The Mindful FIRE Podcast 44 : Creating Space to Design Your Life Through Mindfulness & FIRE with Anna Kozenkova
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 so glad you're here.
On today's episode, I'm joined by my friend, Anna Kozenkova.
Anna joined Google people operations six plus years ago and she's based in Prague Czech Republic. Previously, she worked for over 10 years in executive search consulting across Europe.
At Google in addition to her core role in recruitment, Anna takes an active part in facilitating Googler to Googler programs. Her passion is people development and creating sustained well-being and psychological safety in teams. For the last five years, she's been an active member of the global search inside yourself, facilitator cohort. She also offers career and life coaching at Google and externally.
In this conversation, Anna and I talk a lot about creating space in your life. Anna shares, how practicing mindfulness allows her to create more space in her life on a day-to-day basis and on a more macro level allows her to design a life that's aligned with her values and her passion for travel.
We explore how this idea of space applies to money as well and Anna shares her thoughts on money, financial independence, retire early, and how creating this space in your life gives you more choice about how you want to live your life. She also shares how she's applied these principles in our life to design her life around her number one, passion, which is travel.Anna is one of the most well-traveled people that I know having traveled to over 90 countries including a lot of places that most people don't even think to go like Antartica.
I really enjoyed this conversation with my friend, Anna Kozenkova and she really helped me reflect on my life and some of the things that are most important to me I hope that you enjoyed it as well.
You can find the full show notes for today's episode, including any resources, links or books mentioned in today's episode at mindfulfire.org/44.
If you enjoy today's episode, I invite you
Join the Mindful FIRE Legends community at MindfulFIRE.org/join.
PS: Introducing the… 🔥 FIRE Starter Group Coaching Program
You did the “money” part. You saved, invested, and built real options. But if you’re being honest… FU money alone isn’t enough—and you might still feel stuck in “one more year syndrome,” unclear on what you actually want next.
In 10 weeks or less, we’ll help you get clear on what you want—and start living it now—using envisioning, mindfulness, and practical mini-experiments (not endless overthinking).
Interested? Let’s chat: https://mindfulfire.org/chat
🔥 WHO I’m creating this for
This is for you if you’re at or near FI (Coast FI or full FIRE) and:
- You feel stuck after “doing everything right,” but you’re not sure what you’re optimizing for anymore.
- You’re caught between freedom and overwhelm (“I could do anything… so I do nothing”).
- You want clarity and momentum—but you don’t want someone to tell you what to do.
🔥 WHAT we’ll do together (over 10 weeks)
In a small group (mastermind-style), you’ll:
- Get clear on what you actually want (beyond expectations, comparison, and “shoulds”).
- Create a big, meaningful vision for your next chapter—one that fits who you are now.
- Learn the brain science behind envisioning (why it works, and how to use it).
- Turn yo...