On Adulting with Sara and Katina Mountanos
On Adulting with Sara and Katina
On this episode of Financially Naked: Stories from The Financial Gym, our host is Sara Belhouari, Financial Trainer and Certified Life Coach, and she is joined by Katina Mountanos, writer, mindset coach, and author of On Adulting, and they are going to talk about adulting and mindset.
Podcast Notes
When Katina got to adulthood, she thought the whole purpose was to be happy 24/7, and she thought she was going to achieve all the things she set out to achieve.
Katina started her career in finance. She worked at an investment bank after school and quickly realized that she was not happy and she was seeking external validation to prove out her happiness.
In the book, Katina talks a lot about Millennials and Gen Z starting to question why they’ve been trained to seek happiness all the time, and, instead, shift that mindset and become friends with their feelings and recognize clues to understand what they want and what values they want to live by.
Katina writes a lot about societal research of why we are the way we are. We have the power to shift that narrative to change the world, and Millennials and Gen Z are the ones to do it.
Katina has been working on the book since 2016, and she started writing it in 2019. When she went through the editing process, it was right during COVID. As she read through the book again, she realized the purpose of this book is not just to live a happy, conscious life for yourself, but to lift up your community while doing so.
“Whether it’s a passion or an injustice that keeps tapping you on the shoulder, you need to listen” — Lin-Manuel Miranda. It is up to us to tune into that. When you find your purpose, it isn’t just about you.
A large portion of what Katina talks about is the way we’ve been trained, both from a human level of how our brains are structured to help us survive and also a societal level of how we keep running on these hamster wheels collecting praise and trophies that force us to keep going.
Your parents may not have spent their childhoods in extracurricular activities. Our world shifted where we went from permissive parenting to helicopter parenting, because a college degree became so much more important to our economic status in the world. Millennials were the first ones to do things outside of themselves to be validated in order to keep their status and do the things that make them successful.
The book is all about undoing this conditioning. It is important to know where you came from, but also live more consciously and start to question what your own values are.
Katina starts the book with an idea called Our Baby Brain, which is the unconscious part of our mind that picks up data as we grow up, without us knowing it. The first step is being aware that there are unknown factors that are guiding decisions we make every day. There are biases and beliefs we have that we haven’t okayed.
The first way to make change is spending time alone, meaning consciously not listening to a podcast on a walk and really wondering where your mind goes. Get curious of the pattern your thoughts take. Start to journal without judgement. So often we are on autopilot.
The last part of the book is making tiny, everyday shifts in your life, so you can work toward goals you want to live out. The smallest action you can take is the best starting point. Keep showing up for yourself and it will continue to grow.
Katina’s weekly newsletter she sends out on Sunday is called Sunday Scaries. The first week of work, Katina experienced this. Now she finds Sunday to be the most relaxing day, because she is more conscious.
Katina puts her phone in airplane mode every evening before she goes to bed. Over 85% of people start scrolling through their phone within five minutes of waking up. This starts your day in fight or flight mode. Set yourself up the night before to start your day in a calm, peaceful manner.
“Finding your passion” has become an overwhelming thing. We all have our passion and purpose within us 24/7, but we’ve been told it is unachievable by society. It doesn’t need to be a big thing, it can be just for fun.
A Northstar Statement is a simple sentence you can think about, like a mission statement. Katina’s statement is: “I help Millennials navigate adulthood in a mindful and happy way”. I [verb] [who is your audience] [what you want to do].
Ask yourself “What do I need”, so you stop running on the hamster wheel.
Connect with Katina
Social Media: @onadulting
Book: On Adulting: How Millennials (And Any Human, Really) Can Work Less, Live More, And Bend The Rules For Good (on preorder, launching 11/24)