It’s fair to say that when we launched our Facebook group and YouTube Channel, Simple Life Portugal, we got many messages along the lines, “what you’re doing does not look simple at all”. And we thought this was a pretty good comment.
While we long for a simpler life, one that’s in keeping with our values and puts us in a good position for the future, we took a moment to reflect on what Simple Life is and our values. Sometimes just putting pen to paper can help clean thoughts and set solid bases for what’s to come. But, first, it helps Dan and me in making sure we are aligned in our vision.
So what are our values, and what do we believe in?
1- Kindness should be a currency in life
2- Poor work creates more work
3- A Simple life is a “be gooder” life.
4- Pay it forward
5- Be Open source.
But what does it mean in simple terms?
1 – Kindness should be a currency in life. It starts when you meet someone for the first time or go out of your way to lend a helping hand to someone in need. But kindness as a life currency also means being accountable for actions. In other words, don’t ask for things you don’t need because that would be taking the piss off people. Instead, respect their views, and avoid making a judgment unless you are ready to be perfect for the rest of your life.
2- Poor work creates more work. It’s self-explanatory. However, until one grasps the meaning of this, it takes a lot of mistakes and learning. So, doing things once, only once, and right from the get-go is a time saver. In addition, filming how we do things (we don’t always get them right) helps us improve as our viewers leave constructive comments, and we get to review our actions as we edit videos.
3- Pay it forward! That, too, is self-explanatory! By no means are we rich. LOL You probably deduce that when you see us wearing clothes with holes in 😀 But know that, understanding our basic needs help us be more generous even to strangers. You’d be surprised to hear that when we lived in Spain, we gave our old car (which was in top condition with a new car inspection and fresh repairs) away to strangers instead of selling it for a small amount.
4- A simple life is a “be gooder” life. When you meet good people, you want to meet more. And when you meet the right people, they’ll help you bring the best out of you and help you be the best version of yourself. When the right people come your way in life, we believe they can push you towards being a better version of yourself or a “gooder” version of what you’d hope to be. For us, we need to surround ourselves with kindness to keep a healthy mind. We believe that when you live in a kind world, you just want to make it better and better or “gooder and gooder”!
5- Be open source! Call it reminiscent of our time spent working in front of a computer in a “sharky” corporate world. But there will always be a division between Microsoft, Mac, and Linux. And in a certain way, this also applies to Youtube too. They’ll always be those who’ll look to make a few extra bucks by selling plans of their chicken coops, flower boxes, tiny houses, etc. But we decided not to do this. When we have time, we’ll be making our house plan, building material list, and every other plan we make absolutely free for everyone to access and use. In return, we hope that those people will do the same to others.
Being open source also means being honest with ourselves and our viewers. We’ve always believed that YouTube is a free platform and that one should not have to pay to see quality content.
In our opinion, skills should be traded, not sold. Thus, until we find a way around it or change our mind (maybe) (or that skill-sharing platforms become free like Youtube can be), we will not be accepting sponsorship from partners who could make our viewers pay to learn, nor will we ever ask for coffee or Patreon money. We are always touched and appreciative of anyone who buys us a cuppa, but we will never prompt donations to watch what we deem quality content. However, we ask, for those who want to help, if you could please watch 1 or 2 ads in the video we create if your time allows it. Some of our viewers are choosing to skip the ads and prefer to buy us cuppa ever so often or even send us things we dream of which are in our Amazon wish list. We are SO very grateful for this. But know that to help us out, you don’t need any money. You can use our affiliate links (at no extra cost to you), leave a comment on our videos or just watch ads so that we can continue doing what we adore.
Another way you can b open source with the world is to open up your internet connection. In fact, those who’ll visit our hamlet can log in to our wifi absolutely free of charge. And so can the farmers of our hamlet. This way, even if the signal is challenging in our area. Everyone can access WhatsApp in case of emergency or just for fun. Imagine if everyone did this!