. And of course in my case, like having a life partner, like I have , uh , it was also like her support and her , um , will of us changing life.
Yeah.
Was also ... of course, but like I always had this desire, maybe not for the very moment, because life was still good in that , uh , in that environment, the steps I was doing were interesting. I was learning, I was developing , uh , I was writing a chapter.
Beautiful.
But , uh , I knew that there would be a new chapter, at least in my desire. I was always afraid of not to be able to make the step. And maybe I would , um , later on, if I would get old living that , uh , same life, I would probably regret not having done the step .
Uh , growth is painful. Change is painful, but there's nothing as painful as being stuck somewhere you don't belong. These podcasts are sponsored by Alchemy. And I wanna shout out to the gear they make for us freedivers. Um, one piece of gear I've been using recently in the Mexican cenotes for a photography project is the weight belt. Even though I don't use it for , uh , with weights, in warm water, I just use the neck weight . I use it as a utility belt and I tuck in my GoPro.
I can tuck in my camera with a housing. I have a light on there. I can use it to hold my snorkel. So it's really nice to have this weight belt kind of cinching your wet suit , keeping you a little bit, a little warmer and also using it as a utility belt. So kind of feel like Batman underwater, and it's a great tool. So, a big shout out to Alchemy and thank you for supporting this podcast.