I’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to figure out what I want from life. What are my ambitions to accomplish? I used to spend a lot of time waiting for my life to start. Like in high school, I was so eager to move out and go to college. In college, I was so eager to get done and get a real job. I was so focused on the future that I wasn’t living in the present. My life was happening to me and I wasn’t experiencing it. I was in the audience, just watching it go by and patiently waiting for the next plot point to reveal itself. Even now, getting married, buying a house, having kids, and eventually retiring from a job and taking a Caribbean cruise every year, all seem like chapters of my life that are already outlined for me and all I have to do is avoid being dumb. I’ve been trained to think about life as a series of steps that all lead down the same path.
But what if I veered off the chosen path and just went exploring? What if I wasn’t worried about my career? What if I wasn’t concerned about retirement yet? What if my goal was just plain happiness? Obviously I wouldn’t be happy in jail or anything like that, so paying existing debt and refraining from breaking the law would be two stipulations in the pursuit of happiness. But seriously, what would I do if my primary objective is to make myself happy? Am I willing take two or three steps backward in my blossoming career to find out? Am I willing to cast aside the expectations of me and take some risks?
What lifestyle is important to me? Do I want to be an adventurous wanderer living from day to day?, a family oriented father?, a successful and ridiculously busy professional Photo/video guy?, A bronzed beach bum with few possessions but no worries?
I don’t know.
I want to experience all of those things. Some of them are, of course, contradictory. So at some point everyone is faced with this question- How are you going to live your life? Avoiding making a choice is probably going to lead to the unhappiest life of all.
Many people complain about their job or city they live in (I complain about both), but both of those things are actually very fixable. Quit your job and move somewhere you think you will like. If you wind up not liking it, move somewhere else or get another job. Obviously it’s much easier said than done, but it’s also easier than you think. I guess what I’m saying is that if your ideal life consists of sipping margaritas on the beach, and right now you live in Nebraska, you are pretty far from your goals. Sure if you work in Nebraska long enough and hard enough you might be able to take a vacation for a few weeks a year to that beach you dream about, and eventually you could retire from your job and maybe move there. You will have a house full of ‘things’ to leave behind. You won’t need a lawnmower on the beach. But if you are working hard in Nebraska, collecting a life’s worth of things and memories, biding your time until you can relax on the beach with a sunset, then I say you are wasting your life. You should just move to the beach and not collect the house full of things and not live in a place you don’t like.
Let me put it another way, why do we work so hard for money? Is it so we can afford a nice car, nice house, and maybe nice trips? What if we didn’t need a car? Would we still work as hard? Why do we need a nice house? To put all of our ‘stuff’ in? What if we didn’t have stuff? What if we lived in a cool place and didn’t need to take a nice trip?
If you think about your priorities in life, money becomes just a means to an end. You must have a good job to make money so you can buy the things that are high on the priority list. Of course, a few people will say becoming the best in their field of work is a priority, but they are just confused or egotistical. Of course, having kids makes this whole rant take on a new meaning, but doesn’t really change the point. The point being, isn’t life about the simple pleasures? If you could skip the hard work and go straight to retirement wouldn’t you do it? If your retirement plans are to drive around the country in an RV and visit famous landmarks, wouldn’t you like to start that trip right now? The answer is yes, we all would.
I’ve actually ranted so long here that I don’t even know what I’m talking about.
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