Living surrounded by nature doesn’t solve your problems.
That’s obvious, but sometimes it seems that being in nature — with the sounds of insects, birds, wind, rain falling on the earth… can look romantically perfect. It isn’t the solution to all your problems.
It may help you recalibrate the importance you give to some of them — perhaps because you have more horizon to examine yourself against — but they remain issues to be resolved.
For example, as soon as I arrived here at the Gamarra ecovillage for a 3-month residency — 2 of which have already gone by — I saw I would have to reorganize myself to balance the learning curve of living out in the woods with the work rhythm I had been winding down after an intense period.
Métrica was hit by a strong flow of new clients investing more in digital marketing post-pandemic. Because of that, I had to put in more hours.
Even with the 6 to 9 a.m. window fully devoted to myself — yoga, meditation, a gorgeous breakfast… I struggled to enjoy the space here in nature. Only from the third week on did I manage to stop working late into the night.
Working too much is too much
Being out in the woods doesn’t shrink your to-do list, but it helps enormously to focus on it, to produce with quality and without pressure — governed only by focus on getting the tasks done.
I used to be the kind of entrepreneur/adman who thought working 100% of the time was beautiful. Today I strive to balance work with quality time.
The passion of the craft lies in communicating — and in thinking about how to do it in the most effective way, on many levels.
I don’t glamorize overworking. Working too much is too much!
The point is to work hard when it’s needed, not to run from commitment — and to make sure it doesn’t become constant.
Advertising is achieving marketing goals through communication strategies. And there is fair advertising: the kind that communicates clearly what can and should be better communicated; the kind that treats the people of an advertising agency with respect, remembering they have personal lives.
Seeing the horizon
Seeing the horizon is not just a matter of visual contact.
Reflecting on it, yes — there is a romantic side to living in the woods, in nature… But life doesn’t become shielded inside some dome of happiness.
Not at all. Life goes on. With its ups and downs.
Discipline has to hold. With pleasure, without reproach.
I sit down to work, take a break for lunch, watch the sunset — an important moment I practice always, so that work doesn’t take it from me. And since I’ve had a lot of tasks lately, I work into the early evening.
It’s work that allows me to live all of this. So I dedicate myself and grow with it in order to live this lifestyle.
The thing is, sometimes I get so focused on the computer that I fail to lift my head to see the mountains, the horizon.
That’s why seeing the horizon is not a matter of visual proximity. Even standing right next to it, I can end up not seeing it.
There is no magic formula.
It’s a matter of perception.
Originally published on my Instagram in November 2020 and April 2021.